The unfortunate camel incident of 2010.....

Working 6.5 days a week and living in an enclosed compound I often feel I don't have anything interesting to blog about.....that of course. was before the unfortunate camel incident of 2010. I will explain.

After such a fabulous time in Jordan last year it was decided that it was time for a return trip. A friend of mine from Kabul met another friend of mine from The Hague for another whirlwind trip through Jordan. This was after Tara (friend from Kabul) and I spent 12 hours in the Dubai mall....(they had Krispy Kreme how can you not love it!).

Upon our arrival in Jordan we immediately headed to a spa in the Ma'in valley, it was amazing and we had a chance to rest, recuperate and enjoy some Jordanian wine with a wine tasting. We needed to prepare for our upcoming trip to the Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum, for an evening of roughing it...(don't worry Spa appointment was made for earlier in the day at Aquaba). Before I continue with the unfortunate camel incident of 2010 (since I am a government employee I am going to create the acronym UCI for future reference) I must tell you of my retirement plan, which is to become a Bedouin camel herders 6th wife (can't a girl have dreams)? Back to the UCI....Tara was up on her camel which was then tied to my camel. As I was saddling up I swung my foot around which got caught in the rope tying our camels together, the camel begin to stand and I went into a forward roll which ended up with me unceremoniously landing in the rusty bucket that is the feeding trough. I managed to move myself onto all fours and away from the camel hooves, made sure all appendages worked I began catching my breath as number of thoughts ran through my head:

-I need a new retirement plan
-there isn't a glass of wine within 200 miles to help me recover from this debacle
-not only is there not a glass of wine within 200 miles, but I bet there isn't a first aid kit within 20 miles
-there is NO way I am headed to a Bedouin hospital
-why is it that my life continues to be one long poorly edited I Love Lucy episode?

It took me about 25 minutes to gather my wits and slowly start moving (with the help of our rather traumatized guide) to the camp, all I wanted to do was lie down and make the world stop spinning. I realized I had scraped my lower back (or more accurately my upper, upper buttocks...) So they laid out some cushions for me to lay down on, my guide poured some hand sanitizer on my wound (which for the record really, really, really hurt) as I looked around I realized that a group of Bedouin men who worked at the camp, had gathered around to offer their best medical advice. At this point I really would have loved to have found that glass of wine. The rest of the evening and next morning random Bedouins would point at my upper buttocks and shrug wondering how the scrape was progressing.

I am happy to report I have survived and am back in Kabul, I will have the medics look at it tomorrow and will never, ever ride a camel again.

I am looking forward to Halloween, a group of us is going as Gilligan's Island which should be loads of fun. I have drawn the Mary Anne straw and have a wig to complete it all!

More later as I recover for the UCI and work out my newest retirement plan.