InterAction President & CEO Sam Worthington is visiting humanitarian workers in Sudan. Follow along as he posts diary entries and shares photos from along his trip.
February 22, 2008 - Khartoum, Sudan
The trip to Khartoum was a typical flight to Europe followed by another seven hours in the air, landing just south of the Sahara. A few key strokes of the customs agent's computer and my American passport, with its appropriate visa, had a new stamp. Welcome to Sudan.
Khartoum is a new city for me, as dusty as Cairo, but without the tight concentration around the Nile. Oil wealth, with the occasional building built by Khadafi and new high rise residences, is slowly changing the cityscape of low, brown buildings, plenty of empty space, and the ever present minarets. I am traveling with Judith, on loan from another U.S. relief organization.
The goal is to spend time in Khartoum to register our presence and get government permission to travel to El Fasher, in Darfur. It’s a time to meet with NGO country directors and get acquainted with the realities they manage. As humanitarians, with the invitation of a legitimate NGO operating in Darfur, in this case InterAction member Relief International, a "yes, you can travel" from the Sudanese government, is still thankfully routine. We shall see. If all works out well, I'll be on the first UN flight out to Darfur on Monday.
I am traveling to Darfur with a simple mission in mind: to bring attention to the well-being of humanitarian workers living in Darfur, and to increase my understanding of the work performed by InterAction members.
Without the presence of thousands of humanitarian workers, the vast majority committed locals with a much smaller core of expatriates from around the world, we would be witnessing a second Darfur catastrophe. Simply by being present in Darfur, humanitarian workers ensure that the sad status quo, managing large IDP [internally displaced persons] camps, doesn't turn into an even greater disaster. They also feed, care for, and shelter some 2.5 million people each day. With the violence in Chad spilling over the border the “safe” areas to work (no area is ever truly safe) within the vastness of Darfur are constricting. A drive 5km out of El Fasher to an IDP camp was operational last month, now it is not, and humanitarian workers have retreated to the hub of the town. Some 8,000 IDPs have migrated from one area to another swelling the Zam Zam Camp to over 47,000.
 It is living with this constant stress--- from harsh living conditions, to restrictive travel and fear, which influences the well being of humanitarian workers. It is the desire of aid workers to make some possible headway, any progress, in a stalemate war that only seems to get worse for the civilians of all sides who call Darfur home. And, yet, see a program start over from scratch. It is the burn out, the fear of having a local colleague killed or raped, the time away from family or yet another bout of disease, the stress of living in a compound, that is secure for now, but with an annoying room mate and poor latrine facilities. The well being of humanitarians in Darfur is fragile and it should be a concern for all of us.
From a study InterAction commissioned, I learned that workers don't expect miracles, but a little donor funding focusing on psycho-social support and other efforts from already stretched non-profits would be greatly welcomed.
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But today is Friday, everything is closed and it gives us time to explore. Near sunset we parked our car in a very dusty cemetery where our colleague who was driving, (he is from the country of Georgia, made very sure we didn't park on top of someone, although the other passengers didn't seem to mind. We walked to a mosque where a big crowd of people, mainly men, almost all in white robes, some with turbans, and others with woven skull caps or pointy hats had gathered. They made a very big circle about 5-10 people deep with hundreds of people all chanting and bowing to Allah. In the middle of the circle were 'whirling dervishes' a Sufi sect. It is amazing to see people spin like tops. One man spun in circles in one place, for over 30 minutes until he had created a small crater in the hard dirt. Some spun on one foot, others with arms raised and many in elaborate costumes. The atmosphere was serene, welcoming.
 One holy man slowly walked around the circle blowing some kind of smoke on the crowd. After about an hour he approached the men in front of me (I was about three people back from the rim of the circle), and asked the crowd to part so that I could be blessed. I shared with my children that they can tell their friends that their father was blessed with incense smoke by a holy whirling dervish, dressed in multiple colors and a pointed hat. I was the only Westerner to get that honor, I'm not sure why. The Sudanese around me thought it special. Perhaps it is a good omen for this trip, hopefully one I won’t need.
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