Bedouin 2/something

I think when I last left off (as faithful readers will no doubt recall) I had woken up to find myself among strangers. After a perfunctory round of introductions a great silence set in. My family knew no English whatsoever, and our Arabic was virtually mutually exclusive due to our thick accents, theirs Bedo, mine American. However a pattern soon emerged, we would get up in the morning, walk with the goats for about 8 hours and then return to camp. Along the way we'd stop about every other hour to rip up a dead bush and make a fire with it and make tea. I started wondering eventually how the Bedouin survive. The only liquid intake I ever saw was from tea, which was about 1/6 sugar. I guess the fire bread they made by mixing flour and water and dumping the loaf on the coals had some water in it but dang, I was chugging down my Nalgene every day. It didn't take me long to figure out I'd have to drink their water in order to survive, and coincidently the minute after I reached this conclusion I was handed my Nalgene which had been filled with the water from the cistern where they keep the flow from the rocks. I couldn't see through it but it didn't taste nasty at all. In fact it tasted better than tap water at home.
The father figure Abu Atullah served in the military and is a Hajj, meaning he's been to Mecca. He also commanded extreme respect from all the men as he was one of the few older men still retaining their sanity. The others all seem to suffer from a combination of Alzheimers, arthritis, and failure of communication due to lack of teeth, also they all had the TB cough, but they inhaled really skunky hand rolled cigarrettes at an alarming rate, so that could be a cause. One old man Abu Abdullah also shared the camp but left on the 2nd day because he was too sick. Um Atullah and Um Abdullah, the two older women were bad ass. They literally wore towels on their head, tied to their black hijab the effect being more of a headdress than a scarf. They also both sported the straight thick line tattooed on their chin which is a mark of distinction among Bedo. They chain smoked and scared everyone when they yelled at the goats. The younger woman who lived there was named Mautha and she was the reason the whole trip was worth it. For one thing, she was the only one patient enough to try to speak with me in English or Arabic. She was 20 but had a husband and looked about 27 or 30. She drew in the sand with me and built sand castles (amazingly enough, the sand below a few inches is very damp and hence constructable). She also sang quite a bit. On the 3rd day, in replacement of Abu Abdullah, and also I suspect because I only spoke to Mautha, a boy Mohammed also joined us. He teased me mercilessly until I started calling him 'hamar' (donkey) and succeeded in getting Mautha on my side. He was also appreciative of listening to my music. I found the one song in Arabic I had and they listened to it about 2 dozen times. Mautha related that she loves music and performs in Jerash and Kerak at the cultural festivals. The younger people were a bit more educated (in that they understood Standard Arabic) and also had a bit more mobility, but our family also demonstrated a lot more mobility than I would have thought. Abu Atullah going to Aqaba to get shoes and having access to trucks, cell phones, electricity in the village, but living mostly in the desert, is a good example. I didn't expect "traditional" everything, as in nothing out of a tourist brochure or even national geographic, but I was impressed that they managed to keep the new things such as trucks in their role as utilitarian items. In the dull time I would study my flashcards and draw pictures of the scenery (my camera broke on the first day there) and also thought a lot about things. I sang a bit but English and Arabic music are so different that nobody showed any interest.
I did get a break from routine occasionally. I helped a family move next door to Abu Ali and they had several baby goats with them and a baby kitten as well. The kitten had imprinted with the goats and played with them in a kittenish way and tried to climb the cliffs with them. Baby kitten thinking it's a baby goat = officially the cutest thing ever. I also got to see Julia in the desert but the majority of the time I was in the desert.
I think the timing of the trip was perfect. I gave them gifts on the last night and ended the stay on a positive note. I was given a watch (from Aqaba I guess) I was able to communicate a lot in the last day but was tired of the freezing nights (the blankets were too short) and dusty eyes and goat smell. Even the scenery had lost its appeal a bit. We left to Aqaba and got on a bus to Amman. They played the Transporter (which I guess was for our benefit as Americans even though the actors were english, chinese, and french and it was set in monaco) but then they played an Egyptian movie that yielded my new favorite quote this trip: "So what if she has an American suitor? What if he gets hit by a car or two planes fly into his face or he gets shot by a sniper" I was tired, dusty, sweaty, gross when I got home. The shower felt wonderful.