Love and Wardi

So I went to a Mohamed Wardi concert two nights ago, he's like the Frank Sinatra of the Sudanese world. The concert was at the Friendship Auditorium, a gift from China during the 1970s when the then president of Sudan, Numeiri was playing at being a communist. Who would've known two decades later China along with a few psychotic so-called Islamicists would pretty much own Sudan.
Wardi is an amazing singer his voice is still powerful eventhough he's probably in his late 60s early 70s. The only sign of weakness was that he sat throughout the whole concert but even then he looked like a king or a general commandeering his musicians and the audience. I realized that he's a pretty patriotic guy, all his song are about finding, or searching for the homeland trying to capture the love for it, but always failing.
After the concert we went to a restaurant for a quick bite. There are sooo many restaurants in the capital and prices are ridiculous there is this one place where you have to pay like $10 for a burger, of course its owned by an Egyptian. Its pretty sad since according to official stats 90% of the country lives below the poverty line. In war there are always those who profit. I mean Sudan is perfect for the relief industry, for ngos, for the UN etc, it has war, famine and disease, and the country has relatively stable if extremely autocratic government. If the war stopped overnight the economy in Khartoum would suffer, its a war economy that depends on relief, UN workers and other foreigners spending money.
Then there are the other Arabs, Turks, Chinese and Malaysians, they sure have made themselves at home. They are very invested in the country, in the oil, hotel and restaurant businesses. Land is ridiculously expensive, it costs more than in any other African capital I know, and I would dare say is more expensive than the U.S.
The heat is killing me. So are the little sand storms, they seem to always occur at night, and I'm sleeping outside so I get covered by layers and layers of dust. I can't wait to go to Rahad, I'm told the weather there is temperate with some showers. The two and half months are starting to seem very long.