Living with the Bedouin People

I met my Croatian husband in South Africa, and we decided to live in Croatia after marriage, and have learned the Croatian language.

I read an interesting story about a woman who approved of that lifestyle. Amazingly, love can lead a person far from home.

I know that from my experience and to read about someone else, who had gone through such great obstacles, and still would want more from a nomadic life, is truly amazing!

Her story is as follows:

While on her travels for a week to Petra, Jordan, she met a handsome man and chatted for a bit. He wore a heavily fringed and tasselled red and white cloth twisted upon his head, called a mandrel.

Nabatean people carved the Treasury by hand over two thousand years ago. Nobody knows if the Treasury is a temple or a tomb, the Bedouin people think the Pharaoh’s treasure is in an urn at the top.

The urn was placed there as a part of the living rock; it had been hacked so the full part of the urn is not visible.

Who are the Bedouin people?

Bedouins are nomads and live in tents and caves with no education or sanitation. The young man enlightened the woman about the Bedouin people and asked the woman to stay for the night.

She was looking for an adventure and was accompanied by a friend. The invitation was accepted.

The doorway to the cave was just high enough so that they did not have to bend.

They entered the cave and their eyes adjusted when they saw an almost square cave. only about five by six meters with a low arched roof just out of arm's reach, and a rough concrete floor.

There was a Primus stove, a tray of glasses, a cooking pot, and a few plates on the floor.

A meal was served that evening: a thick goulash with potatoes, onions, canned peas, tomato puree, and corned beef. Some bread was served which he called shrank.

The toilet is down the hill behind some bushes and not a lifestyle she had in her past life.

A few days later after staying at a hotel they decided to move on with their travels as planned but were called back by their guide to see a Bedouin wedding.

The two women attended the wedding and went back home to England to get on with their lives. Going back only made Sheryl see where she belonged.

The romance at Bedouin allowed her to leave and return to Bedouin. Sheryl had to go back and marry that wonderful man she fell in love with while on holiday.

She knew this was the place for her and that she would rather be in Petra with the one she wanted, her husband-to-be.

Sheryl did what she wanted and did not care for anything else in the world but to be with her new love.

No politics or philosophy, just her and a wonderful man who started his day by praying.

She was not sure if it was the right way, and of what she was getting herself into, but knew she had to know more by trying it out.

Her wedding dress was made from synthetic material and is called a Mudra dress the preparations for the wedding were underway immediately.

Soon it became clear to Sheryl, that she could not speak Arabic with everything happening so quickly, she did not have the time to think about how it would be to meet up with the rest of the family.

The Arabic man being married to a foreign woman was certainly a catch for him.

This woman did not know how to milk a goat, how to make bread or how to start a fire and he certainly was not going to move in to take care of her in-laws.

A tough one to think about much later in that marriage and in that kind of lifestyle. They went up to a mountaintop and sat up there to view the wedding celebrations from other caves.

The Bedouin tribe who Sheryl was a part of had shown her the true meaning of life from their culture.

Although many families had settled in Petra and no longer wandered the desert with their herds of goats, looking for water and food they insisted they were still Bedouin people.

Though she was welcomed and loved by all, it took the woman a long time to realize that after her arraignment she had become part of something larger than she had ever thought of.

The other part of her marriage she never gave much thought to was never going to be him and there are also others involved in their lives.

Family and friends also play a big role in their lives.

Learning a language was total immersion after a long day working as the nurse at the local clinic meant she had to know more about the language.

Their daughter was born in a public hospital on the south side of Amman in a predominantly Palestinian area.

A different lifestyle in Bedouin had surprised Sheryl.

Her son was born a few years later and they got news of moving into the new settlement. Redbrick homes with concrete floors and slabs for roofs and the doors were solid metal.

It meant losing friends and the clinic she worked in was closed, so moving away was put off. The decision to stay and miss out on her way of life had disappeared.

Her husband Mohammed was a diabetic, and sadly he died in the comfort of their own cave home.

The kids grew older and went back to England to further their education. Sheryl went back to England to be with her family and now lives close to her brother.

I would not have been able to live in such conditions and is difficult to be able to live in such conditions, especially if you are not what you want in life.

It takes great courage, and lots of thought to be able to live in a cave and the sanitation part is another way I know will not go with me. To be able to live in such conditions one must be born into that lifestyle.

Would you live without sanitation and in a cave?

The choices I make must be carefully thought of before taking the plunge. Some people do enjoy adventures and seek that experience as much as I enjoy different experiences.

Hygiene does make a difference to me.

A challenging lifestyle, and to give up all you must go and live a nomadic life is a great experience for a day.

The Bedouin people were loving and friendly to Sheryl.

They felt Mohammed had a good catch with a foreign woman whom he did not have to pay for as others do in the nomadic tradition. A lifestyle that may not work out for everyone.

Lots have changed and modern lives have taken over though some people have no choice but to live in such poor conditions.

I look at it as poor conditions but if people choose to live that way and don't want to move on then that is what they have to live by, their choices are made and that is how they want to be in their lives.