The Travel Bug bites again!

In anticipation of our January trip to Morocco, I feel it is time to post about our trip to Israel
earlier in this year when Maya was in her ultra portable five month state.

A week into the trip we decided to explore the ethnic culture in Israel. We sat for tea and coffee with a Bedouin man while he told us about how the Bedouin live. The traditional Bedouin are nomadic. They live in one tent made from hand spun goat hair and wool. Handmade blankets hanging on the inside of the tent partition off sleeping and living areas.
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If the host pours half a cup of tea or coffee for you, this means you are welcome. If he fills your cup, he is asking you to finish and leave. The men drink first, then the women. The green coffee beans are roasted over an open fire, then crushed in a special wooden or metal bowl in a musical fashion:
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We visited a village of land workers known as Falahem who used to lived in caves as recently as the sixties. A local family prepared a feast for us in the salon area of their cave. The interior was surprisingly roomy and comfortable. The temperature outside was sweltering, yet the interior of the cave maintained a comfortable 60-70. Our host poured coffee from a feenjan and we feasted on Arabic vegetable salads and roasted chicken.
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This day with the Bedouins was just enough to wet the appetites of Jean-Claude and Ido, so we left Maya with Safta Ella and the three of us set off to Jordan, where the Bedouin still live the traditional nomadic lifestyle. We drove with our Bedouin guide for an hour past the Jordan-Israel border. Most of the drive was off-road into the mountains.
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We visited around six families. Every tent we visited had a similar process- the Bedouine woman sees a vehicle approaching, quickly gathers up the children, and runs out of sight into the sleeping area of the tent. The man invites us in for tea and conversation, smokes tobacco he grew himself, and we say goodbye. They are very poor, very dirty, and very friendly. Most of what they sustain themselves on is what they can provide for themselves in the wild.
The Bedouine woman is not allowed to speak to or be seen with a man other than her husband. I was the only one allowed to speak with and photograph the women and children.
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As you can expect from a trip to Israel, we ate very well. Mimi and Batia filled our bellies with delicious Mediterranean and Moroccan food. Most of the trip was spent with family. The first few days were all about showing off Maya. She was having so much fun with all the smiling faces and people speaking to her in Hebrew. And she enjoyed something she had never experienced in Seattle-- warm weather! Maya played in the backyard and spent time relaxing in the shade with only a single layer of clothing on. She would have been perfectly happy to stroll naked through the streets of Israel.