Keeping healthy despite it all

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Africa, camps, Ethiopia, Health, malaria, mosquitoes, Omdurman, refugees

Before going on any posting abroad with the Canadian Foreign Service, we had to do a medical assessment. It was not thorough but enough for the employer to be reassured that you would not drop dead while on posting. Mind you many did manage to do just that with undiagnosed heart conditions or something worse. Which made you wonder about the Public Health doctors and nurses who were suppose to look after us.

One of the joys of going on posting was to be given needles for just about every tropical and exotic disease near the Equator. The knowledge about those diseases and how to pick up on the symptoms remains to this day rather vague notion for our Canadian Medical establishment but they know a chicken with the flu when they see one. We were also given malaria pills, the size of pills given to horses, the unpleasant side effects were stomach cramps, nausea, fever, headaches, etc… but you were protected up to 60% from catching the disease if a mosquito bit you between 5pm and 9pm. As if mosquitoes go to bed at 9pm, we had to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts with a collar and stay away from cologne or after shave which contain sweet ingredients. Because of the heat we would also stay indoors at night.

There was also briefings on what to eat and not to eat on postings in tropical climes. This advice was followed because it was common sense, in a restaurant never eat cold dishes, no salads or berries of any kind, no melons, no dairy products, ice cream, no sauces or mayonnaise. All that is deadly where sanitary conditions and heat combine. Ice cubes was not necessarily a problem if the water used had been filtered, but you did learn to drink without ice, just keep your gin and vodka or beer in the fridge at all times. I also started using UHT Milk which was safe to drink.

I remember in Cairo a colleague who had just arrived was staying at the Marriott in Zamalek, a very nice hotel built into the old Palace which had been built for Empress Eugénie of France when she came to Cairo for a few days to inaugurate the Suez Canal on behalf of her husband Emperor Napoleon III. This colleague tells us that she had to eat sensibly and lose some weight, she was not obese nor fat really. Anyway that night, she had a big salad, she almost died and spent 8 weeks recuperating loosing some 50 lbs that she did not need to lose and looking like a skeleton afterwards. She had been warned but disregarded the advice because it was a 5 Star Hotel and felt safe.

The medical advice had always been eat only fruits and vegetables you can peel and cook, eat only fried or completely cooked meats, stay away from the rest. I was deathly ill in Mexico but never in any other posts like Cairo, Khartoum, Amman, Beijing.

In my travels in the Sudan conditions were primitive, we had good transport and drivers and would stay when possible in UN compounds where we knew we could get a hot shower, clean sheets and a full meal in good sanitary conditions. When we arrived in Kassala from Suakin, the conditions in that town on the border with Ethiopia were far from sanitary. Again the hotel we stayed at was very primitive, the restaurant was on the roof on the third floor and was also used as a dormitory and lounge. Being high up on the roof meant no snakes or scorpions or other little critters, you still had to give your shoes a very good shake in the morning before putting them on. The food menu was very limited, basically eggs and bread. We had scrambled eggs and bread, which you ate with your right hand scooping up the eggs with a piece of flat bread, there were no knife, spoons or forks. I discovered later that Ethiopians also eat using flat bread to scoop up food.  Never use your left hand in a Muslim country for eating or social intercourse, absolutely never, unless you want to gross out your host or dinner companions and get disapproving looks.

Kassala is on the Ghash River and is home since 1970 to large influx of Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees, there are also large number of Africans from South Sudan displaced by war and genocide. It is a commercial hub for traders, it was once a garrison town under the Ottoman Turks, then the Italians and later British Army. Kassala is ringed by large UN refugee camps under the guard of the Sudanese army, which is not a good thing for the refugee who endure much abuse and violence. In 1990 it was estimated that up to one million people lived as refugees in the Sudan mostly in Eastern border towns or in Khartoum. I remember reading a medical report on the health of the refugees compared to the native Sudanese population. The refugees were in far better health than the  Sudanese with much less incidence of disease. According to the medical report this was due to the fact that a refugee knew that to make it out of the camp and be resettled abroad you had to be in good general health.

Nonetheless the trek out of Ethiopia or Eritrea was dangerous on many levels. Women were very often raped repeatedly by soldiers, then they would be shunned by their own kin.  Men were subjected to beatings and some were killed right out. Women alone or with small children had to sell themselves to a man for protection. Culturally a widow was not very valuable and seen as used goods, however if she could cook and keep house then she could be of some use. Small children were often sold into slavery and treated like dogs, chained in the yard. Crossing rivers on foot could be also very dangerous due to crocodiles and snakes, people had to know were to cross and when, the journey was long and difficult. I heard much horrors and could do little since I was just there to report on conditions. I was also being watched by the Sudanese Authorities who did not want negative reports sent about their mistreatment of refugee population on their territory. Young soldiers on duty in such areas were often nervous and unsure of their orders and suspicious of anyone who came from the Capital especially a foreigner. It was best to keep cool, polite and say nothing, let them do the talking. Apologize if need be for disturbing them and be on your way quickly, offering cigarettes like Marlboro a whole pack or a carton was also very helpful to calm a jittery soldier. Back in Khartoum I could report to the UNHCR and the ICRC (Red Cross) what I had seen and come to an understanding on best we could help the refugee population. I am happy to say that I was able to help out several thousand people, many were resettled in Canada.

After Kassala we drove back to Khartoum on a Chinese built road. I was quite glad to be back in a City with a curfew and martial law and in a hotel with hot water and decent food.

Before I returned to Cairo, I crossed the bridge to Omdurman. There is a large market where many merchants sell goods and souvenirs. Carved figurines of African Animals in ebony or mahogany, tribal masks and other artifacts and filigree gold jewellery.

Omdurman is also where the Silver dome Tomb of the Mahdi is located, it is more of a memorial since when Lord Kitchener arrived in town, defeating the Mahdist Army he had the body Muhamad Ahmad Ibn Abdallah Al-Mahdi exhumed and burned in the furnace of his gunboat and the ashes thrown in the Nile. This to avenge the assassination of General Gordon during the siege of Khartoum by the Army of the Mahdi. The body of General Gordon was never found, no one knows in the aftermath of the battle and chaos what happened. Though it is known that his head was brought to the Mahdi who was angry at being disobeyed since he wanted Gordon alive. The Mahdi’s family was also imprisoned by the British and were never freed.

Omdurman unlike Khartoum across the Nile was always gripped by an epidemic of some kind, always contagious. At night the markets were always a pleasant area to go before the curfew. Cairo had great markets also but it was an Arabic style market place, whereas Omdurman was a mix of African and Arab market place rich in both cultures.

Traveling in the Sudan in 1990.

Tags

Kassala, Khartoum, Nile river, Omdurman, Port Sudan, Red Sea., Suakin, Sudan

During my regular visits to the Sudan I had the opportunity to travel to other cities. At that time the Sudan was the largest African country. In the South which will eventually become independent from the North after a vicious Civil War a great armed conflict was taking place and we could not travel there. Darfur to the West of Khartoum was also in turmoil though it was not yet in the news, you would have to wait another 10 years before the World noticed the problem. In the East on the Red Sea was Port Sudan, at Kassala on the border with Ethiopia masses of Ethiopian refugees were crossing into the Sudan at very great risk to their lives.

I was offered by the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee’s Office to travel with another UN Officer to Port Sudan, Suakin and to Kassala. It was relatively safe and we had official documents to travel within the country. We made contact with UN Outposts and organized our trip.

In 1989 the Government of the People’s Republic of China was already present in the Sudan. This was the beginning of the great investments China would make in the World on various continents. First in Africa and later in Latin America and later still in Europe. The Chinese were after 2 things which mattered to them, first an ally for any International question that might arise at the UN or in other forum where they needed a friendly vote or support. The Chinese were quite dispose to vote buying. Secondly they were after raw resources to fuel their development. They were willing to invest massively into companies or natural resources in order to exploit them to fuel their own development at home. In return the Chinese would provide the Government of that Country with political support and financial gifts of all kinds including bursaries to study in China for the children of the political elite. The Chinese did not invent influence peddling with infusion of large cash gifts, many countries have done so in the past. They were simply new at the game and they had significantly more money than anyone in the game including the Russian and the Americans. It was also important to understand that China had a relationship with Africa NOT with Africans, this remains true to this day.

They already had building crews in the Sudan, building hotels, restaurants and roads. Their buildings looked Chinese in architecture and it was quite funny to see in an African country. Their crews all live in compounds and ate Chinese foods and did not venture out except to work, they were always segregated from the local population. Later the Libyan Government of Colonel Ghadaffi would finance important building projects in the Sudan and in Khartoum the Capital. Iraq under Saddam Hussein also came calling in the late 1980’s but it did not produce the monetary investments the Sudanese regime was looking for.

To go to Port Sudan from Khartoum you had to fly to your destination, the Red Sea Hills a great rocky dessert had to be crossed and flying was the easiest way. A service was provided by a private Canadian company with two Canadian bush pilots. The plane was a 6 seater. The trip was uneventful and for me an expedition, once in Port Sudan we had a UN Jeep 4X4, in those days Port Sudan was primitive, there were hotels of sort but is was spartan to say the least. The hotel we were staying at was a concrete block white washed and all the wood trims and desks were a light blue colour.

The rooms if you can call them that were windowless concrete rectangles, where the window should have been a air conditioning unit was jammed in and made a dull roar to keep the room cold and humid like a meat locker. There was electrical lights, you had to bring with you a flashlight otherwise you had to use matches or get used to the pitch black darkness of your cell like room. I immediately asked to be move to something less spartan and dark. I did not want the AC unit to cool things down, the manager at the Front desk was amazed that as a foreigner I did not want that convenience. It is very hot in the day time, a dry heat around 45 C and at night it falls to a cool 30 C. I asked to sleep on the roof under the stars. They did have cots made of wood and the mattress was thick ropes, your travel bag could be your pillow. We would have an early start in the morning anyways. The call to prayers from the Minarets is at dawn, you really cannot sleep through that, not that I am religious, it is just that it is so loud you cannot miss it.

I had learned after one year living in Egypt that the five prayer calls during the day are all different. Some Muezzin have beautiful voices while others had that unpleasant Arabic nasal pronunciation. I also had learned the call to prayer by heart, pretty easy to do when you hear it five times each day of the week all year round. It always starts with God is Great, Mohamed is the Messenger of God then you would hear the sentence for that specific prayer inviting you to come to pray. The last prayer is in the evening when no day light is left in the sky. Muslims can pray anywhere since God is everywhere. The Sun sets quickly since we are near the Equator. I do recall that for dinner we had some roasted meat with rice in a local market. It was not a bad meal, the bread was freshly made a flat round type of bread still hot from the oven. I slept well and then came morning, bread and sugared tea, there was some fruit you could peel and off we went to visit local Officials and the UN Offices. We then travelled by Jeep to Suakin about 45 Km South of Port Sudan and to the UN Out Post on our way to Kassala.

The UN Out post was in the middle of nowhere in a very flat area inland. All the buildings and furniture was from IKEA, it was very modern and very well organized. There was a razor wire fence all around and it was guarded by men in white tunics with great big white turbans in Sudanese fashion, they were armed with broad swords as sharp as razors. They were quite beautiful and the sheath was made of engraved leather.

I visited the local market in Suakin and asked for the finest sword they had. I was shown several models, the fellow showed me how fine a blade it was, the steel sings when you handle the sword in a certain way, it is a unique object and I bought one as a souvenir.  Despite the broad blade it is a light sword.

The UN Out post was staffed by an international crew of UN employees who were engineers and relief workers, accountants and economists and international aid staff, medical staff, nurses and staff who worked with refugees from Ethiopia. The music playing at the camp at night reflected this reality, Madonna’s Material Girl was a big hit then. In the Sudan with so much famine, disease, poverty, genocide and war it was very odd indeed, like my world of Diplomacy a very strange world, a twilight zone of sorts.

Khartoum, the Sudan

Tags

Egypt, Gordon, Khartoum, Kitchener, Lufthansa, Mahdi, Omdurman, Sudan

During my posting to Egypt, I also visited the Sudan on a regular basis every quarter of the calendar year more or less. In those days we did not have an Embassy in Khartoum and we were accredited to the Sudan but not residing there. If we went to Khartoum we could, in case of emergency, go to the UK Embassy. Now the British had been in the Sudan for a very long time and they had a long colonial history, where as Canada had none whatsoever.

To me Khartoum was a place I had seen in an old movie, the scene where Gordon and the British are waiting for relief from Cairo and are besieged in their compound. In a desperate attempt to frighten the natives who are on a religious war path led by the Mahdi, Gordon dresses up in his parade uniform with all his medals and steps out at the top of the stairs armed with his sabre and a pistol. The sight of him did in fact stop the battle according to accounts, the natives were startled to say the least, however one warrior chucked a spear at him and killed him, all was lost.

Here is a little historical background to that bit of history. Since the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, the British military presence had ensured that Egypt remained a de facto British protectorate. Egypt also controlled the Sudan, and the administration of the Sudan was considered a domestic Egyptian matter by the British government. It was left to the Khedive’s government to administer. As a result, the suppression of the Mahdist revolt was left to the Egyptian army, which suffered a bloody defeat at the hands of the Mahdist rebels at El Obeid, in November 1883. The Mahdi’s forces captured huge amounts of equipment and overran large parts of the Sudan, including Darfur and Kordofan.

The Mahdist forces backed their self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad. He claimed to be the redeemer of the Islamic nation and enjoyed the support of many in Sudan who desired independence from their Egyptian rulers.

The rebellion brought the Sudan to the attention of the British government and public. Prime Minister William Gladstone and War Secretary Lord Hartington did not wish to become involved in the Sudan and persuaded the Egyptian government to evacuate all their garrisons in the Sudan. General Charles George Gordon, a popular figure in Great Britain and former Governor-General of Sudan in 1876-79, was appointed to accomplish this task. If you visit London UK go to St-Paul’s Cathedral and there you will see the Memorial to General Gordon next to that of Frederick Lord Leighton.

Going to the Sudan from Cairo is a two-hour flight straight down the Nile to Khartoum. Air Sudan had a terrible safety record, most of their flights were either delayed for days or cancelled, was not an option. So I could take Egypt Air, which is a reliable airline or Lufthansa or British Airways. But there was a rule, I needed to obtain from the Egyptian Authorities permission to board the flight at Cairo for the last leg towards Khartoum. Egypt Air wanted to protect their traffic monopoly and Cairo was just a pit stop for flights from Europe or returning to Europe from the Sudan. I preferred to  opt for Lufthansa for various practical reasons and comfort and would board at Cairo. I would also carry with my luggage all my files for a week’s worth of work, remember these are the days before computers, we were still using IBM Selectric typewriters, and would also often have several bags of diplomatic mail, which attracted a lot of attention upon arrival in Khartoum, though such mail is inviolate, meaning cannot be inspected by Customs authorities, the Sudanese government was still curious, though they knew they could not tamper with the bags.

In 1989 a new government was in place in the Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir became President in a coup d’état. He is currently accused of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in Darfur and in the War in South Sudan. Darfur was an issue then and the bloody war in South Sudan was raging on, also Ethiopians and Eritreans were streaming by the tens of thousands out of Ethiopia, the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was about to collapse and famine was yet again threatening the country.

It was estimated that over 1 million Ethiopians lived in the Sudan at that period. They were not welcomed and not well treated by the Sudanese, may horrors were visited upon this population by the Sudanese army. You had several reasons for this conflict, the Sudanese in the North saw themselves ethnically as Arabs, Muslims. Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians and belong to a very old people of a different ethnicity. The Sudanese in the South were Africans either Christians or Animists. The Government of the Sudan wanted to dominate and control them, slavery was an acceptable form of control on those population seen as inferiors. The Government in Khartoum also had very poor relations with Egypt because the Egyptians were the former masters historically speaking, a very complex situation which had nothing to do with logic and all to do with twisted Politics. In other words a lot of human misery could be seen everywhere. Also at that time the Sudan decided to ally itself with Saddam Hussein’s Regime in Iraq against the West.

Khartoum as a city then was dusty and had few remarkable buildings, except for the Cathedral now closed, the Palace of the British Governor now the President’s Palace and the Hilton hotel where the Blue and the White Nile met, that hotel is today called the Coral. Each time I visited Khartoum there would some kind of epidemic, typhoid, plague, etc…  I also needed to take my Malaria pills and have by yellow health booklet of numerous inoculations. The Hilton however was another planet, a modern building with its own power supply, water purification plant and armed guards once inside the compound it really was another world.

All the food of the hotel was brought from Europe on a daily basis and all meals were lavish buffets, of seafood, beef, chicken, mountains of desserts and fresh fruits. The bar had been closed for political reasons and so was the pool for pseudo-religious reasons. It was all surreal and typical of such regimes in most third world countries. There was nowhere else to stay in Khartoum, that was clean, safe and secure. The Sudanese government could also in a crude fashion monitor our presence.

At night there were few lights in the City and a curfew after 9pm. Tanks would appear and heavily armed soldiers manned several intersections of the city. Late at night you would also often hear machine gun fire. If you wanted to circulate after 9pm, you had to have with you 2 items, one a special curfew pass obtained only through special permission usually payable in bottles of Johnnie Walker Scotch to a so-called religious official and lots of Marlboro cartons of cigarettes to be given to the soldiers on the streets at check-points, they could not read the Official Curfew pass, only spoke Arabic and they were usually in a very dark mood. It did happen that you would get to a check-point and the soldiers were asleep, what to do, do you wake them up and get shot or beaten severely, you could not simply drive through, because that would create other problems, so often you would stop, somewhere on a very dark street and make noise so the soldiers would wake-up and offer them cigarettes. Marlboro always did the trick and you would get a smile out of them and a quick signal to move along. During my stay in Khartoum I would meet a lot of people and travel in the Sudan to Port Sudan and to Kassala. I would see the increasing presence of the Communist Chinese and their early investments, another way of cultivating allies in geo-political conflicts. I would also have a most memorable encounter in 1991 at the Hilton, but that will be for a later post.