Heron on the Nile
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  Displaced People Ice and Flesh Thu 28 Apr 2005  

Thu 28 Apr

Oh good, a day off. Another lovely blue sky - we seem to be back to normal now - hot, dry, blue, breezy - not humid, not dusty.

I have a grapefruit at home then wander up to souq Omdurman. I find a row of shops selling large blocks of ice. I've seen these many times before, usually precariously balanced on butchers' bicycles, but now at last I seem to have discovered where they all come from. Or have I? In fact these guys turn out to be middlemen, just retailers. My curiosity is not satisfied. I want to see a factory where the ice is made. They tell me to come back at 2pm.

I go on into the souq and look for the Coptic Cathedral again, this time in the daylight. It is strange. In the immediate area around the church it's like being in a different country - suddenly the women have hair and necks, fore-arms and shins. I could be in southern Italy, or Greece.

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