It's that wedding I folded invitations for today. I don't really want to go but it seems to be important to Dia. I pop over to Dia's house late morning. There's family everywhere and of course everyone wants to stop for shai and a chat. I get an SMS from a friend in UK asking advice on travel gadgets. I'm sat in a posh house with almost no personal possessions…. These guys are nomads at heart; we collect too much baggage in the west…. That said I don't think I'd travel without a camera.

In the evening, back in the same posh house, I meet a chap called Osman. He was once a school chum of one of my hosts. Now-a-days he's an educated, self confident, Chemical Engineer living in Khartoum. There are many people in the room - all wearing turbans except me. Some are local dignitaries: like the head of police for Kordofan state and the master of the local Chamber of Commerce. The conversation is in Arabic but I sense they don't like what they are hearing. Afterwards Osman explains he laid into them about institutional corruption. He claims Sudan's oil revenue is $2.5m / day that's US$100bn / year and the people see little of it. We exchanged phone numbers and agree to meet-up back in Khartoum.