Saturday, March 28, 2020

I admit that I have not blogged in quite a while.
Suddenly with travel out of the question, most of my work being done from my home office and the ability to actually take a Saturday off, I find myself wondering what to do and Blogging seemed to be one options.
I was talking to a neighbor yesterday (yes, I was maintaining physical distancing - though I am absoloutley opposed to Social Distancing as that is basically contrary to the very essence of the human nature's need to be in and live in community!) and we were discussion the likelihood of a new normal.
Might it be that we have come to the place where we are so driven by health fears that we will permanently make major lifestyle changes? Will I still want people to visit my home? Will I want to visit in other people's homes? Can I no longer give a friend a hug?
Bottom line is that I am not sure that I can live like that.
Like most things in life, when change happens we at some point must decide how I respond to that change. Do I reject it? Do I embrace it? Do I find a way to face the change while being able to maintain some semblance of normalcy?
Right now, I am willing to take the precautions necessary to protect not just myself but my family and neighbors. What that looks like in three weeks, six weeks, six months or a year from now... Who knows?
I take comfort in knowing that my God is not worried, not surprised and not stressed out. So I need not be either.
Enjoy the temporary peace and quiet...
Ken

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Waddi Rum

From there we went to a place called Waddi Rum.

Waddi Rum is a desert in the middle of the most unique and barren mountains.  The mountains are rough and craggy with absolutely no vegetation on them.  The scenes are incredible and it is the valley were the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" was filmed.

We drove into the desert to what looke like a large Bedouin camp and got off the bus.  From there we got on jeeps, or more correctly 20 or 30 year old Toyota Desiel four wheel drive pickup trucks and they took us out into the desert. Some of the group started the trip on a camel ride (not me) and met us at our first stop.



The first stop was a desert oasis.  Height up the side of a barren mountain a spring came out of the rock.  The Bedouin people has capped the spring, because a few feet after it came up it disappeared back into the ground, and ran a plastic pipe down the side of the mountain to a holding talk and a watering trough for the camels and sheep.  We explored some rock carvings which based on the writing and alphabet used were written into the stone by caraven traders pre-Christ.
When the people on camals finally caught up to us, we all piled into the back of the trucks and again headed off into the desert.
Our next stop was a sand dune.  Because of the mount of iron in the rock there the sand is a deep red. 
 

While it was hot, the sand was actually quite cool as it had rained there and the first four inches of sand were damp.  Below the dune we were served a Bedouin tea that was a black team that they added a spoonful of a cinnamon and sage and cadamon or some such spice to a whole pot of the tea.  It was very good.  They were offering bags of the spice mix and I thought that this is something the family at home might enjoy, but hesitated in making the decision and before I knew it we were on our way.  (And of course, I have not seen it for sale again anywhere! Aargh...)

We went to a sand dune, to a spring, and then to our campsite.

Tents. perminant ones, for sure, but tents. The place we eat was an open one side tent, and the washrooms were two sinks and three "Stalls." All was shared with men and women. All 33 of us.



We ended up going for a walk to some nearby spectacular rock formations and then they fed us a supper cooked over coals in the ground, veggies, chicken and lamb.

No power. Could not put TP in the toilet (shades of D.R.) and it got very cold. They gave us lots of blankets so kept warm.

In the morning we got up, had breakfast of tea and yogart and pita bread and jeeped back to the bus.