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Somewhere in the desert, Saudi Arabia Greetings yet again from the great expansive desert plains of central Saudi Arabia! The other weekend I was fortunate enough to have been invited by several of my students to take a little trip out northwest of Riyadh to enjoy "a traditional Saudi weekend in the desert with camels," so of course I promptly accepted the offer, packed my bags, and was on my way to my next little adventure! The great enticement of the excursion was the opportunity to stay with the brother and cousin of one of my students who just so happen to be migratory Bedouin camel herders who criss-cross the desert on daily journeys of up to 90km (60 miles) searching for suitable grazing land for their animals. Not wanting to spill all the details of the story before I even begin telling it, I will simply say that the trip was one of the coolest experiences ever, and I am sure I will remember it for a very long time to come! Rewind to Wednesday afternoon - the beginning of the Muslim weekend: I had finished my day at work around 2:30 p.m. and made my way back to the compound with my other coworkers and skipped lunch in order to run back to my apartment and pack my backpack, secure a sleeping bag from the compound billeting department, and make sure I had everything else I needed in order to meet my students out in front of the main security gate by 3:30. My coworker Everett had also been invited by the students to come out to the desert, so he and I were both running around like crazy getting all our things in order within our one-hour time window, which we just barely accomplished. At exactly half past three, I got a phone call from Bassem who was waiting at the front gate with Majed, who would be driving, so I raced out of the apartment with my backpack and sleeping bag slung over my shoulder, swung by to pick up Everett, and then met the guys out front.
So anyways, we all jumped into Majed's truck and were off. On our way out of Riyadh, we dropped by one of Majed's friend's house, Khalid, to pick him up for the journey, against the apparent wishes of his wife who had wanted him to stay home for the weekend, but since he wanted to spend the weekend with the guys instead, he hopped in the car and we sped away. (It seems marriages are the same the world over, eh?) Right after picking up Khalid, we drove over to another apartment where we met up with 8 other students, organized who'd be riding with whom, then hit the highway and were heading north into the desert before we knew it. The 250km/150mi.drive itself was rather comfy since all I had to do was sit in the back of this monster Lexus and be pampered by leather seats and a magnificent surround sound audio system. 'Twas certainly nothing to shake a stick at! :-) We finally departed Riyadh around 5 p.m. and passed the outer-Riyadh police security check point around 5:30, where the police have the right to stop anyone for any reason and demand that you show your identification, and for foreigners like me and Everett, that we show our in-country company-approved travel papers for leaving the city, but we weren't stopped by the police at this particular checkpoint and continued driving northward, unimpeded. By 6:30 p.m. the sun had set and the stars began burning brilliantly in the clear, dark, desert sky. Right away I noticed constellation Orion shining above, accompanied by the planets Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, all of which can now be seen from anywhere on Earth just after sunset. As our caravan sped down the highway, I looked out the left rear-passenger window of the truck in awe at the sheer number of stars gleaming above and noticed a faint little satellite traversing Orion's belt in a circumpolar orbit, which, not so coincidentally, happens to pass through this same point every day around 6:30 p.m. Saudi Arabian time (usually right when I'm outside jogging). So I turned to Bassem, who was sitting next to me (one of my favorite students I must admit!) and said, "Hey, Bassem, have you ever seen a satellite before?" Bassem replied, "No! Can you see one now?" "Yes you can, just look out the window here. . . oh wait, you can't see it, it just passed up-behind the truck. Hmmm. . ." and just then Majed, who was driving, opened up the sunroof and said, "Hey shabaab (Arabic for "guys!"), stand up and look outside and see if you can find it!" So Bassem and I flipped ourselves around backward and stood up through the sunroof (moonroof?!?) and waved to the two cars of our convoy flowing closely behind us as the wind whipped around the both of us and we looked skyward. "Bassem, look straight up. Do you see that big, bright collection of stars? That's constellation Orion. . . and if you look right in the middle of it, you will find three stars in a row - that's Orion's belt. Now, between the two left stars, do you see a dim star-like object? It's moving from right to left, that's an American satellite! It passes through the same spot in the sky flying north every night!" Bassem suddenly spotted it and exclaimed, "Wow! I've never seen a satellite before! How exciting!" I thought it was fun to be able to show him a little bit of my culture flying around the Earth as we sped through the desert of his country. And since the Arabs used to be the world's premier astronomers 1,000 years ago, just at the time when my recently Christianized European ancestors were in a state of near-total scientific collapse, I thought it was appropriate for me to share with him the wonders of the sky, especially since his culture is currently suffering from a self-imposed, religiously inspired scientific Dark Age of its own. I do what I can for science. . . After driving northwest for nearly two and a half hours, our caravan of cars finally reached the general area where we'd be staying, so Majed got on the CB radio and contacted the uncle and cousin of my student Fahad to see exactly where they were camped out and where we should meet them. We hooked a left off the main highway, drove down a dirt road for a ways, then hooked a right off the dirt road and headed straight out directly into the desert over hills and dunes covered with shrubs and rocks. "Roads? Who needs roads!" Apparently migrating camels and the caravans that chase them don't! Then, before we knew it, we spotted a flickering little camp fire off in the distance and suddenly found ourselves at our little desert get-away.
As everyone stepped out of the cars, we grabbed our backpacks and sleeping bags, and made our way over to the tent where our hosts Ziyid and Abdullah were waiting. As we walked up to the entry of the tent, my students extended a warm welcome to the two older men standing before us (since in Saudi Arabia, the visitors must extend the welcome to their host as a sign of recognizing their intrusion) and did so by wishing that peace be upon them as well as kissing the men several times on both cheeks, going from one side then to the other and back. Ziyid invited us into the tent area where we dropped off our belongings and then sat down for the traditional Saudi offering of Arabian coffee and tea. |
March
2001
To
my surprise, Bassem and Majed were standing there next to Majed's
ritzy little Landcruiser wearing western clothes, though for some
reason I guess I just assumed they'd be wearing their traditional
Saudi thobe (robes). So I jokingly hollered, "Hey guys!
Where are your thobe?!?" to which they responded, "We
didn't wanna freak you guys out by wearing our traditional
clothes!" Personally, I think they just wanted a good excuse to
wear Western clothes, but I thought it was nice of them at least to
consider Everett and me in the equation! Since this was Everett's
first social experience with the students outside of the school
setting, I had hoped that everyone would be wearing their thobe, but
it seems that jeans and T-shirts just have more pull these days with
the freewheeling Saudi youth!
As
we drove up to the little camp, peeking out through the surrounding
darkness, I could see a sizable canvas tent standing beside a nice
little fire. Beside the tent was a small white pick-up truck and a
large, old, Mercedes-Benz water transport truck to which was roped a
small goat. Coming out to greet us from inside the tent were the
brother and cousin of my student Fahad, Ziyid and Abdullah, along
with a few of their hired helpers from Sudan and India. Jetting out
from behind a flap in the tent was Ziyid's five year old boy, Faisil,
who eagerly ran up to the line of approaching cars to greet uncle
Fahad, his friends, as well as his foreign guests. Faisil was
apparently a very spirited little lad and made his rounds greeting
the new arrivals with excitement.
As
you can see in the images above and right, the pots of
tea and coffee are heated by placing them directly in contact with
the coals of the fire. In this way you need neither a metal grating
to set the pots atop nor some sort of contraption to hang the pots
from. It's a very minimalist, yet effective means of warming the
drinks, which does not require lugging around bulky pieces of
cookware through the desert - a rather taxing proposition for men who
spend years on end traipsing through the desert.
Random
side thought: as I sat around drinking tea with my students, I was
reminded that I think it's really nice that a bunch of younger-ish
guys can go out for a night in a tent in the middle of the desert
without alcohol falling somewhere into the equation. While I realize
that this may be the case because the government of Saudi Arabia is
an Islamic state and the punishment for the consumption of alcohol is
rather extreme (thereby scaring many people away from drug usage),
it's still nice to know that non-intoxicating evenings are still
possible for the young.
Everett
and I snapped a couple shots of everyone and then the announcement
was made that it would soon be time to eat. In honor of all the
guests that evening, Ziyid and Abdullah had arranged for an Indian
assistant to help prepare a feast of Arabian rice and lamb for all of
us. As a matter of fact, I came to find out that not only was the
Indian hired specifically for the event, but that the entire tent
itself was erected for our benefit and comfort as Ziyid and Abdullah
usually just sleep outside with the camels and don't need no stinkin'
tent! (I tell ya, if I had been born a camel herder, I would have
perished long ago.) So, in preparation for the meal, everyone
migrated into the center of the tent and organized themselves into
two small circles - one on each side of the tent. A special cloth was
laid down in the middle of the circle, which served as a table-cloth
of sorts, and we all talked about how famished we were and how we
couldn't wait for the food to be served! And since I absolutely love
these traditional Saudi meals, I was nearly salivating just thinking
about it!
And
there it is to the right. Yes, yes, I know it looks like
boiled carcass on a platter of creamed rice, but honestly, it was
*absolutely* delicious! Trust me!
We
ended up feasting for a good 15 or 20 minutes, and when I say feast
I really mean FEAST. But eventually our stomachs became so
filled with food that we could literally no longer stuff food in, and
at that point we simultaneously withdrew our rice covered hands from
the now ravaged platter of food, remarked on how tasty the dinner
was, then got up and washed our hands outside at the large watertank
trunk parked beside the tent.
In
the picture above/left you can see Everett and the long hose
that connects to the belly of the bong with Majed and Fahad in the
back ground. Like any other water bong in the world (not that I would
know, of course), this sheesha consisted of a tray to put the
smoked substance on/in, a water filled chamber to "purify"
the substance, a pocket of air into which the cleansed substance is
drawn, and a pipe/hose fixed into that air chamber which then
extracts the smoke and can then be inhaled into the body.
