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March 2008 Newsletter
Howdy folks, and welcome to another month gone by with the Texas Camel Corps. March came and went so quickly, it’s hard to believe we’re already in April.
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On March 7th and 8th, camels Gobi and Richard and I went south, to Brackettville, Texas, home to historic Ft. Clark. Now a housing community, this old frontier fort has seen Black/Seminole Indian scouts, the U.S. cavalry and even the historic U.S. Army Camel Corps. Sharing the camels with the public in locations where the old Camel Corps actually trod is always so rewarding.
Friday’s attendees were primarily area school children, while Saturday brought out many local folks as well as tons of snowbirds (northern retirees who live part of the year in South Texas). The air was alive with accents ranging from Noo Yawk, Canada, eh? and Texan. A beautiful melange it was!
Big thanks to Gil T. Hernandez and Frank Gonzales for all the their help with the camels. Also, my hat’s off to the Nowells who put together such a great event.
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On the 13th, camels Richard and Cinco were part of a Toyota TV commercial shoot in Dallas, Texas. Cinco was actually Richard’s understudy, but camel-thespian Richard needed no stand-in! Superbueno gal-pal and camel, elephant and rhino trainer Manda Butler, of Waco, made the work go wonderfully.
The production folks budgeted eight hours for the camel shots and Richard was most patient throughout the ordeal. The set was inside a soundstage (warehouse), under lights, and Richard was basically supposed to walk from stage left to stage right, behind two Toyota hybrids, pausing once to look at the spokesman who’s just made some outlandish claim about the "history of transportation". Easy enough, Manda and I figured. No saddle, no lead rope or halter, just a camel walking a straight line.
We used food rewards to bring Richard across the stage and voice commands to get him to look downstage, toward the camera. This was shot maybe two or three dozen times, then we broke for lunch. After lunch, there was a second shot, one that would show Richard’s reaction to the spokesman and we probably ran that one an equal number of times. At the end of the day, the director said he got at least five perfect takes, which he’ll edit together to make TV magic. Way to go Richard!
I wish I could come up with some harrowing tale about how, at some point, Richard had had enough, stampeded through the overhead doors of the soundstage, kicking the windshield out of one of the cars, but that might come closer to describing my day! Honestly, it went as smooth as could be. During a handful of takes, when he was to look at the camera, Richard sauntered up, between the two brand new vehicles, directly toward the spokesman, as if to say, "Hi! I’m Richard, who are you and why are you in my commercial?" We ended up putting a barrier between the two cars to keep Richard from walking in that direction, but man, if the only thing the producers could say negative about the camels was that he was too friendly, they can say all they want!
The production assistants might’ve not loved Richard too much, though. The immaculate white floor had to be retouched with paint during lunch, thanks to the generous amount of argols deposited by Richard throughout the multitudinous takes.
Big thanks to Manda Butler. Also, gracias to Jami LoVullo, Animal Safety Rep of the American Humane Society who monitored all animal activity to ensure that no animals were harmed in the filming of the commercial.
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On the 22nd, the Baum house welcomed the family of Vance D. of Waco, Texas for dinner. You may remember Vance’s name from the January Egypt/Sinai trip. He and wife Irma were along on that incredible experience.
Vance was so moved by his time with the Bedouin and the folks in Cairo, he wanted to take two of his three daughters to witness the hospitality and generosity the Arab world is so known for. It works out great that later this month, April 23 and 24 to be exact, there’s a wedding in Cairo and that’s a great event for Jennifer and Stephanie to really jump feet first into! Dinner here at the farm that evening was, appropriately, Middle Eastern and served with guests sitting on the floor. The girls loved it and while I was putting the finishing touches on the falafel, my wife Trish took everyone out into the fields to visit with the camels. What a great night!
I’m really looking forward to getting back to visit my "family" in Egypt and we’ve even picked up one other traveler, Lore B. of Houston, Texas (thanks for coming aboard, Lore!). While our group may be small, I know the financial impact will be incalculable for the Bedouin among whom we stay in Sinai. That’s the true reason I do these trips: to repay the Muzeina Bedouin for all they’ve given me over the past seven years. Insha’allah ("God willing" in Arabic), I’ll be doing this for a long time to come.
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This past weekend, March 28/29, camels Richard, Ibrahim, Gobi, donkey Hamar and I visited yet another frontier fort, Ft. McKavett, near Menard, Texas for their annual Western Heritage Days.
This beautiful, largely intact, old post sits in such a beautiful location and it’s always an honor to present the camels and share their connection with Texas/American history there. Friday, over five hundred area school students showed up, no mean feat. Some schools had to bus their kids one hundred miles one-way!
The next day, many locals came to visit and stimulating conversation abounded. It’s always fun to meet folks who are so interested in history. They tend to be very colorful people themselves; while I’m there to share my stories, I oftentimes find myself "interviewing" those who’ve come to see the camels! I met an interesting fella who worked in mining in Honduras in the 1960’s, a gal who was born in Texas, but moved to Mexico as a child, then lived in Japan and finally, another reenactor who was raised in Saudi Arabia who had a really cool khanjar (Arab dagger, unique to the Arabian peninsula).
Saturday was officially Colonel McTaggart day in Menard County and an Air Force band from San Angelo’s Goodfellow Air Force Base was on hand to celebrate the proclamation. Col. McTaggart, a Ft. McKavett native, is a retired Air Force colonel who spent numerous years in Afghanistan from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and has been a tireless supporter of the fort. I was honored to first meet him years ago, at the fort, at a living history event and sat enraptured as he told his tales of life in Central Asia.
It was an incredible juxtaposition: the celebration of the historic military aspects of the frontier and the celebration of our own modern era’s Colonel McTaggart. The Colonel’s perspectives on current events in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, were priceless and I sat, again listening, honored to be in his presence.
Big thanks again to Frank Gonzales and Gil T. Hernandez, both in uniform and attendance this past weekend as well as Steven and Caleb Evans, "board members" of the Texas Camel Corps and, finally,
Chris Elliott and Kinley Coyan from Ft. Lancaster State Historic Site. All these fine gentlemen sure make it fun, safe and a little easier to bring the animals out to share them with the public.
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In April, we’ll be traveling from Ft. Worth, Texas to Harlingen, Texas, the Chihuahuan Desert as well as the Sinai and Sahara deserts. Whew!
Tomorrow, Thursday April 3rd, camels Gobi, Richard and Ibrahim will travel to Ft. Worth’s Leonard 6th Grade Center for a program in conjunction with the Camel Library of Kenya (google it!). The students at this school have been collecting books all week to ship to Kenya. In short, the Kenyan government services many rural school children with books delivered via camels.
An American author, Masha Hamilton, has even written a book about her time in Kenya and will be on hand for the event. Her book, "The Camel Bookmobile" is out now. Hope to see you there!
This weekend, I’ll be trekking in Texas’ Big Bend region in the Chihuahuan Desert with Ted and Janet W. of Washington State. Avid birders, these folks have llama trekked and thought this’d be fun, too. I’m sure looking forward to getting back out west (to my own desert), before heading back to Sinai/Egypt later this month.
On April 18, 19 and 20 I’ll have four camels (whichever four are closest to the gate when I load up!) at Harlingen, Texas’ RioFest for educational programs each day. I was scheduled to present programs at last year’s event, but had just come home from Egypt with a lovely case of Hepatitis A and didn’t think it’d be great to share that much of me with festival goers! If any of you know anyone in the Harlingen area who might be willing to put the camels up for three nights, give me a shout, please.
After a mad dash home from Harlingen, I’ll head to Egypt on the 21st and won’t be back until May 5. May’s update, thusly, will be a bit late, but I promise to include all the details from the above events, especially the time in Egypt/Sinai.
Thanks as always for your interest in my camels.
Doug
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