Wed 20 Apr

I have been in Sudan more than six months now. The generosity and friendliness of the people has been phenomenal. Recently, it was particularly a pleasure to join a student for a family picnic. A treat for the stomach and a feast for the eye (or was it the other way around?). Still, things are not always as they may seem. Warning: Some objects may look larger in the rear-view mirror.

Alas it will soon be time for moving on; still approximately a month to go. If I think back to my first month here, how complete and stimulating it was, then I should not worry. But I fear time will slip through my fingers like the silky mud when cooling off in the Nile at the end of the day.

I continue to enjoy my time in the classroom but I am convinced that this is partly due to knowing it will not go on for ever. The numbers have recently begun to drop off. I'm not sure why. It could be that my enthusiasm is not so strong, and this is rubbing off? Or it could be that it is getting hotter and people really rather not do anything more in a stuffy airless classroom than they have to. Or, it could just be that students are mindful that their exams are soon (beginning of June) and my lesson does not count. Although this latter suggestion would require more forward thinking than I am yet to come across in my time here.

Lately there has been a fair amount of unrest among the students of Sudan. Our campus has always had a kind of Speakers' Corner - most afternoons. Recently they got very "hot under the collar" that the girls "boarding house" had been broken into. The authorities are not taking enough care. The students decided to boycott classes for two days in protest that security should be increased. At the time I was rather cynical that surely there were more important things to protest about - but I realise now that the anger about many things is bubbling under and this was probably an "innocent" issue that everyone could use to show their feelings.

On the same day in Dilling, the authorities announced the results of the student union elections. There had been a number of campaigns and threats during the past few weeks: parading and chanting around the grounds from dawn. On this day, however things turned sour. There were apparently more student representatives for the Government party than the opposition. A result many students refused to accept. A number of offices were set on fire. Armed riot police moved in to disperse the students. Repeatedly regrouping and charging again. Shots were heard. One student was shot in the upper body and died before reaching Dilling hospital. Tear-gas was thick in the air. About 20 people were seriously injured; at least three have been brought to Khartoum for medical attention. There is some suggestion that pro-Government students were also armed but it also believed that there are many security police infiltrators in such places who most likely would have been armed anyway. Dilling University is now closed. The students have been sent home. The rest of the term and the examinations have been cancelled. There is nothing more for Skye and Eleanor (my colleague volunteer teachers) to do there. Whether or not they had political conversations with students, took pictures, used binoculars from the roof, or made notes is no longer relevant; their assignment is over.

In Khartoum last week there was further unrest at University of Khartoum centre, Neilain University and in souq Arabi. On a number of occasions tear-gas has been used by riot police to disperse protesting students. In one unfortunate incident (last Sunday) a student was beaten on the head by a student of a different political "front" and subsequently died from his injuries.

At the southern campus my mature women teachers are far too worldly wise to get involved. "When you are young you think you can change the world." They have learnt to keep their counsel. Life continues much as normal - celebrating their children's achievements and complaining about the public transport. This morning we had breakfast together - Arabs and Africans eating from the same pot - a cornucopia of traditions and cultures. "It is good to recognise our diversity, but bad to treat us differently". In the shade of the bougainvillea I look forward, with them, for more peaceful times.