Fri 1 Apr

Late the night before, in what might have been a drunken haze, Kamal invited Cleo, Tom, Eleanor and myself to his uncle's house in Khartoum 2 for as much meat as we could eat. The uncle had recently become a father (again) and wanted to celebrate. It would be at whatever time we liked. Kamal would provide transport. It would be easy and a pleasure – all we'd have to do is eat.

Ordinarily this might have been a good idea, except Cleo had planned to spend the day making a chocolate birthday cake and everyone, apart from me, had agreed weeks before to go out in the evening for a Chinese meal with a friend of ours.

Unfortunately when you succumb to Sudanese hospitality you give up any freedom or control you ever thought you had. We arrive in Khartoum 2 eventually around 2pm and sit around for a long while – mostly talking nonsense amongst ourselves. Eventually the meal unfolds. The meat is delicious and the supply gratuitous. It around 5pm when we finally manage to extricate ourselves – and that's on the promise we'd make a further, brief visit to the mother and new-born child in a nearby neighbourhood.

Kamal borrows a car and we all pile in, including at least three of the host's family to show us the way. It's only around the corner, but which one? The grid of sandy access roads seems to go on forever and they all look the same.

For those with other plans for the day, time is definitely getting tight. Cleo is now getting quite stressed. The sun will soon be setting and she still needs some ingredients for the cake, let alone a chance to make it.

After "wetting the baby's head" with Coca-Cola we all pile back into the car for the promised lift home. But Cleo's determination to get the ingredients for her cake means we head first to the Afra Shopping Centre, Khartoum's one and only approximation to a western shopping mall.

Of course it's impossible to visit your first "proper shops" in six months briefly and we soon disperse and lose sight of each other. By the time we got back to central Khartoum, Kamal announces that he wouldn't be taking us back to Omdurman after all, still – no worries – we can get the bus from here.