Spain, Morocco, camels & travel

Mary Lois, Dave and I have just returned from Spain, Morocco and Gilbraltar where we had a fabulous time! It's a treat and privilege to travel...to see God's creation, meet other of His children. Like this fellow...our camel driver in Tanjer. I rode this female camel and as soon as I got off, her little one came over for a warm drink. Camels.com is a great website for more information about camels, I believe the correct name for "baby camel" is "calf" but "little one" is safe as well.

Camels are mentioned in Genesis, chapter 24, and the story of Rebekah drawing water for Abram's man servants' camels continues to amaze me. Drawing water is hard work and made even harder when one has to pull up a clay pot hanging on a rope, made heavier by the weight of the clay plus it's soaked with water and full of water. Until a couple of years ago, I had to draw water, carry water and fill a horse trough for one of our horses. It was usually below freezing, usually a brisk wind and I'm using two five gallon buckets to carry water 150 feet. It was challenging. And, all I had to do was fill the trough...not fill a camel who drinks 30 gallons at a time. YIKES!

Not for the feeble hearted yet Rebekah volunteered to do this task. She wasn't asked, she volunteered. My guess is...she cheerfully volunteered as well.

Amazing!

I've, mostly always, had a good attitude when tending to my animals. I adore my work and am amazingly blessed to live on this farm and do the work necessary to keep everyone going. But. These are my animals and this is my farm. Rebekah gave water to the man servant and then volunteered to water his camels. All ten of them.

I'm math challenged, so to speak, but even I can figure out that's about Three Hundred Gallons of water...roughly ten gallons at a time.

The mind boggles!

Wandering through the souk we saw many strange and wonderful sights. Not many women though...women reign at home while the men tend to business outside the home. Most of the women we saw were either tourists or Berber; the few Muslim women we saw were heavily robed and, more often than not, veiled.

This woman is selling a few lemons and peppers alongside the street. Just consider...just as this woman, Rebekah would have been robed and veiled as she watered those ten camels.

Needless to say, when I'm carrying water I'm dressed in insulated coveralls, long underwear, wool sweaters, socks and hat. Mostly I'm cheerful but my level of cheerfulness lessons greatly the more I slosh freezing water on myself as I'm carrying those buckets. Life on the farm lends itself greatly to understanding, on a Very Intimate Level, what it must have been like all those thousands of years ago.

Food was killed the day it was eaten and, even today, one finds sheep, goat, and chicken carcasses throughout the market. Remember Abigail? In order to appease David she "made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses."

Now, I don't care how hurriedly one prepares a meal nor how many servants one has at their disposal, there's more than a day's work in baking two hundred loaves and slaughtering and dressing five sheep. Abigail has already seen to it her household has food put by as evidenced by the "five measures of parched corn, hundred clusters of raisins, wine and two hundred cakes of figs."

Look up "prepared" and you'll find Abigail's picture. This woman is a jewel, a credit to herself and her household and her oaf of a husband, Nabal, is a drunken lout, even called wicked.

UGH! Spare me from such a marriage and a man. I wonder if Abigail was sold into marriage, perhaps traded for debt or land or livestock. Her life couldn't have been rainbows and roses being married to Nabal yet she didn't let that stop her from being the best she could be.

Oh Dear. There's another message for me but it's bedtime and, like Scarlet, I'll think about this tomorrow. Unlike Scarlet, I'll probably dream about this tonight.

Travel is broadening, sometimes even frightening, but I love, love, love to travel. Only death will separate me from Thistle Cove Farm but I dearly love to travel...to meet and greet other of God's children, see His creation, find new people and new things to pray about.

I leave you with some quotes on travel but if you cannot travel...at least read about traveling.

"I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself." ~James Baldwin

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ~Mark Twain

"The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." ~G.K. Chesterton

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. " ~St. Augustine

Blessings ~ travel ~ good friends who make a good journey better ~ people who share their wisdom ~ KJV ~ lessons learned both the easy way and the more difficult ~ a great marriage