Heron on the Nile
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  Turbulent Times Sweet Heart? Tue 19 Apr 2005  

Tue 19 Apr

Down at the Nile the water looks very still; there's no wind. I swim towards Shambatt Island. The river's higher these days so the crossing is much further than a few weeks ago. Recently there has been quite a pull from the current. Today it is silent. Strong and silent like a crocodile waiting patiently for any fool to venture too far. I keep swimming – eyes fixed on the distant bank. There is no drag. More than half-way now; I can still touch the bottom. A little further and it's gone. Stay focussed, keep swimming. Oops! Beginning to slip. Better switch back to crawl. No problem. It's like crossing a busy road – sometimes you have to run.

Then, with one of the local boatmen I go back to collect Mango Juice Girl who's patiently waiting. She and I watch the cows being milked and the sun going down. We give packets of tea and sugar to the boatmen and they make us some (fresh) hot sweet milky tea. It's delicious.

Later after the sun has set, later when it's time to leave this rural island I walk with my sweetheart hand in hand carefully picking our way around the edge of a field and across irrigation channels, down a loose-soil mud-bank to out waiting boat.

The same still river looks safer in the moonlight – its glassy surface giving no hints. The distant lights of Ab Roaf, Ab Nubawi and Al Gamiya line the horizon. Beyond is the "stadium" glow of the mawlid at Shuhada. But the overwhelming sensation is aural: the frogs croaking and crickets clicking - drowning the distant chug of a water pump and the burble of the boatmen's discussion.

All in all, it's another lovely day in Sudan.

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