11: Unpacking a “Real Bedouin Experience” With the General and Mahmoud Abu Saleh

I made the mistake of telling Mahmoud Abu Saleh¹ that I was craving a “real Bedouin experience” by living in Rashid. The words had barely escaped my lips before they seemed to curdle. I meant the utterance as a profound declaration, but the statement revealed my youthful exuberance for venturing into the unfamiliar. Abu Saleh merely smirked in the moment as the two of us sat cross-legged on a farsha and drank Turkish coffee in his home. His understated reaction just barely concealed how much my desire for a “real Bedouin experience” mischaracterized the dynamics of life in communities like Rashid.