Friday 24th October

Since Friday is a day of rest in Sudan, Thursday evening is like Friday night in England. We therefore decided to take Leoma and Elizabeth out for a meal. This is a slight euphemism, as Elizabeth gave us £100,000 (about £25 Sterling) in £1000 notes before we left. Leoma drove us, and we were driven to the Riviera Restaurant, on the banks of the Nile. We sat outside, and watched the lightning from a nearby storm flash down river.

The food and water here is quite good quality, although the service was slow. After the meal, the bill came to £90,000, so I gave the wad of notes that Elizabeth had given me to the waiter, including a tip.

Next morning we went to a fellowship day at KIC (Khartoum International Church). Most of the people here were ex-patriates. One person we met was Peter, who was asking if there was anyone who had a knowledge of radio broadcasting and recording who would like to come to Sudan for a year or two to support the work out here.

There was some discussion about the Sudanese approach to timekeeping. This was causing a lot of frustration to some of the people there. Sudanese would turn up late for meetings or not at all. Jake commented about a recent trip to the Nuba mountains, where he needed to get away to meet a helicopter that was due to collect him. He was then told that he must have tea before he left, and this took a very long time to arrive. He finally got away, but then had to march for several miles through the mountains. In the end, the helicopter was two hours late, so he had plenty of time.

There were many young children at the fellowship day, but none appeared older than 13. The reason is that older teenagers attend boarding schools in either their home country or Kenya. Although the children seem to settle happily and enjoy boarding school, their parents did find it a difficult decision to make.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a church sale in North Khartoum. Here we were able to buy dresses, shirts, aprons, stuffed toys, pictures and Christmas cards, as well as the usual bric-a-brac that seems to be a key part of any church sale. Here we met Peter again, who introduced us to Hildebrand, who is actually the one seeking help with broadcasting personnel. He is looking for producers, radio and video editors, and technicians. They must be self sufficient, as there will be little or no training available here, but they should be able to transfer their knowledge to local Sudanese, so they can carry on the work after they have gone home. Volunteers can contact the webmaster who will put them in contact with the right person in Sudan.

After the church sale, we visited the Souk in Khartoum North, and bought some small items to take back to England. Fiona plans to take coffee beans, pestle and mortar, coffee pot and grass stopper into the local school. The children can then grind the beans by hand and make Sudanese coffee for the teacher to drink. The teacher does not know yet! An interesting item on sale was empty bottles - Johnny Walker Red Label bottles - not sure where they came from.