sudan to the north-west

The other evening I returned to Chez Clo and when I got to the top of
the stairs I saw two men sitting out on the balcony off the hallway. One
of the men immediately stood up and introduced himself. He was a tall
man with a broad smile and wearing a long, white traditional shirt and
white pants, and on top of his head a rounded white hat. He said he was
from Sudan and he looked like a holy man, but his friend and him were
sitting and enjoying a beer together. I introduced myself to both of
them and the other man said he was from Ethiopia--from Addis Ababa. We
chatted about some general topics and then they invited me to join them
for a glass of beer, but I excused myself. It was a brief encounter but
they both seemed like nice gentlemen.

This morning I saw the Sudanese man at breakfast. He said hello and
remembered my name. He probably noticed that I responded without using
his name, although I think it had a "w" in it. As soon as he came
through the door, though, I thought how odd to see him here in the
kitchen. Out on the balcony with his friend he seemed to be in his
element. There are some plants out on the balcony that warmed the
atmosphere and they were relaxed in comfortable chairs. But in the
kitchen, it was as if he walked onto the wrong movie set. He took a seat
next to me and picked up his spoon to eat the papaya on the plate before
him. My colleague continued talking to me in Japanese so we didn't speak
with the Sudanese man and I felt bad that I wasn't showing him the same
hospitality as I had received previously. After a couple minutes we
excused ourselves and headed to the office.