Dec 12th, 2002
-Struggling to sleep I decide to get out of the camping site and walk
to the mosque where the eid chants are filling the air.
-I walk across the desert, across the asphalt road and then into the
green fields. I walk for 1 hour until I reach the mosque, and sit
there meditating. A young woman approaches me and asks me to come
with her for breakfast. She shares her almost fat free eid cookies,
roasted peanuts with me and asks one of the boys to fetch me a
corncob from the field. I chat with her and she shows me her 3
children, I walk away grateful but am sad I didn't have anything in
me to share with her and her children on this special, religious
holiday.
(Original text
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaharaSafaris/message/1568)
5 months later: 14 May 2003
I go to Bahareya Oasis on business, we go visit primary health care
units and I find out by accident that they have files on the ppl in
As3a Wahed and Etnein. I ask about Eman, I don't know her last name.
And the Health Educator at the Unit says she knows Eman in As3a
Wahed. She has 3 girls and newborn baby boy called "Ahmed".
I think to myself.. am not sure that's the same person I want to
see..she didn't look pregnant to me, but I think she was in As3a
Entien not As3a Wahed.
Anyway, we finish work and then I ask my boss if we could pass by
that place I had wandered into last time I was camping and agreed.
Of course I had no address or house number or telephone .. these were
people living in the very far outskirts of bahareya oasis there was
no services there basically.
So, I go there and the guide gets us to As3a Wahed and al I can rely
on was the vague memory of a hot spring facing a mosque. So I ask him
to take me to the mosque.
I look around but the mosque and the spring somehow look different,
probably cuz it is a different time of the day. So I try to assume
the same position I had when Eman came and fetched me to try to
determine which way she had come from.
So I sit on the rim of the well and almost visualize her coming from
the back I can almost feel her presence. So, I turn around and start
walking in that direction, I find a passer-buy , a veiled lady doing
something so I ask her about Eman and she points the way.
I go into that alley and start recollecting the memories of my first
visit and ask for Eman while many ppl gather in the alley looking at
me the business like woman walking towards them, asking for Eman.
One of them points at Eman, I can not recognize her from the distance
she looks slimmer and frailer than the Eman I know, and she diet
recognize me in these clothes either since last time I was in jeans
and simple travelers clothes wearing a headscarf to protect my ears
from the cold. But As I come closer, I start to recognize her and I
shake he hands and she says o the people yes I know her.
Ohh.. I found Eman again it turned out to be her, she actually has
had a new born baby boy, Ahmed was his name as they had told me at
the health unit.
We all sat down and the women made us some tea we sat in their
storage room. Enjoying the nice tea, while Eman gave me her youngest
son to see.
So, yes she was pregnant when I had met her the first time, only I
had no idea.
The whole street was excited to see me, they all gathered happily
especially the women… and I was happy to have found my way to them
again cuz I was wondering if I wud ever be able to have the chance to
ever see Eman again.
One year later: 16 May, 2004
Why the hell is this article still on my hard disk and not sent
out????
Recalling the last time I saw Eman, I remember her saying one thing
that rings in my ears.. Eman holding her new born son, Ahmed, and
looking me directly in the eye : " Come back again, soon, u know u
have a family here, who wud like to have you around as much as
possible."
-Struggling to sleep I decide to get out of the camping site and walk
to the mosque where the eid chants are filling the air.
-I walk across the desert, across the asphalt road and then into the
green fields. I walk for 1 hour until I reach the mosque, and sit
there meditating. A young woman approaches me and asks me to come
with her for breakfast. She shares her almost fat free eid cookies,
roasted peanuts with me and asks one of the boys to fetch me a
corncob from the field. I chat with her and she shows me her 3
children, I walk away grateful but am sad I didn't have anything in
me to share with her and her children on this special, religious
holiday.
(Original text
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaharaSafaris/message/1568)
5 months later: 14 May 2003
I go to Bahareya Oasis on business, we go visit primary health care
units and I find out by accident that they have files on the ppl in
As3a Wahed and Etnein. I ask about Eman, I don't know her last name.
And the Health Educator at the Unit says she knows Eman in As3a
Wahed. She has 3 girls and newborn baby boy called "Ahmed".
I think to myself.. am not sure that's the same person I want to
see..she didn't look pregnant to me, but I think she was in As3a
Entien not As3a Wahed.
Anyway, we finish work and then I ask my boss if we could pass by
that place I had wandered into last time I was camping and agreed.
Of course I had no address or house number or telephone .. these were
people living in the very far outskirts of bahareya oasis there was
no services there basically.
So, I go there and the guide gets us to As3a Wahed and al I can rely
on was the vague memory of a hot spring facing a mosque. So I ask him
to take me to the mosque.
I look around but the mosque and the spring somehow look different,
probably cuz it is a different time of the day. So I try to assume
the same position I had when Eman came and fetched me to try to
determine which way she had come from.
So I sit on the rim of the well and almost visualize her coming from
the back I can almost feel her presence. So, I turn around and start
walking in that direction, I find a passer-buy , a veiled lady doing
something so I ask her about Eman and she points the way.
I go into that alley and start recollecting the memories of my first
visit and ask for Eman while many ppl gather in the alley looking at
me the business like woman walking towards them, asking for Eman.
One of them points at Eman, I can not recognize her from the distance
she looks slimmer and frailer than the Eman I know, and she diet
recognize me in these clothes either since last time I was in jeans
and simple travelers clothes wearing a headscarf to protect my ears
from the cold. But As I come closer, I start to recognize her and I
shake he hands and she says o the people yes I know her.
Ohh.. I found Eman again it turned out to be her, she actually has
had a new born baby boy, Ahmed was his name as they had told me at
the health unit.
We all sat down and the women made us some tea we sat in their
storage room. Enjoying the nice tea, while Eman gave me her youngest
son to see.
So, yes she was pregnant when I had met her the first time, only I
had no idea.
The whole street was excited to see me, they all gathered happily
especially the women… and I was happy to have found my way to them
again cuz I was wondering if I wud ever be able to have the chance to
ever see Eman again.
One year later: 16 May, 2004
Why the hell is this article still on my hard disk and not sent
out????
Recalling the last time I saw Eman, I remember her saying one thing
that rings in my ears.. Eman holding her new born son, Ahmed, and
looking me directly in the eye : " Come back again, soon, u know u
have a family here, who wud like to have you around as much as
possible."
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