In the desert.... Along with the (gi)s, bokkens, and (Jo)s (Day 2)

I woke up the next day all covered with sand, I couldn’t manage to deal with my sleeping bag properly, because I prepared it blindly that night like I would have ever been lazy to make my own bed in the day time like the others. Unfortunately, I would have chosen to sleep in a freezer than sleeping in the tent that night, I spent the whole night cursing myself of the many reasons why I neglected my mother when she had the blankets ready for me, yeah….. it’s one of the times I regret using my hero’s mentality to ignore facing the facts. It was dry and cold, I was really wishing to have my night’s dream swimming inside a boiler. Sensei Atif couldn’t wait any longer when I just had my eyes closed, and began ringing the bell. I remember making my own bathroom somewhere beyond the dunes, and it somehow made me wonder why the Japanese never thought of making a portable toilet. Although I spent the whole night awake freezing, I felt somehow hyper and ready for our first class in the early morning…… the meditation class. It have been such a very long time since I ever observed the sunrise, maybe in the movies, but rarely in real life. That motion of the sun sneaking behind the mountains calmed my soul and took my breath away….. I still miss that feeling, it was quite a scene.

Later on, sensei Matt managed to lead the following class, which was teaching the basic techniques of handling the bokkens, it was a little difficult to hold the stance in the sand, but the sensei-s were doing the techniques in such an appealing way. In the other hand, I was like the juggler; I couldn’t keep my balance properly. However, it was such a powerful exercise for the arm muscles. At the end of Matt’s class, he surprised us by performing ukemi (ground rolling) from the top of a dune, it sounded challenging, so I put my fear aside and went for it, and it was an amazing ride.

I was so exhausted after Matt’s class, that was a hell of a training in such a shiny early morning, but things didn’t stop still, sensei Atif was standing there next to the camp waiting for the next class to begin. Simply, it was one of the most effective classes that was really worth the suffer I had in that freezing night. It was about the basic techniques of shomen (head strike), taisabaki (turn around stance), and yokomen (side head strike) all combined with the use of bokkens (sword), and “Jo”s (spear) that gave me the ability to hold my stance properly, and have a solid control of my hips and knees….. until I realized that these exercises made me somehow taste the harmony of aikido, but I still believe that capturing such feeling would be a lifelong process.

One of the disadvantages of being bold is that my head was subject to sweat, and it became worse when it mixed with sand….. My head became muddy somehow, and every time I scratch my head I find the dirt stuck beneath my fingernails. All what I needed was a shower, because since we came here, I had these shivers from things moving over my skin, but these things come and go….. could it get any better in the middle of the desert anyways?!