Delirium in the desert

I think that I am still here. In the oasis,. In the desert. Though the mirages have started to enter my mind and i have the most spectacular, realistic dreams where I am on a soft, thick, king-sized mattress covered with the thickest, softest, comforter, light and fluffy because the temperature is ideal. Everything is clean and bright and my every comfort is assured.

Then I wake to find that i am curled in a ball on the twin-sized pad on my platform bed in my hotel where the people are extremely welcoming and warm but nothing works. The bike I rented popped a tire in the first 5 kilometers, the computer has a mind of its own and discards my emails before I have a chance to read or send, the third floor toilet has likely never been properly flushed...

This was a difficult morning. I am still battling my cold. though the fevers have subsided. Dont worry - this is not some terrible African Flu Epidemic, I used to get this exact cold every winter though I have thankfully been spared the last two years. It just consists of uncontrollable dry coughing fits. They seem to only improve when I fall asleep or by breathing warm humid air. Warm I have. Humid I do not. And one can only take so many showers a day before people start to think you are a germaphobe.

So after blowing my nose for the billionth time in two days, the inevitalbe happened and I got a small nosebleed. No worries, but when i went to clean up I find that the water in the hotel had somehow turned off. It was too early for any shops to be open so here I am with no water anywhere, a pounding head, a bloddied face, and the strong desire to catch the next flight to Seattle.

But we persevere. And adversity merely helps us to see where we think our limits are. The owner of the cafe downstairs arrived at that moment and gave me a bottle of water so i went back to bed.

So it has been a few days so I will try to recap. Siwa is one of those small small towns where you see everything there is to see in five minutes but five years later you are still finding new things. It is a town of myriad surprises and many rewards. The people here are extremely welcoming, it is touristy enough that a ton of English is spoken and I have made friends here more easily than anywhere. In the Beduin Restaurant I had to politely decline invitation to eat dinner with a group of men so that i could accept invitation to have tea with the owner, Qaddura, before meeting my party for dinner. I order tea at the coffeeshop and the proprieter comes over a bit later with some bananas and local dates and won't even begin to take no for an answer.

In fact I have watched many tourists arrive in my five days here and I can see their warried, cairo-worn looks. They assume everyone is out to scam them, that everything has a double meaning. And I know that I was that way when I arrived. Sometimes I even pull them asside (the Americans and Canadians with whom we have an automatic trust) and tell them that this isn't Cairo and it really is ok to drop your guard a bit.