So I met someone today to help me refine and tune my model. The model basically is supposed to help me estimate worm load based on some key socioeconomic factors. I also went to get some shots, and some malaria chemoprophylaxis. I haven't started packing yet, no doubt I'll have to take some long skirts, and some scarves for the fake modesty of the capital. But once I get to Rahad it'll be raining, and wet so I'll wear gum boots and pants.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the country has changed since last summer. Well how the capital has changed, the rest of the country, the periphery changes very slowly, progress is very slow there.
I heard they finished building the China Town in Khartoum. I'm curious to see it, I wonder if there will actually be a blossoming of Chinese immigrants to Sudan.
I wonder if any progress will be made on sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur this summer. It'll be interesting just to see peoples reactions.
Friday, May 12, 2006
What its all about
So a friend of mine gave me the idea of keeping my friends posted about my adventures in Sudan this summer. The plan is to stay there for about three months from june-august. I will be a part of a research group looking at malaria and schistosomes, basically worms.
Hopefully I'll get to see the pyramids of Mereo (pronounced Meerawee) in the northeast, I have three weeks of miscellanous activity, but knowing my lovely country, some shit will go down, and I'll go into hiding for those weeks. But if it all works out I'll go camping.
I'm looking forward to gossiping with my cousins, and meeting up with a buddy doing research on sufism in Sudan. I want to marry an Irish Sufi, but I don't think they exist, I basically took two fetishes and put them together.
I also hope that this blog will humanize and maybe normalize Sudan to people. Its more than just a conflict ridden place, people go to school, go to work, and just live their life in general. I was a little unhappy with everyone telling me to be safe that was the first thing they said, and I wanted to be like Sudan is more than that. But at the same time, I want people to realize that Darfur is more than a conflict between Arabs and Africans, in its essence it is not that, but it is a conflict over resources, over power, and over which type of Islam dominates. Like the conflict in the south it is about the dominance of a few over the majority.
Darfur is a small piece of the pie, just as the conflict in southern Sudan was a small piece of the pie. Peace processes that don't recognize these complexities will only lead to conflicts in other parts of Sudan to erupt.
Hopefully I'll get to see the pyramids of Mereo (pronounced Meerawee) in the northeast, I have three weeks of miscellanous activity, but knowing my lovely country, some shit will go down, and I'll go into hiding for those weeks. But if it all works out I'll go camping.
I'm looking forward to gossiping with my cousins, and meeting up with a buddy doing research on sufism in Sudan. I want to marry an Irish Sufi, but I don't think they exist, I basically took two fetishes and put them together.
I also hope that this blog will humanize and maybe normalize Sudan to people. Its more than just a conflict ridden place, people go to school, go to work, and just live their life in general. I was a little unhappy with everyone telling me to be safe that was the first thing they said, and I wanted to be like Sudan is more than that. But at the same time, I want people to realize that Darfur is more than a conflict between Arabs and Africans, in its essence it is not that, but it is a conflict over resources, over power, and over which type of Islam dominates. Like the conflict in the south it is about the dominance of a few over the majority.
Darfur is a small piece of the pie, just as the conflict in southern Sudan was a small piece of the pie. Peace processes that don't recognize these complexities will only lead to conflicts in other parts of Sudan to erupt.
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