Sudan Scouting 2018






PARISIAN MORNING

by JoMarie Fecci


PARIS, FRANCE (15 April 2018) — It was bizarre to wake up so early in Paris. The sun was not yet up and the vendors were just beginning to set up the Puces des Montrueil along the edge of the peripherique. I was still on Sahara time in my head.

The hotel had no breakfast so I went out to look for something to eat, noticing there was a McDonalds on the corner where I should be able to grab something quickly. But it wasn’t open yet. Even the bakeries were still closed. I walked along the rue de Paris in the direction of the city figuring I would eventually find a small store or someplace that was open to buy something to eat and drink. And eventually I did.

It turned out to be a cafe, which was nice, as cafes are my favorite places to hang out in Paris. It was a small corner cafe, with a couple of tables outside and I ordered a coke and took it out on the terrace and watched the sun come up over the buildings. It was cold and I was bundled up, but I wanted to be outside. I still felt a connection with the sun. A connection to the natural world. And I just slowly drank my coke and watched the sun move imperceptibly higher in the sky. A young couple crossing the street looked as if they were just coming home from the night. Someone else walked hurriedly with a sense of purpose, no doubt on the way to work. No one looked up at the sunrise but me. I thought of how disconnected we all are in our urban spaces, not only disconnected from each other, but disconnected from the natural world around us. Thinking back to the sufi ceremony and the feeling I had of the ambiance of a “concert” it reminded me how in our cities we go to bars and nightclubs instead of churches or religious institutions to dance and experience music — they have become our “spiritual places” in a secular world.

I finished my coke and took the metro to the 10eme, “my” Paris neighborhood. It was still very early in the morning and the neighborhood there was just waking up too. Most of the cafes and bars were still closed, their graffiti-covered riot gates drawn down. I didn’t have much time before I had to return to the airport, but it felt good to walk around here and re-connect with the familiar streets, a “home-coming” of sorts to help my mental transition …


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ABOUT THE EXPEDITION


JoMarie Fecci, of USnomads, sets off on an independent scouting trip across Egypt and Sudan in preparation for an up-coming Sahara expedition. Driving locally-sourced Toyotas and working with small local teams in each region, she will traverse a winding route that jumps off from key points along the Nile as far south as Khartoum, where the Blue and White Niles meet. During the journey she will visit a series of UNESCO world heritage sites focused on the ancient civilizations that occupied the region and meet with local communities. The primary goal of this mission is to assess terrain, security, driving conditions, logistical concerns and approximate timeframes for future travel.


WHERE WE ARE


The Sudan in Northeast Africa is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The country has a total area of 1.861.484 square kilometres (718.722 square miles), making it the third largest in Africa. The terrain is generally flat plains, broken by several mountain ranges. In the west the Deriba Caldera (3,042 m or 9,980 ft), located in the Marrah Mountains, is the highest point in Sudan. In the east are the Red Sea Hills. The name Sudan derives from the Arabic “bilād as-sūdān” or “the lands of the Blacks.” The population of roughly 37 million people is made up of 597 different ethnic or tribal groups speaking over 400 different languages and dialects. Sudanese Arabs are by far the largest ethnic group, estimated to account for 70% of the population. They are almost entirely Muslims. The majority speak Sudanese Arabic, with some different Arabic dialects, while many Arabized and indigenous tribes like the Fur, Zaghawa, Borgo, Masalit and some Baggara ethnic groups, speak Chadian Arabic. The nation’s official languages are Arabic and English. Sudanese history goes back to Antiquity, when the Meroitic-speaking Kingdom of Kush controlled northern and central Sudan and, for nearly a century, Egypt.


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