For the first time, I really enjoyed being in a Muslim country where the men will knock a woman down to be first through the door. Well, our guys got out of the bus and pushed. While we ladies chilled in our security SUVs. By the way, everywhere we go, we are led by an entourage of soldiers and armed guards. We feel like dignitaries in Africa. We are not allowed to walk away from the group without a soldier.
 
In the village, we were greeted by the most amazing singing, dancing and drumming. Our journalism delegation danced with the ladies and gentlemen. They make the number one sign with their index fingers. It means there is only one God, and we held our fingers up and danced in the 100-plus degree temperatures.
 
The president answered some questions and gave BET an exclusive interview.
 
Omar El-Beshir promises $300 million in aid for people who live in the camps in Darfur. He says the government will improve assistance in healthcare, education and rebuilding homes. He also promised that each family will get some compensation for losing their homes and everything they owned.
     
He denied providing any funding to the Janjaweed, the rebel forces that have killed so many people and caused them to be displaced from their homes. He talked about the pressure he feels from the United States and compared what is happening to his country to the situation in Iraq. He says everyone believed President George Bush when he said he had to go after Sadaam Hussein because of hidden weapons of mass destruction. El-Beshir said his popularity rating went up to 70 percent. But later the administration had to confess that there were no weapons of mass destruction and Iraq had no relationship with Osama Bin Laden.
 
The day before that, our delegation flew on a small plane to Nyala Providence in South Darfur, where we were shocked by what we saw.

We've read the reports and seen the pictures, but it's different when you see it for yourself. It reminded me of traveling to Ghana, visiting the castles in Elmina and Cape Coast and realizing what our ancestors experienced. The people living in the Independent Displaced Person's Camps are greatly suffering.

But they still have so much joy and were happy we came. Our sentiment was, they saw us as possible help. Children ran to us, followed us around, posed for pictures, yelled out "OK!" and gave us the thumbs up. Women shook our hands and greeted. But the further we walked into the makeshift village of hand-made huts from sand bricks, the worse we saw people living. An older woman pointed to both her cloudy brown eyes and opened her mouth to show her rotting teeth. She had cataracts and really bad tooth decay. It happened over again. Women greeted us and then with what little English they could muster told us their stomachs hurt, their bodies ached. No medical. No medical, they said, in Arab accents.
     
Nearly every person mentioned "Janjaweed," the rebel forces that tore through their villages, killing their relatives and destroying their homes. Many of them said they had lived in the camps since 2003 and 2004. Trust me; this certainly was no way to live for that long. But for people who were rubbing two sticks together to make a fire, cooking with a hole in the ground on top of sticks and lying on mattresses on the hard sand, their spirits were good.
     
As soon as we got in the van, I cried. I cried because of the conflict that caused them to be in their condition, dirty, no clean clothes, no toiletries.
     
Our delegation came to talk to political leaders, who have a resettlement plan for the people and a Darfur Peace Agreement. We now understand that Arabs and Africans can't be distinguished with the eye. We know that Janjaweed is a generic term for rebel militia, people who rob, kill and rape. We know a little bit more about how the conflict in Darfur got started, primarily starting as a conflict between the nomadic herders who have animals that need to graze on the barren land and the farmers who work hard to grow crops on dry, arid soil. The herders were allowing their cows, goats and camels to eat the crops and so it went.
     
The people here say race didn't matter much in the conflict because everyone is Black. Religion didn't matter because everyone in Darfur is Muslim. It seems it was more of a conflict that got out of hand. But you know what? When you see people suffering that much, it doesn't matter how it got started. It just needs to stop. And we Americans need to stop rallying for "Save Darfur" and send these people money for clothes, food and medical care. These people need help. I felt desperate to do something for them and could do nothing.
     
They didn't look like they were starving, but they need clean clothes, decent beds, toiletry products, things to make life more comfortable. The children are dirty, some of the little boys, only two or three, didn't wear pants only little T-shirts. It was so sad.
     
Later in the afternoon, we got back on the plane and flew to northern Darfur, where we visited another camp, with slightly better conditions and listened to an address by the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who promised aid to Darfur, help with medical care, education and rebuilding the infrastructure. But he challenged the Sudanese government to do more and us, the Americans, to pitch in more, too.
     
We seriously need to collect clothes and money to send to the people who are living in the camps in Darfur.