Thursday 23rd October

We had an early night after our journey, but were up around seven the next morning. We began the day by trying to catch a bus to the centre of the city. Unfortunately it was not easy to find a bus that had four spare seats (they do not try to overload the buses here - the most I have seen is one person standing). After a while we gave up and grabbed a taxi. This deposited us in the "Oxford Street" of Khartoum. There were actually a number of tourist shops around (although not so many tourists), and we browsed in some of them, buying a few trinkets to bring home.

Our next stop (actually a comfort break) was at the Unity High School, where we had a brief glimpse of the school and met some of the staff. Then it was back to a bus station to head across town to All Saints Cathedral. There was an official group from Germany visiting the Diocese, so Provost Sylvester was quite busy, but he briefly said hello.

Here we saw some banners from Ilkley and Bradford, and pews that had been donated by St Mary's Church in Burley in Wharfedale. The altar cloth included lace made by Margery Greenwood from Holy Trinity in Skipton. We also were shown the Cross of Nails. This is a cross made from the nails taken from the roof of the original Coventry Cathedral, which was given by Coventry to encourage peace and reconciliation in divided countries.

We now learnt some of the real preparations visitors from England should take coming to Sudan. Elizabeth took us first on a long bus journey, getting off apparently on a whim, somewhere in a suburb of the city, well beyond the airport. We then started to walk through the heat of the mid-day sun. Snatches of Noel Coward kept coming to mind (Mad Dogs and Englishmen), as we walked past locals sleeping in the shade. Occasionally one would call out, either "Salaam", or "Hello, How are you?" "Where are you going?" I think that if their English could have coped, they would have asked why we were hiking in the heat of the day. The essential preparations? Make sure you are fit - there is a lot of walking, and always carry a water bottle with you. After about a mile, we reached the banks of the Nile, and the brickworks.

Here work was continuing, as most of the workers were on piece rate. As the Nile recedes, following flooding, it leaves pools of water behind, full of silt. This black silt is dug out, and a small amount of manure is added, containing straw and dung. The mixture is a horrible wet, glutinous mass, that appears quite sticky, but with some extra water can splash quite a distance - as we found out to our cost.

The bricks are made two at a time in a mould, and then tipped out onto the ground to dry. Two men mix the silt and manure, and supply the brick maker. He fills the molds, and then two more men carry these to a place where they tip them out to dry in the sun. When the bricks are dry, they are stacked about two metres high across an area perhaps 2 metres by 5. At the base of this stack are several channels across the width of the pile, into which wood is placed. The whole stack is then plastered in, and the wood lit. This allows the bricks to be fired, during which, they change from a yellowy grey colour, to a browny red colour. All this is done by hand, and reminded us strongly of the early chapters of Exodus.

By now the heat was a killer, so we slowly walked back up to the road to catch the bus into the centre of the city again. From there we took a taxi back to Elizabeth's house, but what a taxi! This vehicle had been stripped to its bare bones. The back seat felt as if there was just some cloth over metal. None of the instruments worked - including the speedometer and the petrol gauge. To start the car, he hot wired it - there was no key, nor anywhere to put it.