September 30, 1980

GHARDAIA, ALGERIA
Fortunately, we had many breakdowns and didn't arrive in Ghardaia until 10:30am, so I was able to see the scenery, such as it is. Occasional touches of green, but mostly immense stretches of pale brown, crumbly-looking rock. Ghardaia is an oasis town, in a green valley, with low, rectangular, stone buildings, some with thatched roofs-- the first small, truly African town I've been to. I can walk across it in half an hour. As in Algiers, I went to many filled-up hotels before I had to take an expensive one. Considering the town's size and isolation, there's a surprisingly large number of tourists here.

The traditional dress here is different than in Morocco. I still see about half the older men in traditional dress, but here many boys and young men wear it too. Here they wear very baggy pants, with a crotch down around the knees, sometimes with a western shirt, sometimes under the jellaba. The women are rarely seen. Islam deems that if these inferior creatures go out in public, they must cover their faces. In Moroccan cities, about half of them do so, with a big, colorful kerchief hanging on or below the nose. In Algiers, a little token doily was used. Down here, it's extreme: all women are completely draped in white, with only a tiny triangular space allowing ONE eye to be exposed.

In the past 1-1/2 weeks, I've seen about a hundred pairs of men holding hands. At first I thought it might be just friendship expressed with less inhibitions than we're used to. Now I think they're gay couples and that because traditional Islam doesn't give men and women much opportunity to enjoy each other's company (I've almost never seen a man and a woman together here), they resort to this. No one blinks an eye.

PHOTO CREDIT 1
PHOTO CREDIT 2