It's a bit late for developing new relationships, I know. Unless, that is, I am expecting to come back. I follow up on a new acquaintance; a business man called El Sheikh.

I was recommended to him while wondering how all the Bollywood films get into the cinemas around the country. He promises to tell me but not today. His main business is telecoms. He's providing an Arabic news service by SMS messages over the mobile phone network. He's simply bursting with all sorts of ideas for other projects, products and services. He is refreshing, encouraging and generous.

While I wait for a gap in his schedule, he offers me a desk and an internet PC and has the doorman bring me sweet, gingery coffee at regular intervals, I check my email and buy a return air ticket from London to Zanzibar.

The offices are fiercely air-conditioned and separated by glass partitions. In the big room at the end is a wall mounted TV screen showing some 24 hour news channel – I think it's Algizera.

I feel comfortable, I can imagine coming back to Sudan and working here.

I chat to his business partner's son – who's here on a work experience thing. He'd studied for three years in Manchester, UK but missed Sudan so much he asked if he could come home and do something here.

I end up spending the rest of the day with El Sheikh. I think he kind of likes having me around. I ask him lots of questions about what he's doing and where he sees it all going. I can't tell if he has me in mind for some future project or whether he's just showing off that he has a khawaja friend.

He takes me to lunch and several business meetings. As we drive around town we see policemen on street corners wearing overalls and swinging battens. The University of Khartoum are having elections today. The students are predicted to be rowdy and disruptive from the moment the voting is finishes.

A few days later we meet again, this time to go and see the promised film store. The film store man usually finishes at 1:30pm. We finally set off from El Sheikh's office at 2pm so we're in a tearing hurry. There's no chance of collecting my friend Todd on the way and not much time to look around. Anyway, it isn't really what I expected. It turns out to be clean, lit and organised. There's little of interest and no mystery to it at all.

We go back to the office and I spend the afternoon writing-up an obligatory end-of –assignment report.