EPIC ADVENTURE 6: A HENNALESS HENNA PARTY

We had been warned ahead of time that there would be no henna at this henna party. That would come later. Originally, these parties were gatherings for everyone to see the bride and groom getting their wedding henna applied, but eventually the brides must have grown tired of having to sit perfectly still for hours on end, while the henna was applied and then waiting for it to dry, when everyone else was having so much fun at these intimate (compared to the actual weddings) gatherings of their nearest and dearest. Now they do it separately, and closer to the wedding, so it doesn't have time to fade.

We arrived back at Habooba's house promptly at 8:00PM, the official start time, and I almost didn't recognize the place!

The entire three-story house had been draped with strands of twinkle lights, and the street beside it had been closed off and filled with a massive purple party tent. Areej loves purple!

When we stepped inside and discovered that we were the only ones there, other than the workmen who were still setting up speakers and video screens, I finally understood what Elsa attempted to explain the day before -- about doing things the Sudanese way, where being the "punctual" type, who loves making plans and schedules, is not necessarily an asset. Which is why they end every statement regarding future plans with inshallah or mashallah -- reminders that things are in God's hands, not ours.

My Boys

Almost immediately, however, the uncles appeared to make us feel welcome, entertaining us until more people arrived and the music began. It wasn't long before the party was in full swing, with wall-to-wall people and tables filled with platters of roasted lamb, fried chicken, something that resembled a flying-saucer-shaped-hushpuppy (falafel?) and all sorts of yumminess. And, of course, there was singing and dancing!

Areej's father made sure Hubby was one of the first ones out on the dance floor, and taught him the difference between greeting and acknowledging or honoring a person on the dance floor (one arm raised towards that person, while snapping one's fingers to the beat) as they are doing here with the wonderful singer, and just plain dancing (clapping along with the music).

Hubby's not used to being the center of attention!

The Uncles Take To The Floor

The Uncles honor Habooba when she joins them on the dance floor.

I wish you could have seen Habooba in action. The woman is about 90, but she has more energy than all the women in my family combined. She had an eye on everything that went on that evening, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind, who was in charge!

After Areej made her grand entrance, and she and Austin took to the dance floor, it became a total mob scene, with five or six photographers following them at all times, and with some of the photos being displayed on screens mounted around the tent. Unfortunately, that meant I never got close enough to catch a good picture of them myself! Hopefully I will get some of the professional shots later, which I can share with you. Oh, and remember what I said earlier about everyone in Sudan having an i-phone? Well, there were a ton of photos being snapped on those as well. Even selfies!

The Fashion Girls!

Areej has three adorable cousins on her mother's side. That's the two youngest ones in the picture above. Their father is the one who made our entry and exit through the airport such a breeze, and arranged the lovely hotel for us.  Anyhoo, seeing these girls, and what they were wearing, was the highlight of each event. They always had custom made dresses made out of coordinating fabrics, which were similar to one another, but not quite the same. And you never saw them in the same thing twice. I asked Areej if they would be able to reuse these amazing ensembles for some of cousin Omar's wedding events, which would begin immediately after Areej's and Austin's ended. She said "Oh no! They will have all new outfits for each of those parties, and there will be twice as many!"

I also loved hanging out with these guys, three of the Five Musketeers, who were always entertaining. I do believe they're taking a selfie!

Areej's oldest brother Amin, youngest brother Amjad, and cousin Ahmed.

Just as I was about to run out of steam, the party abruptly ended, with everyone leaving all at once. How on earth did they manage that? Well, it seems there is a curfew of sorts in Khartoum, and no one is supposed to be out on the streets past midnight.

The Two Daddies

I dropped into bed as soon as we got back to the hotel, and was out like a light!

EPIC ADVENTURE 5: DANCE PARTY

On December 25th we went downstairs to breakfast, and discovered this:

Apparently, our hotel was planning a huge Christmas feast for later that day, and they said they hoped that we would join them. In fact, they had a different theme in the restaurant each day that we were there, and changed the decor to match. All were impressive, but these tables were my favorite.

Over breakfast we discussed our plans for the day. We knew that there was to be a "Henna Party" later that evening, and that it was to be held at Grandmother's house. Areej described it as much more casual and intimate than the actual wedding, but warned us that people would still be fairly dressed up. We assumed that with everyone busy getting ready for that, it would be up to us to entertain ourselves that morning, so we decided to walk over to the shopping mall that was next to our hotel.

One thing we were not expecting to find there?

An ice rink!

Needless to say, we were a bit taken aback when we returned to the hotel, and found the family's driver, Sabit,  there waiting for us. Apparently, Habooba had taken a liking to us, and insisted that we should be there for an event that is usually limited to the bride's closest family, and certainly no grooms! We rushed upstairs to get cleaned up as fast as we could, then headed back out with Sabit.

The first to greet us upon our arrival were these guys.

Goats, right? Wrong! They're a special breed of short-haired sheep. I was on my way over to make friends with them when Hubby said "You might not want to do that. I'm pretty sure they will be our dinner at some point." Sure enough, there used to be four of them.

I started thinking that this henna party might not be quite as intimate as we thought, when I realized that Grandma's entire courtyard and the outdoor sleeping areas had been converted into one ginormous kitchen extension, and that everyone was swarming about like busy little bees!

Inside, the women were casually dressed and going about their business for the most part, even though more and more guests kept arriving. As I understood it, this morning's event was simply a time for the bride's family to gather around her in support. The unique thing was that a special singer/drummer was invited. He sat there in the formal living area, visiting with the family. Then, when the spirit moved him, he stood and began drumming.

Areej and Habooba

A few people wandered in from other parts of the house and clapped along. Then he started singing a call and response type of song. More people joined in.

Before you knew it, the room was packed full of people, singing and dancing. The songs were familiar to everyone, and their response lines were always the same, but it appeared that the singer had creative license to adjust his lyrics at will, cracking jokes about people in the audience, which  had them all roaring. When the song was finally over, most of the women returned to their tasks,  some of the men to their phones, and the rest of us to our coffee or sugar-laden tea.

A short time later, it would all begin again.
 

Next thing we knew, it was time for us to head back to our hotel to change for the evening's festivities!

EPIC ADVENTURE 4: MEET THE FAMILY

Our second day in Sudan was December 24,  and all the decorations and carol-playing at our hotel kept us from missing the festivities back home quite so much. Again, we slept late, enjoyed a leisurely buffet brunch, then hung out at the hotel, waiting to hear what the plans were. We were discovering that, at least during this pre-wedding hubbub time, Areej's family tended to stay up half the night visiting with all the relatives they hadn't seen in a long time, and doing wedding prep stuff, such has filling 400 gift boxes with handmade perfumes and other goodies, then shrink-wrapping it all to keep out the dust and sand. No surprise that they are slow to get moving in the morning!

Around noon we got word that they were sending a driver to fetch us. Today we were going to divide and conquer. Areej's brothers and cousin had plans to whisk Austin off to their favorite barber, to make sure he was properly groomed for the wedding, and then buy him the special pair of sandals that he needed to wear with one of his wedding outfits. Her dad was planning to take John to wander around at the souq (outdoor market), since that is one of my hubby's very favorite things to do (shopping!), and I was to go with Areej and her mom to get our nails done. But first, we were all to meet up at Grandmother's house. Habooba wanted to meet us! Turns out, she wasn't the only one. There were uncles and cousins...

and brothers...

and aunts...

Areej, her aunt Sihame, and her mother Amal

and quite a few people whom I had no clue about. First there was tea and coffee. Then we were served a delicious meal. Finally, around 4:00, we went our separate ways. One very interesting person we met was Amal's good friend Elsa. I can't believe I didn't get a decent picture of her! She's a world traveler who had just come from Australia, and who has been working for some time on a project in Ethiopia, but whose home is actually in West Virginia, U.S.A! She went along to the salon with us, and kept us entertained. Apparently the girls who worked there were all Ethiopian, and were gossiping up a storm, with no clue that Elsa could speak the language.

She couldn't resist saying something to them as we were leaving, and they all gasped in horror when they realized she had understood every word they said!

By the time we got back to the house, I was floored to discover it was 10:00 PM. There was talk of taking us out to a very special seafood restaurant, but I think they could tell by looking at us that we were all dead on our feet, so they had the driver take us back to our hotel instead. I'm kind of sorry we didn't tough it out and get our second wind, for we never did make it back to that restaurant!

WEEKEND STUDIO

Remember this guy?

It's the travel journal I purchased about a year ago, when the notion of a wedding in Sudan first came up. I did quite a bit of reading on the subject, which inspired a couple of journal entries...

but then set it aside for a while, when the wedding date got pushed back several months.

My original plan was to work on it every day that we were abroad, but, as I discovered on our trip to San Miguel this summer, that doesn't really work for me. So, instead, I just made it a point to pick up little bits of this and that along the way, such as stamps, postcards, maps, business cards from favorite shops and restaurants, ticket stubs, boarding passes, etc. Now I am having a marvelous time pulling it all together into interesting journal pages which, much like my blog posts and photographs, help me to relive, absorb, analyze and experience it all in yet another way. More bang for your buck, right?

I call this spread Arrival: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

 

  

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH...

So, here's something you don't normally find us doing in the middle of January. 

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, up around 70F, that Hubby and I decided we should crank up the grill for dinner. And, since he doesn't believe it's worth doing just for the one measly steak that we usually share, he bought enough meat to last us a week. Or two. Or three. Dontcha just love it when all you have to do is toss a salad or roast a pan of veggies, and Voila!, dinner is ready?

In other news, guess what we found out while we were in Barcelona? It's a BOY! Daughter Alexis is now about 21 weeks pregnant, and when we left on our trip we still didn't know the sex, and she hadn't felt any movement, so it didn't seem very real to us yet. There was a darling shop near our hotel with a window full of the most precious all natural, hand-made baby clothes, but I wasn't really tempted to buy anything. But then we got the call. Not only did they know the sex, she had felt him move. And just like that, I'm seeing things I need to buy for him everywhere I go! Lex says we won't believe how big her tummy has grown since we saw her last. In fact, her whole center of gravity has changed. She said she squatted down in Target the other day, to reach for a package of thank you notes that were on the bottom shelf, and next thing she knew she was flat on her back with her legs in the air! Hubby and I are both really, really sorry that we missed seeing that!

THE RIVER NILE: EPIC ADVENTURE 2

Once we'd rested, unpacked, and cleaned up, we headed downstairs to check out the ginormous international buffet that our hotel set out each morning. I was surprised that it was still open, but it seems Sudan operates on a very different schedule than we are accustomed to. Everything is much slower-paced, with frequent tea and coffee breaks. Areej said most people just have a hot beverage when they first wake up, perhaps a bite of leftover bread or something sweet, and don't really eat breakfast as we know it. Lunch is the first meal of the day, then there's supper around 4:00PM, and possibly a late dinner after that. Anyhoo, we went to town on that buffet, which had Sudanese dishes, Indian dishes, British favorites, and even a table full of French pastries! My favorite was a made-to-order omelet that was layered over a big flat piece of the spongy Sudanese bread, then rolled up and eaten like a burrito, which I followed with a most excellent chocolate croissant!

Between missing both his Sweetheart and his puppydog, poor Austin was feeling kinda of blue by that time. Luckily, Areej's father Hamid (who actually lives in Bedford, TX, along with her youngest brother Amjad and many of their relatives) showed up right about then, and offered to take us exploring!

Touring the National Museum, and having a bit of trouble figuring out how to keep my head scarf in loose folds, instead of choking me to death! (could be that beaded fringe weighing it down)

Khartoum is located at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, where they come together to form the Great Nile River.

Many of the river banks are being farmed, and what we first thought were weeds turned out to be okra plants! (my Cajun relatives can thank Africa for much of their cuisine)

Other sections are lined with park-like areas and floating cafes.

We enjoyed afternoon tea on top of this one, where I broke my own rule about "when in Rome" and had my tea without sugar, instead of doing as the Sudanese do, and adding three or four spoonfuls! We even tried a bit of Sudanese coffee. Surprisingly (since we are not, and have never been, coffee drinkers) it wasn't half bad! One of Areej's relatives in Bedford made it for Austin once -- roasting her own coffee beans and aromatic spices then grinding them herself to make the coffee -- and he has been raving about it ever since! I found a great link here, that talks about how the coffee is made, and explains a bit about how they entertain.

Areej's Daddy (Baba), Hamid

Then we went back to the hotel and crashed again!

WE'RE BACK: EPIC ADVENTURE PART 1

Despite my "epic" case of pre-travel jitters, the trip to Sudan and Spain truly was the adventure of a lifetime, with nary a mishap, and nothing but goodness to report. The only negative I can think of was that everyone got bad colds and sore throats, which is pretty hard to avoid when you spend two days each, coming and going, crammed like sardines into a plane full of people who are all hacking and snorting! On the plus side, Hubby and I didn't get sick until the very end of the trip. Sadly,  Areej's brothers, father, and groom were suffering throughout the wedding festivities!

I left Austin with my two boys on Monday afternoon and flew to Chicago. We left Chicago that same evening, spent only about ten hours in the air, but somehow it was late Tuesday afternoon when we arrived in Amman, Jordan. The Sudanese tradition is that a bride-to-be stays sequestered at home for the entire month leading up to her wedding, and gets pampered and beautified by all the women in her family. However, Areej was still in school, so they had to settle for a mere two weeks. She left a week before us, which worked out great since she had lots of useful travel tips to share with us. Had it not been for her, we would have spent our eight-hour layover in Jordan sitting in the airport. Instead, we knew to approach the Royal Jordanian Airlines desk and request a day room at the airport hotel. They bused a group of us over there, gave us two rooms in which to rest and freshen up, then fed us a lovely buffet in the hotel restaurant, all at no extra charge! Boy, were we ever surprised when we arrived to find this guy in the lobby, complete with piped in Christmas carols.

I began the trip in jeans, but in Amman I switched to a skirt and pulled out a scarf with which to cover my hair. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! 

At 10:30 PM a shuttle came to take us back to the airport for the last leg of our journey -- the five hour flight to Khartoum, Sudan (pronounced more like HAR-tume, with a very throaty-breathy H). It was 5:00 AM Wednesday when we arrived, the sun not even up. When we came down the steps onto the tarmac, Areej's oldest brother (Amin - the doctor brother in the UK) was there waiting with another gentleman. Instead of heading into customs with our fellow passengers, we were whisked through a quick carry-on scan and led into the VIP lounge, where Areej was waiting to greet us. I'm sure she broke protocol just being out of the house, so she was very cautious and greeted Austin and John with a brief handshake. (No PDA between the sexes in most of the Middle East - not even between married people.) I got a nice hug, however. They brought us beverages, assisted us with our paperwork, went to collect our luggage and cleared it through customs for us, and promised to deliver it to our hotel. Wow. A girl could get used to this kind of service! 

Once that was taken care of, we went out to the parking lot where Amal (Areej's mom) was waiting to greet us, then she and Areej went off in one car, while Amin drove us to the 5-star hotel that Areej's uncle had arranged for us. It was a doozie, I must say! 

John thought he was getting away from the incessant Christmas carols back home by leaving the country, but I was tickled pink to discover that he was wrong, wrong, wrong!

A Genuine Gingerbread House in our Hotel Lobby

Then Amin left us there for a bit of a rest, which we desperately needed by that point!

(to be continued...)