Bedouin Hospitality

Last week for our Tuesday family outing group, we visited a Bedouin village a few minutes drive north of Yeruham. We were welcomed into the home of a woman named Salima who regularly receives school groups and others interested in learning about Bedouin life and culture. Here is a photo of Salima's house.

Salima led us into a large shelter in her yard where she receives groups. She explained that many people expect tents when they visit Bedouin villages but that no one lives in tents any more. She served us all sweet tea that she made on the wood stove in the middle of the tent.

Her son served the tea.

Salima answered all of the children's and parents' questions about Bedouin life.

She showed us a traditional mortar and pestle

and grinding stones to grind grains to make flour.

She invited us to look around her house.

Here is a photo of her kitchen.

There is a playground in their yard.

The family obtains electricity to power the television and washing machine and oven from solar panels in back of the house.

Here is an almond tree in bloom in Salima's yard.

Salima's daughter Balsam posed for a photo with Medad and Margalit. Balsam told me she wants to be a lawyer.

Salima prepared home made pita bread for us for snack.

She cooked the pita bread on an inverted pan over a fire.

Here's what the pita looked like when it was ready to eat.

Yum!

We watched from Salima's back yard as the sun went down over the Yeruham industrial zone.

Sailboats in the Desert?!

This week we traveled a half hour south of Yeruham to the Tzin wadi. A wadi is a channel  carved out of the desert by rainwater. Wadis are dry most of the time and then fill with water when it rains. It rained yesterday, so the Tzin wadi had water running through it. 

In this photo, you can see how the water carves out the rocks.

We explored the wadi.

These three children appeared to be getting into mischief, but their parents were nowhere to be seen.

Here's a cactus that is common to the area.

We made boats to sail in the pools of the wadi.

Here's Medad launching his boat.

And Margalit.

And Rachel.

This little boy wanted more adventure than mere sailing.

Amidst all of the fun, Margalit lost ANOTHER tooth. That makes five. We were planning on letting her pierce her ears for her upcoming seventh birthday. But at this rate, we may need to save up and get her dentures instead.

We saw a beautiful mermaid in the wadi.  (A wadimaid?)

As it got dark, we headed home.