Also read: The Eclipse
I met Jane and Tom Kelly when I sat down for dinner with two strangers, who coincidentally happened to be from Berkeley, too! The next day, when we docked in Lybia, I ran into Jane and Tom milling near the exit, planning to disembark for an evening around town. Jane has been studying Arabic, and was quite intrepid. She invited me to join her, and I invited Frank and Eliot.
I had just introduced myself to Frank, an incredibly handsome gentleman, because he resembles Haydon, my Rocket Scientist ex-boxfriend (later known as the Scurvy Sailor.) Eliot was Frank's roommate. Both are veteran eclipse-chasers.
We were herded onto a bus with an Italian tour group, and were dropped off downtown. Jane immediately began greeting everyone, "Assalam: u aleikum" (ah-sam' ooh a la'kum) which means "Peace be upon you. The Libyans answered, "Wa aleikum assalam" (meaning "backatcha cousin," or literally, "upon you peace"). The men appeared to be relaxing after work, sitting in small groups in chairs around hookahs. They were relaxed, curious, and very friendly. Jane broke the ice, and we floated like leaves in her wake.
We commented in amazement on the hookahs, which look like opium den equipment to us, belonging in Amsterdam pot houses, but are simply tobacco pipes to the Lybians. One of them offered the mouthpiece to Frank, who gladly accepted. He said, in amazement, "It's smooth! It tastes fruity!"
Tom also smoked a hookah. The man from canada made it a point to say that it needed to be changed in between smokers. He went inside and brought tom an individually cellophane wrapped mouthpiece. "It wasn 't hot, the smoke didn't choke, it left kind of an apple-y aftertaste." Perhaps the American tobacco with pesticicdes make things more harsh.
Jane says they sort of offered it to her, but they giggled and it was her sense that perhaps women shouldn't smoke. Then they said, "have this coffee," and Jane said, "it was probablythe best coffee I ever had."
My impression was that people were very calm, clean, and attractive. There seemed to be an after-work mildly festive atmosphere. The unusual presence of Americans likely added to the festive feeling.
The streets were packed dirt, but there were freshly-poured curbs, and the city was full of in-progress construction.
Judy's favorite memory: We were in a restaurant obtained by asking a driver "Take us to the Dolfin" and all we saw were racks of fresh seafood. That appealed to no one, partucularly the vegetarians, Judy and Tom. Judy asked for a vegetarian meal, but was told that there was no such thing -- Lybians are not vegetarians. They offered potatoes and salad, but Jane decided it owuld be unwise to eat raw veggies. So were dejectedly walked out of the restaurant, and contemplated the walk back tot he boat. The walk itself was a nice length, but we feared we would miss dinner and wanted to find a taxi.
After some discussion, we decided to head for the waterfront road, where a taxi would be more likely to be found. Within minutes, a van drove slowly past us, then U-turned and pulled up to talk to us. "what are you doing"? Jane responded, "Boat."
The two men were happy to give us a ride to the boat!
At some places, people were taking pictures of us on the cellphone.
We took their picture. One said to the other, "what are they doing?" The ohter said, "Photograph," They smiled. And turned the music up. There was a checkpoint, and some discussion about whether to let the van through, but finally they did. Eliot noticed an official pass for the port on their windshield. The second checkpoint, they also passed after a brief chat. But right in front of the boat, more questions were asked. I opened the sliding door,
Most people spoke English; Daniel Fischer said one guy even spoke German, and said he wanted to got o Germany and open a shop.