Day 14

Photo by Mark Brecke. Exhausted Darfuris in eastern Chad.

Our beautiful suffering Sudanese sisters. Since about 2004 we've been told by news reports that the situation in Daarfur is grim, but right now it looks grimmer than grim. It is the jaws of Hell these 2 million stranded are being asked to face. And it's all because Khartoum has been rolling around in dough from Chinese petroleum companies who are bankrolling the largest new excavations of oil in the world in Sudan's desert, and the oil money is providing the government with funds to hire the mercenaries (janjaweed) and arm them to the teeth. North and South Sudan have been feuding and fighting for 20 years, but it never reached a boiling point like it has now. And the reason it is boiling over now is that China's oil money is enabling the government to buy all the weapons they want.

As I poured out the cat's kibble this morning I realized how good it smelled. I just don't understand though how come I don't feel hunger pangs. I don't even want to have water but I'm forcing myself to "hydrate" as my doctor reminded me. Hydrate. I suddenly felt like he was talking about a parched lawn that needs to be hosed. Isn't 'drink plenty of liquids' the phrase patients hear? Hydrate. OK, I'll pretend I'm a lawn and every hour the sprinkler needs to go off. That was his suggestion, and then the final kiss-off, 'Good luck.' Well, good luck to you too, Doc. He says he has no knowledge of fasting and isn't in a position to advise me. You know what, world, I think we know a lot more about our bodies than they have us to believe.

I allowed myself a quart of vegetable juice tonight and it got me feeling not so much hungry, as reminding me of what food tastes like and I wish I had stuck to water. And I started feeling edgy and deprived. But at least I'm 'hydrated.'