This morning after tea and biscuits Debs went off to visit the girls while I stayed at the house. Yet another power cut, extremely common in Sudan, meant no Playstation so I contented myself with reading and sorting some photos.
Shortly after mid-morning breakfast, Abdulfadil said we would have to go and get Debs. I personally couldn't see what the rush was as she hadn't been gone that long and I assumed she would be having a good time. Nevertheless we had to go, so we wandered down the street towards the house. When we got to the house Debs wondered why we were there and I tried to explain that it hadn't been my decision. She was now having her feet hennaed and had been pampered all morning.
Instead of leaving her to it, we stayed drinking tea and chatting. The laptop and camera has been in constant use, first taking pictures and then showing them to everyone on the bigger screen. With the henna finished we had a photo shoot, where Debs was dressed up in a succession of Nubian outfits. She looked great and we have some terrific photos.
Eventually it was time to go so we said our goodbyes and returned to Abdulfadil's house accompanied by two of the girls. More showing and taking of photos followed our return. Debs has made quite an impact in the village, women travelling through riding bicycles is clearly a rarity!
I would love to say that it will be both of us who are remembered the most from our stay but a small green fuzzy fella has rather taken centre stage. It seems that everyone who has visited the house wants to see Toad and his photo of him sitting on the Great Wall of China. It is has been astounding the fascination that has surrounded him. Having grown men want to have a photo with him while they drink coffee was hilarious. In Abo Hojar at least, he is truly a star!
Later that day we gave the family some bottles of fizzy drink that we had bought and some sweets. I then gave Abdulfadil my British flag which I fix to my bike. They seemed a bit shocked and overwhelmed that we had given them anything, but after the amazing hospitality it was the least that we could do. We are going to try our hardest to get the photos from our stay printed out in Khartoum and get a copy to them. This is a little tricky as there is no postal service to the village. Apparently we have to give them to a bus driver who is heading in that direction and they will get to them eventually. This seems a little haphazard but it may be the only way. We would love for them to have the photos, especially as apart from their weddings pictures, they just don't have any.
To bring our amazing stay to a close, we were taken that evening to a Nubian wedding. It was an honour to be able to see the dancing, colourful clothes and listen to the very rhythmic Nubian music. Unfortunately we didn't take our cameras, as we were uncertain whether we could. Despite being told later that we should have, I don't think either of us would have felt that comfortable taking pictures. Sometimes it is best just to have the memories.
As a final thought and in answer to the question 'what do you give the already overladen cycle tourist as a gift'? I can tell you that despite how nice they are and how generous it was, 2kg of dried dates is not the most helpful of items! It was lovely of Abdulfadil's friend to give them to me and I really am very grateful, but where am I going to put them?!
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