My name is Sabha. Sheep are very important for the Bedouins. They raise them for many reasons; for meat, milk, cheese, butter, and skin.  When a guest comes to a Bedouin house, he slaughters a sheep for him.

My name is Reem. Nearly most Bedouin people have sheep and goats. They use them t have milk, meat and sell them when they need money. When they have occasions they slaughter them to feed the guests. Their meat is delicious. They also make cheese and butter from the milk.
My Name is Basel and these are my goats. 

 

My name is Sawsan and I want to tell you more about the Bedouin tent in the past. For a long time the Bedouin live in a tent. They made them from the hair of the goats especially the black ones. It is too much big because it has two parts; one for men and one for women and it is called the mahram. The tent is cold in summer and hot in winter. Nowadays the Bedouin live in stone houses.

One of the best and nicest habits of the Bedouin people is hospitality. When someone comes for a visit, they do anything for him. Hey give him coffee, good food and usually meat. They don't ask the visitor about anything for three days.

My name is Nada and this picture is for my grandfather in a windy day.

My name is Adam. Cats are small cute animals. My cat eats meat and bread and drinks water and milk. I love my cat and she sleeps near me. I have also a horse. He is an original Arab horse. His name is Al'ekab. His color is black and he is very fast.  I love my horse a lot. I ride him a lot and go to far places.

My name is Basel and this picture is for my cat. I wanted to help my friend Adam because he couldn't bring a picure of his cat. But, my cat is similar to his cat.

 Remember us the three sisters in the 9^th grade: Eman, Basma and Nahla. We are writing now about the women's clothes. Bedouin women wear long robe embroiders with beautiful colors and shapes. The shapes are for birds and flowers.  Because the desert is harsh, women tend to color their dresses to add joy to their hard life. Over the head, the Bedouin women wear "mandeel". They also wear black gown to protect them from the sun or the wind. Some women cover their faces with a black veil decorated with jewelry made from silver, copper or gold.

There are certain dresses for women of different ages and status. For example, young women dress bright colors on their gowns. A married woman wears dressing gown with red colors and different shapes. A widow will dress green or blue color which means mourning her deceased husband. Old women wear also dark colors and cover their head and body with black gown.

        

Music is part of the Bedouin life. They have many instruments such as "rababa" which is similar to a chordophone and flute that the shepherd used.

The Rababa is made from animal's skin and its arch is made from the hair of the ponytail. Another instrument is called "semsemya" which looks different from the Rababa and has different sound.

My name is Trad. I introduced myself before. I want to tell you about one of my hobbies. As you see, I like pigeons a lot. I have many pigeons at home. We cook them. My pigeons are colorful. They ear seeds, corn, and sometimes they eat rice and bread that my mom put when we have left over. Many of my friends have pigeons and we sell to each other and compete between us about who has the best kind.  

My name is Basel and this is my small brother who wears Bedouin clothes for my photo diary of this project. Also, there are pictures of one of my teachers and students in an activity we did at school about Bedouin traditions. I am going to write about the men clothes.

The atmosphere of the desert is too hot during the day and cold at night. Clothes are made to suit this weather. Old Bedouin men wear long dressing gown and it is usually gray. The Bedouin man covers his head with white scarf called "Kufeya". It is rolled around his head, or his neck and mouth to protect him from the blowing sand and the desert winds. Over the "elkufeya", a black braid called "ekal" o install on the head. The Bedouin also wear external coat and it is usually black or brown and embroidered with silver or golden thread on the sides. It is used as a coat, blanket or simply sit on it or use it for praying.

 This a Bedouin special way of doing the hard yogurt they use it for their food. It was easrier to do it this way becuase they kept moving from one place to another. When they felt hungry, they melted it in hot water and then used it with bread and butter. They use it with

                                                       "mansaf". It is a delicious soap.

How do they make it? They take milk and gather it and then put it in "se'een" like the first picture and they keep shaking it till they get butter and yogurt. Then they put the yogurt into a while sack to make water leaks and seeps away and leave it like picture three. Then women add some salt and start shaping it like a small ball and dry it in the sun till it becomes hard. Finally they store it for future use in food. By the way, it id delicious and every Bedouin house has some at home. If they have sheep and goat, they will make it themselves. If they don't have, they make sure that they buy some for home cooking.

My name is Islam and I want to tell you about "Women in my community." 

Woman's status in the Bedouin society is still constant. All the time, she must keeps some rules that are considered vital to her essence life such as to keeps her honor, body, home, and her husband. As it is known, the value of the woman's honor is the most important for ever in the Bedouin traditions.

In addition, the steps that the woman can do are limited. For example, she can't go on a picnic or work far away from the home borders. So many girls who continue their education can become teachers who work in the tribe school or the nearby village and by the mid of the day she returns to her home. Also, the hard desert conditions need a strong person and we know that the woman is tender. These hard conditions have helped the man to appear like a lion but the woman stays at home.

In the Bedouin society, they focus on boys more than girls who as a result stayed at home without any rights. Her job was to take care of her children and home.  For that, I ask all to take care of their girls and treat them well and mostly to send them to universities to get good education and better life.

My name is Sabha and I want to add something on Islam's topic. In the Bedouin society, the girls are not given the right to choose their husbands. Since the Bedouin society is a masculine one, men believe that women cannot take a good decision. This is not true because I believe that the woman has the right to decide and to choose the best for her.

Finally I hope that our society will make some changes.

School uniform is one the clothes we are wearing for school. Uniform has advantages and disadvantages. Uniform has many advantages. First, school uniform gives us discipline. For example, when we wear the uniform and come to school, all people see the pupils wearing the same uniform. People who are visiting school will feel that this school has discipline and good behavior. Second, uniform helps us not to waste time. For example, before the uniform, I used to spend lots of time choosing what I want to wear to school in the morning. But with school uniform, I don't waste my time on clothes.

But school uniform has disadvantages as well. First, I cannot wear what I want. For instance, I have other uniforms and better clothes, but I can't wear them to school or I will be against the rules. At the end, I want all pupils to love and wear the school uniform because it makes us look the same and no one is better than the other.

We are three sisters in the 9th grades. our names are Iman, Basma and Nahla and we are going to write about the tent. Bedouin men often sit together around the fire drinking coffee or tea and tell stories from their lives and discuss various matters and issues. When we were children, we used to enter the "sheq" to hear stories about animals, how people travel in the desert, what food they have, and about their life in the past. We loved to hear their stories because we learned a lot about our grandfathers' lives in the past.

Bedouin tent is made from the goat hair that is weaved together. In summer the tent is very cold, but in winter it is very warm and it is called "beit Elmashta" the house of the winter. It is made from the goat hair and the sheep wool. It keeps the heat inside and protects the Bedouin and his family from the winter cold.  In summer, the tent is called "alkharboush" and it is made from other fabrics to protect the Bedouin from the sun.

Today, tents are made from plastic and cloth to protect from the rain. But the drops of the rain on the plastic tent disturb and annoy a lot, not like the original Bedouin tent.  Today, Bedouin use tents for weddings and social gathering because most Bedouin have stone houses. In the past and because they kept moving searching for water and grass for their animals, it was easy for them to use tents to move from one place to another. These pictures are from an activity at my school about the Bedouin traditions and culture.