Extract from Essay No 5:“People & Places: Walk My Journey”;

published by HK Publishing, 2022

“…. Mohamed and his co-driver Ahmad, prepared a delicious Tunisian cuisine for dinner. We were treated like Sheikhahs that evening with all the attention and the good food. After dinner, we climbed our way up to the campfire. The camp fire warmed our bodies but our feet still felt cold. The trick Ahmed taught us was that if you dig into the sand and place your feet inside the hole, your feet would keep warm all night. I was rather anxious that scorpions or rattlesnake could have crept into my being.

We stayed this way for about an hour, braving the chilly winds, singing endlessly while straining our necks looking up at the beautiful stars. The song Starry, Starry Night by Vincent floated in my head. We kept on singing and talking. There we were enjoying the company of two Tunisian Arabs, who knew absolutely no English and two female visitors, who knew absolutely no spoken Arabic. All we did was to nod at each other, signing all through the night.

Just being there among the sands of the Sahara, under the desert sky was an experience of a lifetime, enjoying a small campfire minus the poetry and the mint tea, with two total strangers.”

Two Tunisian Arabs/Berber, Mohamed & Ahmed, who knew absolutely no English and we, knew no spoken Arabic, enjoying a small campfire in Douz Camp Mehari Zefraane.