I am a hermit , so I never go travel. But Sudan isn't exactly a good country to visit.
I think you've explained your own knowledge deficit perfectly in that sentence.
But let me tell you about my trips to Sudan.
Sadly the country has been irrevocably damaged in the last few years by war; it has often if not always had a history of internal war. Something that has its roots in the incursion by foreign colonial powers which created artificial and arbitrary regional and political boundaries which usurped natural ethnic and tribal ones. That created population displacement and the ethnic strife that ensured and endured.
I was there with colleagues, some of us paid and some of us volunteers, to support expansion of knowledge and curriculum growth in a specific area with a broad aim of improving animal and human health and enabling moves in animal welfare and health which would by effect, save human lives.
We worked with NGOs, local grassroot groups, academia, clinicians and civil servants.
We went from meeting to meeting to events, and in later projects, classes and workshops.
We were welcomed, we were always looked after. People would sit in a room shivering (and watching their own electric bill rise) because the AC was set to a comfort level to suit us.
We were fed. We were socialised. We got taken to see the Sudanese pyramids, older than the Egyptian ones. We had them to ourselves.
We wen to a market where I bought an antique engraved railway water jug that was 100 years old to take home as a souvenir. It cost me 2 dollars.
Through a cascade of meeting people and friends of friends, we were taken to pop in to a wedding, introduced to the groom, and his parents put a takeaway food box together from the buffet that kept us fed at home for 3 days. This from complete strangers.
The professors, students and civil servants worked and engaged with us in an open minded way and, without a lot of academic baggage (Sudan was fairly isolated) they could see clear paths to problems which we couldn't. We brought the learning from them back home with us.
ATMs weren't working to foreign cards at the time, so we took cash in with us each time in Dollars. We spent about $60 per person over each 2 week visit. Things were cheaper, yes, but this low amount was from the fact that we literally were not allowed to pay for anything - everything was a gift, a kindness. We were embarrassed all the time (and we put much of the unused subsistence allowance into donations for some of the local projects).
So I found a good country when I visited. Despite the history of civil war, and suffering, famine and struggle, I found that travel and being open, broadens the mind and helps formulate an accurate opinion.
Which is a lot more Star Trek than what you've come out with.....
nerdist.com
).
