Yesterday my father call me, he say he need help for youngest sons Altegani and Alfatih and daughter Sona for school days to come…Sudan life very hard this time, everything is high…
-email 11/12/2020 from Soliman, KhairAllah’s eldest son
I am in touch with KhairAllah via email with his son Soliman who works as a mechanic in Jabrat al-Shaikh who talks to his father in Omdurman by cell phone. I haven’t seen him in three years but as far as I can tell, KhairAllah’s health is good and he is trying to educate his two youngest sons and daughter. I have no idea if this is true despite Soliman’s assurances. I cannot call KhairAllah on his mobile phone because I do not have one myself and there is no contact between Sudanese cell towers and overseas land lines.
And even if I could get a direct line through to him, my Sudanese Arabic comprehension is poor unless I can read simultaneous body language. KhairAllah spoke to me most expressively with his eyes and hands. Khalās, It’s Enough, or Khilis, It’s Over, he might say when it was time to break camp, wiping his two hands clean in the air, or Yimkin Bukra, Maybe Tomorrow, he would respond to my question, When do we arrive in Egypt?, raising his eyes from me to the sky and in fact having no idea of how to answer a Khawaja. Allah huwa ‘Ālim, God Knows.