Sisterhood

Mohammed's house is big by Rum standards.  Eleven people live in it, but there are only 5 rooms.  The biggest room is the front room.  It's where all guests come and have tea, sitting on mats lined up against 3 walls.  There are 2 small square tables in the middle to hold the glasses and a kerosene heater for chilly times.  This is where we first met Eptsam.  She's the most outgoing and eldest daughter, and she speaks English.  Even though she's only 15, she has an air of authority with an amazing smile.  Actually, her name means smile.  Then, the mother arrived with tea and we sat a few moments, with Eptsam as our interpreter.  There was some noise outside and the two women suddenly jumped up and said, "come! come!" and we ran into the back of the house.  I had no idea what was going on.  They took us to another sitting room in the back of the house, next to the very dark kitchen.  It's about 1/4 the size of the front room, but same kind of seating.  The kids all started coming in and pretty soon it was PACKED in there.  More tea and more smiles.  I felt weird still about running out of that other room, like the wolves were chasing us or something.  I felt like I had been sleeping in someone else's bed and suddenly they were coming home.  A weird sense of anxiety still lingered in me.

Sarah, the other helper who's been here 3 weeks already, finally appeared.  She was a little out of breath, having run over after hearing we'd arrived.  More "getting to know you" talk and then she asked us to come back to the front room.  The rest of the family did not follow.  And that's when I remembered that women are not allowed to visit with strange men in their house.  In that room were several Bedouin men drinking tea.  Mohammed stood up and smiled big.  He speaks English really well so there was no problem talking freely.  It felt weird, though, leaving Eptsam and her mother, Leila, in the back.  Some kind of betrayal of sisterhood.  In the back, since then, I've come to feel at home.  It's where everyone sprawls - babies, mother, kids.  It's where we eat and watch TV and do homework.  It's also were I get down on my hands and knees every morning to scrape crumbs out of the carpet!  Anyway, back to the front room.  That first night, we didn't spend much time there.  Instead, we threw our backpacks in the hostel room (located behind the camel pen) and jumped in the jeep for a night out at the camp.