The Sheikh is coming! The Sheikh is coming!

And now for another Darfur flashback...

In December 2008, CHF International, an American NGO with a large operation in Darfur, held a basket sale. Among CHF's many projects in Darfur was a livelihoods project for displaced women living in some of Darfur's IDP camps (in South Darfur, the project focused on Kalma Camp outside of Nyala). Through this project, CHF provided materials to women in the camps so they could make traditional baskets. CHF would then sell these baskets in Nyala, Khartoum, and the US and pay the women who made them. (CHF was one of the 13 international NGOs expelled from northern Sudan in March 2009.)

CHF had a permanent basket shop at their office in Nyala. But in December, they hosted a large holiday sale at the shop. So, I decided that I should take advantage of it and maybe buy some Christmas gifts for friends and family back in the US. I was also looking for one thing for me: a decent-sized basket that I could use as a trash can.

I settled on the basket above. Well, when I returned to the IOM office in Nyala with my hands full of new baskets and wall-hangings, I was stopped at the gate by several of guards and drivers who wished to examine my purchases. One of our drivers noticed this basket in particular.

He took hold of the basket and looked at it admiringly. He then explained that, traditionally, people in Darfur keep these baskets around in case the sheikh, a traditional community leader in Darfur society, comes to visit. When the sheikh comes to visit, you are supposed to fill the basket with food and serve it to the sheikh.

Well, after hearing this, there was no way I could tell him how I planned to use the basket!

I entered the office carrying the basket and feeling extremely guilty. I relayed the story to my Canadian colleague. I was feeling really bad, but she reassured me, saying that if the sheikh came to visit, I could always empty the trash and fill the basket with food! :-) So practical...

And in the end, I did use the basket as a trash can. So, shhhhh, don't tell any Darfuris!