The Energizer Mutt

Meet Toffee; pronounced like "toe-fee", not "tah-fee". He's your basic, friendly neighborhood "watch-dog". He lives on the ground floor of our good friends Mike and Suzanne's flat. A nice Khawaja family owns him; they've lived here about 10 years and are heading back to England in June. Over the months and years we've gotten to know Toffee quite well. He's a bit of a street mutt, always on the prowl, looking for another fight and returning with another wound. Over time he's become quite attached to us, loping (or limping) over when we stop by, rubbing his scabby, crusty infected eyes on our clothes and occasionally, following us wherever we go.

For example, in December, when a few of us ran the "First Inaugural Khartoum International The Four Bridges Fun-Run to Save Darfur Half Marathon", he ran the first 6 miles with us. That's right, that pathetically malnourished, half alive pup trotted half way across the city with us. Needless to say, you can bet we got quite a few more stares for not only being Khawajas jogging in the city, but having a mangey mutt galloping along side us.

And more recently, he yet again, donned his loyal cloak and accompanied Suzanne and I on an outting to our local Suuq (big, open market). Let me preface this by pointing out that DOGS DON'T GO TO THE SUUQ. It's like an unspoken rule. Even the multitude of strays stay out- as if they have an instinctive sense and know they're just not allowed. So, there we are, two fair-skinned, light haired Khawajas non-chalantly walking into the Suuq accompanied by Toffee the Wonder Pup. The amounts of stares, calls, frowns, comments, questions and followers that four-legged accompaniment brought on was unimaginable. We tried frantically, desperately, yet overtly, to send him home- the stern "go home Toffee", both in english and arabic, had no impact. It was no use.

We stopped in a pharmacy; good ol' faithful Toffee stopped in too. The owner was NOT amused. We tried to explain that this truly in fact was not our dog; he wasn't buying it. We stepped into a street vendors clothing booth; Toffee browsed with us, IN the booth. It was awkward, uncomfortable and emabarresing. Finally, desperate and exaserbated with our furry friend, we resorted to sneaking into a rickshaw (a 3-wheeled, semi-enclosed form of transport with a 2-stroke engine), thinking that going anywhere in a motorized vehicle would comfuse him and he would eventually, hopefully, wander home. Of course there was a small traffic jam, as the Suuq is located in the middle of the local bus station. So we waited, unmoving in our roasting little rickshaw, slyly peering out the sides, watching Toffee's response to our mysterious disappearance.

I felt bad at first. Poor guy; just trying to help, guarding the khawajas on a day at the Suuq. But people were STILL staring at us in the rickshaw, and at him as he turned circles scanning the multitude of people for us. Finally, looking totally perplexed and confused (and very pathetic), he slowly turned around and trotted off into the crowds towards home. Suzanne and I, still not gaining any distance in our rickshaw get-away mobile, thanked the driver for the 5-minutes stuck in traffic and hesitatingly crept out of our hiding place. Glancing over our shoulders, and avoiding the numerous stares and comments, we high-tailed it to a different section of the market, praying Toffee hadn't caught on to our antics and was still heading home. And apparently the charade worked, as the rest of our shopping trip was most uneventful...

What's Left: We're down to just 2 more weeks here... School is winding down and we're in the process of finishing up classes and closing down. The weather has remained hot, never dipping below 110F (it's 11am and 113F), but thankfully, we've had fewer power cuts in the last 5 days... making things much more tolerable! These next few weeks will be spent cleaning and packing; all our belongings being stored in a friend's shipping container.

Photos: Toffee, rubbing his infected eyes on Eddy's shorts... Eddy and Timo, a family friend who will be moving to the north to contiue the family business... A small going away party for Mike and Suz and us thrown by our organizatin friends... The view outside our flat window... and Toffee, always on the look-out...