On the way back to the house, I buy some things for lunch; Amal, our cleaning lady should be there and I hope we'll eat together. A few weeks back she shared with me a tomato, onion and some bread that she had brought. While we ate she told me she lived in a carton house.

Today, we share omelette, ful, tamiya, with bread, cheese and oil; it's delicious. I ask if I can come and visit her.

I pop down to southern campus hoping to use their computer but instead make do with having somewhere cool and peaceful to write up more of my diary. I enjoy the administrator there - a delightful man called El Sayeed. He has time to talk and I ask if I may take his photo, partly because of his Donglawia tribal markings of three narrow vertical lines on each cheek, and partly to remember him.

The 2pm appointment for the icicle works is not honoured - I should come back on Saturday. So I sit at my desk and write out my Arabic scribblings into my Arabic notebook. By 3:30pm, Amal is ready to leave. I nip across to the shop to get a few things to take with us.