Connecting Cultures: 2008 Girls Desert Journey
To celebrate the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008, Connecting Cultures will work with 36 young people from Europe and the Arab world. The first journey for girls aged between 17-25 took place in the Sharqiya Sands in Oman in February 2008. The second journey, for boys, will take place on Jebel Akhdar in Oman in April 2008.
Our support for this project adds to the previous grant that the MBI Al Jaber Foundation gave in 2005 to support the Connecting Cultures Arctic expedition and to the Desert Safari in 2007.
Please read the daily progress reports from the 2008 Girls Desert Journey below, sent via their Inmarsat connection.
Expedition Reports
Day 1, February 7th 2008
All the group arrived safely in Muscat last night and this morning. We are now sitting around the fire in the centre of the Sharqiya Sands, listening to Arabic music and enjoying a spectacular night sky. The day has been spent travelling from Muscat to Ibra, and then into the sands where we arrived late afternoon. On arrival the young people took part in various teambuilding activities in an effort to discover more about each other. They have been asked to consider what the word “Culture” means to them during the course of this evening, and the plan for tomorrow is to develop what they come up with and identify the key ingredients essential for intercultural debate. The camels will arrive mid morning, and we will head off deeper into the sands just before lunch.
Mark Evans
Day 2, February 8th 2008
After a zero degree night, a walk up the golden dune was the perfect start to the day. After breakfast, we formed a circle where the team gathered for a bonding exercise. Seventeen girls from eight countries gave a personal definition of what they believed culture meant. Meanings ranged from culture being a unique tradition experienced by a society which could be carried along through different times and areas. Although culture is a main factor of conflicts between nations, we all agreed that it should also be an instrument to understand others and improve on.
A forty minute camel ride was the next program on the agenda. The relaxing ride through the glamorous sceneries and bright blue skies gave the poetic setting to reflect upon nature’s beauty as well as the five most important things which affects our life today. Stopping for a short break under the shade of a lonely tree, the most important game of the day took place. We were divided into two teams where the main objective was to record the fastest time for the “connecting cultures” group. This was to take place in four rounds and tallying each groups time. Strategies and competitive planning submersed both teams, which de-focused(?) us from the goal of the game. Instead of aiming to better our overall time, we focused on beating the other team.
Discussions followed our activity where we all agreed that in today’s world, nations and societies focus on a narrow sphere of bettering themselves rather than the world at large. Following lunch, we set out through the Wahiba desert and towards our camp.
Rifaa Al-Harthy: Oman
Against a background of sand, tents and camels I have a moment to rethink the first day in the dessert. Thousand Nights or in Arabic: Alf Leila, was the place where we woke up and shared the first beautiful moment of the trip; watching the sun come up behind the dunes. That’s all we needed to quickly forget the night, where the temperature declined to 0, we were freezing. The fact that we are all strong women is proven; we survived the test! I can’t wait for the other challenges that are ahead of us.
A good breakfast, keeping our diaries up to date and packing; the only things standing in our way, let’s begin this amazing trip! Parallel to these activities, the eight camels that will be our transport for the coming days arrived. All fired up and ready to go eight of us got on the camels where the other half of the group followed by foot along with two cars containing everything we will need during our stay in the middle of nowhere.
At four a clock we arrived at our camp where everything was already arranged to receive us. At what time we arrived actually doesn’t matter. That’s one of the first lessons we learned; in the dessert time plays no role.
What a great contrast with our normal lives where time plays an enormous role. Rethinking this first day I’m seated next to one of the tents. The perfect moment to make one mental picture after the other. In no way can you catch this scenery in a photograph. I’m thankful for being one of the seventeen girls that’s part of this trip. The group is formed by ambitious, multi-talented and divers - in the broadest sense of the word – women. Using different tasks helps us share our experiences, perceptions and knowledge. We all view the world in a different way, sharing this views with each other hopefully will make us more aware of the fact that we are all just a little part of mankind. History has proven that focusing on the differences will only make us move away from each other and constantly misunderstand each other. Being in the dessert with a multicultural group of women we are far away from the internet, mobile phones and television. Now that we are away from everything that could possibly destract us, we can finally focus on each other. In the end communication forms the base for cultures to connect.
Rachida Abdellaoui, Morocco-Netherlands
Day 3, February 9th 2008
On the evening of the second day, whilst sitting round the camp fire, our next activity was to talk about our country and cultures for five minutes to the rest of the group. A few worried faces suggested that five minutes would be difficult to fill. However, one hour later, we had covered just two out of our ten countries. And having so much more to learn from each other, we carried on talking late into the night.
We woke up after a slightly warmer and comfortable night and began our trek once again either on foot or camel, whilst either just chatting to one another or discussing the cultural issue we had been given earlier in the morning. After a few more toilet stops behind the sand dunes (or as Aisha referred to as the ‘rest-dunes’ instead of ‘rest-rooms’) we arrived at a beautiful lunch spot. With a well needed shade set up by the Bedu, we played an enjoyable but terribly frustrating game where we had to pass as many tennis balls as possible from one area to another with a set of complicated and restricting rules applying! After looking at how we had organized ourselves, the game left us pondering: what is leadership? We discussed this along with our main discussion for the day: what misunderstanding do different cultures experience and why?
After lunch, we picked up our bags (and those who were lucky enough hopped on their camel) and set off for the last stretch to our campsite, where we are looking forward to an exciting evening and the end of another extremely cultural day!
Corinne Timmis, UK
On the night of the 8th we all gathered we all gathered round the warmth of the fire in the pitch dark of the desert night, following the connecting cultures logo, discussing each of our cultures, and contributing by adding comments and questions by others. Initially each of us froze in panic at the thought of giving a 10 minute presentation about the country which we represent. An hour later, we weren’t even half way through. Each group was eager to share their bit of the world with the rest.
It was our turn to talk of our heritage and the nation which we represent. To the delights of others, we began by singing with pride our Saudi national anthem. Following this we discussed various aspects of our country with our group and welcomed the many question others had that were addressed to our country. The cultural exchange of the 17 girls lasted through the late hours of the night. With the great insight with which we gained, we lost track of time and it seemed that the shimmering stars were calling us to bed. Upon the morning of the 9th we were given the objective to think of three misconceptions of our culture during the day’s trekking and camel ride. Again, we were surprised by the amount of reflection that resulted in more than just three misconceptions. As all the representatives were gathered under some shade after the trekking we managed to collaborate many ideas, of which some had overlapped across countries.
With the knowledge we have gained and our endless discussions we desire to share and learn more, wishing this was not ending in a just a few days.
Fatema Abuidrees and Mona Mughram, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Day 4, February 10th 2008
This day was our third, but for us it does not feel like merely any day for it held some of our happiest moments. We had a wonderful time and had a fantastic night. Maybe the desert was barren and the sky black but the earth was sparkling like happy gold. We danced together on the notes of love and friendship this night. For us, this was the best experience we could have had – we forgot sadness and remembered joy; we forgot about hate and remembered love; we forgot about pain and remembered hope. This was how we spent our evening and it will remain as such within us.
We will remember what all these wonderful people, the Bedouin crew and all the girls, have done from acceptance, songs and food. We were even able to sleep this night due to our joy. We both sat, Noor, Widad, Fatima and Mona joined us. We gathered around the campfire but the true fire was inside us, aglow with love – we spoke too of love, that’s why we felt warm not cold; we felt safe not fearful.
A new glorious day dawned, it was too filled with love and security. These will remain the fondest days and nights of our lives and we will remember you, the most beautiful people we had the opportunity to get to know. And we will always remain grateful to you, Mark.
Bushra and Ola Shebli, Jordan
Saturday we stayed at a Bedouin camp, where we got the opportunity to share food, dance and singing with our hosts. We were all tired after three days full of impressions and exchange, but still wanted to stay up to have time to feel the Bedouin’s hospitality. The different food that some of us are used to eating at home got its first victims, so we all had an early night.
Sunday started for the first time on time. As it was our last full day in the desert everyone wanted to get the most out of it. We came to discuss very important and interesting questions, like what causes misunderstandings between our cultures and how to avoid them. As most of the time it is unbelievable that we agree on most on the issues. But even though the game we played in the afternoon sun didn’t work out at first as we wished. We realize how difficult it is to actually get all our thoughts into action. It showed us that our ambitious talk doesn’t automatically lead to the desired goal. Communication seems so normal to us, that we never question it. However, in the end we did a good job and are a step further. Learning is a process and needs time to settle.
After lunch and a little nap we moved on towards the camp we are going to stay at night. Under the unique sky full of stars we get a little closer back to the real world and its problems.
Susi Teutsch, Austria
Day 5, February 12th 2008
Around 5 p.m. we arrived at the camp and took some wonderful photographs in the sunset. Some of the girls were on the camels while the others were on the sand dunes. While we were waiting to enter our tents, Mr. Mark told us to enter his tent because he had a surprise for us. When we entered the tent Lisa, Meredith and Mr. Mark told us that we had to make a funny video of this trip as memorabilia. After that we got out of the tent and started planning for the video. Hafren was the one who wrote our ideas and one of the ideas was to sing our national anthem at the same time, whilst maintaining its comprehensibility.
We then sat around a table and enjoyed each others company. It was our last night together under the twilight and we wanted to enjoy each others company to the maximum.
Our guide Jabir and the other guides showed us at the bonfire how to make bedouin bread. The fresh cooked bread was then served with honey. It was amazing! Dinner followed. Despite the lack of resources, we always had a variety of food to eat. It was these generous gestures from strangers that made our journey even the more delightful. We then sat around the bonfire again sharing stories and wishing the night would never end. It was then that Noor stood up and gave the sweetest speech; thanking everyone for the lovely experience we all shared together in the last couple of nights. She then passed around beautiful silver gifts as tokens to remember her by. It was truly a touching moment with a few of the girls quickly wiping their tears away. We then continued through the night, some girls entertaining us, with their mesmerizing voice, in beautiful songs. At the end, a few girls decided to brave it out and sleep outside by the fire.
We woke up and had our warm breakfast then we had final game. Following the lessons we learnt, through effective communication we were able to complete the task effectively. This was the greatest reward on our last day. We then started our bumpy walk back to the camp where it all started.
Noor, Widad and Alia, Oman
