Last night, I sat in the garden of the new office guest house in Northern Khartoum. While I attempted to read one of the nice Dutch magazines I had brought with me, I was distracted by the sounds of the plentiful birds that came from the trees nearby. These birds songs were interrupted a few times by the sound of an overflying plane (- I wrote to you earlier that the airport is situated in the middle of town!). Outside the gate there were a couple of men chatting and laughing, while the women in the neighbouring houses were rhythmically stirring the pots with food for the Ramadan evening meal. At a quarter past seven the imams of the mosques in the area started to raise their voices to indicate that the 'Ramadan fasting' for that day was about to end. I realised that all together these sounds created an interesting
evening music composition. Since one of the mosques has been built right next to the guest house, it clearly demanded a dominant 'solo' part once in a while. I guess this slightly showed a lack of a conductor for this evening orchestra, but I took that for granted. I didn't manage to read my magazine in the end; somehow this special evening composition of sounds was enough to give me some new inspiration..
