„I have to make pray.“ He said when I just stared at
him in my out-most confusion. „What do you have to do here?“ I asked him while
looking at my surroundings, red mountains, sandy roads and a man, a few meters
from the road, who seemed to me at my first glance to be just stumbling over there
doing nothing in particular.
„I have to pray, you know Muslim-time, I will be just five minutes, you can go out the car if you like.“ He said and then parked the car on the side of the road next to the wanderer and jumped out. I stayed in the car and watched Amrahim approach this man and exchanging some words before the man handed him a bottle of water which he used to clean his feet and hands properly before embracing the earth with his hands. I snacked on his chips and realized that this was a very strange situation; I‘m on my way to Habiba farm near Nuwaibe north in the Sinai, my driver, is an Egyptian man wearing a white dress and a withe and red, long headpiece who's praying in the middle of nowhere and I´m eating chips, which I normally don´t even enjoy at all. But I figured it was a weird enough situation and I was quite hungry. „Salam aleikum,“ said Ambrahim when he returned to the car chewing leaf with a grin on his face. He offered me one and I reluctantly accepted it and quietly watched him stuff himself with more of those before I decided that if he‘s eating it, it must not be very poisonous. They tasted quite nice actually, kind of spicy but strangely nice.
„I have to pray, you know Muslim-time, I will be just five minutes, you can go out the car if you like.“ He said and then parked the car on the side of the road next to the wanderer and jumped out. I stayed in the car and watched Amrahim approach this man and exchanging some words before the man handed him a bottle of water which he used to clean his feet and hands properly before embracing the earth with his hands. I snacked on his chips and realized that this was a very strange situation; I‘m on my way to Habiba farm near Nuwaibe north in the Sinai, my driver, is an Egyptian man wearing a white dress and a withe and red, long headpiece who's praying in the middle of nowhere and I´m eating chips, which I normally don´t even enjoy at all. But I figured it was a weird enough situation and I was quite hungry. „Salam aleikum,“ said Ambrahim when he returned to the car chewing leaf with a grin on his face. He offered me one and I reluctantly accepted it and quietly watched him stuff himself with more of those before I decided that if he‘s eating it, it must not be very poisonous. They tasted quite nice actually, kind of spicy but strangely nice.
„It‘s from his farm“ he said to me looking towards the
stumbling man with the praying water. I look around the fields of sand and rocky mountains, there
didn't seem to be anything resembling a farm in any way. Then I noticed some
wires in some very non-obvious way and I guess that´s where he grows his treasures
leafs. Supposedly he has some aubergine and tomatoes as well, but I would never
have guessed it in a million years when we drove away.
He brought me to Habiba Farm safe and sound right
before sunset where I met with the other volunteers where they were finishing
their working day on their dirty feet
with a wild tan on their faces.
So here I am. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere I
guess, trying to settle in a place without a roof and look forward to farming tomorrow.