Darfur 3: Hyenas
March 31, 2007 by haziamyperspective
Ad took this photo outside his office. The locals have pet hyenas, wild dogs to protect them. He wasn’t too sure about the pet monkeys though. He joked about asking his mother to send his dog all the way to Khartoum to protect him, equipped with doggy pepper spray. LOL!
The bands at the men’s arms held Sudanese knives for protection. Ad had his own set of Victorinox dagger and Swiss Army knives. LOL!
He said the town was going mad. It was so noisy. Police cars and ambulances were speeding everywhere. Probably, they were preparing for the Friday prayers.
Friday was their weekend and he was alone in the office. His driver waited in the Security Room. Their office electricity supply and phone lines were cut off; they were relying on generators set. There were also no radio frequency.
Internet connection was really unstable by then, I had to wait 5 minutes before he responded to each line. I asked him not to wait for the government’s announcement and take the first flight to Cairo. I told him not to be stubborn and joked about calling his mother to make sure that he leave the country asap. I didn’t have her number, but I had his best friend, Al’s number.
A few days ago, I sent Ad the full schedule for the KL International Literary Festival highlighting the sessions that I was attending. Suddenly, he realised that the pub in Bangsar for the poetry reading that night was Al’s regular hang out… and his parents’ too. Coincidentally, my friend smsed me then to confirm that she could make it, and with that, so could I.
One joke after another and before we knew it, I was smsing Al to update him on Ad and Darfur (with Ad’s consent, of course). I also mentioned that I would be at his favourite pub later and I could update him on Khartoum if he like. Or…he could just call Ad.
That was how we met. It was tricky as Al knew very little about me. He was furious with Ad for not wanting to reveal more. I might be a ’secret’ but he knew that I was significant enough; Ad gave me Al’s number to contact from Mecca since I requested for a Malaysian mobile number to avoid blunder. And he didn’t do that for all Ad’s girlfriends. LOL!
