Between Christmas and New Years I went with a group of friends to Dongola, a city about 5 hours northwest of Khartoum. We stayed at a guesthouse there for 3 days and, aside from being eaten alive by mosquitoes every night, we had a nice time.
While we were there we played a lot of games, had a bbq on the beach, explored the town, and drove another hour North to see some more ancient ruins and see the third cataract of the Nile. I'm still not sure what that means, but there were mini rapids. It was pretty cool, anyway.
The people we were staying with connected us with a local guy to show us the good spots and things. So he took us around to a few places. But also told us that some carvings on some rocks were 9,000 years old. And that an old pile of ruins was from the middle ages 2,000-3,000 years ago. So...I'm not sure how much of what he told us was accurate. We still saw some neat things, though.
And some of the guys that organized the trip brought along a Santa suit that they managed to find in Khartoum. They may have made all of us take a turn wearing it.
It was a bit large.
So it was a fun time. Though I will say that it was not as restful as I had hoped. I hoped that we would maybe have a day of down time to read, or walk, or relax but the group I was with kept us busy.Which was a lot of fun, but I came back feeling still...overstimulated?
The weeks leading up to Christmas were crazy full and I haven't really had time to sit, relax and catch up. So thankfully, this week I still amoff from language school. I'm still going to the centre's, but largely I am giving myself a break. Relaxing around the house...refueling myself with some solitude and creative projects and catching up to fuel me for the next very long stretch before there is another break.
It was nice to get out of Khartoum, and this week it's been really nice to putter around at home, which I don't get to do very often!
The city is right next to the Nile and along the river there are a ton of date palms and small farms.
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| Green! How I have missed you in my life! |
The people we were staying with connected us with a local guy to show us the good spots and things. So he took us around to a few places. But also told us that some carvings on some rocks were 9,000 years old. And that an old pile of ruins was from the middle ages 2,000-3,000 years ago. So...I'm not sure how much of what he told us was accurate. We still saw some neat things, though.
And some of the guys that organized the trip brought along a Santa suit that they managed to find in Khartoum. They may have made all of us take a turn wearing it.
It was a bit large.
So it was a fun time. Though I will say that it was not as restful as I had hoped. I hoped that we would maybe have a day of down time to read, or walk, or relax but the group I was with kept us busy.Which was a lot of fun, but I came back feeling still...overstimulated?
The weeks leading up to Christmas were crazy full and I haven't really had time to sit, relax and catch up. So thankfully, this week I still amoff from language school. I'm still going to the centre's, but largely I am giving myself a break. Relaxing around the house...refueling myself with some solitude and creative projects and catching up to fuel me for the next very long stretch before there is another break.
It was nice to get out of Khartoum, and this week it's been really nice to putter around at home, which I don't get to do very often!
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