On my latest visit to Jordan, I visited Wadi Rum several times, sometimes to see Atallah and his wife and sometimes to see Attayak Ali. This included one episode when I wanted to say Goodbye to them and having left several unanswered messages on Attayak's phone, I went off to see Atallah, who lives about 6 miles from the village of Rum. We were in his car, peacefully going along the road, when Attayak cut in in front of us and announced to the indignant Atallah that "he was taking Ruth with him and would bring her back tomorrow or the next day". My messages had just caught up with him! It sounds very romantic, but I remain everybody's sister in Wadi Rum, and spent the afternoon watching the guys putting up a fence to stop their camels from straying out of a blind canyon.
I also finally met Attayak Aouda, whom I have always managed to miss until now. I was surprised by how young he is; he is mentioned so often by so many people in so many different places that I had assumed he was at least in his thirties. In fact, he is 25, rather good looking and a great fun person who talks all the time (we hit it off immediately!). He is a complete charmer!
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Our first meeting was fairly promising, he called Atallah's house wanting to talk to Wilfried. I was the only one there, and asked "Attayak who ?" [though I was pretty sure it wasn't Attayak Ali who remains my favourite person in Wadi Rum]. When he said "Attayak Aouda" I said "Ah ha! You are Dindin" (his nickname, which he doesn't appreciate very much incidentally, DO NOT call him by it if you want to make a good impression!) and after having run round the village of Rum asking about the "Ruth" in Atallah's house, he came charging out to see just who and what I was! In the meantime, Attayak Ali had heard from him that I was there so he came out as well. They both brought friends and Atallah's wife said that she would have to buy more coffee cups if Ruth was around! |
Just to show what "Dindin" is like : he asked me where I was from and I answered "from Wales". Instead of the usual reactions ("where?" or "isn't that the same thing as England?") he frowned momentarily and replied "Boro da!" I freely admit I was struck dumb for a moment - (the first time of many with Dindin, although my family will witness this is not easy to do!) - one simply doesn't expect to be greeted in Welsh by a Bedouin in the middle of Wadi Rum! He has done a guide's course at Plas y Brenin in Snowdonia, which is a mountainous region in Wales and a big climbing centre. I suspect he is very competent indeed in his work, even if he clowns around a lot the rest of the time. Certainly he has participated in the opening of a number of new climbing routes in Wadi Rum from as far back as 1994, climbing with a number of well known climbers. To me this seems very impressive. (You can read about him as a guide on Steve and Judy's website http://www.pardoes.com/climbing/jordan.htm )
Since there was no work for anyone (tourism was dead in the Middle East at the end of 2001), the two Attayaks, who hang out together a lot, and several of their friends built a "private camp" out in the desert and spent most of their time there. They took me there with them, and we had a number of wonderful evenings around the campfire - up to ten or twelve Bedouin, with me as a sort of " den mother"! Attayak Aouda boasted a bit too much about the qualities of his new camel, so he was invited to put his money where his mouth was and they organised a race. Attayak Ali also rather fancied his camel as did Awad, so the three of them mapped out a route covering 120kms around Wadi Rum, last one in to buy a goat for supper for all of the band. I don't know how much you know about camels, but 65kms a day is pretty good going, 120kms is all but unheard of! Everybody else said that they were crazy, and would ruin their camels. In fact, these particular camels seemed in considerably better shape than their riders at the end of the day - Dindin's camel even tried to bite him when he was unsaddling it! Mind you, they (the camels) didn't move about nearly as much as usual during the night, but mostly remained kneeling down. I stayed on an extra day to see the end of the race (120kms on camels isn't really a spectator sport, they go off at about 5 miles an hour if that).
Awad arrived at sunset (they had left at 6am), saying that Attayak Ali wasn't far behind, but they hadn't seen "Dindin" for several hours. Eid and I took a jeep and went off to find Attayak, who was a couple of miles out, on foot and leading his camel. "The camel's fine", he explained, "but where I sit down is one big bruise and I rather think my backbone is detached from my body". He climbed carefully into the jeep and we chased the camel ahead of us back to the camp. There followed a debate, should we go and find Dindin? The problems were that it was now pitch dark and there were a couple of alternative routes from where he had last been seen. Everybody settled down around the fire until he arrived, nearly an hour later.
He reproached us indignantly for not having gone to collect him, but had to admit our excuse was reasonable. Then he took a searching look around and pitched full length next to the fire, landing on top of a couple of the guys (who crawled out from under, laughing and cursing) and with his head exactly on my lap. TLC was obviously called for.** I stroked his hair and crooned "did the poor baby have to ride all day on that nasty camel, then?" and he relaxed with a sigh of satisfaction. Somebody less sympathetic booted him in the ribs and said "Get up, you stupid [censored], you're taking all the room". So he laughed, sat up and demanded tea... . But there was no dancing that evening, the guys were too tired. The oud [very much like a lute] was passed from hand to hand, Attayak Ali produced a mournful improvisation that had us all gazing silently into the fire, before somebody else took it and they relaxed into what sounded like bawdy songs - my Arabic vocabulary doesn't stretch to this sort of thing. [Note that "silent Bedouin" is a contradiction in terms.] I couldn't stay another day to eat the goat Attayak Aouda was supposed to buy - when I left he was talking about buying a couple of baby goats instead (a full grown goat would cost anywhere between 100 and 150USD). The others were objecting!
** TLC : I have been asked what this means. I apologise, it is sort of British slang, and stands for "Tender Loving Care". It is usually said with the tongue in the cheek, indicating exactly what I supplied in this instance, ie exaggerated sympathy!
"that
camel" ?
Photo Leon and Mirjam
A postscript to this story : I called Wadi Rum to wish them a Happy Eid al Ramadan, and found Attayak Aouda. He was - shall I say? - sore.
"I bought this camel yesterday and paid 1500JD for it" [impressed whistle from me - that comes to nearly 2300USD] "and today when I got on it to ride it, it threw me off and ran away - it's an unbroken camel! I fell down two meters, and it really hurt! I swear if I had had my gun with me, I would have shot that camel!"
"Fifteen hundred dinars, Attayak!" I reminded him, managing to get a word in.
"I didn't care! I would have shot it, anyway! Mind you, I might have cared later, but right then I would have shot it!" [I sniggered.] "I'll teach that camel! Tomorrow I am going to fill the saddlebags with 50 kilos each side and I am going to get on top and make him run all day! I'll show him who's the boss! I swear I will do that every day, all the day, until he does what I tell him to the first time!"
"You'll have all your muscles hurting as badly as after the race" I predicted.
"I don't care! I'll show that camel!"
I said "Goodbye" rather hastily. He was obviously prepared to talk about "that camel" for some time, and at international phone rates I had heard enough. I wonder, though, if he is preparing his revenge after losing the race?
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in meeting Attayak Aouda, try www.rumguides.com
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İRuth Caswell 2002
