Sunday to Dera Village

Another 4 ½ hour bus ride.  However, I lied before when I said the previous roads were terrible.  This was the worst, for about 1 hour, it was nothing but ruts, sand, dust and the crazy traffic.  We finally got onto a real highway for about another hour, then got off again to go onto worse and worse roads.  When the road stopped, we climbed out and got into jeeps to go on the dirt road for about 2 miles to a little village in the middle of nowhere.  They have a “resort” here for us of little cabins.  The first one we went into had an overwhelming odor of fumigation.  I almost barfed.  We moved to another cabin where the smell is only slightly obnoxious.  After an afternoon on the lawn playing Cricket and having tea, we took a camel ride to a tiny village.  There are 12 families in the village with what looked like 1 house with electricity.  There were about 100 people and lots of goats, cows, and a few chickens.  The men greeted us with a ceremony with music and dancing.  He got us up to dance and proceeded to do what most of us thought was a hora.  We went in a circle holding hands, and then went to the center.  If they had put someone on a chair, I would have thought we had found a lost tribe.  They showed us the houses and the women preparing the food.  The women were crushing peppers and garlic and basil by hand on a stone.  By and large, they were friendly and smiling, but the young girls were somewhat reluctant.