the arrival

If this sounds glossy, it's because that first night was a blur to experience.

We all took a bus down Wadi Rum together. The person managing our homestay picked us up and drove us all to Wadi Rum in the back of trucks. The truck ride was awesome.



Once we were there, they dropped us off with families in the village. Three of us left with Abu Laith, Um Laith, and Rana--not that I caught either of the adult's names at the time. The other two classmates got dropped off with various families along the way. Once I arrived at the camp, the twenty or so people there threw words and names at me non-stop, and the only name I routinely remembered was Rana. There was another couple there the first night, who ran and taught at the school. One of the teachers was also there, named Amal, and she was very kind to me. She covered most of her face whenever men were around; it must have been personal to some degree, because her veil was clearly designed that way, but it's also significant that she may well have been the only woman there who wasn't related to most of the men around. I also remember thinking a little girl named Suwar was awesome--fun and adventurous--but I didn't see her much after that until the last night in the village; that was true of most of the people I met that first evening. That was very characteristic of the experience: being surrounded by people without knowing which ones were your family and which you were never going to see again. Anyway, all the kids were playing on the mountain, which I regret not exploring more before we moved camp. The teachers and all the kids but Laith left abruptly, because they had school the next morning. We were settling into bed when a truckload of people came and hung out for awhile. There were two waves of visitors, I believe. At one point the men got up in a line and started singing. The singing was like nothering else, very gutteral. At the end they started just making cool noises, like beat-boxing or a capella techno. It was sweet. They were really into my reaction during the singing. I was clapping along, but wouldn't get up there with them. I went to sleep while there were still people over.