Desert people

After doing the tourist thing of touring castles in the middle of nowhere, I went down to Wadi Rum with the sole aim of resting and spending time with my many friends there who have taken care of me and my friends over the last year, and especially those who got me out of a fix when I broke my leg there ...

Those few days were bliss - no pressure to do touristy things, no programme as such, just lots of drinking tea, sitting around fires, driving around aimlessly in jeeps and reminding myself of why I love Wadi Rum so much despite unfortunate incidents in the past. Where else can you sit with multicoloured dunes and mountains all around, sharing sage tea with one or more adorable (and frankly rather handsome) Bedouins and just relaxing ...

I'm more than aware though that I still lead the charmed tourist life, so it was great for me to be able to spend some time during these holidays with the families of my Bedouin friends - a chance to get to know people in their own environment rather than in a tourist camp, meeting women and children (at last!) and seeing how they live. I've talked before about how I can't imagine living in this kind of environment day in day out - I would miss Radio 4 and the cinema too much! - but it was good to experience the lifestyle first-hand and to see that yes, it is hard, but people seem just as happy as we do in our modern inter-connected multi-faceted world ...

The Bedouins were nomads in the past (Bedou is the arabic word for nomad), but they almost all live a settled lifestyle now. Some of them have 'upgraded' to houses in villages, but there are still plenty who live in traditional Bedouin tents in the desert, and I went with my friend Suleiman to visit his granny and other family members in their encampment east of the Wadi Rum protected area.

As you can see, life is pretty simple - there was one large black hair tent, divided into three sections for cooking, living and receiving guests. Apart from that, there were areas for the animals (sheep, goats, chickens, young camels), water basins and, in these modern times, a water tanker to refill them, as well as another tented area used for toiletry needs - I must admit to not having used these facilities, so no details to report, but I'm guessing it was pretty basic - not one for you, urbancynic.

When there aren't things to be done, or when guests turn up, everyone gathers in the guest area to drink tea and catch up on the day, how ever member of the family is and any exciting news or gossip from the village. While I was visiting, some relatives from Saudi Arabia turned up and the family divided into men in the guest room and women in the kitchen, but this doesn't seem to be the way things are most of the time, and I'm guessing the rather more conservative Saudi relatives (the women with their faces covered, something you never see in the desert) were the reason for the segregation - keeping up appearances, even out here!

In the moments when everyone isn't sitting around drinking tea (and frankly, there doesn't seem to be that much time left to do anything else!), there seems to be a division of labour, although I'm not entirely sure it's a fair one. Here is what I have observed people doing over the last few months;

Children:

- herding sheep and goats

(involving walking many miles a day, occasionally comically riding small donkeys)

- carrying things for their parents

- playing

(a lot of this, with whatever comes to hand - hopscotch in the sand, rolling tyres, throwing things, banging things into the ground with stones ...)

- going to school

Women:

- cooking

- cleaning

- washing clothes, dishes etc

- washing children

- milking

- collecting eggs

- weaving, sewing etc (but not crochet I have discovered ...)

- shopping

- sitting around drinking tea

- having babies (lots of this still - 8 to 10 kids each not uncommon!)

Men:

- driving tourists around

- driving around looking for their camels

- mending the car

- killing and chopping up animals

- hunting

- training camels and/or racing them

- sitting around drinking tea and smoking nargileh (hubbly bubbly)

blokes actually doing some work ... and drinking tea

As you can see, some things are the same the world over - women keeping the ship afloat, while I can't help thinking that men get to do more fun stuff ... but at least out in Wadi Rum, everyone seems to find the time for family, friends and to just kick back and relax. And drink a nice cup of tea ...