Wed 30 Mar

At the British Council I meet up once again with Ahmed, the son of the village chief from Karko. He asks for some prints from my photos of his village as he wants to paint from them. I'm flattered and quite like the idea having one of the finished works.

The army candidates that I'd evaluated a few weeks before are now receiving their English training. By way of diversity and as a financial top-up Jenny has arranged for me and a few others to meet them for an hour of informal discussions. It's a bit intimidating at first – especially walking in not sure how the group dynamics have established or what topics are permitted, but it's not long before they're telling me about Darfur and whether the peace initiative in the south is applicable.

In the evening I meet with Sahar and Amani. I always find short, chatty Amani all consuming while quiet, elegant Sahar is far more interesting. Tonight's arrangement was an attempt to get Sahar out on her own; alas things don't always go to plan. At the international fair we went to recently we picked up a card from a stall showing interesting contemporary pottery. It was time to check-out their shop. We head for Khartoum Bahri (not to be confused with Khartoum north) and have a look around a dusty junk shop that so easily could have been around the back of Camden market. But we find nothing like what we'd seen at the show, and Sahar has a cold, so all in all it's a boring evening.