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Let It Be.

28/2/2011

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Two months far away from everything I know. But not far away from God, neither from myself. Speak a little, observe a lot. Missing anything and anyone. What I need is coming to me one way or another. Still, the existential loneliness of mine out-stands as something that should be overcome.

I decided to go back to Wadi Rum and spend the 50-day Easter fast in a Bedouin camp in the desert, where nobody lives. Without electricity, i-net or mobile connection.

Living in a close conservative community in Rum, cleaning rooms, cooking in the kitchen, washing the dishes, working in the reception in order to deserve my food and bed in Petra took a little bit of my daily freedom but led me to interact with people who enriched my life in inexplicable way. No words can express the state of freedom of my travelling body and calm mind. An internal security produced by the faith in God and trust in my soul's knowledge who are leading me. Whatever I should encounter, whatever i should pass through, whomever i should meet and however I should go on - let it be.
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Sometimes the light changes the objects.

14/2/2011

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Sometimes some people go far away from each other in order to meet again in a different way. 
Sometimes you leave some place to come back to it in another way.

God knows why.

Now, living in Petra, I know that i will go back to Wadi Rum desert, but this time not in my host family, nor to be close to the friends I made there. But to keep the Easter fast and to be secluded in the desert for 50 days. Enshallah.
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"He who accompanies the nation for forty days becomes one of them."

8/2/2011

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Forty days passed since I entered this flat Godlike world and dived into the aching loneliness of the desert and exceeding noisiness in the Bedu village. I started making friendships and besides the language barrier strong relationship with the members of my host family. I learned how much you can love someone you cannot speak with. Communication is beyond talks. Attachment is beyond words.

I was trying to cope with things I am totally unfitted by nature. Warm‐hearted and talkative at first sight, I stood aloof from the social whirl in my homeland and barely could stand someone around me for a long time. I was living alone, enjoying being by myself, insisting on my spiritual independence and physical personal space, preventing anyone from coming too close.

And here I am now - among huge family, without room for me in it, sleeping in the communal tent around the fire, no place for getting out any of my personal stuff (still in the backpack since I am here), nor staying alone doing something privately. Nevertheless, I get used to everything - physically and emotionally. My heart is captivated by the reddish sands, the beauty of the sand dunes and face‐liked canyons, by the pure‐minded and open‐hearted family, by my little brother, whose voice, bravery, calmness, wisdom and deep understanding look I will take forever with me.

There is time when the wind starts blowing in a different direction. Despite some complicated matters I am not forced to move. I just feel it right. 
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Random facts

8/2/2011

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  • Bedu people are not just lazy. There should be a special word for their universal extreme laziness. No lust to explain, no notion to improve, no thought to solve, no desire to move anywhere. They have something one cannot easily see or feel in European people - natural knowledge of who they are, lying in faith that God moves everything for the best.
  • The Bedouins, endlessly changing places for centuries, now stay in one place, being villagers, who scarcely move at all. Few of Rum's Howaytat Bedu live in traditional black tents remote from the village but still they are settled down. I was said there are still moving Bedouin families, which I haven't come across yet.
  • Bedouin hospitality, generosity, loyalty and modesty are not exaggerated.
  • Even when they think they do something wrong they seem pure to me. They hide really carefully if they want to drink a beer, to smoke joint or to sleep with someone they're not allowed to. They do that so rarely and consider it as so bad act.
  • Rum village is like brotherhood. Everyone here derives from one family and all of them are cousins.
  • They have no notion of keeping personal space. Within the family everything is shared. You can visit the closest relatives without giving them a call.
  • Male Bedouins can cope with English only by the work with the tourists. Most of them never learn it at school nor knows how to write correctly.
  • Education is something unimportant for the way of living. At the age of 16 most of the children quit school by their wish.
  • They don't need globalization, education or civilization to be good, wise, well‐mannered and life‐experienced.
  • Their land is part of their bodies and source of wisdom of their minds.
  • Most of the people are fat. If not fat, not fit at all. There is no sport they can practice, nor culture of keeping your body well‐shaped and good looking. This lack of vanity is understandable. Wearing loose abaya (the female dress) or large thoub (the male one), which doesn't follow any of your body curves, makes you unaware of what creature you're feeding up under it.
  • They don't consider chicken as meat. They say: we're going to eat meat today, meaning it won't be chicken. I never understood if this is a language mistake or specific perception.
  • Though there are frozen chickens available if you want to cook chicken meal you are more likely to go to the closest village in a chicken shop, where you have the pleasure to choose your food still alive.
  • They eat mainly bread, chicken, goat meat, rice and yogurt.
  • Bedouin coffee is green coloured and tastes completely different from the Turkish one. No woman can participate in the preparation of it.
  • In the most cases the marriage is arranged for you when you decide to get married. You can choose your wife but if you just wish to upgrade your social level it will be easily arranged.
  • Once married you can practically do whatever you want (unmarried sons don't have much freedom as well). Your word is supposed to be respected. If you want to misobey some religious principle you just have to keep other's eyes away from you.
  • Men are highly respected in the family. The father is the most respected figure, in whose presence you must behave properly. When he enters the tent everyone should stand up and rearrange, making the best room around the fire for him.
  • No matter where you are in Jordan - Amman, Aqaba, Wadi Moussa or Wadi Rum you will start hearing the specific morning cockle‐doodle‐doo from 10 in the evening till sunrise.
  • There is sing road "Watch out, camels on the road".
  • There is no other truck than Toyota and no other phone than Nokia. Everyone smokes Marlboro.
  • As an Eastern country norm, they love their King Abdullah and his picture is a compulsory part of the interior of every public building (often residential house). 
  • When they want to tell you something they will start with "Listen" to attract your attention.
  • Today the truck has become an alternative to the camel.
  • Some individuals can afford to buy a water tank and move with their livestock wherever they like. Others make dams in the mountains to get benefit of the rain falls.
  • There is plenty of water in Wadi Rum desert. There are 15 water walls or springs. That's why the area land is agriculture and inhabitants plant seeds as wheat and barley. The Bedouin also plant fruits trees around their homes such as figs and olives.
  • The wild animals you cam encounter in Wadi Rum are ibex, deer, rabbits. Few wolves and foxes.
  • There are camel races from time to time and I was lucky to attend one of them, devoted to His Majesty King Abdullah's birthday.
  • Most of the population rely entirely upon tourism.
  • If they drive deep in the desert far from the villages and camps and they see someone walking they will stop to greet him properly and give him water, no matter if they personally know him.
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    Author

    A world is a book, which I am writing travelling and discovering that anything goes in a path full of miracles. Beast or an angel - it is up to you. My greatest life affair is just to keep on walking with respect.

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