finally!

well, after a long and laborious adventure of sending and recieving my documents and photos from one side of the Atlantic to another, i, now back in these States, am able to put up many photos that still linger in my library of archives from Sudan.

i again invite you to Look! and See!

ride to dawn!

though i could not leave with such sass and style as the man pictured above, the ever-evolving reality of our existence has finally spun the clock's hand around far enough to conclude my year of living and penning in the land of Sudan.

please feel free to click and view the its and whos of this little blog, and be not dismayed from repetition! There are more photos of the Sudan that have yet to emerge from my collection and into your eyes.

yet, there may now be a short hibernation of posts as i take a month to travel through Morocco, Spain and France with my brother, on a pilgrimage of experiential enlightenment in a season of transition, as we all turn to face the mysteries of the many approaching tomorrows .

Operation. (warning to the faint-of-stomache).

Dr. Atar invited me to experience one of his operations.
i was/am honored at the invitation.
i accepted.

the above-photographed-man had a large cyst removed from his thyroid.
he had been suffering a dry-cough every few minutes for almost a decade.

it took over two hours.
Dr. Atar had to be careful with:
the scar-tissue.
carving so close to his throat.
cutting so close to the thyroid.
and...with the man being awake.

that's right.

when he squirmed.
i squirmed.

(don't misunderstand...he had local anastia.
but not the knock-you-out strength sort)

In 95% of Sudan, such operations are as rare as rainbows.

Dr. Atar is a big deal.

Doctor.

this is Atar.
a hero to those who listen.
a storyteller of the worst and best of man.

children's ward.

malaria.
like most problems,
it hurts the smallest and hungriest the worst.

the river-bed.

.

sometimes you find more than what you were looking for

sometimes monkeys ride bikes.

as we hustled through the "black-cotton" mud before more rain defeated our journey's end we saw something that made us stop and stare.

i took a picture as fletcher said the only that made since:

"sometimes monkey's ride bikes."