What you can get for $15

So I was buying something the other day that cost 30 Sudanese Pounds or $15 USD. Of course, now I can't remember what it is, but it occurred to me that it might be interesting for you to know what you can get here in Khartoum for $15. So here's a little list:

• 30 pounds of tomatoes
• 20 pounds of bananas
• 6 little boxes of strawberries--you could probably get 8 if you bargain well.
• A large can of powered skim milk (my can lasted me from the beginning of September until yesterday)
• Roughly 6-7 pounds of beef, or 4-5 pounds of lamb
• A regular size Cracker Barrel cheese block. (You'd have enough left over for some crackers because it's only $10. That's right people. $10 for a block of cheddar!)
• A box of cereal--like shredded wheat and two quarts of locally produced whole milk (safe to drink)
• 5 drinks or 15 sodas at the American Rec Site during an event
• Dinner at an "expat" type restaurant (last night it was so-so Indian)
• 1 pair of custom made leather sandals (like mine!) It's actually cheaper if you have smaller feet--mine are big.

• A manicure at a local salon (not shown above!)
  
• Some baskets made by women in a Darfur IDP camp women's program and brought here to sell by one of the non-profits we fund
• About 7 gallons of gas

In other news, I'm staying with Cooper the crazy dog again. I'll take some pictures and add them to this blog post in two days.....stay tuned!!!

Miss you,

Jane

Exciting Opportunity for my Friends!!

Hi peeps,

So I'm getting ready to return home and it occurs to me that the tragic state of my dating life (or lack thereof) must change. And despite my intriguing social life in Khartoum, I have yet to meet the love of my life!

So for those of you that I've talked about this with, I'm opening myself up for your help. If I sign up for match.com I need a few people to help me with my profile and troll through the options and pick out some people for me to meet. Who's in?? (Email me--don't post your comments here).

This could be because I took a long nap yesterday afternoon and then didn't sleep very well last night, and may be rescinded.....but let me know.

Otherwise,

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving!! Here it was a festive affair. I spent most of the day on the couch as I had been out late saying adieu to one of my French friends who has left Khartoum for good! Then, a quick stop at the veg stand for 4kg of potatoes, a quick stop at the store for butter, milk and frozen peas and I was on my way!

Sureka (colleague) had a bunch of us over for dinner. The photo shows part of the crowd...there were a few more (5 or so) who came later. You can see our bountiful feast!!! (Check out that mountain of mashed potatoes!!!)






You can kind of see--we have two turkeys. One came in Sureka's luggage from the US and the other was brought in by the Embassy. It's from Brasil. The carver named him Paolo. :-)

So after hours of eating and sitting around we had several pumpkin pies....yum!

Last night was Salsa Night at the rec site--so another fun evening. There were some Colombian dancers here (don't ask me why) so they did a little show, then we had some quick lessons. Then it was just dance, dance, dance. Not a bad weekend overall. No football (not that I really care) and it's back to work tomorrow!!!

Miss you all,
Jane

Back to Tutti Island

So, there's not much new here. This week I survived the program reviews (for the whole USAID Sudan Mission) and that was a nice change from other meetings. But things are still a mess in Darfur so there's never a dull moment. And someone deleted a much needed document off of one of the house computers so I'll have to redo that. Bummer. Looks like it will be another fun week!!

Anyway, on the fun side, we had some friends over to the pool yesterday so that was a nice reason for a get together. Then today we went to the leather shop again and then for a boat ride around the island.












Tiare and I smile for the camera!!

Here are some photos of daily life on the Nile. The change between riding around in September when the Nile was flooding and now, back to regular levels, is tremendous.












Clearly--at some point this boat was in the water...now it's about 10-15 feet above the river!







Just giving the donkey a little bath!




And a little fishing......












...and all of the background in this photos was underwater last time I was out and about.













As was what is now fertile crop land......



I've got more pictures I can post, but the internet is slow right now, and it's late here.

I'll talk to you all soon, and see you on or about December 15th!!!!

Love,
Jane

On the mend

Hi all,

Happy Veteran's Day! I celebrated by working from home in my pajama's for 4 hours. Someone's gotta do it! But it was nice to at least have a "casual day".

Now I'm back at the office full time and working on lots of different issues. It's still not good news. There's something to be said for job security--but this isn't the kind I'm looking for.

I got a link to a photo site by a guy in Darfur...thought you might like to take a look.
http://www.diegofgphoto.net.

Also, while channel surfing I saw this video (basically because there aren't commercials they show videos to fill the void). This is a new one filmed in Chad/Darfur. It's pretty interesting. You can cut and paste either of these links in to your browser to watch it if you want. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3agef_mattafix-living-darfur
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJtvNHPWUO8

Anyway--hopefully I'll have something more interesting to share in the next few days. In the meantime....

Miss you,
Jane

Follow the trail of Kleenex

Hi all,

Hope all is well where ever you are. Things are going along just swimmingly here. I'm on my last day of training. We've been training partners on our grant guidelines for the past week. Three 2-day sessions. The first group was great, the second--not so much, and the third is back up to the standards of the first! So that's been good.

But during the weekend between the first and second workshops I caught the cold that is going around. Some people are getting the flu, others something weird where your glands swell up. Fortunately I don't have that. Just a persistent sore throat, not a head cold. Good times. Nothing better when you have to stand up in front of 25 people and talk!

In other news, work has picked up since the government has decided to PNG (persona non-grata) the Head of Office of a UN agency at one of the areas where we work. So that's not so fun. People are in a tizzy--and rightly so. Let 's hope we can get a united front and encourage some movement on this. Or else I fear that things will turn increasingly for the worse.

There's always something!!

Miss you,
Jane

Daylight Savings Time

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know that you are now 8 hours behind me--instead of just 7!!!

Also--Nomadette24, who are you?? Bob and I can't figure it out (I thought I knew but I was wrong).

Miss you all,
Jane

The Last Few Days

Hi all,

I spent the 31st and 1st leading a training for our NGOs on how to write an OFDA proposal. It was a great workshop with great, involved participants. That was the first of three. The next two are this week. So I will be busy! After two days, well I was exhausted!

Fortunately, we had our halloween party at the rec site. It was a great party. I went as a flapper. We had pirates, grapes, cats, doctors, surfers, dead people, mummies, german bar maids, "nudists on strike", gladiators, chess pieces, colonel mustard, a wounded British rugby player, a black widow (spider/person), Flav-a-Flav, and some who chose not to dress up (of course). Great fun was had by all. I'll see if I can put up a photo once I get a copy.

Anyway--this week's entries will be light as there is much training to be done. But I did attempt the Khartoum triathlon again. We ran from the house to the rec site thinking we would jump in the pool. But by the time we got there (and extra 1 km maybe) we were too tired to change into our suits so we gave up and came home. Exercise has its risks and rewards here I guess!!

Hope you're all doing well and I'm enjoying hearing from you. I will write back to those of you who have written, it's just taking longer than I thought!!!

Miss you,
Jane