Diary of a Teacher
By: Abdul-Aziz Ali Omer
In Gedaref Municipality Office, I stayed for a while to receive an over-due incentive for being one of the last Basic Education stage Exam invigilators. Finding myself out of colleagues gossips, I busied myself with my note-book registering vagrant thoughts or my mobile phone watching pieces of weapons exhibited before the governor of Gedaref . He hailed the efforts of security and intelligence in aborting an attempt for smuggling guns through Al-Butana plains . ” This is an achievement” he remarked with a grin.. It’s not bad to gloat over the subversives failure. A few minutes later, I was having tea with Marayam Salih Ebrahim, an amiable girl in the media office of Gedaref municipality. She acted the information manager .. Was I ” Mutatafil”, inviting myself at the wrong time? As if Marayam could penetrate into my thinking of being an intruder or obtrusive, she said ” You are welcome. You write to the Citizen Publication. Our priority is serving the citizen. We share the same concern. A temptation gleamed in her eyes as she saw in my visit an opportunity to accomplish something. She went on ;” I want to set up a website with an English section for Gedaref Municipality” .I promised her cooperation and expressed my delight to see her aspiration being fulfilled. From behind her office cubicle throwing a tunnel-like dark, I plunged into the lights of an avenue of trees known as ” the ministries road” due to the conglomeration of vital facilities there such the finance and health. On my way down the stairs of the infrastructure and urban development building, it was touching to read a notice for the employees benevolent trust announcing subsidized breakfast meals to the Infrastructure ministry personnel.. In a contact with Mahmoud Al-Oughta , as Sudanese journalist resident in Saudi Arabia, he commented ” It’s a good initiative from the charitable fund”. On the background of the trade-union complaint filed to the International labour Organization(I.L.O) about the non-payment of salaries , AL-Oughta said ” If the Sudan government has no enough financial reserve, why not demand loans from the International Monetary Fund( I.M.F) or seek a assistance from friendly countries to resolve the problem of suspended salaries “. He concluded ” the federal ministry of finance declaration to pay one month salary is a positive indicator”.
After that , I went to the Utopia library that hosted a training session for young people that centered on Firs-Aids, nursing, surgery and laboratory analyses preparation. Saphana Mohamed, a female supervisor gestured at the trainees saying ” This is the 13th batch ” , noting that they would be awarded accredited certificates that enable them to join the health professionals operating in the country. Mohamed Ali, the trainer from Mishkat centre asked the participants about why they joined the course, and most of them answered ” Seeking knowledge and helping other people in need” . Mr. Ali in his first lecture concentrated on the importance of a strict commitment to time in dealing with patients as well as keeping their secrets. My tour reached an impasse as soon as I went into the national fund for social insurance and pension. The fund director had been wary of talking about its work in minimizing the suffering of citizens unless I had a security permit. Missing the exit, one woman showed me the way. ” Thank you” I said without contemplating on another return to avoid any beaucratic complexities. Exhausted ,I returned home to drink coffee and watch on TV another episode of the Lackshemi Journey, an Indian romantic love story .love is a peaceful and safe haven, I hope to write to you again unless there is a co-erced disappearance.