Petra and Rum and Aqaba

This past weekend was Memorial Day in the US, and our office was closed from Friday - Sunday.  My friend Alisha had planned a low-budget, adventure-filled weekend for her husband who was visiting, and they let me tag along.  We took a bus from Amman to Wadi Mousa, which is the town where Petra is located, spent the day in Petra, then the next day headed to Wadi Rum, camped in Bedouin tents, and finally spent an afternoon in Aqaba before taking the bus back to Amman.

Also known as the Rose City, Petra was discovered about 50 years ago by European hikers, and archeologists have since discovered the huge ruin of a city built by the Nabateans and conquered by the Romans.  You may recognize Petra more from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade than its historical context - I believe it's where he found the holy grail, and the chotchkis are everywhere.  Petra covers a huge area - you could hike your way through there for days and days, get lost, find your way, and get lost all over again.  After the three hour bus ride, we got to Petra along with all the other tourists in Jordan - so we had to fight our way through the crowds to get down to the Treasury, but by the time we got to the amphitheater, the crowds had dispersed a bit.  My favorite part of Petra is the set of houses that you see after the amphitheater - they are so beautiful carved into red stone.  After these houses, we hiked up all 950 steps to the Monastery in the heat of the day!  I do not recommend going during this time - we all got dehydrated, but it was worth it to sit under the shade at the top of the monastery and take a short nap. 

The next day we drove down to Wadi Rum, where we took a jeep tour of Lawrence of Arabia's desert.  Now if you're independently minded like I am, you might wonder why you need a jeep to go hiking.  Did you ever see Lawrence of Arabia?  That desert is huge!  Trying to walk from stop #1 to stop #2 would be a disaster, and we would have gotten extremely lost and dehydrated on our way.  Thankfully, Mohammed took pretty good care of us, and showed us a number of different sites, explained some of the history, fed us in the shade at lunchtime, and didn't even tease us for wimping out of a 3 hour hike at the hottest part of the day.  My favorite part of the weekend was sleeping in the Bedouin camp - Mohammed cooked us an amazing dinner (something involving a chicken smoked in a pit buried under sand), and we watched the stars blink while the full moon rose.  I also don't remember when I've slept so soundly - there is something about the sun, moon, and stars that brings tranquility.

The last day of our adventure was a letdown - suffice it to say that while the Red Sea is exquisitely beautiful (the color of a sparkling sapphire), the public beaches are not even somewhere I would go on spring break in high school.  We got a bottle of wine and burgers to celebrate Memorial Day, rode the 4.5 hour bus ride back to Amman, and were happy to be back 'home.'

 

...not all that glitters is gold.

That's the second line from the title quote of my blog, a favorite by Tolkien.  Traveling alone as a woman is really hard to do.  I try not to complain about it too much, but these things get to me after a while...  Here's a journal entry I wrote:

"Today I stopped by our office, to say hello and check on a few things for next week.  The team was asking me on different occasions about my plans and my next steps, and two of the guys told me I needed to stay here in South Sudan and get married.  I went through all the usual protests - I'm too young, I'm not ready, I require only one husband + one wife (no girlfriends or second wives), and on and on.  Here's what Elias told me:
"Are you older than 18?  I think you are old enough for marriage."
"In South Sudan, production [having kids] is a gift - we do not limit the gift to two or three."
"When you only have 2 children, people here view you as having no children at all."

I mentioned that I think having many wives would make a bit of trouble for the man, and Elias said, "Trouble is what makes us men."

Then I was talking to Chan, and he asked if I could please get married to a South Sudanese.  I asked him a bit more about why, and turns out he wants to be my negotiator.  I asked if he's been very happy in his marriage, and that's why he wanted me to experience the same - Chan told me he has no cows, but if he is my negotiator, then he would of course get a percentage of what I earn and then he can get married too."

Here in Jordan, I am very careful to dress modestly - no skirts above my knees, shoulders always covered, clothing mostly loose and formless.  Let me tell you, this does not make for good gym motivation!  But I still get stared at - leered at - like a hooker on Saturday night.  The men hiss at me, beep at me, yell things at me in English and Arabic, and it's not just me - my pregnant friend gets yells and stares too.  I find it most ironic on Fridays, which are supposed to be holy days here!  I'm not so naive to think that this is the only country where this happens, but it really makes it uncomfortable to be here.  Come on, Middle East, surely you can do better.

It's strange to think that women are seen as property in so many countries.  The whole idea that women are lesser, therefore they shouldn't mind being shoved aside in lines at the grocery store, or that foreign women are basically all loose women - it's so wrong.  This morning at breakfast, I had the maitre d' seat me at a booth with a high wall on one side so that I wouldn't be stared at by all the men at breakfast.  It mostly worked.

To fortify myself, I always think back to my Aunt Chris's story about some men speaking derrogatory comments about her in Venezuela, to which she turned around and punched one of them in the face.  This story gives me some strength, strength to hold my head high, ignore the comments, and clutch at the dignity I have left. Different people react differently to these sorts of situations - I am learning just how much of this I can take before I snap.

Welcome to the Holy Land

You know that moment when you get a call that tosses your world into a tailspin?  March 12, 2013 was that day for me.  It's 5:40 p.m. and I'm getting ready to go meet my mom for dinner at her new favorite spot, The Protein Bar, and my former boss calls me and asks what I'm doing for the next six months.  Hadn't really planned it out that far, why?  I need you to go to Jordan.  And here I am.  One week, 48 hours' clearance time to pack, 1.5 suitcases, and a 12 month supply of Dentyne later, I've been in Jordan for about 6 weeks.

Packing in a short period of time is no sweat for me - I basically know what I will need, but the idea of moving to the Middle East is a new one!  I've never been farther east than Zanzibar, and now here I am in the land where Jesus was born and baptized.  The first thing I needed to know was how people dress here - which I can now tell you is cool, fashionable, and covered.  Nobody is wearing tank tops or shorts, not even skirts above the knee.  Second question - what sort of weather are we talking about?  Well, the first few weeks were rainy and cold (meaning 50 degrees and a rainstorm every couple of days), but I think we have successfully moved into warm weather now - about 80 every day, and sunny!

Jordan is beautiful and peaceful and safe and calm.  It's the one neutral spot in the middle of the Arab Spring.  There may be protests on Friday afternoons, but they are not about to overthrow any government.  People are welcoming and warm, the food is incredible (imagine fresh hommous every day for lunch), and there is a lot to see!  Everywhere you look is an ancient Roman ruin or a piece of old Byzantine architecture.  Did you know that the Mongols got all the way to Jordan?  It's true.  In the past few weeks, I've gotten out to see the amphitheater in Amman, the Dead Sea, Petra, Jerash, and Ajloun.  There is so much to do here - I feel like each weekend needs to include some new adventure.  And yes, I know just being overseas should be enough adventure - but of course it never is!

This is the Dead Sea - definitely, do NOT drink the water.

Here's Petra, the beautiful rose colored Roman city, cut out of rocks.  And featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 

 And here is Jerash, another roman ruin - this is Hadrian's arch. Hadrian marked the corners of his empire by an arch and a wall (in Scotland).

Just a mosaic hanging out on the ground - for everyone to see, probably hundreds of years old.

I loved Ajloun - an ancient byzantine and Arab fortress at the top of a jebel in the heart of northern Jordan.  It's like every castle you ever wanted to explore as a little kid - complete with a moat, catapolt boulders, slits for flaming arrow shots, and spaces for boiling oil to be poured over evil intruders. 

And the beautifuly countryside in Jordan - can you see the olive groves that are giving me such bad allergies right now?