My mother is not a world traveler, she never was. Once she visited Germany when she was a teenager but that was all, as I thought for her lifetime. Not like my father, who took every opportunity to visit as many countries as he could, but always on his own, he could never persuade my mother to accompany him.
After the first year my family had spent in Qatar, my parents decided to visit us. First I thought it was a joke. I could not imagine that my mother who had not had a passport for more than 40 years would take a ride on an airplane. And she did! Without being airsick or tired of the long journey, they arrived. I think the burning desire to see her grandsons would even make her able to walk through half of the world.
While they were in Qatar with us, we tried to arrange as many interesting programs as we could for them. One of these was a desert safari. It sounded like an everyday trip, just a full time fun. The drivers arrived on time, everything was perfect. For a European traveler timeliness is a kind of base for a long-term relationship and we liked these guys from the first moment because they were not late. They may had heard the wise saying, “Time is money” and being good businessmen, they kept to this.
Then we started the journey. Naturally the first thing that the driver asked was to fasten our seatbelts. Before we entered the desert, the driver reduced the pressure in the oversize tires of our vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser. Just like an amusement park, the large vehicle was waving among sand dunes, racing up and down the hills, a white sand cloud following us. It was very interesting and really fun, but when the driver continued to gain speed and our stomachs approached our throats, my younger son started to cry, “Let’s go home! I don’t like this! This is not fun!”. Not my mother. She was laughing and maybe the first time in my life I could see that she was enjoying herself free from distressing thoughts. For a short period of time I was thinking, “Did I really want it? Now my son is so scared, I can hardly calm him down. Oh, my God! Am I crazy?” But as my little son calmed down, I got back the feeling of adventure, and I could enjoy the ride again. Honestly, it is not something that one can do every day (except when you are a driver of such a company that amuses – or maybe frightens – unsuspicious tourists in the desert).
Later we stopped by the sea and my mother could enjoy some kind of bathing in the “big water” for the first time in her life. We could take even a camel ride and collected hundreds of seashells.
We had to get back to the city before sunset, so we could not enjoy the sparkling of the stars at night. I heard from friends that it is something that you can never forget, seeing the stars close enough to touch. I am sure that this was the greatest day of my mother’s life and she could never forget it. I would like to show her the stars at night in desert, but don’t worry, we have something for next year’s visit too.
post by CS.O . Alma's Hungarian friend
