A Day in the Tents

So ( I think I start every entry with so. . .), my friend D goes out to visit the Bedouin ladies that live out in the tents about once a week.  She does health lessons and sometimes checks blood pressure or blood sugar.  She also just listens to them and tries to help them.

Yesterday, we were talking and she was planning on going today, but her 4wheel drive vehicle has been acting up and she didn't think she should drive out into the middle of nowhere!  So, my wonderful husband says-I will stay home with the kids and you can drive our truck and go with D.

Well, we left about 8am this morning and drove about an hour south of where we live to a small village where we picked up a local friend (S) that is related to many of the families that live in the tents.

I am driving the truck and here we go off road-so you know there will be some adventure:)  We are driving down into the valley over sand and rocks and I am trying to follow her last minute directions.  Once we are down, she points to this tent that is really far away and says this is the first one.  We start in their direction only to come up on a wadi (dry river bed) that I can't cross in the truck!  So-S and D get out of the truck and start walking to see where we missed the turn off.  I do like a 50 point turn around (so as not to hit all the big rocks) and head back following alongside them.

We finally find the road and they get back in and we go over some really rough place but we get there.  We visit with a sweet lady there who is home alone and working very hard.  Most of these women look about 20 years older than they really are, because they live such a hard life.  They put up these huge goat hair tents, cook everything from scratch (without electricity), wash the clothes, take care of the children and most of the time take care of all the animals as well.  We check her blood sugar and blood pressure and they were both good, so we tried to encourage her.  She will be coming to see Nathan and another Dr. we will have there soon.

After this first visit, we went on to visit 3 other tents, all within the same area but about a 5-10 minute drive from each other.  This is where the story gets funny and typical in this part of the world when someone from the outside comes around :)  EVERY tent we were in commented on how they watched us go down the OLD road to the first tent, they watched S&D get out, and me turn around and finally find the NEW road to cross the wadi.  When I say road I don't think it really qualifies.  Everybody knows when there are new people around :)

We have a great morning visiting 4 tents and then it is time to head up the hill back to S's village.  As we are going up the road I realize that my gas light is on.  I know-Wendi, you should have checked before you left that morning.  However, I am so used to Nathan driving that it never occurred to me.  We begin discussing our options.  The only gas station D know about is a good drive away and up a really steep hill-We are in trouble!  S hears our discussion and says, No problem there is a gas station here in my village.  D is like where? (She has never seen one.)  We back up about a block and S gets out and goes up to her Aunts house (written in spray paint on the wall outside is gas for sale).  So I proceed to spend probably twice as much on about 6 liters of gas, AND they fill it up with unmarked cans from the back yard using an old coke bottle cut in half and a piece of hose attached to it!

BUT-it was well worth it and we made it home safely! Praise the Lord!