PhenomeNile

I was invited to speak about our work with people from the British Embassy. It was a useful session and many turned up, which was encouraging. Our main contact there, Annie, said people like hearing about things very removed from their desk work. I was probably quite a curiosity. Who is this man who romps around in the bush, camping with the Wildlife Service and putting cameras in the forest to collect images of species?

Before another meeting about collaborations I met up with Ragnhild, a Norwegian friend of our programme who we met in Yambio last year. She is a fearless, adventurous and patient tourist, taking her time to visit remote corners and wild spaces of the country. She always takes the most amazing photos, including of pastoralist communities from her most recent trip which involved hitching a ride towards the eastern border with Ethiopia in an army vehicle with no brakes (which she only found out after boarding). Ragnhild suggested we meet at one of Juba's better known spots, Afex Camp, which overlooks the Nile, where we had a coffee and a chat. This ship apparently belongs to north Sudanese traders, and became untethered from a boatyard upstream. No one seems in a hurry to do anything about it. At the bottom of the steep bank youths frolic and bathe and solitary fishermen dip nets.

It saddens me that autocorrect changes Nile to Nike. The world's longest river, lifeblood to millions, is more important than whether your gel trainers flash red when you take a step.