50 Days in Sudan - Ali's Homecoming! (2)

Left-to-Right: Shaza, Khalid, Ali, Mohammed Ameen, Nisreen, Mohammed Mamoun - posing for this shot in the parking lot outside the arrivals terminal at Khartoum airport - a few minutes after Ali walked out.

50 Days in Sudan - Ali's Homecoming!

Speaking of Ali Mamoun - here he is at Khartoum Airport in mid- December 2006, upon his first visit to Sudan in 6 years! You can see how happy he is :-) wouldn't you be?
Many family members were there to greet him. We were all thrilled! Al-Khartoum nawarat on that evening.

50 days in Sudan!

On November 24th 2006, we travelled to Sudan for vacation (Sara - my wife, Mamoun and Mohammed - my sons). We returned in mid-January after spending 50 wonderful days in Khartoum.

50 days is a long time in "dog" years!....a lengthy vacation by USA standards. Well it was 2 years worth, since we skipped the annual trip in winter of 2005.

What you see here is a picture of our luggage...

Take my advice - always take pictures of your luggage...just incase...
Also if something is really valuable try to carry it in your handbag only.

Ali (my brother), lost both his bags in his trip out from USA to Sudan this year. We learnt alot from that experience:
1. Minimize the # of connections (Ali flew SFO-LHR-Muscat-Manama-KRT!)
2. Try to fly with 1 carrier (avoid a complicated route with multiple carriers).
3. Never fly Gulf Air (they have no clue what they are doing). After interacting with their staff for several days (in the quest for Ali's lost luggage), I was convinced that the company does not have systems in place to track luggage. It also seems that they do not train their employees. Zai ma bingoul "Al-jatak fi malak sama7atak!" but negligence/carelessness in aviation can lead to catastrophes (al-3afash hayin!).
Ali - always looking at the positive side of things - kept his usual high spirits. I would've sulked for 2 years...That is why Ali is a special human being. The good and positive forces in his soul are overwhelming. My father used to say - "Ali da mabrouk." I think father is right.

To be continued...