The End of the Tents: FINALLY!

Just some guys on the side of the road. What? We are certainly not in Kansas any more, Toto.

If you are still following along, please forgive me for the HUGE pause in posts. It's been a crazy month of two broken computers, a wonderful visit from my parents, and plain old business. But here is the final installment of our visit to the tents. It's long and full of pictures from the day.

Enjoy!

Me just taking a picture of myself at the market. In more rural places I cover my head out of respect for the people. Please, remind me to ALWAYS take our nice camera! These turned out fine today, but they would have been better with our big lens.

The highway to the market. Isn't this place lovely? Uh. That was a joke.

These are the animal skins they use to haul water or camel milk. See the shape of the goat? I almost bought one, but the flies swarming them told me better.

Camel truck! They use the crane to get them in and out.
I always enjoying seeing a camel on the road.

Once we got out of the truck, the sweet ladies fed us some more. This time it was seeds and more dates. A little snack until dinner was prepared. They treated me like royalty, I tell you. Letting me sit in the middle of everyone, serving me first, getting me whatever I wanted. They really were lovely.

This is the front of the men's tent. It's much larger and open than the women's.

After a while, the two oldest women were summoned by the servants; the food was almost ready. They ushered Ruby, Sol and I into the women’s tent. (Peter had the other boys) There on the floor were huge trays filled with rice and meat. (like 2.5 feet in diameter) They had cooked meat for us, this traditional meal is called cupsa. I’ve had it once before at my friend Fatimah’s tent, there we had goat, and today we were having sheep. The biggest difference for me, was that this family seasoned their meat. Fatimah’s family just put the goat in the ground and roasted it. It was terrible, but the texture of goat is very chewy, so it’s like meaty gum. And with no seasoning, it was pretty bad. The sheep wasn’t near as chewy, and this family had it nicely seasoned, as well as a delicious sticky brown rice from a southern region. I rarely eat meat anymore, so this was a little tricky. But all in all, it was just fine. This meal is eaten with your hands, right off of the tray. Both times I’ve had it, they offer me plates, a fork, and let me dish up first. Then they all dig in. Peter told me that both times he’s had it now, they all eat with their hands. No other options. It’s really messy, and I’ll admit a little gross. (think of sticky rice all over your hands and licking it to get it off)

Inside one of the tents.

Today this family offered me the ‘best part.’ The wrist of the sheep – or something like that. I wasn’t clear on the description. But it was soft, moist and fell apart when I ate it. You know what it tasted exactly like? One hundred percent? PORK! Haha. Who knew their favorite part of the sheep would taste like their most forbidden food – pig. It was awfully good though. So, we had cupsa and visited while we ate.

The black striped tent in the back is the typical Bedouin tent you see. This family used canvas. They stink a lot less, the black one's smell like goat.

This is the camel herder. He lives out here full time and gathers the camels at night.

Waiting to get in for our drive in the desert.

Roo, digging away. The tent behind her is the women's tent.
The small area out front in the fire area.

After dinner I thought we should consider heading out. I was getting worried about time, and overstaying our welcome. They wanted to take a walk out into the desert and collect some rocks for me to take home. (they wanted me to put them in a vase for flowers “like at a fancy hotel” they said) So out into the setting sun we walked. It was beautiful. The temperature was perfect, a little cool and breezy. The sun was starting to set, so the sky was beginning to turn colors. As we walked they sang and danced some more. I danced a little with them and tried to get Ruby to dance with me – she was too shy. Silly girl. It was so fun to have the older women sing and the younger daughters and granddaughters dance, arms twirling while their longs sleeves and dresses flowed in the wind.

You know me and my bathroom pictures. This is the women's bathroom/trailer.

Back at their camp, I heard the call to prayer. Where would I be hearing that out in the middle of nowhere? I hadn’t seen a mosque for quite a while. And it was beautiful. Sometimes the call sounds like a dying cow, and sometimes it sounds glorious. Today it was just perfect. A few of the younger ladies were huddled at the corner of the men’s tent, and the sun was just going down. They had me peak as their oldest son (an E.R. doctor) was singing the call to prayer. The girls giggled as they were peeking at the men. I imagined that girls have been peeking into the men’s tents for centuries, and maybe the other way around too. At any rate, I went around to the front , crossing the invisible gender line, while the other women stayed behind. The men were busy readying themselves for sunset prayer. Washing their feet and hands, rinsing their mouths, etc. I know that in the states Islam seems even more strange than here, because we just aren’t used to it. But I can respect anyone who has this much devotion to God. They may not believe the same as I do, but they are committed to the God they know and believe in. And that is a lot more than most people in the world these days. And it was beautiful to see the men, old down to little boys, all in rows, praying in unison. I really do respect them. I noticed that only two women prayed right then. You really only have to pray before the next prayer, which in this case would be another hour or so. I think most women do pray, but it is much more private.

You can see the whole tent site in the background. And notice the waves in the sand. Beautiful.

As the sun was really setting by now, the camels were starting to gather for the evening. From all directions came one or two, right through their camp. They showed us how to hold our hands way up high to the camel, let her sniff you, then she’d (or he) let you pet her, hug her, or give her a scratch. They were absolutely beautiful. Huge creatures. Much larger than I ever thought, and very mild animals. Samuel and Si went out onto a dune in the distance and found desert owl pellets, on their way back they found a camel who let them love her. Sam hugged and cuddled and fed that big thing for as long as he could. The family likes to feed them their leftovers, but of course human food isn’t good for them. But I did feed one some bread. What a cool part of the day, spending time with camels.

I told Peter we should start heading out, but no sooner did I say that than the women had started a fire for the evening and saved the center seat for me. Once again they had coffee and couldn’t understand how I didn’t drink it. “How do you ever get up in the morning?” one asked. “If you’ve never had it, you don’t know the difference.” I told her. Funny thing about addiction and things like that. So they had coffee while we visited some more. Then they got out a nijmar, this is what incense is burned in. I’ve told you about them before, I think. They are usually about 10 inches high, or so, have a base, then some kind of pillars for handles, then a basin on the top for the coal and then put the incense on top of that. They had some really pretty incense that someone hand makes. They told me that most older women still know how to make their own. Then they passed the smoking nijmar around the circle. “Unwrap your scarf and hold it over the nijmar. Lay your abaya on it, take your hair down and let the smoke flow into your hair. Then you will smell good like the incense. It’s VERY good for the bedroom.” I got a good laugh out of this one. They showed me how and I did. I smell people like this everywhere I go. This is the smell of this Kingdom. Usually it kind of bugs me – too much incense for me. But tonight I just enjoyed it. I reveled in the moment. Letting all the events of the day soak in. They had welcomed us into their family for the day, and I wanted to smell like them. I wanted to be one of them; just for a while.

You can see how big these camels really are here. This is our HUGE 2012 Expedition EL. It's huge, and look how big the camel is next to it.

More singing started up again. This time one of the older women was holding a big pot for popping corn, and she used it as a drum. It was beautiful, the drumming and the singing. She knew just how to stroke the pot and pound when needed. Awesome. At one point I tried to get Ruby to sing in English with me, she of course wouldn’t. Then they asked if I knew “The Titanic” song. Oh. Why yes I do. I gave them a good dramatic version of “Neeeeeear. Faaaaaaar. Wheveeeeeeever you are…” We all laughed and they joined in. After singing and laughing, they popped some popcorn on the open flame and we all enjoyed the little evening snack. Once again, I felt it was time to go. I didn’t even know how we were going to find our way out of the desert at this point, it was full on dark now.

So I started the goodbyes, which lasted forever. They had to make us sandwiches for the ride home. Get bags of snacks and water for the road. Then hug and kiss some more. Each one had to kiss our cheeks three times each. It really is fun learning and living another culture, I’ll admit. Then I headed to the men and thanked them so much. Mona said before I left, “Tell your husband thank you for bringing you here.” To which I replied, “Tell your husband thank you for being willing to take a chance on an American family and bring them back to your tents for hours on end.” What a treat for all of us.

There are days here in this crazy place that drive me nuts. Call to prayer interrupting my daily chores, veiled women and men in p.j.’s everywhere, I can’t drive, the food is weird, I can’t make out even one letter of their alphabet, when they talk it sounds like they are coughing up a lung, and for a lot of the year the weather is totally unbearable. But. BUT. Days like this make all of those things go away. It makes their ancient traditions and dress more respected. It makes living here worth every second. It makes me thankful for where I come from, and thankful I can learn about where they come from too.

I don't know how well you can see the moon here, but look close. Here the moon waxes and wanes different than in the U.S. It does it top to bottom, instead of left to right. It looks like the moon does on top of their Mosques. It's actually really neat to see. And I think that's Venus off to the left.