A letter from the Rev. Debbie Blane in Sudan
November 25, 2010
Khartoum North, Sudan
Dear Friends,
Greetings! I have been in Khartoum North, Sudan, for six weeks now! It is amazing to me how fast this time has flown!
I will begin teaching in January of 2010. In the meantime, I am blessed with having a period of time for adjusting to the climate and the culture of northern Sudan.
Khartoum is the capital of northern Sudan. I have heard that there are 6 million or so people living here. Sudan is considered a part of North Africa, and the culture is distinctly Arabic, having links with both Arabic Egypt and the Middle East. However there is a mixture of both Arabs and Africans. The Arabs tend to be Muslim and the Africans tend to be Christians, but this is a broad statement.
I will teach at the Nile Theological College here in Khartoum. It is a small college, a bastion of grace here in the desert. Many members of the student body come from African southern Sudan. As many Christian colleges in developing countries, NTC struggles to stay afloat. The college has many strong supporters in the United States and in Sudan itself, and God blesses it in many ways!
I am living in an apartment that is part of a compound with a larger house. In the States, my present apartment would probably be considered a “mother-in-law apartment.” It is a nice size and thanks to a great deal of help from people at the college it has become quite homey in the time that I have been here.
When I arrived in October, the temperature was over 100 degrees. It is now winter here and it is today in the lower 80s. I am able to walk to a few places now because I can finally breathe while I am outside! The apartment is cooled with a swamp cooler. Air conditioning is very expensive to run here, and the swamp cooler is quite effective. As far as I understand, it is a system inside of the wall of the apartment consisting of grasses that moisture passes over. The cooled air is then blown into the apartment, and fans and open doors take care of the job of circulating the cooled air. I had heard of these systems before but had not seen one. Even in the Philippines I did not see them because they use glassless windows with wooden shutters to cool things there. Both the Philippines and Sudan are countries that never get cold so they must have economical and practical systems in place to help people cope with the heat.
Debbie finds vegetables, fruits and dairy products at the local souk (market).
There are vegetable and fruit markets here and small grocery stores that have the milk, yogurt, eggs and tahini that I need. In the coming months I intend to become more adventuresome by purchasing a blender and making hummus from chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and tahini.
The end of fall semester is almost here in Sudan. Last week we had the last chapel service of the semester. The all-male choir sings mightily and with great talent. As they sang out, “God is good!” the congregation clapped to the beat. And indeed, God is good.
Blessings,
Debbie
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 117
