Nothing new to report...

...other than my anti-malaria medication is getting to me (it's supposed to cause strange dreams or nightmares). Last night I dreamt I was looking at the top of my head and there were a whole bunch of bald spots there and I realized in my dream that I don't have as much hair on my head as I think I do (some of you probably think that as well).

Enyways, the reports I'm getting from Khartoum is peaceful protests, no violence.

I'm going to post my last set of pictures from Taitti. This is from my last day there, Mohammad arranged with a friend to take us for a boat ride on the Nile and then visit a farm on the other side of the river. Saw a mother camel nursing her baby (I don't know what a baby camel is called), a donkey, some more goats (God those things are curious!), a couple of local men cutting hay for the animals by hand. It was a nice evening. I rode on (actually sat on, it didn't move) a donkey. That is the way you ride them according to Mohammad, at least, that is the way he rode it. He said it had been 25 years since he last rode a donkey.

For those of you wondering about the hat I'm wearing (I don't usually wear a hat, don't like them), the last picture should clear up the confusion. It was perfect for covering my face when I wanted to take an impromptu nap.

I had a great time there obviously. Mohammad emphasized that they've never had any violence in their region, they resolve there disputes peacefully, Arabs, blacks, everyone lives there harmoniously. They've been waiting forever for electricty to be installed and they quietly but persistently press the local govt. for it. I like to think of Taitti as the real Sudan.

Saturday morning, my vacation was over and I took the bus back to Khartoum and then flew back to Juba on Sunday. It was a six hour bus ride, but on an air conditioned bus on a paved road, it wasn't a bad trip at all, except for the non-stop music in Arabic. I was asked to produce my passport photocopy at one stop (yes, the only one on the bus asked to produce it and coincidentally I was probably the only non-Sudanese person on the bus. I wonder how they knew.).