Sudan here

So... We got here. The journey was rather enjoyable, the kids were good and we even managed to eat our food and watch a Discovery channel documentary about a tunnel in Turkey before the monkeys woke up. Amazingly, the cat made it as well and it only took us about an hour to clear customs for him. We haven't really seen him since, he's been hiding under our bed. We have a nice rooftop flat, all furnished Ikea (globalisation for you!)and I really enjoy it. We have been around a little bit, but V had to work, so that didn't leave us much time. We are hoping to sort out some kind of nanny pretty soon, so that we can socialize a bit more. Small children under three don't really allow us to go out or attend any events. Yesterday we visited the Zimex people for some Coke (and other stuff for V). E ran around a bit and finally hit the tv stand, opening his upper lip and bruising his gums. There was blood everywhere. The good thing about that was that we didn't have to make long and painful explanations about why we would prefer to give a miss to the supper at that Corean restaurant... Since our flat is on the top floor, we are the direct beneficiaries of a HUGE rooftop terrace. It is supposedly accessible to everybody in the building, but as it stands nobody really uses it, except the Hash people once a month. It allows the kids to go out and play with water or just run around. E loves to water the half-dead plants out there or try and clean the thick layer of dust from the tiles. Dust is a bit of an issue. We can't really open the windows because a thin layer of red dust just covers everything within a couple of minutes, especially when there is a bit of wind. Luckily we have really easy cleaning tiles all over the flat, so I just wipe it up several times a day and it seems ok so far. The city is big and spread out. As usual, I am totally lost, my orientation skills are absolute rubbish. I need to see stuff on a map, so I think Google Earth will be my friend here. We have a Mitsubishi pickup truck to drive around. It is rather old and rattly but ok. Kids enjoy it anyways. Today V had quite some time off, so we made it to the Swiss embassy to register in the morning. We also went grocery shopping and spent over 200 dollars (ouch!!!!) on stuff like yogurt and frozen veggies. Since on Wednesday the ICC will tell about the potential indictment of the president here, we were advised to stock up on food and "be careful", whatever that means. So now we have some canned goods, pasta, soy sauce, frozen meat and cat food for the animal at the modest price of 10 dollars a box. Next time our plane goes to Europe for maintenance, I am stocking up on food. Everything is horrendously expensive and even local produce, such as fruits and veggies and dairy reach Swiss prices. What do the locals eat and where do they get it??? I need to get to the bottom of that. Can't spend this kind of money on food on a regular basis. Anyways, I should go and get some supper on the way, it's almost 9pm... Kids finally seem asleep.