Nolemana and I were heading into Portland for a conference on Saturday morning. I was so grateful for the rain, and I was thinking about that as we left the house. But I screeched to a halt (after checking that nobody was behind me for a long distance) when I thought I saw something out of the ordinary. Llamas. Sheepies. Clouds. Lotsa green. Do you see anything else? (No fair zooming, cuz you gotta see what I was seeing.) Was I seeing things?
What I saw in my peripheral vision was really there! Seeyum?
Wassup wit dis? I wasn’t seeing things! I hadn’t suddenly moved to East Asia!
OMG! It wasn’t a llama.
Yep! It was a Bactrian camel!! (Da 2-hump kine.)
A camel? In Damascus? I had to drive off because a car was coming, but the next morning we stopped there again to see if it was still there. And it was!
It had just gotten sheared, and I began dreaming of stopping at the house and asking what they were going to do with the fiber before the next shearing. Or maybe they still have it from this shearing. Cuz spinning, ya know? Like handspinning? Camel is fabulous once you get past the guard hairs.
In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy watching our new neighbor. I wonder if it’s a wahine camel and pretty soon we going get keiki camel! Cuz her ōpū looks kinda big to me. Baby camel fiber??? I’d be so jazzed!!
A Mānoa Girl's Bloggie 
OK, Moki-chan–this phrase made me laugh (out loud):
“A camel? In Damascus?”
If a reader had thought you were in Lebanon instead of Oregon, they might have been very puzzled at your puzzlement.
(And I think s/he is a dromedary–a bactrian is a one-hump camel.)
Your post made me think of this wonderful Ogden Nash poem (yes, I know it’s a different animal, but still):
“The LLama
The one-l lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-l llama,
He’s a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-l lllama.”
(Although some wits have claimed a “three-alarmer” fire qualifies, but I disagree.)
Cool you get one camel as one naybah!
You are hilarious!! And you’re right about Lebanon.. I wonder if I have any readers from Lebanon now. And I adore Ogden Nash but have never read this poem before… good one!! I do like the “three’alarmer”… and I think it qualifies.
I thought a Bactrian was two humps so I looked it up before posting… but had to correct “Africa” to East Asia. But I’m going to check again.
I just looked it up again, and you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. The Bactrian has two humps; the dromedary one.
No matter how many humps, it’s still an oddity around here. Now I’m wondering if it’s a rescue camel. S/he looks awfully raggedy and thin.
Huuuui, Moki-chan! Hau`oli la hanau! Hope it’s a good one!
It was!! Mahalo!!