Married to a Bedouin

by Marguerite Van Geldermalsen (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2009

  $3.86

  ' Where you staying? the Bedouin asked. Why you not stay with me tonight - in my cave? '

  Thus begins Marguerite van Geldermalsen's story of how a New Zealand-born nurse came to be married to Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin souvenir-seller from the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. It was 1978 and she and a friend were travelling through the Middle East when Marguerite met the charismatic Mohammad who convinced her that he was the man for her.

  A life with Mohammad meant moving into his ancient cave and learning to love the regular tasks of baking shrak bread on an open fire and collecting water from the spring. And as Marguerite feels herself becoming part of the Bedouin community, she is thankful for the twist in fate that has led her to this contented life.

  Marguerite's light-hearted and guileless observations of the people she comes to love are as heart-warming as they are valuable, charting Bedouin traditions now lost to the modern world.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.40

  ' Where you staying? the Bedouin asked. Why you not stay with me tonight - in my cave. He seemed enthusiastic. And we were looking for adventure.' Thus begins Marguerite van Geldermalsen's story of how a New Zealand-born nurse became the wife of Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin souvenir-seller of the Manaja(h) tribe, and lived with him - and their children - and a community of about one hundred families - in the ancient caves of Petra in Jordan. It was 1978 and she and a friend were travelling through the Middle East when Marguerite met the charismatic Mohammad and decided that he was the man for her. Their home was a lofty two thousand year old cave carved into the red rock of a hillside. She became the resident nurse and learned to live like the Bedouin: cooking over fires, hauling water on donkeys and drinking sweet black tea, and over the years she became as much of a curiosity as the cave-dwellers with tourists such as Mary Lovell and Frank Mc Court encouraging her to tell this, her extraordinary story.