An American Bedouin
Erga Rehns has been living with the bedouin tribes of Wadi Rum for seven years.
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| Erga was born in Palestine but raised in the US |
An American Bedouin is the story of Erga Rehns, a 70-year-old archeologist, artist and writer who lives in Wadi Rum, the home of the bedouin tribes in Jordan.
Born in 1935 in Palestine to a Palestinian mother and a German father, she moved with her family to the US in 1938.
She was raised and educated in America, living and working in New York until 1977 when she moved to Portugal.
When Portugal appeared to be growing too similar to the rest of Europe she decided to embark upon a new challenge and returned to her birthplace.
She lived in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem and worked on archeological digs and in her spare time she started to research Bedouins.
When a colleague suggested she spend time with a Bedouin family she took a two week holiday and headed out to the desert close to the border of Saudi Arabia.
But when the two weeks came to an end she could not bring herself to leave. That was seven years ago and she is now as much a part of the Bedouin community at Wadi Rum as those who have spent their whole lives there.
This programme aired 01 June 2007
Watch Part One here:
Watch Part Two here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdvfKlfLDbY
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