Dusk has overcome the day and the almost full moon beams down from above. The gentle evening breeze is a welcoming relief from the long hot day. The equipment finally arrived on a cargo plane today and we were able to finish our geotechnical survey. A cold shower to wash off the dust and a dinner of roasted lamb chased with a sweet mint green tea, tops off the day. The coolness, a slight buzz radiating through the flesh. Off in the distance, three orange glows dance on the horizon; a fire? A bright light? A plane takes off, the rumbling sound of a large cargo plane, probably another World Food Program flights or one of the countless UN flights in or out of Darfur. Fatigue arrives quickly after days in this dry heat. The bits of roasted lamb in a local thatched restaurant hit the spot, but was not enough to replenish all lost energy. I shall retire early tonight, tomorrow will be the journey back to Khartoum.
This has been the longest I’ve been without internet in a long time. My cell phone has also been having problems calling out, so I’ve essentially been incommunicado for the past five days. A pickup drives by in the distance with some Arabic message blaring from a megaphone. The sky is clear, lit up with countless stars, twinkling through the particles in the atmosphere.
Tomorrow we fly on Sun Air - I think that was the same airline hijacked last year and ended up in Libya for a few days. The alternatives are not much brighter, a Sudan Air crashed last year, at least I'm pretty sure it was that airline. With options minimal, the only flight out of El Fashir tomorrow is the Sun Air and it departs around 7pm. I wasn't aware the El Fashir airport had lights, but it does.
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