Gedaref Hospital Street

Abdul-Aziz Ali Omer

I walk through Gedaref hospital street to make an inventory of things pedestrians cane see within its bowels. My little comprehensive tour reveals that, the street has 15 ware-houses, a single poultry products store, a solitary veterinary pharmacy and the Miami Cafeteria. Miami is a lovely coastal city in South of Florida in the U.S.A. but here, It serves us as a kind host offering glasses of orange-juice. It’s useful to reduce the hot sweat pouring from weary pores . On this main street in Gedaref, there are 8 pharmacies: two of them belong to the public sector and the rest of them are profit-making-enterprises. In addition, it has 17 shops specialized in assorted cosmetics. The publicity neon signs attract one with businesses titles: The Paradise Exhibition, Gedaref Pearl, Peace Centre and Jeddah Door. I walk into Bab Sahrif Centre to find myself the only visible Adam among female clients trying to enhance their beauty. I want to buy a hair-cream for my young nephew. One beautiful, slender girl stands nearby. All of a sudden, she moans and leans on my shoulder. A muscle of my own stirs in a sympathy with her. But, I resist the temptation and withdraw back out-doors not to surpass the bounds of modesty and decorum. Another beauty confronts me in the processions of festivities, artificial lights, ferns in pharmacies and the drawings of December Revolution artists on the walls of Gedaref hospital walls. The whistling of police traffic men disturbs me, but their colleague Hassan’s smile a apologizes for me at the intersection of street. I take the turn of Jamaheer pharmacy adjoining street to enjoy the fragrance of incense from frankincense sellers, the aroma of ripening maize pop corn and the diversity of fruits: grapes, raisins, apples and bananas on crates of Pepsi and wheelbarrows. Moreover, I enjoy seeing the arresting photos of agrarian machineries in the façade of Dal For Innovative Agriculture , Hejaz Perfumes and Trust for the Islamic Costume. The latter is a shop that observes Islamic dress-code. The manikin’s heads wear colorful scarves hanged on a plastic pipe. It seems as if the workplace owner is playing a scene of a pantomime show to entertain the pedestrians. The hospital street leads to two memorial principal mosques: Ibrahim Musa and Abdel Gadir Mohsen named after a philanthropist and a religious scholar respectively. Lest I forget, There is the grand mosque of Gedaref. These three praying places represent crossing points from the mundane to the sublime. The worshippers pray in the street. Another reason for congestion, the street is used extensively as parking lots which contribute to mid-day traffic jam. Moreover, the expulsion of beggars except a few obstinate destitute on wheelchairs in the sun. If you want to become one of litigants, take the turn of Khartoum bank to meet the public prosecution office, criminal investigations department, the juvenile court, a number of private lawyers offices and the Central Police Station. If you want to see something funny and awe-inspiring, take another turn at the Central Health Insurance pharmacy to come across a huge semi-Yemeni dagger erected on the street as a symbol of an army and people in east Sudan. Further on, you will notice a broken Pepsi can in an iron barrel fixed on the concrete as remains of an old advertisement for Pepsi cola plant. The only negative phenomenon on the street is the negligence of Gedaref hospital authority to waste disposal and sewage near the perimeter wall of Referral clinics complex. Is the management of El-Neilien Bank, Gedaref branch alone required to clean up their nearby garbage? The administration of the Central Bank of Sudan warns the passers-by of a hidden surveillance camera so as not to furtively throw litter or relive themselves in its vicinity. Why the health authorities condone a heap of rubbish with the stench of urine before the city main hospital?!! . Generally, Gedaref hospital street is a very bustling road, packed with varied shops and full of friendly people, a homogonous mixture of tribes and ethnicities. Therefore, this street should be kept impeccably clean without any disregard for any un-sanitary conduct.. The hygienic regulation to protect public health and the appearance of public places should be re-enforced.