Yesterday, November 28, was Mauritanian Independence Day. The country is celebrating its 46th year as a sovereign country; 46 years since France drew some random lines on a map and united various desert tribes into a nation. Before that, the capital of the entire region was St. Louis, just across the Senegal River, but it was decided to make the river the border between the two lands, so a new city was founded—Nouakchott. I’ve heard various reasons for this choice to put a city here on the windblown salt flats in the middle of nowhere, but put it here they did, and they named it “Place of Winds” or possibly “Well of the She Camel,” depending on which book you read. Either name is appropriate.
Of course it was a holiday. There were various commemorative events, none of which were really announced. So we missed the parade, which started at 7 instead of 9, but we made it to the races, which started at 5 instead of 4.
Camel races are held 17 kilometres south of town. You drive past the first police check on your way to Rosso and then turn left. There is an edifice which for lack of a better term we will call a grandstand, consisting of 3 steep concrete bleachers and a shaded platform lined with chairs, a couch in the center for the dignitaries, and a table full of bottled water and juices, also for the dignitaries.
We arrive on time for the reported 4:00 start and there’s hardly anyone there, so we take our places on the top concrete step. The grandstand faces east into the desert and is mercifully in shade. It’s one of those rare perfect desert days—not too hot, sky blue and streaked with white clouds, pleasant breeze. We strike up a conversation with the casually-dressed American man sitting next to us and he turns out to be the interim US ambassador! Classy people go to the camel races.
There are 4 or 5 camels about 20 yards away from us, and a group of camel drivers sitting in the sand, shoes kicked off, drinking tea. Donn takes their pictures. Usually Mauritanians are resistant to being photographed, but this is a special occasion. Mauritania TV (MTV) is even there, and our kids will be on the evening’s news, just a quick pan across the crowd.
Eventually, the camel drivers get up and go to their camels. They line them up, then force them back down to their knees so that they can mount easily at the proper time. There are 7 of them now, their drivers standing proudly beside them. An officially-dressed man finds a mike, announces something. Time drags on.
Suddenly, with no signal that I’m aware of, the drivers leap into their saddles, their camels lurch up and they are off! They gallop wildly, swerving all over. We watch as they recede into the distance, tiny little dots moving across the face of the desert.
Again, time drags on. We stand up and peer north, down the track which the winner will come. The high-pitched trill, or ululation, of the women standing down by the tracks announces the first camel has been spotted. A rider appears in the distance. He rides in triumph down the last stretch, visible over the heads of the crowd. As he passes what I suppose must be the finish line, he makes a complete turn in the saddle, which is a great feat of balance.
Camels are such strange beasts. It’s fun to see them up close, although I am much less comfortable with them than Mauritanians are. They are almost serpent-like, with their flexible necks and double-jointed legs. And they are as ill-tempered in person as in legend. They hiss and spit and try to bite their driver’s legs.
The first four camels win prizes. Their drivers shuffle up to receive them and then retrieve their shoes and put them back on as they lead their camels away. We, too, gather up children and water bottles and odds and ends, and return to the city, mellow in the late-afternoon light.
21 comments
November 29, 2006 at 6:18 pm
LIB
How cool! Great pics! And Ilsa says “nothing exciting” ever happens in her life.
November 29, 2006 at 6:53 pm
suzmom
Thanks for the wonderful blog and info..wow camels!..it is so cold
here..what different places we are in!
November 29, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Jodi
What lovely pictures and a description to match! I can’t wait to show this to DS; he will love it.
November 29, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Kit
Gorgeous photos and I like the image of the Camptown ladies ululating!
November 29, 2006 at 10:26 pm
meredith
The photos are fabulous! I had to look up the word ululate, but then realized it was a sound that I’ve already heard from your north African neighbors.
November 30, 2006 at 12:45 am
sweatpantsmom
I love reading your posts – I get such an inside look into a completely different world.
The close-up of the camel is awesome. It looks like something out of Star Wars. Uh, if there were camels in Star Wars. You know what I mean.
November 30, 2006 at 3:26 am
Wacky Mommy
Great writing and photos, you two!
November 30, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Owlhaven
This post is so cool. I’m reading it to my kids this morning
Mary
November 30, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Owlhaven
My two year old looked at the frist picture. she saw the camel in the foreground of the photo and said, “Biting!”
Ill-tempered, indeed.
Thanks again! i can’t tell you how much I enjoy seeing a different ‘planet’
Mary
November 30, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Shannon @ Rocks in my Dryer
Gorgeous photos, but MAN those are ugly animals!
November 30, 2006 at 6:47 pm
planetnomad
Shannon, you will never make a good Mauritanian, I hate to say. 😉
Lib, no good. They thought the camel races were boring. In fact, I had to force, um I mean ENCOURAGE Elliot to go. He would have preferred to sit home reading the Lord of the Rings books for the 10th time. I had to deliver Standard Mom Lecture #5 (When you’re a grown up you’ll be glad you had an actual childhood in addition to your virtual one blah blah blah). We did spend a lot of time just sitting there, but their friends were also there, so it was fun. FUN, I tell you.
Mary, Did you notice that camel looks soo ill-tempered in every single pic of it? That’s the winning camel, you realize. Your 2 y/o is perceptive.
Sweatpants (what do I call you? Sweats? SPM?), I do know what you mean. Aren’t there camels in Star Wars? Camel-like creatures, anyway. You know that Episode 1 was filmed in Tunisia, which is the same desert as here. Close enough.
You all: Of course Donn took the photos. You can tell which ones I take and which ones Mr Photographer takes, can’t you? sigh… Oh well. I’m just happy to have him as a resource 🙂
December 1, 2006 at 3:22 am
LIB
Chris & I talk about “The Pow-Wow Syndrome.” It’s when the kids think something is really boring at the time, but then later say how neat it was. Hopefully, your kids will think the Camel Races were neat as they look back.
December 1, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Leslie
What great pictures! The sight of running camels is such an odd one to me. We see camels at Christmas events around town but they always seem like they couldn’t move very fast. Maybe it is because they are Americanized? 🙂 And that looks like a most uncomfortable sadle.
Your storytelling is very enjoyable!
December 1, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Julie Q.
What fun! I once rode a camel in Morocco (a very touristy thing to do). I remember what stubborn creatures they are. I can’t imagine actually racing one.
December 2, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Mary
This was so much fun both the narrative and the pictures. What a sight!
December 4, 2006 at 4:48 am
Michelle
Are those calouses on the camels’ legs and stomach? Either that or a raging case of leprosy! strange animals.
December 5, 2006 at 1:40 am
Buzz McCoy
Marc and I think that you and Donn should begin your own magazine: “National Legolas Jones.” We would subscribe and also give it as Christmas gifts to all the people we know.
December 5, 2006 at 2:03 am
suzmom
Been thinking of some camel questions,,heard a phrase in a
movie she drinks like a camel,they drink a lot huh?? do you
know how much and have you eaten camel? we watched a
show last night amazing race and they had to grind camel
meat.make into kabobs and eat it as fast as they could!!
thanks for your BLOG!
December 5, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Pieces
I would be terrified of the camels. And so annoyed by the whole timing thing. How does anyone know when anything is? If the parade was supposed to be at 9 why did it start at 7? I would lose my mind!
December 5, 2006 at 10:48 pm
planetnomad
Buzz, great! We’ll be this generation’s version of a fruitcake.
Suzmom, camel meat tastes a lot like beef, actually. It’s not bad. It’s a little drier and tougher, but a good cut is fine. Camel’s hump now, is a different story–but that should probably be a whole post sometime.
Pieces, if my Arabic was better (ok if it existed!) and I listened to Mauritanian radio, I probably would have known, but apparently some locals missed the parade too.
We asked our language teacher once what the word for “late” was and he said, “There is no word for late in Hassiniya.” Presumably they don’t have a word for “early” either.
December 8, 2006 at 4:42 am
Inkling
On that camel picture, it looks like it has a callous on its chest. Does it really? Do they all have that? What’s it for? Maybe avoiding the heat of the sand or something?