Part 3

We woke up the next morning and enjoyed some more tea, pita, cheese, some sugary thing, and many more. Every meal in the desert is like a paradise buffet. The amazing thing is that the cook only cooks in a tiny room about the size of a broom closet, with only a tiny stove top. The food he makes is fabulous (love that word). Well, when we stepped out of the tent we were in quite a shock. The desert was surreal. We had arrived in the dark so we had not seen anything. The desert sands were a burnt red that glistened in the yellow sun. The ripples of the sand reminded me of the ocean, the way that they dipped up and down with perfection. I try not to walk on those parts of the sand because I feel like I am interrupting beauty, or trampling on serenity. (Doesn’t settle very well in my conscience). The sky was bluer than any sky I had ever seen, and against this magnificent backdrop, jagged stone mountains burst through the ground with power and force. The beauty of this place is so powerful, that it seems almost unreal. (I will be working very hard one day and have to stop myself and look up at what an amazing place I am in). The stones are layered and the tops are smoothed from countless years of wind.. We drove back to the camp settled into our room. We had three girls come to go into the desert and they decided to take a 6 hour jeep tour, stay the night, then ride the camels back. That meant that we were the ones that were going to get to ride the camels! I was very excited! We hung out with the family until it was time and I had a very weird experience happen to me. The oldest son, Jaqura, came into the room that Eptisam and I were in. I had never seen him before, but I could tell he was her brother by the way she spoke with him. It was only us in the room. He was to my left, leaning against the wall, and Eptisam on my right, sitting behind the heater. They were talking very fast but every couple seconds I would catch the word “English,” in Arabic. I just sat there with my head down, as they talked very frantically about me for about 5 to 10 min. The brother would just not move so I got up and went back to the hostel. I met this Danish girl that had just come back from a trek, and there he was leaning on the wall at the hostel. It was very hard to concentrate on the conversation I was having with her because he was just standing there looking at us. She was also wearing a tank top and had no problem with showing her body. My mom came back with our backpacks and we headed over to the camels. Zed was waiting for us with them. He motioned for my mom to come on the giant one and she went and sat on it. The funny thing about camels is that when they sit down, they look like their legs have been amputated because they lie so flat. I started walking towards another camel but it then turned its head and went, “BAAAAAAHHHH.” It sounded like a monster and I stumbled back. Zed motioned for me to come sit on it. I swung my leg over the saddle. The camel started to get up and I was holding on for dear life. I swayed back and fourth until I was very very high. Then we were off! The desert is so quiet and beautiful, and I think that camel is the best way to travel to really take in the beauty of the place. The camel in front of me, Zed’s, was extremely gassy, and kept eating bushes every 5 seconds. As my mom mentioned in her blog, “ We do a camel back belly dance.” If you can imagine that swaying up and down, that’s a camel. After about 20 min my legs started to really hurt. I was not able to focus on the scenery because I was trying to do a mind over matter thing with my legs. After about 1 hour of pain, my mom noticed that Zed would flip his leg over the camels neck. It really helped! We arrived at the camp and hiked around a little bit. It began to get too cold, so we headed to the fire. The 3 girls were already around the fire and we settled in and talked for a bit. After a while, a stead flow of random people came into the tent. Then, 3 guys from Japan came in. They had booked with another guide, but his camp was not set up yet, so they were staying at Mohammed’s. After lots of talking, more eating, and even more tea, we were very comfortable. The tent was packed and alive. I was quiet and stared at the fire for sometime. Then, out of the blue, the guide of the Japanese guys, asked me “Are you an artist?” I was startled and asked him what he meant. He said that he could see in my eyes that I was an artist by the way that I took in every moment. My mom said that I wrote. I like to write, but I don’t think I am anything special. It was nice to hear it. The man that told me was actually an award winning poet, a massage therapist, computer teacher, and a Bedouin guide. It’s very impressive and his poems sounded very beautiful in Arabic. Later on in the night, the music started! Men started playing the lute and playing the drum. Everyone started clapping and finally the men started dancing with each other. It was a little scarring actually. They would shake their chests and bop off beat. Hilarious. They pulled my mom up and she gave me her tea glass. I was then forced to slam the tea glasses together and spill it all over me. Dancing here is great because everyone doesn’t know what to do, and the Bedouin men dance off beat. After getting out of breath we headed back to the hostel (because there was not enough room in the cars in the morning) and got a good nights rest.