The Bedouin People

The Bedouin tribes began migrating to Egypt from the Arabian peninsula between the 14th and 18th centuries. They are nomadic desert dwellers known for their rich hospitality and strict upholding of religious tradition. Today, John, Heidi and I set off on a journey towards a town near Alexandria where we would enjoy the hospitality of a Bedouin man and his family for the duration of the afternoon. This was a culturally enriching experience for me, as it allowed me to observe a more traditional side of the Egyptian culture. In this man's house, we sat in a room that consisted of nothing more than cushion chairs on the floor. As we sat on these cushions, we had to be conscious of where our feet were positioned. This is because it is very insulting to point the soles of your feet at an Egyptian. Although this man had an entire house, it is not part of their culture to take you on a tour of it. They live humbly and do not feel the need to show of their house to you. We remained in this room for the duration of our visit until we moved outside and sat on floor of their porch. Even our meal was brought into the room for us on a table. We only saw this man's wife when we first arrived, then she made herself scarce for the remainder of our visit, even during the family picture. She did, however, prepare a traditional Bedouin meal for us. It consisted of whole fish, rice, salad, spicy cucumber-type-things, a few homemade french fries, eggplant, and flatbread. Generally, I can't stand fish, but because I didn't want to insult the man, I ate it. It was actually not too bad. Hardly tasted like fish at all. It still had the head on it, the bones in it, and all that fun stuff, but it was the least fishy tasting fish I've ever tasted.

After our meal, we sat outside and chatted while drinking tea. I should point out that this man is in the process of learning English, and we are in the process of learning Arabic, so there was quite a language barrier between us. As I venture further outside of Maadi (the Westernized portion of Cairo) it becomes more and more apparent that I am in a whole different world here. Not only is the language different, not only are the customs different, not only is the religion different, but even the values and morals are different. It was interesting to hear this man's perspective on the bombings in Sharm El Sheik, as it is from a completely different perspective than the rest of the world. He stressed with us that family was one of his greatest values. He lives with not only his immediate family (he has a wife and children), but also his parents, and brothers and sisters and their children.

Although this man is a follower of the dominant faith here in Egypt, and we are somewhat the opposite, he still graciously accepted us into his home without any thought of us attempting to convert him, or vice-versa. It was great to spend the afternoon with this man, and I look forward to coming into contact with the Bedouin people in the future. There is a possibility of us doing a desert camping trip of some sort with the Bedouin people, which would be an amazing experience. You may have noticed that throughout this entry, I have avoided mentioning the name of this respectful gentleman. This is just a safety precaution because many things here in Egypt are monitored, and many things can be considered confidential. I should take this time to point out that certain things are often not wise to discuss online. You will notice the mention of 'the dominant faith'. Phrases such as these are wiser to use than the alternative. Also, there is no position here that can be filled by the M in the C&MA denomination. They are referred to as something else. Those are the two main taboos here, so try and avoid mentioning them in emails to me.

Now, back to the adventure! On the way to this town near Alexandria we passed the pryamids. This was my first glance at them from fairly close up. John says if I haven't seen them by November, he'll take me to see them. Such a pal, he is. We drove along a 'three' lane highway towards Alex, but in reality, this could be 4 or 5 lanes at certain parts! The thing I found the most surprising (aside from how much greenery I saw along the way) was the amount of sign pollution nearly the entire way. From Cairo to Alex, pretty much non stop, every 50-100m there are massive billboards advertising products. In North America, we often see a small set of these before a major city or something, but these were non-stop all the way to our destination!