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Published: September 7th 2015
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Israel from Jordan by way of the Dead Sea What an adventure!
I am having a hard time believing I am doing any of these things....
As I mentioned before, last night we traveled to The Dead Sea Resort for our day off. Tonight, I wrote this blog back at "home" in Amman.
The last 15 hours or so have been filled with bliss, relaxation time spent getting to know the amazing people on this trip.
By the grace of God or Allah or just dumb luck..there was an extra room for our team at the resort last night! I grabbed that thing up so quick I amy have ever so slightly offended my pals Chrys and Riley! But, it was delightful to have my own room all to myself just for the night! I hoped to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely morning. No such luck. I was wide awake at 7:00AM. I decided to just give in, get up and explore the venue.
I explored the many pools....made a spa appointment, read up on Jordan, had hummos and scrambled eggs for breakfast and drank much coffee. As you can see from the pictures, the resort is right on the coast of the dead
sea. The land that we could see so close just across the sea was Israel. About noon Riley, Chrys and I decided to walk down and do the Dead Sea experience. I saw down because the walk down was a real hike. A real hike down many stairs. My main thought was, "where is the elevator to get back up?". Hint: there was not one.
The Dead Sea, as many of you already know, is very salty. The consistency of the water is such that you cannot sink! Close up, the water almost looks like it is oily...it has a sheen to it. The mud in the sea is full of minerals and healing properties that are beneficial to the skin. You take the mud mixture and rub it on your skin then get in the sea and float! For the day, I'd say my skin looked 2-4 years younger! When you get to the shore, you can see the rocks covered with white solidified salt (see pics).
After a lovely day of rest, we loaded into the van to head back to our home base in Amman. We went to dinner with the whole team and had
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Some of the million steps down to the sea... our first meal of all middle-eastern food. It was absolutely delicious! Hummos, grape leaves, pickled vegetables, bread (oh my god, the bread), kibbe, and much much more. We were able to meet the owner of the restaurant who was so generous and gracious. His family has owned the building for many years and in 2003 he converted the home as well as the huge courtyard(where we sat) into the restaurant.
Rita Mansour and Randa Mansour Shouher are sisters who live in Toledo with us and are on this trip...they pretty much ARE The trip to the Toledo clan. They have aunts and uncles here in Jordan who they visited last night...and their cousin Summer joined us for dinner. At dinner (after she smoked a wicked hookah) she asked that all of the leftover food be wrapped to go. She took me, Chrys, Riley, Barbara and Rita to the refugee camp in Jordan...just a few short blocks from where we had dinner. It is a common practice for Summer and her family to provide for the people in the camp, primarily Palestinian refugees. We delivered the food and she drove us around to see the sights. With so much in
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Riley pointing out how low below sea level we were! the news recently about a refugee crisis around the world, it was shocking and sad to see these areas first hand. The extremely close living quarters, limited education and mobility, lack of opportunity for employment and the inability to return to their own home home contributes to the often long term status of folks as refugees in the camps. Throw in politics, wars, border conflicts and religion...and it is a problem with few solutions. For now, It is nice to know that families like the Mansours commit so much of their personal resources to the improve the lives of the people in the camps. Eye opening to say the least...appreciative more than ever.
We returned to the hotel and proceeded to the rooftop! Continued to chat with the team over wine and cigars. As hot as it gets here during the day (today my phone read 96), the nights are cool and clear with no humidity. Perfect temps for sitting outside. We were treated to a song by Riley. She is such a delightful girl. She is smart and compassionate and talented and funny. I cannot imagine where she gets it??
Today we are heading to a military
hospital in Sult to meet & treat at least another fifty people with hearing aids. Loading up on coffee as we speak. More later!
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