The Occasionally Magnificent Seven

A belated Merry Christmas

Posted on by Anna

There have been a surprising number of camels in our lives lately, given the background rate of camel exposure over the 15 years or so preceding this trip. As a means of transportation, I’m not sure the camel makes up in romanticism what it loses in practicality. As a food source, my limited exposure suggests that it is a necessity for the Bedouin, a novelty for the tourist, and not much in between. Various members of our group have really NOT appreciated our experiences with camels for one reason or another. And yet, there is something that I find enchanting about the camel, the ship of the desert, an animal with tremendous endurance and the unique ability to function in an extreme climate. Never underestimate the power of Orientalism,.

Prior to our current travels, a camel, to me, was synonymous with Christmas. The camels were, of course, the mode of transportation chosen by the three kings, right? Unfortunately, as the pastor of our church in Palo Alto, Dave Howells, has taught us each year in his Christmas Eve children’s message, the Bible never says that they rode camels, or that they were kings, or even that there were three of them. So clearly that is just one more of those syncretic cultural crusts that we have stuck on the holiday like snow and pine trees and candy. That’s fine with me. I love camels and I will continue to have my fun each Christmas with my Playmobil Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, who share two Playmobil camels as they travel around our home en route to the Playmobil nativity scene between Christmas and Epiphany.

Well, no Playmobil nativity scene this year, but plenty of camels.

I believe Jeremy adequately covered our camel trek in Morocco in one of his posts, but here’s one more shot of Rowena in her Berber headdress awaiting her turn to mount one of the trusty steeds.
OK, just one more from the Morocco trip: rare picture of teenager smiling. Thanks, camel.
Camels took us to this unbelievable place in Egypt, the St. Simeon monastery on the west bank in Aswan. I briefly considered staying here forever and letting my family continue on for the rest of their lives without me. It would be the perfect spot for an Easter sunrise service, a retreat center, or a boutique hotel.
However, on the ride back, the guides set up a race: the camel I was riding with Libbey faced off against Shefler’s camel at a brisk canter (trot? I’m not sure about the correct terms for camel locomotion). I had never done anything other than a steady plod on a camel before, so maybe leaving the monastery was worth it after all. Think Lawrence of Arabia bouncing up and down on his camel as he returns having rescued Gasim from the desert.
The guides really seem to know how to handle these ferocious creatures. I didn’t get spit on or bitten even once. Once a camel nearly threw Shefler off, but other than that our interactions were purely pleasant.
In Dubai, we got to go to the camel races. Here’s my uncle Mark, who has joined us for the month, watching with Rainier & Nelson. You can barely see some camels headed down the track on the right. The enjoyment for the normal spectator is somewhat diminished by the fact that the track is 4km long and you only get to see the start and finish. Notice all the SUVs driving alongside the track, however; those are the camels’ owners following along. The camels were, until recently, ridden by small children who were trafficked for that purpose and rather expendable, as camel racing is not the safest sport. Thanks to some modern reforms in the camel racing industry, however, they are now ridden by very small robots controlled by the owners as they ride alongside in their SUVs. Looks like a lot of fun from that vantage point.
Here we are above the starting gate waiting around for the races to start. They were scheduled for 2pm, but nothing was happening by 2:15 or so. Perhaps local custom is less punctual than I am used to? Or what are we waiting for?
We were waiting for this guy. As we were wondering what was going on, a helicopter gradually appeared carrying the Crown Prince of Dubai and his retinue. After landing at the helipad at the racetrack, the prince et al. hopped in a black Mercedes SUV and barrelled over to the starting line, where, after some brief ceremonial greetings, the race started and they joined the other (all white) SUVs in racing around the track to control their robot jockeys. Rainier noticed that one of the prince’s camels won EVERY race.
Another camel encounter in Dubai: camel milk chocolate, made into a hollow camel much like a chocolate Easter bunny. You can buy bars, too. In my opinion, pretty much indistinguishable from regular chocolate, but nonetheless a good gimmick, especially for Christmas!
Finally, I’ll leave you with a song that I heard for the first time last Christmas, “Home by Another Way”, by James Taylor. This was yet another brilliant selection by our church organist, Joe Guthrie, who performed it with one of the young men of the congregation (was it Peter Tarantino?). Anyway, when I first heard it I was taken with the conceit, because that passage in the Bible has always had resonance for me. This year I have been mulling the lyrics over and over in my head and trying to understand what they mean. Well, obviously a lot of things, but what I am hearing at the moment is that I can’t always expect my plans to work out as expected, and that sometimes you have to shift gears en route. We’re constantly working on that over here at the Occasionally Magnificent Seven.

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