Chapter 3: Wherein the author and her friends make their assault upon the castle

May 12, 2009

It was a fairly chilly night, and I had only one blanket, so I was glad enough to see the sun when it rose.  It warmed us up quite quickly.  With a good breakfast in us (including goat's butter and some amazing hummus) we were ready to storm the castle.  

I was among the first wave of attackers, and we fully expected to face grave danger, possibly ending with us looking either like a pin cushion or a pancake.  However, it appears that the men who guarded the castle deserted it long ago and the ghosts were off duty that day, so we arrived at the top, slightly winded, but otherwise none the worse for wear.  

The view from the top was quite lovely, in it own way.  We could see the bend of the rock in the hills.  We could see numerous caves where people had formerly lived.  Perhaps some are still inhabited.  We could see other forms of habitation and terracing.  The area may be fairly sparsely populated today, but at one time it was a happening place.  Which may perhaps be related to the prescence of a castle there.  Hmm...

The castle itself was quite impressive.  My Crusader/Mamluk archaeology is sadly lacking, so I can't tell you exactly what parts of the castle dated to what times, though there was clearly evidence of different occupations and constructions phases.  There were all sorts of rooms and passages, nooks and cranies to be explored.    We had heard that there was a "secret" passageway underground leading to the bottom of the hill, and in searching for it we found a couple interesting tunnels.  One of them was, in fact, the secret passage.  It was a long flight of what probably used to be stairs, but was now mostly just a slippery slope down into darkness.  We had 2 flashlights between 5 of us, which was probably a relatively good proportion.  The accustics were fun, and we could clearly hear others in our group decending behind us.  Really, how many people can say they've taken a secret passageway from inside a castle to the outside valley below?  That's the sort of thing you read about in books.  It was pretty sweet.

Once we re-emerged into daylight we headed back to camp for an 11am departure.  

We drove south.  South to the land of Job.  The land of Lawrence of Arabia and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.  The desert land of Wadi Rum.

We at lunch at a tourist stop and enjoyed our last bathrooms and running water for the next couple days.  We drove a ways on the bus until we met the "jeeps" that were to take us the rest of the way.  My first observation upon piling into my jeep was the the Bedouin driver had a can of some sort of liquid refreshment in his hand.  Alcoholic liquid refreshment, to be more precise.  Now, beer may have its place in the world, but I'm not sure its place is in the hand of a Muslim man, who isn't supposed to drink beer, and who is about to drive me across the desert.  Oh well.  We did have a crazy, though rather short ride.  At least we didn't get stuck, like some of the other jeeps.  In a short order we arrived at the Bedouin tent that was to be our home for the next two days.

On of the first sites that met us as we unloaded the jeeps and looked around was a goat and two sheep.  Our guide kindly informed us that they were to be our dinners for the next two days.  One of my friends promptly named the goat Bambi.  Pretty much made my day.  Our guide informed us that the goat would be slaughtered around 4...which gave us about an hour.  Not wanting to sit in the tent and sweat, a few of us went exploring a little ways.  We climbed up the little wadi to the right of the tent and then continued up to the sandstone formation closest to camp on the right.  The view of the desert from up there was amazing, and it wasn't even that high, compared to the formations around it.  We didn't stay up there long as we wanted to be sure to not miss the slaughter.  

Shortly after we got back to camp, the Bedouin, along with our guide and tourist police who both have some Bedouin background, grabed one of the sheep and took it to a sandstone ledge where they quickly cut its throat and then proceded to skin and gut it and cut it into pieces.  They then repeated the process with Bambi.  

(Pause for a comment from the author regarding some related thoughts)

I think, perhaps, that often times the thought of something is worse than the reality.  I don't particularly enjoy the idea of blood.  But the reality is bearable.  Butcher would probably not be my trade of choice, but if I had to kill and butcher an animal, I could deal with it.  It makes me wonder about the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.  Perhaps it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  It would still be horrendous, the amount of animals that died in a day, the amount of blood shed...But perhaps the thought of it is worse than the reality.

I rather think that way about spiders and scorpions and snakes too.  They're not exactly my favorite things, though I choose to try to enjoy them.  I remember, when I would visit Wibaux as a child, always being a bit nervous walking through tall grass, for fear that I would meet with a rattle snake.  Really, though, the incidence of human-snake contact is probably fairly low.  And even in a worse case scenero where the person is bit, death is by no means certain.   In other words, our thoughts about these critters and our fear of them is rather disproportionate.  Not that we shouldn't be cautious.  But even at their worst, all they can do is end our life, which should not terrify us as believers in Christ.  We have hope even in death.  

I think that maybe movies and TV shows play off this idea of disproportionate fear.  They try to intensify our fear by the images shown and the music played.  We think (or at least I do), "I could never survive in that situation!  I would be terrified, sick to my stomach, utterly miserable, etc."   And in reality, I'm not sure that's true.  I'm sure the situations they portray wouldn't be just a walk in the part, but they might not be as terrifying as they portend either.  

I could give other thoughts on this topic, but I'll stop here and return you to the regularly scheduled program. :)

Ok, where was I?  Oh yes, after the slaughter some of us headed out and tried to climb up in another area.  This one was a little more trick.  I admit, I was a bit nervous at times.  I'm not the best rock climber to begin with, and then I was probably also shorter and less athletic than the other people climbing with me...so I was nervous.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, we were seen by the camp and yelled at to get down - too dangerous.  *sigh*  

So instead we climbed the sand dune.  Let me tell you, climbing a sand dune isn't as easy as it looks.  For every 2 steps forward you slide back 1.5.  So its discouraging and exhausting work.  Fun to run down, though.  From the top of the dune we climbed another little sandstone bluff and looked out over the desert again.  

We climbed up there again a little later to watch the sunset and to see the stars come out.  

That night dinner wasn't actually until about 10...so we lay on the sand dune for a long time and looked at the stars and talked.  It was lovely.  Eventually, though, they called us for dinner and we ran down the side of the dune.  Flat bread, rice, and lamb and goat.  It was tasty.  I'm not sure that I'm a huge fan of lamb and goat...probably because they're largely fat, not meat.  Nonetheless, it was good.  Favorite quote of the night:

Student: "Hey guys, my meat just literally fell off the bone.  I picked up and plop, it literally fell off the bone."

Dr. Wright: "Hey guys, my meat just symbolically fell of the bone!"

Oh, and the second best quote:

Dr. Wright: "Hey guys, it doesn't get Bedouin this!"

Students: *groan*

That night most of us grabbed blankets and mattress pads from the tent and climbed up on the sand dune to sleep.  One big sleep-over under the stars. :)