Figure 1 – The main street in Kurru in the early morning hours before work. Waleed’s shop, where we buy snacks and supplies but most importantly bottled water, is on the left less than 100m from our front door and the barber shop, painted green, is right across the street!
14 Dec 2018
Gregory Tucker
The past week has been incredibly busy as we try to prepare the site for the final days of data collection before I leave for Khartoum next Thursday. In next week’s post I will share some of the initial results of all of our hard work here, but this week I will focus on what my live is like in Sudan outside of work.
Figures 2 & 3 – This is the front entrance to Sadeq’s house, before (top – 2017) and after its new paint job (below – 2018)!
Figure 4 – My bed (taken the first week of the project as I assure you it is nowhere near this tidy anymore) with equipment charging and my personal effects in the corner.
The International Kurru Archaeological Project stays in the village of El-Kurru, near to the ancient site here and we are kindly hosted by Sadiq Mohamed Saleh and his family. This month I have been staying in Kurru, rather than closer to Jebel Barkal as it is only a 15-20 minute car ride to site and this is where all of my friends from past field seasons live, where I feel welcomed as a part of the community.
Part of the feeling of community comes from the fact that our meals are all communal. We share large dishes and eat with our hands, and the meals are always accompanied by bread and often with fuul, a dish made of mashed beans but cheese or sardines or tomatoes or just about anything can be added to spice it up, as the main course. We also often eat chicken, liver, a fish paste called fasikh, salad, and much more, and on special days we have fried fish! Last week, while staying the night in Karima, I even had pizza here for the first time, which I can highly recommend to the rest of the team coming next month!
Figures 5 & 6 – A typical fattur on site, ful, fasikh, tamia, eggs, and a few vegetables, shared between 4-6 people (left) and a special fish lunch (right).
Figures 7 & 8 – Pizza making in progress (left), and our delicious dinner (right).
In past seasons after work I have played soccer with my friends here, in the shadow of the pyramids at Kurru, but this year I have had to rest my legs and often opted to either watch them play or cool my feet in the Nile, which is only a five-minute walk from Sadiq’s, at sunset.
Figure 9 – The guys playing soccer at Kurru, the pyramid is just behind me, as I take this photo.
Figure 10 – Cooling my feet in the Nile.
In past season’s we have even gone to see the Kurru soccer team play a few official matches, including big games against local rivals in the stadium at Karima. I’m in the field a bit earlier this year so the soccer season hasn’t started yet, but the first match is on Tuesday in Karima, and I’m looking forward to cheering on my friends from the stands after work!
Figure 11 – A view from the stands at a soccer match in Karima (2017).
This year I’ve felt even more closely connected with life in the village, attending a few wedding celebrations and just last night an engagement party for one of the guys who works with me at Jebel Barkal, Salah Mohamed. We danced, myself only sparingly, to traditional tambour music for hours and it seemed as if the whole village came to celebrate with Salah!
In addition to all these larger events, I spend many of my evenings with friends talking under the stars or watching Champtions League or EPL soccer while drinking tea, which is ubiquitous here. And this season I’ve even picked up a new game to play, Ludo, which is kind of like Trouble and brings out an intensly competitive nature amongst us! It might be worth checking out if you’re looking for an easy game to learn to play with a few friends the next time you’re looking for something to do!
I have less than a week left for in the field, and it is going to go by far too quickly. Check back here next weekend for a final #fieldworkfriday update from Sudan for 2018!