when the sun came up

sunrise over the blue nile -- hasaheisa, sudan -- jan. 31, 2010

i remember learning about the nile river in grade school. it usually came grouped with mummies and hieroglyphs and pharaohs and other things that seemed too far away (both in distance and time) to be real. so, i guess, that's why i've always felt the nile was some sort of magical place. specifically, some sort of magical place that, despite the fact it winds its way through more than 4,000 miles of earth, i would probably never see outside the pages of a textbook.

but then sunday morning, my alarm went off at 5:50 a.m., and i found myself walking through a small town south of khartoum called hasaheisa. i found myself walking past closed shops, empty roads and waking roosters. i found myself climbing down a hill of dried up mud, taking a seat and watching the sun rise over the nile.

here's what i saw: