It was one of my favorite train travels, As usual I had my place reserved in the soule wagons, Started my day managing and preparing myself for the train ride, I know some of you prepare whatever before even if it is sleeping, and this is a good thing that you will gain result at the right moment, I like to take my time to make my time, I mean never been in hurry to gain more time or to do not lost time, sometimes that can be a wrong decision.
Whatever, I waked up earlier in the morning, collecting my tools for the maintenance not a lot just an air blower, laptop, some papers, and my personal papers, that is the basic things, I should start by, Then my personal clothes not much though I am not going to stay, one week, maybe less, but sometime i feel like to travel by my traditional clothes boubou and try to feel its ok, and that I am home, Or something like I look better in my traditional clothes, after many times I had a bad time managing my boubou inside the train, and it was a nightmare for me sometimes, and I canceled traveled in my traditional look, so my chocolate jeans helped me jump easily and It doesnt look ugly though, despite that I am not as elegant as my jeans, it helped me when I cant helped it.
The day of travel is always crowded many things to check before putting my foot inside the train, I need to eat something special like Teybou Dien, Rice and Fish for exemple, because the travel will take at least 18 hours days and night long, the food part as element of the travel preparation is based on water, water is the most necessary thing you should take with you when you are traveling by train or car or camel or feet, water is a magic thing, it can gives you life and encourage just feeling you have it, more that helping a thirsty person, if you do, that would be better than giving blood, water is life, I heard in the nearest future the water will be the engine of war instead of oil right now, that is a bad news, but I have a good news for you is that just two weeks ago NASA Confirmed the existence of water on Mars.
I have to be in the train gare at 2:30 PM, My friend bring me by his car, only me my travel bag, containing my laptop some clothes, air blower, papers, not heavy, just 80 Gigabytes, I have my friendly Rayban Glass and and Turban, if you dont know what turban is, it is just the mask you see most of nomad people wearing, is a cultural symbol of people in the desert and sahara region, well at the end it protect the face from the sandy wind blowing days and night in the sahara, but it has developed to take a lot of meaning of respect for men and shy for the women, there is the hijab in islam culture for women, but I dont think there is a link between both, We called it here EL THAM or in french Turban, With my jeans and shirt, and rayban, the hat is politically correct but not possible, it cant protect me from sand and wind, so it has been converted to turban, It is not easy to tie a turban, there is a function and a geometrical path to turn it around and all of that depend to what culture you belong too, or you want to look like, The Mauritanian Turban is simple, it can be black or white, black usually in wedding ceremony by the new married man.
Those flickr photos shows how different the turban can be tied.
The Train arrives at 3:30 PM and, I am sure you dont want to know how people jump inside, No Queue, One of the moment I dont like in the train travel is when I see people fighting for nothing, the train is waiting everyone to mount, but everyone s want to be the first rider, this due to inexperienced traveler that are enthusiast to show their skills and power to challenge the biggest and longest train in the world, Experienced Travelers Never came near before the fist boom of people to be melt under the train feet, sometimes waiting will cost you a better place to sit, but it is better for you to loose a place in the train than loosing your respect and maybe one of your shoes, bags, watch, ring, and find yourself fighting with a angry divorced woman, with your leg holding some kids by their teeth, so better to wait and pray for peace.
My Surprise is that I found an old friend, and that is a good news, my bed has evaded by two women laying in sardines styles, head to feet and feet to head, like sardines, if you remember how two little fishes are aligned in one sardines bottle, The Responsible said here is your place after reading my name in papers with him, well, I said its ok, I don’t want it, we are not allowed to share beds with women that are not our wives, in private even in public, if we do, then something wrong done, and the results wont be late, the two women said they want to leave it for me, but i refused since i found my friend we can sit wherever and discuss, so its ok you can enjoy it.
We discuss me and my friend, we had a lot of tea and the train kept running, I discovered there are other people I know so the party started to be larger than before, and other we don’t know joined us, and the tea started again again again, in the train.
I found for myself a good place between rooms, I slept like a dead, Too bad that My friend didn’t slept and stayed alive, but I know the cause, My friend smokes and I don’t, he wanted very badly to sleep but cant, well it is not easy to sleep in the train, what if you smoke in the train, things will be very complicate, smoking is a strange habit, it make us dependant to it, by creating in our imaginary, some fiction beautiful moments that doesn’t exists in reality but in our mind and blood, that will cost us money, energy, time, spirit, mood, it is a massive destruction arm, at the time I smoked for ten years but I had many health trouble because of nothing but smoking, When I finished, I knew I had a very tight understand for happiness, drugs and smokes can make you happy for a moment to cry forever, while sport and classes and learning, can make you cry for a moment to be happy forever, so choose.
We came to Zouerate earlier the morning at 7 am, I picked my Taxi without any notice my day will be the hotter day I never seen, I even couldn’t sleep that day or rest the weather was mad maybe, I hope not my fault.
Mots clés Technorati :
Mauritanian Train,
Travel,
Trip,
Mauritania,
Zouerate,
Snim,
Thoughts,
Turban,
Culture,
Tea party,
Friend
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