Tag Archives: sudan

Pharmacutical Shopping Trippp

There seems to be a very interesting and fascinating phenomenon that seems to be a common way of thinking in Sudanese culture and society. A very big love for medication, medicine, pharmacies, prescriptions, pills.

A rather unhealthy level of love pill popping and spending time either collecting the largest assortment of pills or harnessing the pharmacist or suggesting and making recommendation to their friends as to which pill will cure their every illness and need like you are some sort of expert. We also seem to treat pharmacists with a very special respect and reverence and in some cases refer to them as Drs.

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Its quite funny but I have noticed that pharmacies always seem to always be built next to the hospitals, and those are a lot more busy than those that are not. Seems like they want to get people to by-pass and come straight for the medication.

And when I do go to pick up my prescription, I pick up on the conversations and a lot of people seemed to be there more of pharmaceutical tourists who seem to know more than the pharmacists

And this sort of way of thinking gets taken with us wherever we end up all over the world.

A funny story about a Dr who was friends with a Sudanese pharmacist and they sort of referred people to each other, and soon a lot of the Sudanese community would be going to visit his friend.

After a long holiday back to Sudan, the pharmacist came back and his friend all of a sudden the Sudanese patients stopped coming. After a while of going backwards and forwards for a long while. Finally the Sudanese asked his friend how many prescriptions he wrote on average.

imageAnd then he was like aha there’s your problem. You see we Sudanese love our medication, you must not be prescribing them prescriptions. The Dr sat back in amazement, laughing to himself thinking is that it.

Then any patient as soon as they said they are Sudanese he would have his perception pad out and soon he had the whole town.

The End of Visiting Time

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So I had some good news today, personal, but of a medical  nature, and this reminds me of a story I heard sometime long ago, about the former president of Sudan, who took over in a military take over and was ruling as a dictator, Ibrahim Abood. One day two government officials came to tell him of the news of the passing of one of his friends in the army I believe. He was having dinner at the time and upon hearing the news was very upset as this was a close friend.

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They were about to embark when President Abood decided to go back pray the sunset (Magrib) prayers. And so they all made wadu and prayed and then got ready. Again they decided to head out and just before they were about get in the car, when the president asked what time it was. When told it was 10 to 8 he responded by saying: by the time we get there visiting time will be over, and the gafeer (guard) wouldn’t let me in. Look how much respect he had for the job of the security guard and would never abuse his authority.

This coming from the president of the country. It just goes to show the attitude of the people in charge effects and filters down to the people they rule. True leadership means you abide and follow your own rules.

And also shows how far we have fallen as a nation…just food for thought.

My First Blog Post

Hey guys and welcome to Sudan Hub. Thank you very much for visiting our website and we hope to see u guys come back regularly. But more importantly we hope to see you visit Sudan and see all the splendour and glory, and all we have to offer.20140709-033840 pm-56320056.jpg

This is my first blog post and so I want to use it to introduce myself (as the creator and founder) and explain more about what the Sudan Hub project is all about.

So here goes my name is Ashraf, although most of my friends as Ashe, and Im currently 25. Im currently living in London and have been in the UK for the past 8 years. Both my parents are Sudanese, and were both born and raised there. Me and my siblings on the other hand were not born there, and due to the nature of my fathers job (UN) were constantly on the move (Chad, Indonesia, Kenya, Jordan, Denmark, UK).

Thats me on the left with a friend.

Thats me on the left with a friend.

All that moving around and having not grown up in Sudan, although I would go for regular holidays created a feeling of a lack of identity as well as a disconnect from me and my cousins, as well as the older generation. And then to make it worse is the reaction of people around me not having any idea where Sudan was, or just the negative aspects they hear on the news (Darfur, Seperation, Arrest warrant against president, Refugee Crisis, Brain Drain etc…)

And the struggles of having to adapt in my own country as a Sudanese growing up abroad, finding it hard to settle, not fully understanding the culture, the custom, the tradition and the mentality. I always found there was a Big Gap and an Identity Crisis.

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So I decided to set up this project to learn more about my Country, showcase my country in a more positive light, discover and explore my identity. As well as provide useful information about Sudan, especially those looking to move or go for holiday.

I will be writing a weekly (at least) blog which I will publish on Friday exploring Sudanese culture and identity, and a special interest of mine entrepreneurship within the Sudanese context.

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Also a request to all Sudanese and anyone who wants to support us, please change your homepage to (www.sudanhub.co.uk) & giving us any feedback wether positive or negative as self improvement is very important to us.

Thank you for your time in reading this!

I leave you with my motto, and what Sudan Hub is all about:

Unity, Diversity & Prosperity

Yours
Ashraf