Getting ready for Sudan

In preparation for the Sudan campaign, the day after tomorrow, part of my time has been spent running around Cairo trying to get vaccinations, visa, permits, clothes etc etc. Particulary getting vaccinations is a treat.

In the Netherlands there are a few places to go and where you can basically get all you need. They usually are pretty backlogged and require appointments weeks in advance of departure.

Cairo does it topsy-turvey. You go in the office, sometimes like the one in the picture, say what you need (in my case Yellow Fever), plonk EGL 73 on the table (equivalent to € 10!!), bear your arm and get jabbed. Within 3 minutes you're standing outside with a nice pale blue stamp and several scribbles in your vaccination passport.

The big trouble is finding out where to get the vaccinations. My booster shot for Hep A went fairly easy, a huge complex called VacSera in Mohandiseen, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This system is slightly different, it is the same as in large stores like Omar Effendi and other shops; you go to the counter, tell them what you want, they write out a receipt which you bring to the cashier, pay up and in this case get the vaccine with included sterile needle in a refrigerated package, go back to the counter or room where you had the receipt filled out and have them insert the needle into your flesh. This whole endevour took about 7 minutes.

In both cases the actual innoculation only took minutes, finding out where you get them took days, almost a week. Yellow fever wasn't done at VacSera and the only indication I got where I could get it, was; "Midan Giza, near Giza Train Station". After driving there with my on-call taxidriver, Ramadan and me trying desperately to explain what I needed, he asked around. On Giza street I had to get out, follow some bloke through all kinds of alleyways, buildings and courtyards to end up in an office on the ground floor of the building above, way in the back. I actually think it was a different building. Not very reassuring, I can tell you. And 3 minutes later I was done, in the taxi, driving back to Zamalek. 

I'm so glad the vaccination's valid for 10 years, don't want to have to imagine doing that every year.  

So tomorrow I'm off to the Sudan for 3 weeks. I say this with confidence though there is a small chance I will be back the day after tommorow; I do not have a visa yet, it is supposed to be waiting for me at Khartoum airport. Since the other team members are all British, they got all theirs from the embassy in London. The very easy to get visa to get became more difficult to acquire. Since I could not part with my passport, I went for the embassy here in Cairo.

Internet research (there's a contradiction in terms) showed it was either extermely easy or almost impossible. So giving it a go, went to the embassy  just before Christmas because that was when I was sent the letter of invitation from the Sudanese Institute of Archaeology and Museums. Without this any kind of action would have been futile.

After having filled in new forms-the ones for the London Embassy were not accepted and having copies made ( Two pound please) I went to the plexiglassed counter, had quick chat with the guy behind it where I was going (I come from Dongola, it is very nice there, much nicer than rest of Sudan) and handed him my pack of papers and a €100 note. 

This is when the problems began, it was $100 and they had no change so I had to go change it at a bank. Bank 1 only helped accountholders, Bank 2 did not exchange money (what kind of bank is that), Bank 3 same thing, Bank 4 took the Euros and changed them into Egyptian Pounds and took 15 minutes, after me explaining that I needed Dollars, not Pounds to tell me that they couldn't do that. Bank 2 did that....NOT. 

When I finally managed to get the Euros changed into Dollars the embassy had closed. Went back the next day after being in touch with Kate Spence, the person in charge of all Sesebi paperwork and asked how long it would take. Bukra, the infamous "tomorrow" or "manyana" was the answer, with the always confidence inspiring "Inchallah" after it. 

Other tourist sitting in the passport office of the Sudanese embassy told they had been coming back for five days in a row after being told it would take 5 days. So they were on day 10 and I did not have that time. Kate opted for another option, George of the Acropole Hotel in Khartoum. He would arrange to have the visa waiting at the airport and I would have a copy sent to me.

This morning George mailed me and asked for the flight details, a second signature was missing and couldn't be gotten before tomorrow morning. Even Sudan has gone over to the 5 day workweek for civil servants, recently. The visa would be at the airport. I just needed to tell the people at Egypt Air, when asked about the visa, or lack thereof, that I would be responsible for buying a ticket back to Cairo if things didn't work out. He assured me they would though.

How reassuring.

This by the way is where I will be for the largest part of the season, Jebel Sese, near Delgo