Backgammon

So recently I have done quite a bit of travelling within the Near East and as a result am pretty exhausted, so this is a kind of random filler story about backgammon rather than any kind of update...

 One day I was downtown, camera in hand, without much to do so I went for a walk around to see what there was to see and more importantly photograph. The area was quite dull, generic architecture, traffic, Starbucks - it could have been any city in the world. That was until I stumbled upon the game of backgammon...

I don't know about where you are from but in the UK it is not an everyday occurrence that you see a sizable group of 40-50 somethings gathered around a board-game on the side of a busy street in the middle of the working week. Here it actually seems perfectly ordinary, in fact men sitting around generally doing nothing in the middle of the week is ordinary here. Of course the sight of this group got my 'interesting photo opportunity' sense tingling. I would love to say that I made a beeline for the group, quickly introduced myself and began an impormptu photoshoot.

The truth however is possibly mildly more amusing and certainly paints me in a less glorious and more accurate light... The men were sitting on the pavement on the side of a roundabout. I saw the group when I was about 1/3 of the way round the roundabout which is when my interest was spiked. As I got to where they were sitting I realised that I could barely speak a word of Arabic and was clearly a tourist, waltzing around with an expensive DSLR over my shoulder.

I chickened out. I passed calmly on by with an air of determination as though I was actually headed somewhere just around the corner and not at all interested in taking pictures of what was clearly the most mundane activity imaginable - a group of oldies playing a board game. Seriously my life is just one big adventure ...

So anyway after I had passed them by I looked back over my shoulder and winced slightly as I watched a perfect photo moment slip by because I was too afraid to capture it. I continued walking all the way around the roundabout and back down the street I had approached from. The internal dialogue at this point was something along the lines of ...

'Seriously?! What is the worst that could possibly happen, they say no? They start speaking in Arabic and waving their arms about as you take photos? Would they really chase you away? ... Seriously man up and just go take some photos!'

This is not a game of backgammon but I did see this on the way.

After about 5 minutes of walking the wrong direction I decided to throw caution to the wind! ... I crossed the street and headed back to the roundabout.

As a brief aside this whole experience involved crossing the road a lot of times and it was on one of these times I realised that they don't have zebra crossings here. Instead crossing the road is similar to photo opportunities, you pretty much just have to put yourself out there and hope that you don't die.

I arrived at the backgammon game which still lived on - it seemed they were not planning on going anywhere too soon. I walked over and stood looking over the shoulder of a guy observing the game and tried to do my best 'This is a genuinely enthralling game' face, despite not knowing the first thing about the game of backgammon.

After a few minutes one of the guys spotted my camera and saw straight through my paper thin guise of watching the game for interest, he started speaking in Arabic and motioning with his arms. Fortunately it was not as I had feared, he was not shouting and waving menacingly but rather giving the gesture for taking pictures.

I took the opportunity, muttered something in English and quickly retreated behind my camera and just started taking photos. It turns out the group of guys was pretty friendly, one of them had lived in Germany for 20 years and spoke some English, I spent about 30 minutes trying to scratch together a conversation with him and intermittently taking pictures. They were all taxi drivers who were passing their time at a slow point in the day.

My conversation with this one guy was actually quite sad, he was asking where in the city I had been and was quick to advise me where in the City not to go, he pointed over my shoulder down one of the roads and frowned. I asked him why I shouldn't go there. He explained that it was not safe, or clean there because it was the Muslim quarter. I was shocked at his casual prejudice as he continued to explain that he was Catholic and that this whole area, including the group of backgammon players were catholic. (It explained the rosary beads that they were carrying) As the conversation continued he explained the different catholic areas that I could go to and what they were good for, being a taxi driver he was of course trying to offer me a lift to these places. 

Interestingly the prices he was quoting me were excess of triple the going rate, no doubt seeking to take advantage of the naive tourist. To me this was a very interesting insight, outwardly people here are usually extremely friendly and polite but the truth is that they trust you as far as they can throw you and do not care to be trusted by others as far as I can see.

What is sad for me is that the Catholic community is this nations perception of what it means to be Christian and it is a poor display. The struggle to promote Christ in a predominantly Muslim region is made that much harder by those who misrepresent him. 

Title font used: 'Cubic'