The Bedu

Marium

Some photos from the multimedia project I'm doing on the Bedouins of the Sinai.




Our bedouin guide, Farhaj Suleiman...loves the desert but lives in the city of Nuweiba...says that the desert is in the blood of every bedouin, regardless of where and when they are born. They always come back to it.



The aunt of one of the old bedouin guides. The white sheet that hung behind her illuminated her face that was covered with a black shawl.



Salim, one of the bedouin guides. It was a full moon the weekend I was in the Sinai.




After dinner, our young bedouin cook doused the fire and waited as we finished our food.



Farhaj said something that really struck me. He said that the life of the bedouins as they know it will finish in 5 years because of borders and privatization of land.
He hoped that his children would understand the life of the real bedouin, the lives of his father and his father before him. "Its in our blood," he said.

He asks one question: One day the Sinai belongs to Israel. Another it belongs to Egypt. Where do the bedouin go?

Are you Egyptian, he was asked.

No, I am a Bedouin.

Still Alive

Matt

Hello all. Sorry for the extended silence, but there has been much transition recently and precious little time to spend at the computer. Work with FINCA in Jordan finished up well with the completion of a few projects and another visit or two to the Palestinian refugee camps. After a brief visit to Petra, a contender for one of the New Seven Wonders of the World (deservedly so), my travels took me to Cairo where I have just finished my first week of classes at the International Language Institute, a wonderfully professional outfit. With 5.5 hours of class time per day (all in Arabic) and couple hours of homework, the academic frenzy has begun again.

Rock formation in Petra

Cairo is a remarkable place with tons of energy and blaring music and traffic and just about everything else you could ever ask for in a large urban center (including the only subway on the continent of Africa). The cafe culture is refreshing, with men playing card and backgammon every day until the early morning hours, reliably smoking sheesha and drinking a cup of tea. I have invested in a chess set so I can meet these men, practice my Arabic, and relive the unfettered glory of my days as a competitive chess player. Swoon ladies, swoon.

As I adjust to a new life in Cairo, I will begin to write more frequently. Currently a piece about Hamas and Fatah is in the works and I still owe you the second half of "Scattered Thoughts from Jordan." Thank you for your patience with this.

Lastly, it is with great pleasure that I inaugurate a new feature here at Tar Heel Travelers. Please allow me to introduce "Globalization At Its Finest", an ongoing photo-documentary project which highlights the rapid pace of technological, cultural and economic integration happening around our world. All the authors are invited to share photos around this theme and you at home are welcome to send photos which we can publish here. The first entry:

Cell phone call on the way to work.

Thanks for reading. Check back soon.