柏柏爾人與撒哈拉 Berbers and the Sahara
(This post is bilingual. Please scroll to the bottom for English version.)

（昨天在沙漠裡過夜無法發文，今天加倍奉還文章較長敬請見諒。 Wasn't able to post in the desert last night. This one is therefore longer -- please bear with the lengthiness :D）

1. 柏柏爾人

撒哈拉行程第二天一早，帶我們參觀柏柏爾村莊的當地響導請我們一行人站在田埂上，和我們分享著他們族群的生活。

「我們每個人看起來都一樣，只有帽子的顏色不一樣。阿拉伯人、柏柏爾人、猶太人……住在一起都沒有問題。因為我們所有人都有同樣的爸爸和媽媽。」

說到這裡他停頓了幾秒看我們的反應。歐洲人的眼神看起來是領會到什麼了，其他人則有點茫然。

「亞當和夏娃。」他補上了這句。令我印象深刻的是他並沒有用英文裡Adam和Eve的發音，反而相當接近中文翻譯的「亞當」和「夏娃」兩個字。

嚮導帶著我們穿過田埂和水圳，告訴我們不同作物的季節和用途、哪個是橄欖樹哪個是杏仁樹、當地人如何只交換不交易等等。接著來到一個土造的傳統建築裡，在裡面向我們介紹他們手工地毯的文化，向我們解釋流程及困難之處，也告訴我們這些地毯都是沒有設計圖的，樣式全靠家族中的婦女傳承各家的專屬樣式。不出所料，下一步就是鼓勵我們買東西，還說他們現在提供DHL送貨到府。雖然是推銷，看在他那麼誠懇的份上我們也沒什麼抱怨（雖然也沒有人買啦）。

最後我們走過河上的木板橋，河邊正好有幾個婦女在洗衣，嚮導就順道提起：「柏柏爾人的女性力氣都很大，因此有時候男人蠻辛苦的……。」我馬上察覺到他在開玩笑，於是便反問他：「所以請問您有這樣的困擾嗎？XD」

他笑了笑之後說：「我太太嘛，生氣的時候真的很……（做出頭腦爆炸的手勢）；不過還好，他通常燒的都是綠色的火，不是紅色的火，兩天之後整個人又開開心心的了。」說完他馬上問我：「所以你的太太如何？」接下來過了一秒鐘，我還來不及接話，他隨即補上：「你沒有太太。來，下一位！」（我心想，哇，你這嚮導婊人的功力果然還是魔高一丈呀！XD）

2. 撒哈拉

前段故事埋了個跟撒哈拉有關的哏，不知道各位有發現嗎？

沒錯，就是村裡的作物「橄欖樹」，同時也是三毛作詞、李泰祥作曲、齊豫原唱的歌曲名，連同三毛女士的作品，是使許多華人嚮往撒哈拉的啟蒙作品，按我同團的兩個中國女生也提到這件事（他們受友人之託要把撒哈拉的沙帶回去）。「不要問我從哪裡來，我的故鄉在遠方」的歌詞，配上李大師刻意營造不規則感的旋律，也曾經讓我對於這首歌的意境嚮往；當天下午四點，我們終於一睹撒哈拉的廬山真面目。車子在基地營把我們放下，接下來得騎一個半小時的駱駝到達沙漠中的營地，在那邊吃飯過夜之後隔天返回。

那晚，我們這些觀光客們圍在營火旁邊，當地嚮導們拿出了各種大大小小的鼓，叫我們自己先玩玩。我對於一開始大家不夠high這件事看不過去，於是就自己開始憑感覺亂敲亂唱，用固定但帶一點變化的鼓點配上五聲音階的即興旋律，後來當地嚮導竟然請我和他們一起演奏、吟唱他們的傳統音樂（我只好繼續用萬用和弦與結奏矇混過去，哈哈）。最後所有人都手舞足蹈完，大家也終於放開了，在星空下圍著逐漸黯淡的營火聊著彼此的故事。

隔天早上天還未亮就得拔營起行，原本應該是「夜色茫茫、星月無光」的（欸這是不是有幫某人助選嫌疑啊？XD），結果碰上大滿月，沙丘的輪廓一清二楚，連我們騎在駱駝上的影子都清晰可見，沉睡在黝黑中的沙漠其實很美，只不過氣溫是要命的冷，冷到讓人對撒哈拉完全失去興趣，只想回基地營吃熱騰騰的早餐；一直到接近基地營時，嚮導帶我們來到一座沙丘頂端看日出。這時天色已經不是魚肚白，沙丘也從全黑慢慢被調成土灰色；突然，太陽從地平線上出來了！

只見眼前無數的沙丘從頂部開始被一一打亮，接著整片沙漠像是前晚點燃木炭一般，從灰暗中緩緩轉成溫潤的黃褐色，不見烈焰飛騰，卻像是被陽光烘烤到燒了起來一樣。事後回想此情此景，我突然理解某首台灣國語流行歌詞表達的意境了：

「我的熱情（啊！），好像一盆火，燃燒了著整個沙漠。」

（結果這篇文章莫名其妙的用了一大堆國語歌曲哏，不知道自己在寫什麼，大概是腦袋被撒哈拉的太陽給燒壞了，哈哈。）

1. The Berbers

"We are all the same. Only our hats are different. Berbers, Arabs, Jews... we have no problem living together, because we all have the same father and mother..."

It was the second day of the Sahara tour, and this was said by our Berber guide. The Europeans in our group seemed to get something, while the other remained intact. Then the guide continued: "Adam and Eve." (Interestingly, his pronunciation of the names were very different from English, which I guess were probably Arabic or Hebrew.)

The guide led us through the fields into his village, showed us olive trees and almond trees, and told us how they exchange instead of purchase them. Afterwards we were led into a mud-made residence, where he introduced how traditional carpets are made, and how women passed down family-specific patterns down without any draft. At the end, unsurprisingly, he encouraged us to buy. While one of us bought anything, everyone seemed to be comfortable with that, as he had been passionately showing us his culture.

Finally, we crossed a river while some women were washing clothes. He said, "the Berber women have a lot of strength, and sometimes it can be hard..." Understanding his humor, I jokingly asked, "so, do you have this problem?" He laughed, "Well, when my wife is angry she is... (showing head explosion with gestures); but she usually has green fire, not red fire. After two days she is happy again..." Then he turned to me, "how is your wife?" Not waiting for me to respond, he contiuned, "you don't have a wife. (Indifferent and turning to the next guy,) so how is your wife? ..."

(I have to say he is indeed a very professional tour guide, who even knows how to play back on visitors' jokes.)

2. The Sahara

Many Mandarin speakers became interested in the Sahara because of the literature and a pop song "Olive Tree" of San-Mao, a Taiwanese writer who moved to the the Sahara with her husband in 1970s. The irregular, mysterious melody of the song also helped build my impression about the Sahara. Decades later, I finally arrived at the desert's margin around 4pm. Our trip began at the base camp, and we spent the night in the dessert after 1.5 hours of camel ride.

That night, we gathered around a campfire, and the local guides gave us some traditional drums to play. As an icebreaker, I started making regular beats with some random 5-node scale singing. The local guides were excited and invited me to join their playing and singing. Finally, after some singing and dancing, the group got relaxed, and people exchanged their stories around the dimming campfire.

The next morning, we headed back in the darkness -- well, not completely. It was close to the full moon, and the ride therefore came with very pleasant and tranquil desert view. However, feeling frozen in the temperature, all we wanted was to escape from the desert. Finally, we were led to the top of a sand dune to watch the sunrise. At then, the desert already turned from black to brown-gray. All of a sudden, the sun came up from the horizon. Gradually, the entire desert was "toasted" like charcoal, injected with very warm and amicable soil yellow color. The desert was ignited!

I can't think of any better way to end our time in the Sahara.