On the outside looking in

Living here with the family is safe and familiar. But from an outsider’s point of view, the town can seem like a private affair. There are no stores or restaurants that cater to tourists (only one café at the rest stop outside of town) and the properties are all surrounded by these red concrete walls. It’s hard to figure out where the entrances to the houses are. And a house may also be a Bedouin tent. Zed, the teenage camel guide, and his brother Ziad, who does Jeep tours, both live in a camel hair tent on the edge of town. They have no running water or electricity. There are very few women or girls walking around, and if they are, they are covered head to toe. Boys and men, on the other hand, roam freely. There’s a makeshift soccer field for the teenage boys at the foot of Jebel Rum (big mountain). Near the field, the younger boys play with their tin can cars. It’s all the rage in town. They basically take four sardine cans and some wire and make a car out of it. Then they take a piece of pipe and make a long handle to push it around with, like one of those popcorn poppers that toddlers play with. You can see the boys racing them down the sandy streets. I haven’t seen one gaudy plastic toy in any yard. Instead, the playthings are baby goats and camels and chickens. There’s lots of climbing on the walls going on and games of hide and seek.
But I’m not one of these people, and when I go out, I feel really awkward. And even though we’re living with this family, we have days when we feel like we’re in the way. There’s a bit of a misconception about the amount of work we’re doing as well and it’s causing some tension between us “helpers” and the women of the family. They don’t realize how much energy we spend every evening at the camp taking care of the guests and cleaning the camp. So when we are constantly asked to sweep and clean and teach, it’s a bit overwhelming. I suppose any time an agreement is not well defined, there’s bound to be problems. Also, the mother and girls are practically living on a different planet, not being able to interact with men and the outside world. I’m not even allowed to take their picture because they are afraid it will end up published or on the Internet. So there is such a difference in freedom between us that we can’t seem to really connect. Well, we have a couple more months to go here. Lots of room to grow.