Planting crops in Sudan (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
In restless search for that river, we hurry along;
you whose heart such anxiety has not disturbed, sleep on…
— Rumi
After work one day in Sudan, a colleague invited me to take a hike to the banks of the Nile not too far from our house in the Sahara. I’d forgotten that we were close to water, since all I ever saw while we excavated was sand. Anxious to see the Nile in Sudan for the first time, I hurried along–until we reached these fields nourished by the Nile where children were planting crops. In my restless rush to the river, I hadn’t realized that the river was already revealing itself in these irrigation canals and fertile fields…
