The Nubian Village

Our motorboat gets us to this mountain of sand that we are told is the Nubian Village. I think to myself, "oh lovely, only a 100 steps up to the top of this village." (Back and legs still hurting from pyramid and remember I have had little sleep at this point--the overnight train was just the night before.)

So we make our way up to this village. I know nothing about the Nubian people so it sounds to be exciting....we are invited to have dinner with a family. Can you imagine inviting 33 plus two tour guides so 35 people to your home and feeding them? It really is supposed to be our lunch, but because the train got all crazy with timing it is much later in the day about 4:00.

We walk through another market on our way to the home of our Nubian friend. As we make our way, we have to make way for the camels to pass through. Again, the men are very vocal to women (particularly me). We go to the entrance of this home which is completely amazing in color. The door was this vibrant turquoise/green color..we enter and there are no ceilings and no floors. The floor is this lush carpet of sand that we are told by the owner is changed (or brought in) twice a year. I took my shoes off to let my toes play in the sand of this place and believe me it is probably the most amazing sand I put my bare feet on ever. It felt light and fluffy--and yes it is all perception, but that is how it felt. There were really hardly and walls and yes I mentioned there are no ceilings hence no roofs really except for a couple. It is completely open to the earth this home. They don't normally have lights in their homes they use the light of the sun as their lighting and the light of the moon. The only reason they have lights now is because of our tourists that come to their village.

They have benches and seating in an area that looks to me to be a living room and that is where all 35 of us gather to eat. They put on a feast of food for us...yep more bread! Rice and carrots and green beans in a tomato sauce and chicken too. The food was actually quite good and one of the best meals thus far. Or it could be just that I was really hungry. As we ate the owner of the home, came and spoke to us about the Nubian people. He was really kind and open to us, but you could tell that he has done this so many times and it gets really old for him, but my thought is that he keeps doing it because of the money. I feel bad that this is the way they make their money because they have to have all these strangers come in to their home and take pictures and really disrupt their way of life. My only wish inside me as he spoke was that they find other ways to make money because while this may be educational for some people, I just feel like we "outsiders" (not particularly our spiritual group of beings) take advantage and do not fully appreciate their culture and history. I felt like there was so much more he could impart to us...but didn't. I didn't ask because the truth was I wanted to get up and walk around because my back was hurting sitting on that hard wood bench.

The one thing I did take from his talking was they in the village live as a cooperative community. One person grows one thing and shares with everyone else and it goes on and on that way. I think that it is so beautiful that they are truly a community caring for one another and taking care of one another with no expectations other than that is how it is. This family opened their home to us and when I saw how they did their dishes I felt for them....

We are also told that they keep baby crocodiles until they grow big enough and then they use them for food. It becomes their meat (makes me rethink the chicken hmmmm?). They are in a separate tank upstairs near the bathroom which by the way is a room with a door and a stone with a hole cut out as an opening for you to sit in...talk about primitive bathrooms...and I thought the "nasty train" was primitive. :) It was not where I wanted to go to the bathroom so I opted to wait until we got back to the bus...(I know I preferred a moving bus to a bathroom that was stationery.)

They really are cute little buggers...not my cup of tea if you will, but they are cute.

I walked around and saw that really the only rooms with a ceiling were the bedrooms and they were very low ceilings even me at 5'5 had to duck my head down to walk inside. As I walked back to the door to leave, I looked up at the beautiful night sky. IT was completely incredible the view of the stars...I took my camera up and looked at the ceiling and saw this amazing picture of orbs....

How amazing this culture is to have so many orbs above them at all times? You can feel the love, honor and respect for earth with these people...and so the universe rewards them by watching over them...

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