Camels
Day 6
Sat July 23rd
Start: Chinguetti
Mid: Chinguetti
End: Somewhere in the desert
Early in the morning, after we had moved everything back down from the roof, Jeff showed up and we started chatting of what to do. It was getting later in the morning, so if we were going to do something we better get going else we’d be walking in the heat of the day.
One thing I was interested in seeing was the old libraries. We met up with one of the owners, which was actually an extended family member of Sidi and agreed on a time of noon to see his family’s library collection. There are only 12 family libraries in Chinguetti, with only four of them open to the public for viewing.
Jeff took us to the newer part of town where we could check out the market. It only consisted of one block on one side of the block with about five stalls. This was not like a market in The Gambia or Dakar. Nate and I wanted to buy a turban so Jeff took us to a store to barter. We each bought three meters of black fabric for 200 UM / meter. A grand total of $3 for each turban. The store owner helped us wrap it around our heads and to get it on tight. There are many ways to wrap a turban. Some wrap it such that your mouth is not showing, others just wrap it on their head so their entire face is showing.
We continued walking around the village, checking out the old infrastructure and architecture. Most buildings, in the old part of town had collapsed, but a few were still standing and some people are still living there. The image of rooftops covering in sand and mud was destroyed in a way by seeing satellite dishes on some. Hey, even Mauritanians love their MTV! After lunch we went back to the library and had to wait for the owner to show up as promised.
He opened up his library and we were told to come in. The entrance just let to an open air room where another door laid. He opened that one up with a key that looked more like a meat-pounder than a key. It had metal prongs sticking up, and you had to insert the key just right into the slot for those prongs to grab the lock. The format of the key, which is centuries old (if not older) is the precursor to computer cards and player-piano rolls of music. He demonstrated that the key is not a toothbrush for a joke.
The first room of his library at first was a disappointment. I saw modern textbooks of English, high school mathematics, and recent journals. This was not what I was expecting, but he sat down and explained that since no public library system exists, the family libraries – in part – become public libraries. These books are for anyone to borrow or to read. The private collection, which we would see , has his older books which no one can “check-out”
Crossing the open air room again and backtracking he lead us to his private collection. There he showed us books as old as 1300’s, all of them in protective sleeves and binders. He showed old writing utensils, and how they could write evenly across the page by using string as a guide, a precursor to today’s lined paper.
One old paper he showed us fascinated me and I instantly recognized it. It showed four interlocking circles and represented the path of the planets around the earth (still in geocentric theory, and the path of the earth can be seen as an outlier of the other circles) It was written in Arabic.
We exited the library and went back to Sidi’s house to wait for the camels, which should arrive around four. Nate and Erika went with Jeff to get supplies for the night while I watched the bags. After a little while I thought I could hear Chewbacca from Star Wars outside. I went outside to see three camels tied to a tree and our guide preparing to get ready. His seven-year old son would come as well, to serve as a guide. When the rest of the gang showed up Jeff argued that a seven year old could not possibly be a guide and we should not pay for a second guide. The father agreed but Mohammed would come along as well.
Although the camel’s legs are like any other four legged animal, the sit down in an odd motion of going back and forth. You must step on their feet and then their back to get on, and then hang on as they rock back and forth to get back up. Sort of like riding in a rodeo.
We would be going to farthest oasis, about 15 kilometers away. Sidi said he would come along as well, which was a pleasant surprise since his English would help tremendously with understanding the guide. On the first hill, which we were still walking alongside the camels and not on yet, the last camel was stubborn and wouldn’t go down. His nose ring was attached to the second camel and the pull caused the nose ring to come off completely by ripping through his skin. Blood was splattering everywhere and the camel ran away. Our guide chased after him and caught up to him, with putting a new knot along his mouth. We asked Sidi if this was common, and he responded in the affirmative and showed us the noses of the other camels, with gaping holes in their noses where previous nose rings had been ripped off.
The oasis was 10 miles away and took two and half hours to get there by camel. Mohammed, the seven year old, walked the entire way barefooted with occasionally wearing his flip-flops. We were impressed by a seven-year-old walking 10 miles without complaining and made sure to have Sidi translate our impression to him, which he took with a smile.
I had the camel with no padding on the seat. I thought I wouldn’t have any kids afterwards. Going uphill you had to lean forward and downhill lean backwards. We wore our turbans to protect us from the afternoon heat and the occasional sand blowing.
At the small oasis, which was nothing like Terjit (we found out the water was pumped in as opposed to being a natural oasis) we met his wife and other “bush people” who lived there. At the camp sight we laid everything out and got ready for dinner. Our guide and his son started making Atai (green tea) for us, while his wife took little trinkets out for sale. Sidi was in back mixing flour, salt, and water to make bread. As he was kneading it the wife took over and went at least three times as fast and finished making the dough in less than a minute. She then lit a fire with coals and moved the fire over, so that only the sand was hot. She placed the dough on top of the sand, covered it with more sand, and then placed the coals of the fire on top – and then went back to selling her trinkets.
Less than an hour later we had the densest loaf of bread I’ve ever had in my life. We shared our soup we made with Sidi and Mahommed while his father made pasta for themselves as well.
We slept under the stars with the camels by our sides.
Sat July 23rd
Start: Chinguetti
Mid: Chinguetti
End: Somewhere in the desert
Early in the morning, after we had moved everything back down from the roof, Jeff showed up and we started chatting of what to do. It was getting later in the morning, so if we were going to do something we better get going else we’d be walking in the heat of the day.
One thing I was interested in seeing was the old libraries. We met up with one of the owners, which was actually an extended family member of Sidi and agreed on a time of noon to see his family’s library collection. There are only 12 family libraries in Chinguetti, with only four of them open to the public for viewing.
Jeff took us to the newer part of town where we could check out the market. It only consisted of one block on one side of the block with about five stalls. This was not like a market in The Gambia or Dakar. Nate and I wanted to buy a turban so Jeff took us to a store to barter. We each bought three meters of black fabric for 200 UM / meter. A grand total of $3 for each turban. The store owner helped us wrap it around our heads and to get it on tight. There are many ways to wrap a turban. Some wrap it such that your mouth is not showing, others just wrap it on their head so their entire face is showing.
We continued walking around the village, checking out the old infrastructure and architecture. Most buildings, in the old part of town had collapsed, but a few were still standing and some people are still living there. The image of rooftops covering in sand and mud was destroyed in a way by seeing satellite dishes on some. Hey, even Mauritanians love their MTV! After lunch we went back to the library and had to wait for the owner to show up as promised.
He opened up his library and we were told to come in. The entrance just let to an open air room where another door laid. He opened that one up with a key that looked more like a meat-pounder than a key. It had metal prongs sticking up, and you had to insert the key just right into the slot for those prongs to grab the lock. The format of the key, which is centuries old (if not older) is the precursor to computer cards and player-piano rolls of music. He demonstrated that the key is not a toothbrush for a joke.
The first room of his library at first was a disappointment. I saw modern textbooks of English, high school mathematics, and recent journals. This was not what I was expecting, but he sat down and explained that since no public library system exists, the family libraries – in part – become public libraries. These books are for anyone to borrow or to read. The private collection, which we would see , has his older books which no one can “check-out”
Crossing the open air room again and backtracking he lead us to his private collection. There he showed us books as old as 1300’s, all of them in protective sleeves and binders. He showed old writing utensils, and how they could write evenly across the page by using string as a guide, a precursor to today’s lined paper.
One old paper he showed us fascinated me and I instantly recognized it. It showed four interlocking circles and represented the path of the planets around the earth (still in geocentric theory, and the path of the earth can be seen as an outlier of the other circles) It was written in Arabic.
We exited the library and went back to Sidi’s house to wait for the camels, which should arrive around four. Nate and Erika went with Jeff to get supplies for the night while I watched the bags. After a little while I thought I could hear Chewbacca from Star Wars outside. I went outside to see three camels tied to a tree and our guide preparing to get ready. His seven-year old son would come as well, to serve as a guide. When the rest of the gang showed up Jeff argued that a seven year old could not possibly be a guide and we should not pay for a second guide. The father agreed but Mohammed would come along as well.
Although the camel’s legs are like any other four legged animal, the sit down in an odd motion of going back and forth. You must step on their feet and then their back to get on, and then hang on as they rock back and forth to get back up. Sort of like riding in a rodeo.
We would be going to farthest oasis, about 15 kilometers away. Sidi said he would come along as well, which was a pleasant surprise since his English would help tremendously with understanding the guide. On the first hill, which we were still walking alongside the camels and not on yet, the last camel was stubborn and wouldn’t go down. His nose ring was attached to the second camel and the pull caused the nose ring to come off completely by ripping through his skin. Blood was splattering everywhere and the camel ran away. Our guide chased after him and caught up to him, with putting a new knot along his mouth. We asked Sidi if this was common, and he responded in the affirmative and showed us the noses of the other camels, with gaping holes in their noses where previous nose rings had been ripped off.
The oasis was 10 miles away and took two and half hours to get there by camel. Mohammed, the seven year old, walked the entire way barefooted with occasionally wearing his flip-flops. We were impressed by a seven-year-old walking 10 miles without complaining and made sure to have Sidi translate our impression to him, which he took with a smile.
I had the camel with no padding on the seat. I thought I wouldn’t have any kids afterwards. Going uphill you had to lean forward and downhill lean backwards. We wore our turbans to protect us from the afternoon heat and the occasional sand blowing.
At the small oasis, which was nothing like Terjit (we found out the water was pumped in as opposed to being a natural oasis) we met his wife and other “bush people” who lived there. At the camp sight we laid everything out and got ready for dinner. Our guide and his son started making Atai (green tea) for us, while his wife took little trinkets out for sale. Sidi was in back mixing flour, salt, and water to make bread. As he was kneading it the wife took over and went at least three times as fast and finished making the dough in less than a minute. She then lit a fire with coals and moved the fire over, so that only the sand was hot. She placed the dough on top of the sand, covered it with more sand, and then placed the coals of the fire on top – and then went back to selling her trinkets.
Less than an hour later we had the densest loaf of bread I’ve ever had in my life. We shared our soup we made with Sidi and Mahommed while his father made pasta for themselves as well.
We slept under the stars with the camels by our sides.
posted by Mike | 12:30 PM
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