Final Countdown!

Yateek Ilaafiyah

There are four different ways I can call home: using the phone at my Reps' flat, using Skype if I have good enough internet, using an international calling card, or using my regular phone plan. On Easter, while I was in Aqaba, I decided to surprise my parents with a phone call, and ended up using my regular phone plan since I couldn't find any stores that sell international calling cards. My sister and her boyfriend were home for Easter, so I got to talk to them too. Mom was the last person I spoke to. I greeted her, then suddenly the call disappeared.

Once I figured out that my phone ran out of money, I ran to the phone store next to my hotel to buy some minutes. I wanted to buy 10 Jordanian Dinars (JD) worth of minutes. When I asked how much, the salesman told me 20JD. I gasped and refused. He, in English, claimed that it's tax, blah blah blah to try to get me to pay it. I told him, no, it's never more than 7.50JD for a 5JD card in Amman and Irbid. He relented, and had me pay 15JD. On my way out of the store, I told him "yateek ilaafiyah"- which is basically "bless your work", but something only someone who lives in an Arab speaking country would know to say. All the salesmen in the store laughed, surprised that I knew it. The man who sold me the phone card apologized for treating me like a tourist, since I obviously wasn't.

I was proud of myself. I might not speak Arabic, but I'm getting a hang of the Arabic niceties.

Desert to the Red Sea

The desert in Wadi Rum

 I've always loved Easter. I even enjoyed the holiday last year when I spent most of the weekend huddled in front of my computer, surrounded by books, finishing my first complete draft of my thesis. This year was extremely different from past Easter's though. It was my first Easter away from home, and my first time celebrating in an unconventional way. School is closed for the holiday, so I took the opportunity to travel to the south of Jordan, while the weather is nice.

Exploring Wadi Rum

I spent Easter Weekend in Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a desert nature preserve, covering about 280 square miles, and is bordered by Saudi Arabia. The desert has signs of habitation dating back to 800 BC. It's an amazingly beautiful area. I arrived there early Friday afternoon, and met with my wonderful tour guide, Tyseer. He's friends with the other volunteers at AES so we were looking forward to finally meeting about hearing about each other for so long. After a cup of bedouin tea, we headed off on our tour. On our way out of the village with ran into a Northern Irish woman wandering on her own and convinced her to come along with us. 

Sunset over Wadi Rum

During the jeep tour, we explored some canyons and rock formations, before settling down to watch the sunset. Afterward, we made our way to the bedouin camp I stayed at for dinner (a chicken dish that's cooked in a hole in the ground). Two volunteers from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLID) were there with their families, along with many other interesting travelers. After an hour or so of star gazing, I admitted defeat and headed off to sleep in my tent. Bedouin tents aren't like what Americans would think of when they think of a tent- they are made of goat and sheep wool, are elevated off the ground, the floors are covered in rugs, and are large enough to walk around in.

Walking across the desert in Wadi Rum

The next morning, after breakfast, I joined the HLID volunteers and their families on a hike across the desert. We walked from the campsite to the village, and up to a spring. The trek took about 2 hours, and somewhere along the way in the direct sun and soft sand I managed to get sunburned and to aggravate an old knee injury. After a lunch of falafel sandwiches at the spring, the group hiked back down to the village, and Tyseer and I set off on a tour of east Wadi Rum. 

Driving in Wadi Rum

When we were out past where most tourists go, Tyseer asked me, "Do you want to drive." I replied, "Of course!" and jumped in the driver's seat. Apparently I'm not a bad desert driver- I managed to not hit a rock or tree, not flip the car, or get it stuck. It was both terrifying and exhilarating- especially after Tyseer told me that he didn't have a spare tire if I popped a tire. Tyseer seemed to approve of my driving and allowed me to drive for about an hour, out near the Saudi border. 

Camp fire to combat boredom

We stopped for a cup of tea with some picnickers we meet, then headed back to the main part of Wadi Rum. Tyseer was showing off, driving on the side of a hill, when he hit a rock and popped a tire. I just smiled and told him, "At least it wasn't me." We had no cellphone signal, so we had to wait until the picnickers we met drove back our way. So we rested in the shade of a mountain until the picnickers came back. They did not have a spare tire we could use, but drove us back to where we could get enough signal to call Tyseer's brother. We found another hill to camp out on while we waited for Tyseer's brother. I went exploring on a rock formation, and Tyseer built a camp fire. Eventually, his brother arrived to rescue us in his pickup truck. His truck was set up for tourists to sit in the bed, but the tarp to block the sun was not up. So instead of sitting, I took the more exciting route and stood at the back of the cab holding onto the pole. The pole was a bit large for my hands so I had to wrap my wrists around it. Going over the bumps and sand dunes left my wrists bruised, but I'm so glad I did it.

Sunset over the Red Sea

We stopped for dinner at Tyseer's cousin's camp. I was so exhausted that Tyseer decided to just set me up in a tent there instead of driving back to his camp. On Easter Sunday, I awoke to wind and a sky full of rain clouds. As I was eating breakfast it started raining. Rain in the desert is beautiful. I returned to the village and waited for my taxi to my next destination. After about 3 hours of waiting I was ready to go crazy with boredom and begged Tyseer to do something, so he convinced one of the boys to give me a short camel ride. After short goodbyes, I took a taxi to Aqaba.

At the beach on the Red Sea in Aqaba

Aqaba is a port city on the Red Sea, across from Israel and the coast of Egypt is also visiable. I spent my first afternoon there just walking around, getting the lay of the land, with my knee protesting my every step. On Monday, I was planning on visiting the beach and some archeological sites, but I could not handle the walking. Instead I went to the beach and read for a while, then got a massage at a women's spa. It was a nice relaxing day. This morning, I slept in, then took the bus back to Amman. I'm staying the night at the Rep Flat, and will spend the day in Amman tomorrow before returning to Irbid for school on Thursday.

Standing in the Red Sea

"Ipad?" "No, book!"

For every chapter the students do in their text book they have a short reading exam that goes along with it. Miss Abeer, the teacher I work with for 1st-3rd grade, calls them up one by one to read the passage to her. To keep them quiet during this, and to help them practice their vocabulary, she has the students copy their vocabulary words and definitions multiple times. This equates to me being pretty bored, because the low vision students I work with don't need me to do anything.

In order to fight the boredom, I brought my Kindle into the second grade class with me and read. All the kids wanted to know what it was. I didn't know how to explain "e-book" so I just told them "book." They asked, "phone?" (no), "Ipad?" (no). And they wanted to see if it was touch so a bunch of them tried to make the screen move. It's not a touch screen so it didn't actually do anything. They figured out there were buttons to make it do things though, at which point I had to stop them before I completely lost my place in the book.

Eventually, one of the boys decided that it really is just a book, so he asked to read it with me. I figured the one I was reading was too hard for him, so I pulled up a book of fairy tales, enlarged the font, and sat with him so he could read it. As he read a group of his classmates formed a circle around us to listen. I don't know if they understood much of it, but they all seemed to enjoy reading together.

Reading with one of the low vision 1st Graders

Eid Milaad Saeed!

Birthday cake number 1

A while back, Ina and I realized that we share a birthday- March 23rd (though 2 years apart). We immediately began teasing Judith about how she had to plan an epic birthday for us. And she did- even though she sadly was not able to actually be with us on our birthday due to a medical emergency (don't worry she's fine, she's back in Germany for a few weeks to get herself fixed and will hopefully return to us completely healed soon).

Showing off part of my present from Judith- curly hair products!

The celebration started Saturday evening. Ina and I (because of the awesome planning of Judith) baked our birthday cake, using Ina's Mother's carrot cake recipe. The next morning we greeted each other with happy birthday wishes, then went out for brunch. Afterwards we walked back to Ina's apartment, stopped to buy cookies, and decided to spend the afternoon on the roof, soaking up the sunshine. There we opened up our birthday presents, made use of the nail polish Judith gave us, and relaxed (gleefully interrupted by a friend who called us and insisted on singing "Happy Birthday" to us multiple times in both English and Arabic). After church that evening, Ina's host mother had us over to celebrate and eat the cake we made. I wrapped up the day with a call to my parents.

Surprise cake from the school.

On Monday, we shared the cookies we bought with the teachers and staff at school- then were surprised with another cake and small party by the headmistress and priest. The festivities are to be continued on Friday with the Reps who are taking us to Umm Qais (where Jordanians claim Christ drove the Legion from the man and sent it into a herd of pigs) for lunch.

I could not have asked for a better 23rd birthday. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, and I can't wait to open the presents that are currently in the mail from my parents and Aunt Cathy!

 

Eid Milaad Saeed = Happy Birthday (in Arabic)

Ticket Home.... WHAT?

A few weeks ago I recieved my ticket back to the States! I spent the next two days going through an emotional crisis about how that made me feel- I was happy, and sad, and kind of surprised, and reluctant to admit how soon I'm leaving, while also extremely excited to see my family, and many more feelings.

So here's the deal:
July 20th - Flight from Amman, Jordan to  Doha, Qatar
Alittle after midnight on July 21st - Flight from Doha, Qatar to Philadelphia, USA
ETA in Philly: 7:55AM, July 21st

From Philly I'll go directly  to MCC headquaters in Akron, PA for reentry retreat. Then on July 26th, my parents will pick me up and I'll head back to the Eastern Shore.

Worship on the River Jordan

Standing by the Jordan River

My alarm clock rang. I groaned and turned it off. I couldn't set it to snooze again. I actually had to get up. All I wanted to do was sleep. February was a busy month, filled with start of the new semester, preparation for Mother's Day in March, rehearsals for the school's production of Noah's Ark, the opening of the school's new gym, organization of the new library, planning for Easter Break and the MCC retreat in Barcelona, planning my return to the US, and stressing about my future after the end of my SALT term. All I wanted was a day to sleep in. But instead I rolled over and got up at 7:30 on a Friday morning (one of my normal days off). Why did I do this to myself? Oh right, because it's not everyday that I get the chance to go to a church service at the Jordan River.

On the bank of the Jordan

The Jordan River is the border between the Jordan and Israel/Palestine. As such, much of the land along it is used as a military base. There is a section near the place Jordanian's claim Jesus was baptized that is open to the public. As a show of good will toward the registered Christian denominations in Jordan the government gave each of them land near the Baptism Site to build a church. These Churches cannot be used on a weekly basis, however, because of their proximity to the border. Instead, each denomination has a chance to invite all of it's members to a worship service there once a year- normally around Epiphany.

The Bishops and the Priests

The Episcopal Church's day for this service was Friday, February 28th. Anglicans from across the country drove or were bused in for the service- I saw people I know I from Irbid, Husn, and Amman. And, the Bishop of the Jerusalem Diocese came to lead the service. Though the Episcopal Church has land on the River, it does not have the money at this time to build a church. Instead, the service was conducted on covered platform that opened up directly on to the Jordan River.

Worship Service

Though this is was my third trip to the Jordan, it was the first for my friends Ina and Judith. They were both underwhelmed by it. Though the Jordan River might have been grand in the past, today it is more of a dirty, mucky ditch than a river. Though, we did spend much time discussing the fact that we were literally feet from Israel/Palestine, and how frustrating it must be for many Jordanians who have Palestinian roots but for whom visiting their ancestral homes is nearly impossible.

At the rest stop

The service was about two hours long and was completely in Arabic. Some volunteers from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLID) joined Judith, Ina, and me, and attempted to translate the sign language interpretation for us. They explained the sign language to Ina and Judith in German, and they in turn attempted to translate the German to English for me. It was a long and complicated process, so I quickly told them not to trouble themselves, they could tell me the gist of it later. I knew the tune of several of the hymns, though I didn't know the words well enough to actually sing. There was even a baptism- though disappointingly the person was not dunked into the River (I don't think people are allowed in the River where we were). Afterwards, the long process of communion began. One of the Priests sprinkled as many people as possible with what I assumed was holy water from the Jordan River, while the wine and bread were blessed. As the Priests got into position to distribute the communion, Ina leaned over to me and whispered, "Now it's time for the sharing of bacteria!" Normally the church has everyone drink for the same cup. Not at this service though. Instead of everyone getting a small piece of bread and a sip from the wine glass, the Priest dipped a small wafer in the goblet and placed it directly in each person's mouth. Soon after that the service concluded.

With a horse friend we made

Ina, Judith, the volunteers from HLID, and I took some pictures by the river then quickly headed to our respective buses. There were two buses going to Irbid, and they stopped twice on the return trip. The first stop was not far from the Baptism site, for a picnic lunch. The second was near Jarash (about halfway between Amman and Irbid) to rest and visit some shepherds on the side of a hill. After some exploring and signing, we got back on the bus and finished the journey. The house aunt here at the YWCA, Auntie Hannah, got off the bus with me in Husn and invited me to visit some of her family. I was tired and hungry so thankfully it was a short visit before the two of us headed back to the Y, where I made myself some pita pizza and plopped into my bed.