The Silence is a blessing for some

Sitting under a jakaranda tree enjoying a tall glass of lime juice at my favorite watering hole, I realize that no matter how hard the wind blows, the tree makes no noise. No rustling of leaves, that quiet peaceful background noise that puts you at ease. Just the image of dancing branches moving every which way and challenging your eyes to focus on one branch when another seduces your gaze to shift and settle on its new found rhythm. Such a feast for the eyes. Like watching a beautiful movie with the sound turned off. Quite a zen experience. I never noticed this before. May you discover such a rare pleasure in your life this day.

The image sets a less than pleasant tone for this entry. As I write this message, more tensions are mounting outside the Kalma displaced persons camp just 10 km outside Nyala and fighting has been raging on in North Darfur. The government troops opened fire on internally displaces women, children, and men in the camp just a week ago killing 30 instantly and sending seven more to the hospital for what turned out to be fatal wounds. The army has returned and has been seen setting up camp just a few kilometers from the 80,000 plus camp. The government claimed that it had been fired upon and it is difficult to discount this claim given the amount of manipulation that we see of innocent people on both sides of the conflict here. But the children are the real innocents and 11 perished on that day.

Yet, through it all, I sit at my desk. I meet with villagers. I travel to distant towns across burning sands and I do not hear a thing.

Nearly all the news of these events are harvested from the internet. My experience here for ME has been peaceful. My life has been sheltered by a jakaranda tree. Always watching over me and always quiet. For that I feel blessed and give thanks. Allah Karib - God provides!

I am sorry for not writing over the past month. I had a chance to return home to see many of you face to face and let the blog entries lag. I am back on the job in Darfur for my last five months and we have really picked up the pace. But that reality is already changing.

Ramadan is here. A time when Muslims fast during the day and eat and party like its 1999 at night, every night. This revelrie and suffering combination send many of my employees into a progressive slumber everyday from the time they reach the office to the time they leave around 4pm.

This is only the second day of Ramadan and many are suffering from head and stomach aches. the rainy season usually grants us cool days but these past few days we have not seen rain and it is hot. Not a great complement to the long days without water or food after staying up most of the night eating and talking with friends and family. It is a heady time in Sudan and not one that lends itself to heavy work. Yet work does not wait, so I anticipate taking on more of the burden through this month and will look forward to a more energetic crew in October.

Ramadan kareem my friends.