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11/27/1956 - A Traveller’s Tale by Smith Hempstone Jr.

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS SH On Board River Steamer A Traveller Tale Enroute Kosti Khartoum The Sudan November Ir Walter S Rogers Institute ofCurrent World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Nr Rogers This being written while floating N A rather detailed analysis goals accomplishments Gezira Scheme The Sudan experiment collective cotton could written Nev York reference books Instead recreate Sudanese which surrounded visit Gezira It smells sounds glimpses fuller story statistics I having dinner tonight ohammed Tewfik Commissioner Labor The Sudan Nohammed slight andsome Arab early thirties would Grover Whalen shame Since arrival Khartoum shown around arran innumerable appointments answered questions taken those could generally himself indispensable Now having group friends goodbye We Wad Vedani following Gezira Scheme At dinner Iraqi minister young couple American Embassy I known years Wash ington since Lebanese lawyer Assistant ermanent Under Secretary Interior bright young Sudanese lawyer recently elected executive contmitte UVA nationalist Party irrepresmi Nohammed Dinner consisted easil delicious peanut roast turkey salad fruit coffee The conversation ranged necessity pushing Israel Iraqi minister complaints about freshness American cigarettes shipped During conversation Under Secretary interi0rasked going Gezra Tomorrow I In Dove pssenger aircraft short hauls Not tomorrow replied Yes At There plane tomorrow I showed tickets He smiled I cancelled flight afternoon The plane needed elsewhere sputtered began inquiring about other means transportation There would another plane until three later Perhaps There train And there A train already scheduled later One favorite passages literature Hemingway The Sun Also Rises where friends ramshackle Spanish Pamplona fishing country I voted abstained The motion carried O The checked hotel heavy baggage friends embassy I collected Sudan Airways still thought necessary flight cancelled finished light packing With cameras typewriter chess Emil Ludwig Cleopatra Huxley Brave New World Dostoyevskv The Possessed government pamphlets scotch clothes orange filched lunch table At station A crowd grouped where benefit advice mouths young Sudanese khaki shorts dirty under shirt binding baggage Up series little suitcases gasoline Up Went frame several mattresses Up several large wicker baskets The resulting jumble topped automobile destined venerable machine South The advice became torrent abuse invaluable personal belonging strapped inadequately A second climbed remedy ituation The shuffling score amorning around Clutching handbags typewriter aboard Our seats right An shuffled raised mouth kissed I looked The driver station shooed People tumbled It All white garbed Arabs except ourselves Europeans family small single The speaking Greek The family nothing The Sudanese tered excitedly A station jammed under slammed The driver meshed gears leaned usical The touched standing corner He watched drove The Ir Heminay It ahost fairly comfortable A driver vietato fumare Not being Italians smoke So Sudanese The afternoon turned Khartoum houses bronze manuevered through The shops beginning reopen after afternoon siesta The driver played symphony musical threaded through bicycles burros shoppers Finally speeding macadam airport The bayonets sentries posted terrace airport restaurant glittered The driver tooted waved One waved The other The airport shrunk behind finally Ahead country opened parched tennis court parched there appeared horizon semicircle merging metallic almost imperceptibly With macadam The track almost invisible except occasional hollows where adventurous first drive Wad Iedani Khartoum rainy season track visible separated split looped turned itself marking trail driver going better through scrub Our driver orthodox choosing follow apparently track Fastened windshield level small In single desert flower Sudanese taken their loosely wound turbans leaving small orange skull fitting closely single sheet Arabic newspapers Others chatted We looked nothing Jewish scholars The family still silent The Europeans still talking Greek Kitty It looks New exico I decided would seven clock We would thirds Wad edani throats would dusty We jolted along driver steering casually hooting musical stampeding little herds straggly backed cattle scattering flocks swollen uddered goats sheep thick pound bolognas shepherds throwing stones their flocks tring order doing swear Everybody laughed The sinking moment great bloody quickly The driver switched headlights catching their blaze moment standing hindlegs searching succulent morsels thorny He bolted night settled seats relieved search comparisons perhaps there mental notes taken I thought about But clock Our world shrank inside yards ahead stoln night headlihts Ever miles figure white walking riding donke would whirl sight only7 before notes clamorous A figure standing ahead nailed light against night He waved frantically We slithered through Behind surrounded other figares white could The He climbed aboard ahead village The village One Of Europeans We minute Have Pepsi Cola We climbed gratefully aware cramped limbs aching backs The spoken walked wattle He Greek Hi friend Syrian His friend Sudan years I nodded The Greek bought Pepsi Cola I thanked He interested I journalist Was I going Juba No I would Gezira interesting The yrian grunted shuffled across dusty street disappeared between The musical bellowed scrambled T Srian peared moment later scuttled cloud The One Sudanese forward closed window front He indicated water bucket heads He skimmed dipped conumunity Cup We became conscious bucket trickle water which slithered every The A Gezira tenant opens subsidiary canal rigate block inspector seemed through sides dusting settli collars coating roofs mouths I thought about orange We fifteen minutes Unless watch I asked Kitty She She twenty minutes seven At seven clock pulled Hassa Heissa center Gezira There outdoor movie institutional Some Sudanese Off The silent family We roared night From lights illuminated field green cotton I waited virtuous minutes peeled split orange sections The moment leving areas through coatings mouths Now oassengers there The across aisle seats He sandals curled UP asleep At eight thirty triumphant music pulled Wad edani Nohammed Tewfik friend there He Gezira Hotel would return after breakfast tomorrow We dropped washed dinner mutton rising Gibraltar Nediterranean grease chocolate pudding quart bottle German silver paper wrapped around We played Gibraltar wolfed Chocolate pudding mouths The Germans indeed great The whitewashed walls swarmed They appeared friendly We aggression slept We breakfasted fried peanut sheep liver The Our friend arrived oromptly eight Wad Nedani bustling tumbled laborers climbin trucks bound cotton fields radio blared Arabic countless donkeys clucked their robed passengerS surged through toward market place We throug cotton fields daylight drawing picture which headlights given hints night before The track infrequently hence better Khartoum traced course miles canals which water million olantation which Gezira Two black thick lipped nosed H Nuslim faith hence Arabs stood waist canal clearing bottom weeds A yards another canal water lapping naked thighs splashing At Barakat friend office showed samples Gezira cotton Then excellent color Gezira The which color explained basic facts Gezira Scheme proect started struction Sennar Blue Nile government bought rented highes irrigation price million acres crotch between Blue White Niles acreage leased often original ovmers forty plots acres planted cotton millet beans while acres fallow tenant hands profit cotton government Gezira Board managing agency keeps himself millet beans Gezira tenants meant annual income years overnment plans_ double scheme three years further extension depend reapportionment Nile waters almost which reserved Egypt After friend office Nekki Abbas managing director Gezira Scheme In coolness beneath slowly circulating ceiling Nekki standing weighing pounds Nekki bristling mustache quick smile English about scheme something about himself invited breakfast following Nahi E1 Din Hadar block inspectors master Wad Attaya little cultural kingdom acres farmed tenants Hdar office drove hundred yards veranda encircled framed bouganvilla beside green scummed canal Pepsi Cola before going Hadar politics showing living pictures Ismail E1 Azhari Egypt Naguib He N U P No smile politics enter aoportionment Gezira Growing better otton during working hours We again rattling along beside canal throug fields grown cotton We sluice water regulated We toothed tenant His Abdullah Sheik sixty children He expects The cotton doing Were things better grandfather He laughs baring those mixed their millet water money edani millet beans Pepsi Cola If could change things would If government would could children How N U P answers I smile Hadar He laughs clamber drive leaving Abdullah Sheik fingering I feeling acres We Nigerian village These luslims north Nigeria around Kano The hejira They laborers seasons earning money Some tenants They hurry written hejira shall straightway heaven A yards willage Sudanese tenants We there minutes pictures children drink Pepsi Cola local headman That evening along shore Blue Nile We looking Sudan Railways house inothe dinner there We enthusiastic about another Gibraltar We nothing We gathering hotel delici6us And German We break morning Abbas Present addition English UNESCO Indians Arab Zanzibar Gezira Scheme efficials The restrained there malade England N_ekki drives railroad Rabak sleeper drops machinery light purchased West Germany Czech oslova hotel I write while We British Club drink angular English Barclay Bank trader short blond Yorkshireman We refight Wars Roses condemn Lancaster everlasting damnation sleepily At eleven clock aboard train passengers train quiet We light crawl berths They arranged perpendicularly other small compartment Sleep comes quickly We The train crawling across yellow plain We blink disbelief distance range mountains They steeply plain called hills But aOout The plain spotted inevitable herds goats sheep In Rabak There Island O00 stronghold Bayed Abdl alnnan E1 original dervish leader sacked Khartoum_ massacred Chinese Gordon It arranged Bayed Yahia E1 Nahdi third He regrets brother there around assistant manager We train pulls Rabak It Friday uslim SaObath arrival greeted large crowd There Aba Island I stationm aster He collars office representatives Rabak That entleman servant occasion brings We drink He brings coffee We He brings Kitty Kola undrinkable combination nerican perfume We stand The flies busily about heads It eight clock alread parched gardens where turkeys scratch dustriously Not assistant managers arrive Both suits helmets But socks The broke Another along They embarrassed about being speak little English In minutes leave disappear around house The getting An Two rescue drovning Kitty Kola The turkeys continue scratching garden enjoying At Volkswagon arrives We break speed Aba Island The drive takes about The desolate parched We goats skitterinz SH We cross causeway On either swamp Here there patches There birds We camel train ladsn The causeway widens becomes This Aba Island We through village Children watch curiously Some Our serious stone faced We children FrOm ahead springs palace We through archwa bearing totem spearhead rising crescent Phallic I think myself The palace really three build The house The right Sayed Sedik eldest The center guest house We taken center house Our opens Gezira camel carry We pound sacks tenant field inter Scheme railway pitcher breakfast grapefruit oatmeal liver tomatoes bread fruit washed After breakfast hosts minute cameras glasses The We wander about gardens A donkey eatimg florwers seems mired A disimguished gentlemam hamdlebar mustache flowing robes following We salute other Arab fashion He speaks English We walking When parked Volkswagom opens We He front driver And start I seems beter walking around gardem The uncomorale silence where common language exists ensues I theft I mayor Juba He agrees wholehearted We laugh gettimg along amously wherehecarscreechestoastop Ourwofriend scomeeu They thought goimg table where cameras The distinguished gentleman after We lemonade citrus groves They perfume mangos guavas dates grape frUit oranges bananas Our distin uished friend efficient behind standing disconsolate We pumping station We cotton fields We learn Niahdi OO0 tenants island The profit split Gezira Nahdi Der tenant We under delicate acacia beside White Nile drink water fruit Our guides palace At clock Nahdi racino stable There horses The mounts either English Arabian Our guides spiel Eng races Which horse eight races tract Sack palace In addition uides local schoolmaster important merchant resent We spice terrace There serenade regular bagpiper flute players Co carry campstool three supernumeraries And leader All wearing olive green The leader baton They Narching Through Georgia Way Dow Upon Swanee River march terrace benesth Mny children village Two servants switches getting Kitty feeling Princess arret durbar The morning quick ginning factory school inhabitants village council office In ernoon Kosti where eatch steamer following Khartou At house story eight building corrugated Syrian Catholic He works Ottoman Bank He Kosti month checking arabic market We become friends He astounded Khartoum weeks without going movies He every night We modernized version Rain Rita Hayworth He ppreciative Hayworth charms apparently Sudanese He interested erican History I I He heard onial voted whether English German should tmerican language A German English In morning takes catch steamer We encounter certain amount disbelief regarding stern wheeler Khartoum The station manager keeps train takes eight hours Khartoum while takes three I insist He gives begrudgingly We ourselves cabin watch freight being loaded A barge front steamer It bananas Sudanese Another passenger barge starboard A freight barge An after scheduled departure amidst hooting whistle churn slowly stream caught current swing rapidly downstream toward khartoum Kittv finished Cleopatra I waiting until river We banks treeless civilized other marshy A hours before village thousand peazuts freight barge The contractor hired eight It takes finally captain bridge spotlight The stevedors grunt chant asthey barge A steamship inspector other cabin passenger He contractor having hired eizht He mention report This first river Next month Juba For dinner mutton orange pudding By second aware identical It longer possible matter chances orange ouddng suooer We resigned The river flows One continues quite different other Each village however I orange skull villages The storekeeper pleased bewhiskered friend Aba Island I Juba Consequently charges piastres piastre Everybod laughs One Khartoum I write bring Gezira It comes stale ypewriter smash throw drifts White moored barges I decide traveller simply I I Sincerely Smith Hempsto Jr Received New York