Under the sea

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Well, the last few days have been quite an interesting time. I'm currently in Ghor Al-Mazra (Ghor Farms) with Tad and we are trying to stay cool. Its... ummm.. rather warm. Actually right now it isn't too bad, since we are inside and it is getting later on in the day (6pm). Even so, it is still pretty hot.

I guess a bit of a recap is called for.

Jordan Day 1: Amman
On the 21st I arrived in Amman with a flight with Royal Jordanian. The flight itself was nice, but the luggage handling was rather slow in Amman. In this case it worked out well since Tad had arrived at the wrong terminal, and came over to meet me just in time. At first I was like "uh oh" but it all worked out fine. We then jumped on a bus that was just getting ready to leave the airport and we headed into Amman. On the flight over I sat next to a Jordanian guy who owned a few Subway restaurants in North Carolina and we chatted a bit. He was very friendly and offered to give me help if I ever needed it. He gave me his number and I think I will contact him about the Dead Sea trip coming up.

Once I got into Amman, Tad and I went for a little walk and met up with some other ex-pats (mostly American) who were working in Amman. We ate Beef Mansaf, a typical Jordanian meal which is beef over rice with a runny-yoghurty mixture that you pour over the rice. Yummy.

That evening we went to an ex-pat party on a friend's roof in Amman, and had a good time. I talked with some interesting ex-pats, from Peace Corps volunteers to English teachers and workers at other NGOs. Our night of fun ended a little after midnight when Tad and I went home. We were sharing a bed in one of his friend's apartments. Very nice and comfortable accommodations.

Jordan Day 2 : Amman

I had a big of jetlag to get over. At 4:30am the call to prayer goes out with the muzzein's melodious song echoing all over the city. Sadly in this case the call to prayer also woke me up and I couldn't sleep for another few hours, but I did get back to sleep eventually.

After we woke up around 11 am, we went for breakfast of foul (fava beans ground to a consistency of hummus), hummus, pita, falafel, shai (tea) and fanta, all for JD3.5, which is about 5 dollars total. A great deal. After we finished eating we wandered down to the downtown center, and when there realized that it was Friday, and every Friday there are protests in Amman. The previous week someone had been killed and some journalists were roughed up, but in general the protests in Jordan do not result in fatalities. It was kind of crazy to be walking along with the protesters and seeing all the cops and military guys standing around. The protest wasn't too huge though, and the media were a big contingent of the people there. We walked a bit up ahead and saw the dispersion of the protest, which thankfully was peaceful. A few heart-pounding moments.

After the protests dispersed we hiked down to the Amphitheater which was from Roman times, and quite impressive (see the photos below for a sense of scale). And affordable to boot - JD1 I think for me, and JD0.15 for Tad.

After the Amphitheater we decided to head out to Zarqa, which is a small industrial town to the Northeast of Amman. Really more like a suburb of Amman though. It wasn't really at all like we expected. We took a bus to the bus station (turns out there are two of them), and got off. We walked towards what we thought was the city center, but we mostly just wandered. There was quite a lot of farming considering the dryness of the climate due to the dry season. And they were growing lots of mint. Walking through fields of mint is a rare pleasure. We found a nice cold place to sit down, and during that time, one of my friends from Germany called me. I had sort of known that she would be in Jordan at some point, but her schedule was unclear until a few days ago. She sent me a Facebook message right after I arrived in Amman, and I sent her my phone number (Tad got me a Jordanian SIM card). We talked and planned to meet up for dinner.

Tad and I took the bus back towards Amman, and went home and got cleaned up for dinner.

You need to drink so much water due to the dry climate. Tad and I always have a 1.5 liter bottle of water on us because of the extreme dryness of the climate. When you walk around for a few hours, you get quite dehydrated.

We met Miriam at the University and found a Yemeni restaurant that served us some delicious chicken dish and some not-so-delicious ground beef dish. Then we went down to Wakalat Street, which seems to be a Arabic-ization of "walk a lot". The Wakalat street is a pedestrian section of the city, and we stopped off in a cafe where we smoked an argileh (hookah for Americans, shisha for Europeans) and had some tea. We parted ways with Miriam at Walkalat and headed home. On arriving home we talked with one of Tad's classmates for another two hours about her research with Iraqi refugees in Jordan and the struggles that they face in daily life. It was an eye-opening and disturbing conversation. I miss these sorts of conversations.
by
Then blissful sleep.

Jordan Day 3: Amman To Ghor Al-Mazra

We awoke relatively early in order to get up to the Coliseum and get to the Ghor by the evening. As the previous day, we had breakfast at the same place and had the same delicious food. I'm not sure I would ever tire of it.

We met Miriam at the Citadel which is on the top of one of the Hills in Jordan. Tad and I walked and Miriam took a taxi. Tad and I try to always walk, but Jordan is very hilly so getting around by foot - particularly in the hottest parts of the day - is tiring, and you require quite a lot of water to stay hydrated. We walked around the Citadel for a while (Roman ruins in a fairly ruined state of affairs), but restorations are underway. We then decided on a hike up to a mosque on another hill that you can see from the Citadel. In hindsight this probably wasn't a brilliant idea. This meant a hike down from the Citadel to the lower streets, then a climb back up the hill - all of this in the hottest part of the day. Perhaps not a great idea. We did it, and eventually made it back to our apartment, but I got fairly badly burned on the top of my head from all the sum, and I wasn't feeling particularly good. Tad and I took a one-hour nap to recuperate (felt great), then packed our bags and headed out for Ghor Al-Mazra.

We took a taxi to the southern most bus station in Amman, and then took another bus to Ghor Al-Mazra. It was ridiculously hot when we were riding along the Dead Sea. You know it is hot when the wind actually makes you feel hotter. We arrived at the Initiative and are trying to cool down in the only A/C room in the building. Some of Tad's pupils and neighbors came by for some photos, and I was thinking about trying to get portraits of each kid tomorrow. The evening light in the Ghor is some of the nicest light I have ever taken photos in.

Now, it is dinner time - we are going to throw some stuff together and get our bellies stuffed. I'm starving

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Photos

Another view of the Amphitheater
see the person for a sense of scale. Quite a big place

Progress on restoration
Left: No Restoration
Right: Restored

Comments

[Mayen]

The journey began
I am so happy to know you took off already to travel around the world... I might go to venezuela in September, if you care to join me... I hope you have a good time over Jordan with your bro... please keep in touch and keep writing... Your pictures are amazing M

[Nathan]

Great!
Ian, Awesome to see your trip off to a great start. Good luck, Nate