Night of a thousand stars

"I sat under a canopy of stars in the Sahara desert and listened to a young Berber man tell me his dreams."

What a magical night it was! Who is this man of mystery? Would you like to know more? Read on...

His name is Muhammad, a Berber guide with beautiful olive green eyes set against a dusky complexion tanned by the desert sun. After dinner and songs by the campfire, he watched quietly as I stood staring at the starry sky for almost an hour before he approached me. We struck up a long conversation that lasted till midnight.

What did I learn that night?

• Muhammad is 25 years old, third in a family of eight children, whose parents live 56 kms away from our camp. They are farmers.
  
• He's never been to school but learnt English, French, Spanish and German from daily conversations with tourists who visit the camps, where he's worked for the last 3 years
• He dreams of getting married before 30 and visiting Switzerland
• "There's no time in the desert!" he said playfully as he pushed my watch away when I tried to see how late it was getting
  
• There are desert Berbers, mountain Berbers and Marrakech Berbers - all of whom have very different customs and languages
  
• There are thousands of stars in the desert sky and the brightest one is called "Taghir" in the Berber language. Muhammad taught me to patiently scout the sky for shooting stars and we were rewarded with two sightings!
  
• It is very quiet in the desert at night. Very quiet. And very beautiful

It's gets very cold at night in the desert but a warm campfire, woollen blanket and gracious companionship is a wonderful antidote.

Shukran Muhammad.