Seeing Is Believing

Thats the hill on the top, Zalla was seen descending in the middle of the road, second pix from the top. Cooking and lamb meat on the mat pix below and the video





By Amde Sidik

I told Zalla* that I have been fascinated looking at those people who could walk like lizards on the hill. From distance they also look like mountain goats-kambing gurun (in Malay). They jump from rock to rock, and sometimes they touch on the sand, zoom! leaving the dust behind.

My question, is this an easy task? Most of the time they are wearing taliban kind of outfit, with white robes, baggy trousers, bulky hats or heavy turbans, only with sandals or even bare footed,

They are mostly Pakistanis, Afghans and other ethnics that have similar background living in close neighborhood with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

One day Zalla and I went for this maddening trail. No, no, it wasn’t like what it was seen or at least like what I imagined. Those rocks sometimes are loose rocks, unless one can identify which ones are permanent which ones are not, with one wrong step one surely rolls down like round marbles. It is dangerous. Don’t simply step on the sand; it isn’t really sand but something like grained rocks with sharp edges mixed up with other things else. It’s as porous as mud which could burry one foot up to an ankle deep.

Now I know for sure kambing gurun is kambing gurun or lizard is lizard, this is not an overnight affair for me to learn to jump from rock to rock.

Nevertheless this was an experience; we did it out of curiosity. I got some bruises on my right elbow and my foot while trying to hang up to avoid from rolling down. Zalla said we can easily be mistaken about the sand, the moment one steps on it everything would fall down with haasssh sound and bang later.

It was on Hari Raya Idil Adha or in Malay Hari Raya Korban, where slaughtering of animals was taken place in 2007, just behind the jamarat where casting of pebbles are taking place-hilly part of Mina.

We were so lucky during our adventure. We were served by those people camping on the hill side with barbecue of lamb –korban meat and soup, but we opted only for barbecue. Very kind of them!

Many would be asking why were these people cooking here or basically living here. Well, you see, not all pilgrims are fortunate to come to this place. Many thousands come here have no place to stay, so this picnic version is not really picnic but another way of approaching God; in our eyes these are hard ones. Some live in open space, some use tents for shelters, while some simply lay down next to the main roads.

As we reached somewhere in the middle of the hill we bumped into Saudi youths, six of them. This was my first encounter with the local since the last three weeks of my arrival, and the only Saudi that could speak English. They were there just observing the people, I would say. One is by the name of Khaleel- seen at the extreme left in the video. This guy speaks perfect English I have the feeling he must have been living in English speaking country. He has sent me a few emails since my arrival home in Malaysia

This video taking was not my expertise; I am totally hopeless unlike still photographing which I have been trained as photojournalist.

All of them refused to be photographed initially. Their reason was, they said, its haram to be taken in the form of photograph but video is alright! That prompted me to ask them if they watch TV at home .Their reply was yes, and TV is ok. I found it’s very strange! I explained to them the concept of photography is exactly the same as video! The nearest example I cited to them is how slides presentation works, which is originally from still photographs. But realizing this affair was not my objective of coming to this country I therefore wouldn’t bother to prolong the debate. Instead I showed them how I turned my still camera into video camera. I won the day, and this is how this little clip was born.

* A friend of mine who has always been supportive to me in my adventure