Yesterday after church about 25 men and a few young men rode off into the desert for a guys night of desert camping.  What happens when you send a bunch of men into the wilderness who are eager to recapture some of their youth and a few boys eager to be men?  Well, potentially a good deal.  Thankfully, Our night was relatively uneventful but satisfying.  It was an interesting cultural experience too.  A Canadian, two Americans an Ozzy and a large group of Filipinos go camping in the desert…  what’s the punch line?

I’m not sure where they got it but the night featured a 15kilo suckling pig roasted

methodically on a spit over a bed of coals.  They filled the belly with garlic and herbs and sewed it up for the roasting.  I’m going to have to do this myself sometime in Canada.  It was delicious.

There were a few scorpions but no stings.  A stuck 4×4 but no permanent damage.  A gorgeous evening sky with shooting stars and satellites ( the occasional 747 too).  A brilliant crescent moon descending beneath the horizon prompted a run to the top of a large sand dune in pursuit and then an hour swapping stories with the Ozzy as we watched the glow of the campfire below.

The sweet but mournful ukelele was lovely to listen too.  It was later supplanted by the rhythmic experienced strum of a guitar.  Classic soft rock from the 70s, 80s and 90s brought back some excellent memories and certainly created a great new one.  Our Filipino friends knew the lyrics to every song.  Turns out karaoke is extremely popular in the Philippines.

I realized as I crawled into my sleeping bag that this was the first night I’ve been away from the family since arriving in the UAE.  It is now Saturday afternoon and I am alone in the house.  Lisa got on a bus with the kids this morning going to Abu Dhabi.  The bus will take them to a well know mosque for a tour and then on to the other big cultural experience in the UAE, a mall.  They should be back around 4pm and I can hardly wait to hear all about it.  I expect Lisa will post something about the experience.

I miss the pines and spruce, the clear streams and green hillsides of my home.  Yet, I’m learning to love the desert.