Part 2

We arrived into Rum at night and we stopped in the visitor’s center. (We have found out that the visitor’s center is bad and takes away from the Bedouin people of Rum and the government sucks up all the money. Mohammed Sabah was actually the first person to ever have a sunset camp, then the government saw that it was a good idea and put up the visitors center farther away from the town to take up all the business.) We walked inside to the police desk and we sat down. We braced ourselves for an interrogation, but were poured tea and asked questions about how we liked Jordan and what why we were coming to Wadi Rum. They all had smiles and gave a good impression of the people. We hopped back into the car and drove 7 km to Wadi Rum. We asked a few people where to find Mohammed Sabah and finally found the house. We met Mohammed Hussein who gave us tea, and we then met the rest of the family. Suddenly we heard a noise outside and the girls quickly jolted and ushered us to another room. I turned my head and saw Mohammed and another man walk into the room. We went into the rest of the house and sat down. We met the children and drank more tea, then all of a sudden a very tall Caucasian girl popped into the room. It was Sara! She is Australian and so much fun. She asked us if we wanted to spend a night here or in the desert. We readily replied that we were ready to head out! We followed her and Mohammed Hussein to a jeep and bopped out into the darkness on an adventure. I felt like I was riding a little roller coaster, bumping around on the sand dunes. I could see the outline of the jagged rock cliffs that looked superimposed on a blanket of stars. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life. Its hard to pick out constellations because the sky is cluttered with stars. (I like to just stand in the sand and look up in awe because I can really see God and the universe in the Wadi Rum desert). We got to the camp and went into a round tent where there were men huddled around a fire. We got introduced to everyone and then the cook brought out 5 plates of food for us. (Now that’s some hospitality!) We walked out to the tents which were black and made of goat hair. They were peaceful and had mattresses and blankets perfectly arranged in the tent. We snuggled under the heavy blankets and went to sleep. It took at while to get to sleep because we had so many cups of tea that our bodies were shaking from the caffeine and sugar.