A Parsec of Possibility: Sometimes, things just don't work out

Well, I think the title of the post says it all. We left the Wadi Rum yesterday (a week before schedule) and are now in Petra.

I am chalking it up to several things:

I had been fighting a cold for almost 10 days and everytime I started to win the battle, I would get sick again and then, Michel started to feel under the weather (He is in bed right now and we are having a quiet day)
The cultural differences on the business level were fatiguing.

I have very mixed feelings about the experience as a whole and I expect that this will not change.

I think that if Michel and I didn't have more than 20 years of hospitality experience behind us, the way that Zedane runs his business (and I have no reason to believe that any of the other Bedouins operate any differently than Z) probably would not have bothered us.

It was not only the "fluctuating" prices for clients but his gruff manner in talking to some of the clients and forcing options on them that they didn't want.

And then there was the state of the kitchen at camp. It was not completely unsanitary and certainly no one got sick from the food but it takes so little to keep a small kitchen clean and yet, it takes little effort to create a pig sty. When you see a serving platter on the floor and the cook scooping rice onto it from the pot on the floor and you know that it has been a good long time (at least 7 days) since the floor was washed, you start to question methods.

One night (about day 8) Michel lost his temper a bit with Zedane and showed him bags of rotting food on the counter and mouldy bread in the cupboard. Michel's point was that no one was "managing" the kitchen so food was being wasted and unsanitary conditions expanding. Then Michel pointed out that Zedane didn't pay us enough to clean this kinda stuff especially when we hadn't had a day off since we had started. There was much talking after this.

Here is where another cultural difference came up during Michel's talk with Zedane. We asked him to outline his expecations for us as the HelpX posting said 2-4 hours a day but we had been putting in 6-11 hour days. Zedane said that we should only work as hard as we wanted and that we should find time to explore the Wadi Rum. This is hard for people like Michel and I as we like to have our jobs outlined so we can guage for ourselves if we are doing a good job. However, the next day, I told Zedane that we wanted to take the following day off and possibly take a jeep tour to see some of the highlights of the Rum. He asked if we wouldn't prefer to have separate days off............really?

But I feel I also need to tell you that Zedane was good to us in some ways as well. He gave us some privacy in the communal tent, gave Michel a head scarf of his and some other nice things. Zedane is also a mover and shaker from what I have seen. I don't think his focus is on the camp business as I think he has bigger fish frying in the pan.

In the end, I am going to say that there was poor communication, getting lost in the shuffle (Zedane's focus being somewhere else) and some cultural differences. I think if someone could ask Zedane about our performance, he might have the same mixed feelings. I am sure that we probably did some cultural no-nos and it might have been hard for him to work with us. I know that I expressed my opinion (imagine that, me, expressing my opinion - that doesn't happen very often!) about the cleanliness of the camp (cigarette butts and packages in the Zarp pit). If I was Zedane I would think "Who are these pushy Westerners coming in and thinking they know my business!".

On the plus side, the people (including Zedane) were very nice and incredibly friendly and we will miss them.

Hamid, who is still pining for a lost love 2 years after losing her but who, when he smiles, lights up the room.

Mohamed, the son/nephew of Zedane, who is a fun-loving 20ish year old who feels at ease sharing personal information with Westerners (drugs, sex, etc).

Eghab, who is trying to grow his own business along side Zedane's and has some progressive ideas.

Hala, Zaed, Faed and Kaled, Zedane's children who would come "hang" with me in the afternoons at the office when it was quiet.

Um Zaed (Zaed's Mother), who didn't speak much English but who offered me treats from time to time.

So, all that aside, Michel and I talked about our next trip coming back to the Middle East to explore Israel and to go back to the Wadi Rum and do a trek for 4 or 5 days. It is so incredibly silent in the desert. You hear nothing but the wind. It is disconcerting and yet very relaxing. As we were about to go to sleep last night, Michel said he missed the Wadi Rum already!!! Wadi Musa (the town that services the tourism industry around Petra) is quite busy so it was anything but silent.

And now, a photo montage: