Settling into El Fasher
August 2006

We have come to Darfur as consultants to build the SixBricks Rocket Stove in refugee (IDP [Internally Displaced People]) Camps and we have arrived in El Fasher, the main town of North Darfur.  At first, there was some uncertainty over whether we would start our work here or move to another area of North Darfur.  But eventually our plans gelled and we began working here.  Everything moves very slowly.  Already a week has passed.  Friday and Saturday is the "weekend" so nothing happens, and Monday was a holiday.  I was told it was Mohammed's birthday, but actually it was Mohammed's Ascension Day; a holiday none the less.  So three days, so far, have been down time.  Even so, we have managed to attend a UN security briefing, visit Zam Zam, the biggest local IDP camp, and locate a brick maker, do clay testing, and get green bricks for stoves drying on the ground.

On arriving from Khartoum I thought of the Sonoran desert in the Southwest of the United States.  Actually, El Fasher seems to be on the southern edge of the serious desert here in Sudan.  We have arrived during the rainiest time of the year.  It only rains about 8 inches per year in El Fasher and half of that falls in August.  Even so, according to the statistics, it will only rain during eight days of August.  People are saying that this is a dry year, so far.  No locusts are expected for this year.  Brick makers don't seem to be slowed down very much by the rain, but I imagine that during the dry eight or nine months they will have to haul water out to the hundreds of places where they are making bricks.

The biggest issue in El Fasher, and the biggest discussion is about safety and security.  We seem removed from conflict here in El Fasher.  Except for the very large presence of various armies, and having a curfew at night, life seems to go on very much like any other place.  But all of the talk centers around what has happened, what will happen, where can you go, and where is it dangerous or safe.  Even going to Zam Zam Camp takes careful consideration and notification to the authorities.  Various militias and "groups" operate at Zam Zam, and who knows what might be happening there.  Even in the marketplace in El Fasher, different factions commingle. Sixteen vehicles have recently been stolen from NGO's [Non-Governmental Organizations], the Toyota Land Cruiser being the vehicle of choice.  One driver is still missing.  These land cruisers will presumably be used by the rebels to eventually mount an attack, somewhere on something and somebody.  Much information travels by rumor.

The other place we considered working is called Kabkabia, a place of 110,000 people.  We may still go there next.  But the road is insecure so you must go there by UN helicopter.  Also, Kabkabia, being under siege, is surrounded by a perimeter, and people and things (except for stolen NGO vehicles) don't easily leave or enter.

The food situation: The food is so bad in El Fasher that we have to eat our own cooking.  We are buying canned food from one of several "supermarkets."  There is only one restaurant, The Roast House.  This isn't Kenny Rogers.  The only thing you can barely trust to eat at the Roast House is the fried chicken and the bread.  But they do have some good looking baklava in the back and eventually we will get the courage to try some.  And eating out is very expensive.  One half of a roast chicken costs 1,800 Sudanese Dinars or about eight dollars.  No need in El Fasher for culinary critics.  But great business opportunities exist for a pizza parlor or ice cream shop or anything else.  And there is plenty of NGO money to support this.  The other eating options are street food, but two El Fasher people have recently died from Cholera so there is not much enthusiasm for eating street food.

It is said that people in the camps get adequate nutrition and medical attention.  One medical problem is bloody diarrhea caused by poor sanitation.  But in Zam Zam there are three clinics to treat people so Doctors Without Borders has recently left for more desperate places.  The FAO [U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization] says that almost seven million in Sudan will be short of food (like starving! - my comment).

If you read the fine print on the United Nations OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] map you see that 65% of the population of Darfur is "accessible" (and this implies that 35% of the population is inaccessible).  Many are inaccessible due to insecurity and sometimes bad roads.  Some are unidentified locations and nomadic  "damras" (or areas).  So I wonder what happens to the 35% that is inaccessible.  The OCHA map of Darfur has about 112 red dots on it, of various sizes, representing the Affected Population in Darfur.  Three of these dots represent El Fasher and Zam Zam and these three dots are at the top end of the map.  So I wonder what's happening in all of the rest of these red dots.  All of this said, the relief community seems to be very organized here, and the biggest problem is the insecurity.

So for now it is a waiting game for us.  We are waiting for bricks to be made, dried, and fired.  Then we can proceed to make some stoves.

My brother, Warren, has been kind enough to forward my emails to many of you. This is because the Internet connections in Africa leave something to be desired.

Best wishes from Darfur,
Ken Goyer