I like things to be researched and planned out. It makes me somehow feel like I am in control, I know what to expect, how much money we will spend, and I won't regret the things I didn't get to see and do, because I will have prioritized my time and plans. I didn't do that for my 4 day Siwa holiday and truth be told, I was feeling pretty anxious. I had booked a hotel online on a whim at the last minute. It seemed most hotels were booking up fast, and so I booked, not even calling to check for a resident's rate. I didn't notice that I had booked an Ecolodge - no electricity and dirt floors, 10 km from the city. I didn't book a guide - something you always must do when traveling in Egypt. Instead, I asked the hotel for advice and they just said "Come and we will arrange tours".
My thinking immediately turns negative when things are not as I expected, Gary is much better with uncertainties. He has more of the adventurer's spirit. He trusts that things will just work out.
Which leads me to the story of how an unplanned adventure down back streets in the Siwa oasis, 20-some miles from the Libyan border, in 100 degree heat lead us to meet the sweet man in the photo above.
It was our first full day in Siwa, and we had decided to take a cab into town to see what all the fuss was about. We had been told "Siwa is one of my favorite places in Egypt" "You just have to go" "It is really unique", but very few details other than that.
So, we got to town - and other than a big falling down castle looking thing in the center, it looked like the rest of Egypt. We weren't impressed and Gary wanted to just call the driver to take us back. I just wanted to get a little exercise, which I thought meant we would walk around town and look at the various shops. Gary decided he would like to walk to the lake he saw on the map. Thinking it would be towns and shops most of the way, we took off with one bottle of water each.
After walking nearly an hour, mostly through sparsely populated areas and date palm areas- we lost all internet and phone connections. Our water was getting very low, it was almost 100 degrees, getting close to 11am and the heat of the day. No internet meant no Google maps, and were we even on the right road to get to the lake? How did the Bedouins and other desert dwellers survive? I was ready to start a fight - turn back to at least find some internet connections again. Gary was sure the lake was "right around the next corner". Turns out, it was. Turns out, we were back on a main road and we had an internet signal again and phone service! The lake was a big disappointment - not fresh water as we had assumed, but dirty and salty, right next to a waste water facility!
So, it was time to call for a driver and wait out our time under the date palms near the lake.
As soon as we entered the grove, we saw this shelter. You will notice in the second picture, that the shelter even had some shelves inside, but no sign of anyone currently living there.
And just as I was taking this picture, a middle-aged man, the man in the first picture I posted, stepped out from behind one of the palm trees, barefoot, dressed in a gallabaya (a long, cotton dress-like outfit that is common here)
Oh no! Had we trespassed on his home? We gestured we were very hot and could we stay? We gestured we were waiting on a ride back and we had taken a long walk. He gestured for us to follow him back into the denser part of the forest. My fatalistic mind went right to "Oh my gosh, no way, he probably has a weapon or something back there and we are going to be robbed." But Gary said, "Let's just see what he wants to show us". So we took about 20 steps to where he had some palm branches spread out on the ground and he asked us to sit with him.
As I looked around, there were more of these shelters. What was this place? A homeless area or something?
We heard a donkey braying in the distance. "Is that your donkey? Gary asked, imitating the donkey's bray. He laughed and nodded his head. He gestured and asked us if we are together. I had Gary show him his ring. He laughed and smiled - a big, toothy smile.
I said "Ana Laura" (Meaning "I am Laura" and Gary said his name and we asked him his name. We aren't sure if he didn't want to tell us, or wasn't sure what we were asking, but after trying "Mohamed?" "Youseff ?" "Ahmad?" He finally said "Mohamed"
Our driver called and wanted to know our exact location. I had sent him the google map location, but he could not believe we had walked there, so he was sure we were mistaken. We handed Mohamed our phone, and he and the driver talked. Mohamed explained our location, then looked at us and gestured walking. We laughed and nodded our head and his eyes got big as he told our driver that we had indeed walked there from where we had been dropped off. Mohamed questioned us how we had walked that far, so I pointed at my tennis shoes and said "Good shoes"
Soon, he gestured he had to go. He went back further into the forest, soon returning with some white date tree flower type branches that he wanted to show us. Gary gestured to ask him if he eats those? He handed one to Gary and gestured that he should smell it. Gary mimed biting it and he laughed and shook his head no.
He then pounded the branch on his hand and white dust flew up. "Oh," Gary exclaimed, "He's pollinating the trees!" He left again, returning with many of these branches, holding the material from his gallabaya in his teeth to make a pouch for these branches. I asked if I could take a selfie with him.
This is the photo I shot. What I didn't expect was his reaction. As I turned on my camera to take this photo, he seemed confused. His teeth still held his gallabaya. He seemed to slowly realize the person in the camera was him, letting the material out of his mouth and raising his head a bit to get a better look at himself. SNAP, I had the volume turned up on my camera and it seemed to surprise him as the picture momentarily froze, then disappeared. I tried to offer him a little money for letting us stay there and for letting me take his picture. He absolutely refused and I didn't want to ask again for fear of insulting him. When I put the camera down, he pointed at my phone. I was still not understanding his fascination. I assumed he wanted to see the picture, so I showed him. He wanted to see this camera again. I handed the phone to him on selfie mode. I was still not getting it. I was thinking he just wanted a better picture of himself, so I snapped a picture when he had his head up high (first picture) and then it all became clear. I sat back and just let him be - my camera on my phone on selfie mode, him, quietly studying his aging face for what may have been the first time. He turned his head back and forth, looking closely at all his features. When he handed it back, I decided that maybe he would be even more amazed when he saw the video feature - so I took this short video.
By this time, we were fast friends.
Gary then wanted to know more about how he pollinates the trees, so we asked him to show us. Obviously, I will never be a vlogger or photo journalist, because he gestured for me to video-tape him, but it didn't click in my mind what he was asking. Gary figured it out. However, by then, he had already shimmied up the tree and was in the palms. I took a poor video of him up in the branches, but then my phone rang and it was the driver - and the phone stopped video-taping. He came down the tree and again talked with our driver, who was on the road just out from the date palm grove we were standing in. However, we didn't know this, so Mohamed gestured that the driver was here and we should follow him. He walked us to our car, but before we could get there, he asked me to show him the video. Unfortunately, we were again in the sunlight and what little bit of video I got could not be seen. We thanked him over and over and parted ways.
Sometimes it is best just to go with the flow.
