More Abu Hamed

Atbara, Sudan

 

On Saturday morning I awoke at 3am on the advice of Walled and Mosseen since their was apparently a possibility that the train would leave at that hour. Well, it didn't, and the town was still without power and dark as can be. It was probably even more spooky them when I went to bed since the wind had picked up considerably and the temperature had dropped. After waiting outside for a few minutes, it was clear that neither Walled, Mosseen or the train were going anywhere, so I headed back upstairs to bed.

 

At 6am, Walled came into my room telling me to get ready as the train might actually be leaving soon. So I again packed up my stuff and headed downstairs, only to find Walleed lying on his bed. Walleed, Mosseen and I just ended up getting some more sleep down in Walleeds room, so I have no idea why he came upstairs to get me as we didn't even leave the hotel!

 

By mid morning, there is actually some movement and a few people start loading into the caboose. Walleed scavenges around for some card board to use as bedding and by all accounts it looks like things are a go, until Walleed comes over to me and says that the police won't let me ride the train without talking to the station manager. (In Sudan, the police or "security" everywhere, though for the most part they are plain clothed.) So, it's off to the train station to meet the station manager. After about 20 minutes of sitting in a room that probably hasn't changed since the turn of the 20th century (they still wind up the phone to make a call or answer it), Walleed just came back to get me telling me that everything was good to go. So I snatched a cardboard box for myself and starting heading to the back of the train.

 

As people were starting to load, the locomotive fired up and ran for around a minute or so as massive amounts of black smoke poured from the exhaust. Normally the black smoke burns off, but in this case a huge flame came shooting out of the smoke stack that lasted for several seconds. It's the kind of flame that would get the crowd going at a monster truck show, but definitely not the kind of flame that you should see coming from the top of a locomotive.

 

As the locomotive shut down, the engineer jumped from it as several policeman and security forces ran from the caboose up to the locomotive. Honestly people, this is how things played out. I just stood there in awe as quite literally the transportation that I had been waiting for the last few days went up in smoke and flames.

 

The fire didn't last long, and the smoke died out as the engine was shut down, but it was clear the train wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Ultimately, they disconnected the locomotive and hauled it back to the maintenance shed. "Inshallah" was the only response when asked how long it would take to fix or when the train might now depart for Kareima.

 

By now, Walleed had had enough waiting and decided to catch a bus to Khartoum, then another bus up to Kareima. That's some pretty hard core bus travel as you have to head way south, then turn around and come back up north. I decided to wait at least one more day with Mosseen in hopes that the train would depart the following day.

 

The archaeologists, who were also experiencing problems getting out of town finally managed to find a boksi that would take them the distance. After battling with the local security force for a few days regarding visas and permits (to which I stayed far away from) and a few false starts after the negotiated price changed once the boksi started rolling they were finally on their way, and as far as I could tell, I was the only traveler or Westerner in Abu Hamed.

 

I took a nap for most of the afternoon, then wandered back into town for my customary tea with the locals. Honestly, it doesn't take much effort to score a free tea in town. The previous day I had been told about a local football club that shows matches on satellite TV so I ventured across the railway tracks into the residential area in hopes of finding the building. It didn't take long and sure enough, inside, were about two dozen locals watching the Cameroon/Angola football match. (The African Nations Cup is currently taking place in Egypt)

 

It was kind of cool to be just sitting in a club with all the locals watching a football match as they cheered and signed with the flow of the game. The other funny thing, is that it seems no matter where you are in the world, everyone has some advice on how to fix the TV. In our case, there was one "large" TV and one "small" TV. The larger TV didn't have great reception but the smaller TV was kind of, well, small for the size of the crowd. After switching back and forth several times, someone got the idea of trying to splice the satellite feed to get both TV's working, even though they were right beside each other on the same counter. After awhile, they finally did managing to get that setup working, but no one seemed to like it so they reverted back to the small TV setup, which seemed to go over the best with everyone.

 

One of the locals sort of befriends me in the football club and decides to take me out for dinner just around the corner and one of the open air stalls. Had some deep friend fish, Nile Perch I think, which was a welcome change from the usual fare I've been having, even if it was rather bony.

 

While eating, one of the local policeman in uniform and carrying an AK-47, like so many of them do, invited me over to his table as well. It took a little diplomatic language to move the chair that he had set aside for me to the other side of the table because where he had put it, would have made is such that the butt of his gun, which was lying on his lap, would have been pointing right at my, uh, private parts, which didn't really make me feel all that comfortable, safety switch or not. Sadly he didn't really speak any English so I just sort of watched him eat until my original host returned and ushered me off for some tea around the corner outside of the football club.

 

I guess for those not interested in football, the alternative is to watch an Egyptian soap opera across from the tea lady, because that's what about another two dozen locals where doing. The irony is that right behind them, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that two dozen people were watching a soap opera, a huge gasoline truck was trying to free a second gasoline truck that was stuck in soft sand. This obviously created a tremendous amount of noise and dust, but that didn't really seem to bother the soap watchers, who at times were only feet from the truck doing the pulling. I didn't think it was such a wise decision to sit there staring at a heavy cable that might snap at any moment so I returned inside to watch the rest of a second football watch that was on. Sadly, for this match, the satellite signal kept going out and after about the 5th time, I decided to call it a night and returned back to the hotel before the power went out again.

 

One side note is that it's always interesting to see the class of Western fashion on some of the locals. In Abu Hamed, many just wear the long white smock that is a fixture in Islam. But when the temperature drops, many pull out somewhat normal looking "winter" coats with funny tag lines either across the back or across the chest. I can't tell if these tag lines are the brand, the model, or just some slogan, but they make for entertaining reading. Among the better writings I saw on a few jackets were "Rich Man", "IQ Fashion" and "Big Boss". Lord knows if they just like the jacket or actually understand what it says in big letters across the back...

 

Kenny