Three months in Sudan

I have been sitting at the headquarter office in Khartoum today, the same place I was three months ago. In a couple of hours I am leaving for Norway to spend Christmas in Oslo. It seems absurd to leave; 29 degrees, aircondition and crowded streets will soon be replaced by -9, shopping hysteria and snow (insha'allah).

The past three months have gone by fast. The life in Port Sudan has become "normal", after cracking a few codes, both language and culture wise. Things that were hard in the beginning, like the non-existence of planning and a different concept of time, are now completely natural to me. So natural that I was (after Norwergian standards) almost embarrassingly ill-prepared for some presentations in Kassala branch earlier this week.

Ingvild practicing her Arabic (cracking that language code!)

The workshops we have worked a lot with in our branch in the Red Sea State are highly appriciated by the volunteers, and telling them about the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, giving them tools to feel ownership to both the organisation, the activities and their communities is important to us. Our goal is to fully implement the volunteer structure decided in Khartoum. This specific goal motivates us and the volunteers and has created a great working environment.

Ingvild explaining the structure of the Sudanese Red Crescent

I am explaining the different roles in the unit committees

We still have a long way to go, and I am already looking forward to going back to Port Sudan in January to continue what we have started.