Bedouin and camel in Wadi Rum, Jordan : NPR
Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
They are Ouda al-Salam, a Bedouin resident, and his camel, Bahr (his name means “sea” in Arabic — probably because camels are known as the ships of the desert). This desert, with its strange rock formations, is where Star Wars, The Martian and other films were made, because it really looks otherworldly.
For most of the year the soil is sand colored. But at the end of winter, after the rains, the green color bursts here! (You can see a line of them here behind Salam and the sand.)
When I visited in mid-February, the ground was covered with jointed anabis and tiny purple flowers used in soap and tea. The Bedouins say that thorny plants can be toxic to camels: they put knitted muzzles to prevent them from eating them. Desert truffles – a more affordable cousin of the forest truffle – also appear here after the rain.
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