A Glimpse from the Past

08:48 AM Jun, 14 2015
Sudanese Online
محمد التجاني عمر قش-
My Library at SudaneseOnline



A Glimpse from the Past


Mohamed Tigani Omer Gush

mailto:[email protected]@hotmial.com

It was late in the afternoon when the motors began to roar. We were leaving Omdurman for North Kordofan. The lorry stop was crowded with people from different walks of life, university students, merchants, workers as well as so many others . Everybody was, in fact, racing to find a place to put his objects or rather to hang them on the lorry! That is because only one week was left before the Eid , and the roads might be blocked by rain water as the rainy season was about to start. Most of the faces were familiar to me, more particularly, those of the drivers and their assistants, so to speak. Indeed, their dialect was quite distinct from that of the people in the market place. I was, of course, aware of the issues they were talking about as well as the items and goods they were buying from the haberdashers and the nearby stores. Suddenly, the lorry gave out a very noisy honk, a usual herald that the long trip was about to begin. Thus, the passengers took their places onboard the lorry. I had already booked mine in the front cabin. I took out a book from my briefcase and began to read in order to beguile time, at least until sunset. The sun was hanging in the horizon like a big golden ball although some high clouds were scattering in the space ahead of us. After a short while, we drove past the first check point, if not the last, just before Fattasha. Then, we crossed the range of sand dunes extending west of Omdurman but not without laborious efforts by the assistants and some young men. Our first stop over was near a small village with many tea selling shops built of clay and grass, where passengers had tea and some light food. Darkness had fallen and the weather was nicely mitigated by a distant rainfall. Some of the passengers began to sing folklore songs very soothing to themselves in such circumstances. It got hot inside the cabin so I decided to go up the lorry. As expected, it was hard to find a place to


put your feet inside, let alone to sit or relax. Therefore, I sat at the edge of the truck uncomfortably, though, until two young men from my village invited me to sit between them. They told me stories about the places they had been to during the last summer, but being so tired they fell asleep. I stayed awake for a while. The whole area was silent and tranquil except for the roar of the motor and the howling of the stray dogs which frequently ran after the lorry. No stars could be seen in the sky as it was suddenly covered by black clouds. However, I fell asleep, too. I suddenly felt like the lorry had come to a complete stop and there was water everywhere! Many other lorries stopped at the same place. In the morning, villagers came to us with their tea pots and breakfast. Eventually, we had a delicious meal. Alas, I woke up to realize that I was not in that open area but in a small flat in a big building overlooking king Abdul-Aziz Street in Riyadh city.

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