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December 2006 Newsletter
Howdy folks, WOW! Where did November go? Welcome to another month gone by with the Texas Camel Corps.
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Early in November, on the 6th, 3-year old camel Ibrahim and I visited the campus of Baylor University in nearby Waco, Texas to promote a lecture by New York Times best selling author Bruce Feiler. The talk, "Can We All Get Along" focused on inter-faith dialogue in the 21st century, something I feel so strongly about that I offered to donate my (and Ibrahim’s) time.
We were handsomely rewarded with a couple of copies of Mr. Feiler’s books "Walking The Bible" and its accompanying pictorial compilation of the same name along with a pair of tickets to the lecture. My wife, Trish, used Ibrahim’s ticket.
While on campus, drumming up interest for the presentation, Ibrahim posed dutifully for three hours with students and other passersby to have their pictures taken. If you have any interest in seeing what Ibrahim looks like (you may not have your own camel), or a bunch of college students (you may not have one of those either), go to:
http://fleetwood.baylor.edu/camel/camel.html
When the following fields appear, use:
username: bulibrary
password: camel_photos
Mr. Feiler’s talk was very good and afterward, at the patron party, I got the chance to chat with him for a moment about Egypt and Sinai, places that figure prominently in his writings and places that I’m very familiar with from traveling there over the past six years. Big thanks to Tina Libhart, Publications Coordinator for the Office of Library Advancement & Special Programs at BU for her work in getting Ibrahim on campus as part of the event and her tireless efforts promoting the Texas Camel Corps.
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On the 7th, the Gifted and Talented program from Eastland, Texas’ Siebert Elementary paid a visit to the farm. This semester, their G/T coordinator, Terrie Smith, has the group of third, fourth and fifth graders studying the Middle East. Those kids came loaded for bear! They knew their geography, languages, social customs and more.
We spent quite a bit of time at the barn, so they could meet the camels. Each student got to ride, poke, prod and ask questions, then we headed inside for an authentic Egyptian meal of chicken, cous cous, pita, falafel, hummus, tahina, tabouli, dates and various teas (after poking and prodding, I made sure they washed their hands).
While I was prepping lunch, I handed the kids a stack of books and asked them to draw pictures of anything they found in the books or to come up with something from their own minds. The only requirement was that it had to be relevant to the subject. One young man drew a dozen sculpted columns, from the Roman era, found in the Western Desert of Egypt. Another drew a picture of Gobi (our 15-year old Bactrian camel) and me; she got an A+ for the day!
After lunch, which was served Bedouin-style on one big platter, with the kids using no utensils, the kids all got to play dress up with clothing I’ve brought home from my travels. The girls loved the veils; the boys loved the mens’ headwear, called sh-maq or k’fiyyeh.
When it came time to go, we made sure the kids had gotten pictures of themselves in Middle Eastern attire and riding camels- memories I hope that will impact them for a long time. Big thanks to Terrie Smith and the parents who took time to come and be a part of their kids’ education. Bigger thanks to the parents who helped prep lunch AND wash dishes!
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Thursday, November 16th, the "Road Crew" from TV Land’s Nick at Nite program visited the farm to fulfill the wish of one lucky viewer: to ride a camel.
Now, there’s probably no surprise to any of us that there’s quite a bit of smoke and mirrors on TV, but the producers hadn’t actually received a request from a viewer to ride a camel. They were in Austin, not far from Valley Mills, shooting something else and thought it’d make a neat segment. You may remember my soliciting interested folks for the shoot.
A number of replies came and the production folks went with lucky Texas Camel Corps email recipient Kim F. of Dallas. Kim, whose occupation is in television, did a great job. The folks from the production crew couldn’t have been better, either.
The shoot required the two hosts, plus Kim, to learn to ride camels and most of it was scripted out. A couple of the five, 50-second segments were sponsored by the Dyson vacuum cleaner company, so much of the banter was related to the pitch. Yours truly had a few lines and even appears on screen (if my big moment didn’t get cut) vacuuming a carpet. Look at me now, Dad!
Air date is December 8th on the TV Land network (go to www.nickatnite.com and click on "Road Crew"). Big thanks to my wife, Trish, for taking the day off from work to help wrangle camels and to my best friend, and Texas Camel Corps board member, Steven Evans for coming to the farm to help out.
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From the 17-22, I made my monthly trip to Arizona to work with the youth of VisionQuest (www.vq.com). I had a group of seven young men that I took camel riding this time.
The standout from the group was Aaron, who rode 6-year old Marianne, a beautiful, chocolate-colored camel, still in training. Aaron had his hands full, for sure, as Marianne’s the sweetest camel on the planet, but runs rough when we first start out. He was in for a rodeo as we started on our ride around the ranch after a few days of instruction and short rides. She tossed her neck and threw her front feet and there sat Aaron on her back, patient as could be. When she finally settled down, Aaron just smiled. Aaron’s 14-years old and seeing him handle what, by all rights, could be a scary, dangerous situation was so rewarding for me. I wish all the kids I deal with could have that much faith and trust in the camels and me.
Each year, I take December off from VQ, because I’m so busy with Christmas camel work, but I’m looking forward to getting back out in January and working with Aaron and Marianne again.
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The official kickoff to the 2006 Christmas season for camels is Thanksgiving weekend and this is when many of the live nativity productions we’re a part of get underway.
On Sunday the 26th, camels Gobi and Cinco and I traveled to Hallettsville, Texas. This production, in a quaint downtown setting (stop me if you know the story), details the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the camels accompany the Magi on their "journey" to visit the newborn king. The journey is one block of the charming downtown area of Hallettsville and the finale includes the lighting-up of the historic Lavaca County courthouse.
All of the Christmas events I’ve been working for the past ten years are special- each for various reasons. The Hallettsville job is always the first one of the season and it’s a reminder of my first paying job with camels (outside of being a zookeeper) that I ever had. A live Nativity in Tennessee is where I first got paid to provide camels for an event and it was 7 degrees Fahrenheit! The camels stood like statues, as did I with my hands tucked in the warmest spot you can find on a camel: between their back legs. No punch line here, folks. That’s just too cold to try and be funny.
Other productions we’re a part of every Christmas range from very small, rural churches with modest means that take collections from congregation members to afford the animals each year, to mega-productions (indoors and out) that incorporate live music, smoke, lights, the whole nine yards.
December really gets busy and tonight through Sunday finds us in Waxahachie, Texas at Bethlehem Revisited, a city-block sized recreation of Biblical Bethlehem. Complete with olive press, grape stomping and more sheep and goats than you can shake a cup of egg not at, this is a sizeable shindig that I really love. If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, this is an event that will really impress you. We’ll also be there next Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well.
For a complete listing of events, check the web site’s home page. There’s a calendar of events on there to find out if we’ll be in your neck of the woods. Each year I get a kick out of seeing folks from the newsletter (Malie, since you live in South Africa, you’re exempt!).
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Back in September, Mr. Greg Flakus from Voice of America interviewed me. The piece is finally out there and can be viewed online at http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-21-voa33.cfm. Greg told me that some of the things VOA does get translated into as many as 52 different languages and the coverage they receive can be quite far-reaching. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of response this brings.
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Some of you may remember my efforts to help my "brother" Adel, from Egypt, obtain a U.S. visitor’s visa. Well....this week I met with a liaison from my congressman’s office and she’s helping us get the information together for the embassy in Cairo so that Adel can get another visa interview. Will update.
And speaking of Egypt...I feel so blessed! Over the past few years, guiding trips to Egypt/Sinai, I’ve had the pleasure and honor to share my travels with a group of folks each year. As it looks now, in 2007 I’ll have four groups. The first two will run back to back from late January to mid February and the other two groups, also back to back, will take all of March. I will get to come home for a couple of weeks between groups to reintroduce myself to my camels.
And my wife and kids.
While I’m tickled that business is on such an upswing, please remember the real benefactors of these trips are my two "families", that of Saleh bin Suleiman and Adel Said Hamza. I’m so excited for my ’07 guests to get to know Saleh and Adel and their families and promise to update the web site’s Sinai page with new pictures upon my return.
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Finally, big thanks to Joan D., former trekker and all-time, number one camel lover for the box of apples recently received here at the farm. The camels loved them and send their apple-breath kisses!
Thanks as always for your interest in my camels. I hope each of you has the happiest of holidays.
Doug
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