Since everyone already knows what happens to Amanda and Nigel, the calmness of the prose is creating a very tight knot of tension in self's stomach. She's almost to the halfway point, and the pair are still gallivanting around Mogadishu.

pp. 120 -121 describes the World Food Programme in Mogadishu. Guess it would be too much to hope for this book to contain photographs; it doesn't. Because self is intensely curious, she looked up Amanda and Nigel's photos in news articles from the time: She finds a handful taken right after their rescue. Nigel went full-bore Muslim (did he have a choice?) and sported a long beard, mullah-style. Amanda's covered from head to toe in dark, shapeless clothing, but her eyes are alert. Self also decided to check if the US still has an embassy in Mogadishu. It does!

Because of the fighting, because of the pirates on the ocean and the bandits on the roads, food shipments came sporadically. There were days when people turned up only to be sent away.

When the gates opened, those who'd been waiting rushed forward. The noise amplified. Government soldiers used batons and tree switches to hold back the crowd. Children wailed. The men pushed and brawled their way toward the front, while the women in line remained poised in single file.

Once they reached the feeding vats, the men were given three ladlefuls of food; the women got two; the children one.

Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.