How Ordinary - El Horreya

This is El Horreya in downtown Cairo. It's got everything you need in a baladi bar - lively atmosphere, legendary reputation and loads of local beer. 

This was probably taken on one of those random nights and just as the night is staring, judging by the number of bottles. It usually gets more. March 2012.

South Kordofan

For one of my work activity, I called out to friends who used to work and live in South Kordofan for images. Their response was overwhelming. Have a look at the spread below. Enjoy. 

Walking the streets of Kadugli

How Ordinary

Sunsets. Everywhere the same and eveywhere there's still always something different.

Sunset in London January 2012 

Sunset in Cairo January 2012

How Ordinary

The top of the British Musuem in London 2011. First thing that caught my eyes when I walked in.

Old maps hung up at the Ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt February 2012.

How Ordinary

Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt best known for his black and white candid shots of abusrdism in everyday life once said," To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

In the same spirit, I thought I'll create the realm of the ordinary with my own snaps accumulated over years of travel and my powers of observation. Enjoy.

Just the ordinary side of a park bench in Paris (taken X'mas 2011). I bet there's not a bench with the exact same side and rust all in one.

Broken champagne fragments post New Year celebrations along the canal in Paris 2012. 

 Skating in the heart of the city of London - January 2012

Bookstores and the smell of books - January 2012, Southbank, London.

The Kodak Disposable

Found this Kodak disposable camera while in the Grasmere (a village in the central Lake District in Cumbria, England) a week ago and had to have it. Best part is when you wind up the camera before snapping for a picture.

How to get to Abyei

You might have heard of a place straddling North and South Sudan called Abyei. Tricky contested area. Part of the project I work for covers this area and I had the luck to spend some time there a few weeks back. But to get there is no easy feat. From Cairo via Nairobi to Juba and then Juba to Rumbek and then a chopper ride to Abyei. Returning, early morning chopper ride from Abyei to Rumbek, then to Juba and waited 5 hours for a flight to Addis Ababa and then back into Khartoum. It took me just about 18 hours (each way) via two countries to get back into the same area.

Community dialogues in Diffra

What I do at work, you asked? This. Talking and collecting stories of some very interesting people under a shady tree.

Dinka and Misseriya neighbours

My very capable colleague and right wing man, Adil Hussein

Yes, my "personal" military escort. He was quite shy.

Driving around Abyei Town on the way to the market

Omar Khayyam in the Gardens of Dreams, Kathmandu

Kathmandu Goodness 2012

What do you do when you get bored in Sudan? You pack your weekend rucksack, you grab your Canon and head to Kathmandu and spend the next few days basking in the pure goodness of the glowing sun, eat loads of egg pokhara, momo dumplings, curry and drink delicious beer. Alongside that, you must breathe in the spiritual wonders surrounding you and be capitivated by the multitude of colours of prayer flags fluttering around, the sound Buddhist chants and the smells of burning incense. You must do the above in solitude and be amazed at how little you missed frivolity and the daily conversations of routine life.

Khartoum Times May 2012

Writing

José Saramago, the Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist recalled [of his grandfather who suffered a stroke and was taken to Lisbon for treatment], "He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig trees, olive trees. And he went one by one, embracing the trees and crying, saying good-bye to them because he knew he would not return. To see this, to live this, if that doesn't mark you for the rest of your life," Saramago said, "you have no feeling."

Rocking

Courtesy of LB. Soaking in the view on Eagle Shit Rock.

Eagle Shit Rocking in Khartoum

So the girls and I thought we do what we’ve always wanted to do together – go camping. Desert camping specifically. So a bunch of misfits packed the car and went to Shendi, about 3 hours north of Khartoum. Specifically we were heading for a place called Eagle Shit Rock. Everything about the day was just right. I could feel it. We had everything ready. We even packed Uno cards.

Finally we got to Eagle Shit Rock.

Now what this place really IS a desert with rocks, boulders and on top of these boulders, more of them and at the very top of it is presumably the biggest boulder with tainted white eagle poo. Whether it is really eagle’s poo remains a mystery. I was maybe slightly disappointed but quickly I realized me (small me amongst those big ass rocks) just being there was already cool enough. We had a wander around checking the environs. It was 4pm and it was strikingly hot. We found a favourite boulder and attempted to do some climbing. I gave my friends small rocks and marbles for trying to climb, for telling alien jokes, for introducing the finer intricacies of the Swedish culture and for simply just being all good mushy fun.

We set our mats, sheets and sat around watching day turn to night. Gunther set up a bonfire (yes like a real bonfire). The sheesha machine was put together, and the meat all marinated and ready to be roasted. I sat there and took it all in. Wow. Freaking unbelievable. What were the odds that I find myself in the desert in Sudan, the stars twinkling above me, watching a real bonfire, drinking a whiskey and being around some of the finest company I could ever ask for? 

When it was time to sleep, I lay my head down and stared right up. Amortksi “Same Stars We Share” was playing. If I tried hard enough, I might be close to touching those sparkles above me. 

Khawajas paying homage to the Eagle Shit Rock (top right)

Preparing for goodbyes

"Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation"

- Kahlil Gibran

Globalization tells me the world is much smaller and more connected but that chasm of distance and longing sometimes cannot be so easily remedied by a plane ride for a weekend together or a telephone call. Kahlil Gibran was right then and still right today.

Who's going to help me eat all that food at our favourite Asian restaurant in town?

Photo Essay on Sudan - Dominic Nahr

Dominic Nahr, a photojournalist, had a recent photo essay capturing what's going on in the Nuba Mountains. It hit me how much I have grown to love and miss Southern Kordofan when I read this, "The reason I was so happy is because the Nubans are as inviting as their mountains that spring from the ground giving refuge and protection. The feeling of a struggle shared by Nuban civilians and rebels alike is innocent and pure. With almost no outside support they have learned to rely on themselves."

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/04/23/tracing-the-consequences-of-war-in-divided-sudan/#ixzz1tKtFaGjZ

Sharing one of my favourtite pictures taken in April 2011 when I was based in Kadugli. Villagers heading to the polling stations. And this one below: taken by JH. One of those weekends, we went hiking up.

Postcard Alexandria

Be like a postcard. Stay in the memory. Mornings in Alexandria, Egypt. 

First day - Cairo

Took a walk along the Nile Road and followed the masses to Midan Tahrir. Even this lil boy got painted in solidarity.

Throwback: Nuba Mountains

Throwback: This is taken on my first trip to Buram in November 2010, in an isolated village in Al Dar in South Kordofan. The village folks came to meet us and the women were simply beautiful in their brightly coloured tobes. I remembered how blue the sky was. As usual, the air was hot and stifling. Two little boys sat beside me. One had an open wound on his ankle and his sister did her best to flick the flies hovering around it. Memory is certainly a strange thing.

Next Stop

What: Always moving. Where am I off next? (Insert drum rolls): CAIRO. Why: Study Arabic. 

  

Dead Sea, Amman, Jordan

Throwback: hoping to float all the way down the Dead Sea in June 2010. Lesson learned: do not put your head in the water and do not get water on your hands. It stings.

Last day in Paris - La Tour Eiffel

Certainly one of the most recognisable structures in the world. Over the times I have visited Paris, I've never been inclined to go up. Might lessen its charm. And I just read that in 2007, an American lady (Erika Eiffel) "married" the Eiffel Tower in what is called a commitment ceremony. Erika is part of a organisation that build intimate relationships with objects (basically inanimate things). There is a term for this - objectophile. 

2012. Day 1.

Party's over. Back to work. Broken champagne bottles found on streets of Paris.