Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Bedouin - A Missing Woman in Syria

For two years, i didn't know she was missing.

Ironically, i found out by reading Into the Wild - a book about a man missing in the Alaskan wilderness. He took a path through Washington and Oregon states that i had taken with this missing woman.

I wanted to share my discovery with her and email her, only to discover:

www.findnicolevienneau.com

I immediately instead started reading about how Nicole disappeared in Syria...last seen in the Cairo Hotel in Hama.

I bought her Lonely Planet Guide book to see if any page jumped out. I had in 2002 traveled with her for six months and knew what she liked.

A passage about the Bedouin jumped out on page 212. I had written about the Bedouin in 2002 in my journal of poems about our travels. I carried a copy of English Patient in which a pilot is saved by the Bedouin.

If she joined the Bedouin, she would have bumped into them unexpectedly to join them - leaving her belongings, bank account, email account and family contact behind for a prolonged period.

Given two years have passed and there's been no evidence in the cities of Syria surfacing...i think this is a possibility - that she is living in the desert we once discussed.

If anyone knows of Bedouin photographers...contacts would be appreciated.