Experience is a solid walking stick...
I don’t know where to start. I wish I had taken my wife. Who am I without my school certificates? These three remarks by refugees, scribbled into notebooks by The Niles correspondents, support the Sudanese proverb that ‘experience is a solid walking stick’. War, hunger and poverty have repeatedly forced both Sudanese and South Sudanese to flee their homes. Right now more than 4.5 million people are on the road in the two countries, like these passengers on a bus from Khartoum to Shendi. The fifth edition of The Niles documents their journeys, following their routes to neighbouring villages, fast-expanding cities or the other side of the globe, revealing diverse experiences with a recurring theme: When you leave home, the familiar is lost but the essential remains.
I don’t know where to start. I wish I had taken my wife. Who am I without my school certificates? These three remarks by refugees, scribbled into notebooks by The Niles correspondents, support the Sudanese proverb that ‘experience is a solid walking stick’. War, hunger and poverty have repeatedly forced both Sudanese and South Sudanese to flee their homes. Right now more than 4.5 million people are on the road in the two countries, like these passengers on a bus from Khartoum to Shendi. The fifth edition of The Niles documents their journeys, following their routes to neighbouring villages, fast-expanding cities or the other side of the globe, revealing diverse experiences with a recurring theme: When you leave home, the familiar is lost but the essential remains.
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What’s hot in Anchorage?<br />
Omaima Taher’s food truck ‘Sultan<br />
Shawarma’.<br />
The Niles 23<br />
6000km<br />
7000<br />
8000<br />
11,600<br />
km<br />
9000<br />
10,000<br />
> Departure: El-Hassahe<strong>is</strong>a, Gezira State, Sudan<br />
> Arrival: Alaska, USA<br />
> D<strong>is</strong>tance: 11,600km<br />
Falafels for<br />
Alaska<br />
Omaima Taher, an engineer from Gezira<br />
State in Sudan, relocated to Alaska, where<br />
she set up a mobile restaurant selling<br />
Sudanese d<strong>is</strong>hes in one of the coldest<br />
parts of the world.<br />
Abdalhadi Al-Hag<br />
I<br />
n 2010, I arrived in the U.S. to join my husband who was living in<br />
Anchorage. In the first year I suffered so much from the bitter cold<br />
weather and I rarely left home. I wore heavy clothes and used special<br />
creams to help me withstand the low temperatures.<br />
In the second year, I attended Engl<strong>is</strong>h classes and sold fast food,<br />
but I stopped when I had my second daughter.<br />
My husband and I thought of selling Sudanese food to the<br />
American community. We started a mobile restaurant offering<br />
ful medames, which are cooked and mashed fava beans, falafel,<br />
shawarma, kebab, and other d<strong>is</strong>hes. We attracted a large number<br />
of customers from different nationalities, mostly Americans and<br />
Sudanese. There are many Sudanese in Alaska, many unmarried<br />
young men who have become regular customers.<br />
I was worried about failure but with my husband’s encouragement<br />
and help I decided to go for it. There were few Sudanese or Oriental<br />
restaurants in Alaska. My husband helped me by staying at home<br />
with the children when I was out at work. He works at the restaurant<br />
in the evening and does another job. By cooperating we managed<br />
to develop our food business.<br />
It was an exciting experience and several American media outlets<br />
came to ask me about my story. I keep in touch with my family in<br />
Sudan via social media, and closely follow developments. When I get<br />
American citizenship I intend to v<strong>is</strong>it Sudan with my children so they<br />
can see their motherland and learn Arabic.<br />
11,000<br />
12,000<br />
theniles_enar_20150327.indd 23<br />
2015/3/31 1:50 PM
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