Tuesday 21st October

Tuesday saw us on our way to Wad-Medini. Samir had sent a guide to get us to the bus station. We managed to get a taxi - a squeeze for five passengers plus driver. We even had to share a winder for the windows.

At the bus station it was a joy to find that we were traveling on a modern Mercedes bus, complete with effective air conditioning. We were only a few minutes late setting off, but had our first road accident before we left the bus station - we hit a child on a donkey cart. The donkey was fine, but we are not sure about the child. Despite this, off we drove. Twenty minutes later we reached the edge of the city, a police check (which waved us on) and a toll booth.

The land in this part of Sudan is very flat, and although it is mainly sandy and dusty, there were some very fertile areas this close to the Nile. We would regularly pass through towns and villages. Rectangular compounds and mud brick houses were common, but occasionally we would see much greater affluence - two story buildings with the tell-tale air conditioner box outside, and sometimes a satellite dish. Many of the Mosques were very ornate, and beautifully cared for.

The mud used to plaster the walls is made from a combination of donkey dung, mud and straw. The mucus in the donkey dung makes the plaster waterproof.

The road to Wad-Medini is metalled, although single carriageway which led to some hold-ups as we got stuck behind slow moving vehicles. It also led to some scary moments as we overtook into oncoming traffic. Occasionally we would catch sight of the Blue Nile as we journeyed south, sometimes seeing a ferry making its way across.

The livestock along the way was generally cattle or goats, but we would also see donkeys and camels. The harshness of the environment was emphasised by the occasional animal carcass or skeleton.

After almost three hours we arrived in Wad-Medini, and with some reluctance left the cool of the bus for the heat of the day. It took about ten minutes before Reuben found us and took us to St. Paul's church.

Canon Thomas was in Khartoum, but we were greeted by a growing number of pastors, readers and lay people. Prayers of thanks were immediately said for our safe arrival. We then sat and introduced ourselves and our churches. St Paul's is the centre for a number of churches in the area, and has six Pastors linked to it. The church generally is growing very fast in this area, although there are problems. We heard about a church that had been bulldozed to make way for a road widening project. Wad-Medini has a number of Christian churches, including a Roman Catholic and a Coptic church.

After a while we were served a sumptuous lunch (albeit at about 5:00pm), which we ate in typical Sudanese fashion, just using our right hands. There is an art to breaking off a piece of bread with just one hand (and unfortunately we are still learning it).

After lunch, we looked around St. Paul's church. The building was constructed in 1930, along British lines, although it was a number of metal benches at the front that constituted the pews. The organ does not work (a lizard ran across the keys when the lid was lifted), but there were several drums sitting around. Communion is celebrated every other week. A typical congregation is from 140 - 180. We also met the teachers from the church school, who cover a full range of subjects, from English, literacy, and maths, to science and humanities.

It rained that afternoon. We thought it was wonderful, as the temperature dropped to that of a hot summer's evening in Britain; our hosts probably thought we were mad, but were too polite to say so. We even asked if we could sleep outside (a common practice in Sudan), but they thought it might rain, so we had to go indoors.