We are getting a historical tour from our amazing guide Ilan over the microphone. Some of us are sleeping and some of us are fascinated about what we are seeing outside our window (a camel here, a camel there…. random desert villages here and there…just vast desertland…)
Then we arrive at the Bedouin camp in which we had reservations to stay for the night. As we pull up we see a plethora of camels tied to one rope and people on them riding… yes we were about to get a camel ride!!!! Aw it was awesome! So much fun as two of us shared a camel. My camel had some issues though as he was stumbling over some rocks but he eventually got it together and he turned out to be cool! It was a great experience and I definitely plan to do it again.
Then we went into the Bedouin camp and the chief (i guess) with his traditional garments came in and shared with us their livelihood and traditions, and gave us coffee, tea, and explained their way of life. (Just imagine Jethro in the Prince of Egypt!) He was really funny tho! So once this was done and he showed us how they make music while grounding coffee for the Bedouin Hospitality, it was time for us to see our place of rest for the evening, which was suppose to be one huge tent in which all 20 of us would sleep on our own pallets. But somehow our guide was able to get us the Presidential suite (Like a Robinson Family tree house!) It was awesome! Just built and we thus had a nice luxury stay out in the desert.
Better yet it was dinner time! And we were served amazing pita bread with rice, lamb and humus and cabbage and vegetables of all kinds. In 5 mins you were full and your whole table still had mounds of food left to eat!
Later that night in the beautiful dark skies filled with an array of stars as far as the eye can see, we all sat around a campfire, sang and worshiped, talked and laughed, drank tea that our guide made from scratch, and just was in awe of the nice breeze and beauty of the desert that one could not think was possible! That night after the campfire I ended up staying up for awhile with a roommate and we just shared stories with each other from our life at home, to life now, to what Israel is like and to what we should expect in the future…
It was awesome!
