I've been home for about a month now and decided it's finally time to conclude the 'Bruce in Jordan' Blog.
Well I guess all of the exiting stuff happened coming home from the last update. Well there was a stamp in our passports when we arrived in Jordan that said "contact nearest police station within one month". But according to everyone who I had at least talked to, they said not to worry about it. Well there we were trying to exit customs at the airport in Amman, and we were told that are Visas had expired. It came down to Jay Harris having to go to an ATM with a security Guard to take out a couple hundred JD so they could pay the $40 fee for us to leave the country. Fantastic! We almost miss the plane but make it just barely.
The plane ride was quite lovely. I watched a film called Alien Autopsy about these two guys that bought a film of a real alien autopsy from Roswell, but the film is corroded some how and they have to make a new film so that a crazy Hungarian art dealer doesn’t kill them. It was really good.
Well we arrive in London thinking everything is just fine when the flight attendant comes on the air and says "there has been a security situation at Heathrow today, so all passengers need to clear immigration in the United Kingdom". We had no idea what's going on and followed a massive corwd down to customs where we stood in a line which seemed to be a few miles long. Fuad called his parents and they said something to him about a terrorist plot of some kind. Appantly his parents were thinking that that was going to be the last time they would ever talk him. After clearing all of that, we ended up having to take a train to another terminal where it was complete chaos. We weren't aloud to take anything on the plane except for our passport, ticket, and wallet. Once we cleared security (which involved frisking and military personal with machine guns) we proceeded to our gate where we went through additional screening. Once in, they had the BBC playing on the TV. It turned out that 23 guys where planning on blowing up American bound planes with liquids.
The plane had to go through extra security which delayed it an hour and passengers’ passport numbers had to be ran through a computer to make sure no one showed up on any terrorist watch lists. Then a security seal broke on our way to the run way which forced us to return to the gate to have that checked out which ended up delaying our plane for another three hours.
In Washington D.C. we had to fill out our declaration forms at the desk because we couldn't have pens on the plane, which was quite hilarious because the head TSA border guard came on the loudspeaker and gave a speech to the TSA employees about how we didn't have pens.
Once filling out my little card, I was asked about what I had been doing for six weeks in the Middle East. After an explanation I was off to collect my baggage and go through another checkpoint where a TSA officer guided me into "line C". Another TSA officer gave me a really hard time about what I had been doing in the Middle East and demanded seeing enrolment papers from the university, so I had to have Jay Harris come explain to the officer that I hadn't spent the last six weeks at an Al-Qaeda training camp. I didn't have it that bad though. Erik got pulled off into a room where they asked him about his religious beliefs and checked his hands for bomb residue.
Then I spent a couple days in Washington D.C. going through a lot of evaluatory kinds of stuff where we had to make the State Department feel good about spending so much money on us.
I'm glad to be back but at certain times I really want to be back there. I felt like I fell asleep one day and woke up in August having this crazy dream about going to the Middle East.
One thing the other day kind of made me think about Jordan. A gunman at the Roman Ampethetre in downtown Amman mowed down seven tourists and killed one while shouting "Allahu Akbar". He was alone and was probably just crazy. But you wouldn't have heard too much about it because it happened around the same time as the crocodile hunter died and all.
-The End
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
In Pictures...
I'm trying to upload a whole bunch of pictures so here are some for now.
Pictures:
The University of Jordan. The clock tower in the center was the site of several students protests during the time we were there.
Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar was always on in the lobby of our aprtment building during the war in Lebanon. On the station, videos showing militias marching around interspersed with pictures of children wounded by Israeli bombs or speeches from Hassan Nasrallah played on a continual loop.
The infamous Al-Amera apartments where I lived.
We're still unsure what the point of our visit to this place was, but at least they served us the best Falafel sandwiches ever.
Erik and I with one of the kids from the King's Academy.
These kids were really friendly and kept giving us food. They also kept trying to show of for us.
The kid on the left spoke better English than I do.
Roman ruins in Jerash. They have a big music festival here each summer, but they canceled it in 2006 due to the war in Lebanon.
These guys were actors that recreated a roman battle (major tourist trap). But when we started talking to them, one guy randomly invited us over to his house for dinner. We had to turn it down unfortunately due to time restraints, but that shows you how friendly everyone there is.
This is from a special room in a girl's elementary school devoted to the Palestinian armed resistance.
Another picture from the "Free Palestine" room depicting dead bodies being carried away from fighting during the second intifada.
A drawing by one of the students at the girl's school depicting a Palestinian resistance fighter.
This is Mt. Nebo where Moses is supposed to have died. The pole with the snakes on it is where that symbol you see on ambulances comes from.
Duff in front of one of Jordan's few Christian churches.
A really famous mosaic map in a Greek Orthodox church. It's supposed to be a really big deal.
Fuad fixing one of the beds in our apartment after Rashad sat on it. We had to fix it without the owner finding out or we would have been charged way more than the actual price it would have cost him to fix it. So that day we went hunting for some nails at a construction site, and this guy came up to us and gave us all the nails we would ever need as well as a couple of Cokes just for the heck of it.
Mensef, a traditional Jordanian dish consisting of lamb, rice, and a yogurt sauce. Notice the sheep head in the middle.
We ate at this really good restaurant a lot, and every time we went there a wedding party going on next door. So Duff and Fuad crashed a random wedding there and were likewise treated as the guests of honor.
I always felt at home when I went to this place as it was a bastion of all kinds of American culture.
This picture gives you a good perspective on Globalization.
Here our driver stops along the road in the middle of nowhere to buy onions. He had earlier refused to take us to a crusaders castle but felt that it was okay to do some personal shopping on our time.
This guy's name is Olaff. He was a Dutch student who turned out to be only 16 years after I had mistaken him for much older. When I was explaining to him that I don't smoke because because I'm Mormon, he got really confused as he thought the Mormons and the Amish were the same people. "How did you get here then if you couldn't have used modern transportation?", he asked.
The Jordan River. The side the picture is taken from is Jordan, and the other side is Israel. That means that I about 10 feet away and could have possibly jumped into Israel with a good running start.
Israeli soldiers and Christian pilgrims. We were told that it was forbidden to say anything to the people on the other side of the Jordan river, even if they were only 10 feet away.
The great and spacious building (a.k.a an Israeli visitor center for pilgrims to the Jordan river). You've got to love this picture though with the flag and the barbed wire fence. Very symbolic.
Muhammad and Gretchen at Ajloun castle. Muhammad was a student at Yarmuk university where he studied English literature. It was interesting to get his take on Shakespeare and Mark Twain.
Duff, Muhammad, and somoother guy at Ajloun castle.
The beginnings of a street riot in front of our apartment after Italy won the World Cup.
The street riot escalates.
Right before the police came and broke it up. It started up again 5 minutes after they left.
Actually being in the Middle East when this stuff happens is a lot different than watching along at home.
This kid is going to grow up to be an avid hooka smoker thanks to the habits his mom instilled in him when he was younger.
I feel bad about this picture because I didn't ask this gut for permission before hand. I just stood in the distance and pretended to take a picture of the scenery behind him. I'm pretty sure he noticed.
I bet if I had taken either road it would have led to some very eventful adventures.
Pictures:
The University of Jordan. The clock tower in the center was the site of several students protests during the time we were there.
Hezbollah's TV station al-Manar was always on in the lobby of our aprtment building during the war in Lebanon. On the station, videos showing militias marching around interspersed with pictures of children wounded by Israeli bombs or speeches from Hassan Nasrallah played on a continual loop.
The infamous Al-Amera apartments where I lived.
We're still unsure what the point of our visit to this place was, but at least they served us the best Falafel sandwiches ever.
Erik and I with one of the kids from the King's Academy.
These kids were really friendly and kept giving us food. They also kept trying to show of for us.
The kid on the left spoke better English than I do.
Roman ruins in Jerash. They have a big music festival here each summer, but they canceled it in 2006 due to the war in Lebanon.
These guys were actors that recreated a roman battle (major tourist trap). But when we started talking to them, one guy randomly invited us over to his house for dinner. We had to turn it down unfortunately due to time restraints, but that shows you how friendly everyone there is.
This is from a special room in a girl's elementary school devoted to the Palestinian armed resistance.
Another picture from the "Free Palestine" room depicting dead bodies being carried away from fighting during the second intifada.
A drawing by one of the students at the girl's school depicting a Palestinian resistance fighter.
This is Mt. Nebo where Moses is supposed to have died. The pole with the snakes on it is where that symbol you see on ambulances comes from.
Duff in front of one of Jordan's few Christian churches.
A really famous mosaic map in a Greek Orthodox church. It's supposed to be a really big deal.
Fuad fixing one of the beds in our apartment after Rashad sat on it. We had to fix it without the owner finding out or we would have been charged way more than the actual price it would have cost him to fix it. So that day we went hunting for some nails at a construction site, and this guy came up to us and gave us all the nails we would ever need as well as a couple of Cokes just for the heck of it.
Mensef, a traditional Jordanian dish consisting of lamb, rice, and a yogurt sauce. Notice the sheep head in the middle.
We ate at this really good restaurant a lot, and every time we went there a wedding party going on next door. So Duff and Fuad crashed a random wedding there and were likewise treated as the guests of honor.
I always felt at home when I went to this place as it was a bastion of all kinds of American culture.
This picture gives you a good perspective on Globalization.
Here our driver stops along the road in the middle of nowhere to buy onions. He had earlier refused to take us to a crusaders castle but felt that it was okay to do some personal shopping on our time.
This guy's name is Olaff. He was a Dutch student who turned out to be only 16 years after I had mistaken him for much older. When I was explaining to him that I don't smoke because because I'm Mormon, he got really confused as he thought the Mormons and the Amish were the same people. "How did you get here then if you couldn't have used modern transportation?", he asked.
The Jordan River. The side the picture is taken from is Jordan, and the other side is Israel. That means that I about 10 feet away and could have possibly jumped into Israel with a good running start.
Israeli soldiers and Christian pilgrims. We were told that it was forbidden to say anything to the people on the other side of the Jordan river, even if they were only 10 feet away.
The great and spacious building (a.k.a an Israeli visitor center for pilgrims to the Jordan river). You've got to love this picture though with the flag and the barbed wire fence. Very symbolic.
Muhammad and Gretchen at Ajloun castle. Muhammad was a student at Yarmuk university where he studied English literature. It was interesting to get his take on Shakespeare and Mark Twain.
Duff, Muhammad, and somoother guy at Ajloun castle.
The beginnings of a street riot in front of our apartment after Italy won the World Cup.
The street riot escalates.
Right before the police came and broke it up. It started up again 5 minutes after they left.
Actually being in the Middle East when this stuff happens is a lot different than watching along at home.
This kid is going to grow up to be an avid hooka smoker thanks to the habits his mom instilled in him when he was younger.
I feel bad about this picture because I didn't ask this gut for permission before hand. I just stood in the distance and pretended to take a picture of the scenery behind him. I'm pretty sure he noticed.
I bet if I had taken either road it would have led to some very eventful adventures.
Monday, August 07, 2006
So guess the first thing I need to talk about is the fact the Jay Harris has returned! He’s the guy who is in charge of the whole thing. Between writing the first sentence and this sentence, I discussed with my roommate Sean Rao about how Jay Harris returning is like a living in a dream because it’s been over a month since he left.
This weekend we went to Al-Azraq, which is half-way between Amman and Iraq. About ten years ago, this big spring out there was pumped dry because the demand of water was so high, resulting in a ecological disaster. So now there trying to pump water back. So we went there, were “truly” appalled by how much water wasn’t there, and then went to a Wildlife reserve with Ostrich. It was a very interesting trip but Lunch kind of gave it a bad name. We went to this place which according to my guidebook is where all the Saudis go to get drunk because it’s illegal in Saudi Arabia and just over the border. But the food at his place had been made a couple days before and had just been warmed up in the microwave and put in those buffet style metal trays with the flames underneath. It was 8JD! ($11!).
The next day we went to Jerash, a Greek turned Roman turned Islamic city which is really famous. We only had an hour and a half there, so we didn’t see all that much but it was really interesting. They had a reinactment of a roman battle and all the “soldiers” were out on the side of the Hippodrome so me and Duff Ullah went to ask for pictures, and ended up being invited to lunch at someones house. I think what I’m going to miss the most about Jordan is that the people are so friendly! You talk to a person and introduce yourself and they will remember you forever.
On Sunday, I took care of all my gift shopping in the old part of Amman where they sell all of the traditional clothing and stuff. I had to buy a suitcase to take back a lot of the stuff I have acquired being here. We were walking around and Faud saw this place where they were selling Ihrams which are what the men are supposed to wear on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). So he was going to buy 24 for all the men at his mosque in Florida, but ended up being able to buy 12 because it took up a whole new suitcase which we had to go buy. But the reason I’m talking about this is because while we were waiting for them to bring all of the Ihrams out, Faud told the guy who he was buying them from that he had a nice cellphone cover, so then the guy took it off his phone and handed to him to keep. The people are so nice!
This weekend we went to Al-Azraq, which is half-way between Amman and Iraq. About ten years ago, this big spring out there was pumped dry because the demand of water was so high, resulting in a ecological disaster. So now there trying to pump water back. So we went there, were “truly” appalled by how much water wasn’t there, and then went to a Wildlife reserve with Ostrich. It was a very interesting trip but Lunch kind of gave it a bad name. We went to this place which according to my guidebook is where all the Saudis go to get drunk because it’s illegal in Saudi Arabia and just over the border. But the food at his place had been made a couple days before and had just been warmed up in the microwave and put in those buffet style metal trays with the flames underneath. It was 8JD! ($11!).
The next day we went to Jerash, a Greek turned Roman turned Islamic city which is really famous. We only had an hour and a half there, so we didn’t see all that much but it was really interesting. They had a reinactment of a roman battle and all the “soldiers” were out on the side of the Hippodrome so me and Duff Ullah went to ask for pictures, and ended up being invited to lunch at someones house. I think what I’m going to miss the most about Jordan is that the people are so friendly! You talk to a person and introduce yourself and they will remember you forever.
On Sunday, I took care of all my gift shopping in the old part of Amman where they sell all of the traditional clothing and stuff. I had to buy a suitcase to take back a lot of the stuff I have acquired being here. We were walking around and Faud saw this place where they were selling Ihrams which are what the men are supposed to wear on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). So he was going to buy 24 for all the men at his mosque in Florida, but ended up being able to buy 12 because it took up a whole new suitcase which we had to go buy. But the reason I’m talking about this is because while we were waiting for them to bring all of the Ihrams out, Faud told the guy who he was buying them from that he had a nice cellphone cover, so then the guy took it off his phone and handed to him to keep. The people are so nice!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Okay, maybe my last entry was a bit over the top about the conflict over here in Lebanon. I'm not in any danger because of anything going on over here, but I'm just quite upset about the whole thing after seeing how the people here view the entire mess. It's actualy both sides fault, but my last entry was pretty much aimed towards Bush which is were only some of the blame should be going. But I don't think it's our right to blame anyways.
Well other than that, I went to a really good lecture yesterday where one of the professors from the religon department of the University of Jordan came and talked about the basic elements of Islam. I've said this a lot to various people over and over again, but Islam is extremely similar to Mormonism, in fact it seems closer than most christain religons. I'm going to prepare a special blog where I will compare and contrast the two. But anyways, this guy was very sharp! He explained how the bad things that we hear all the time about Islam aren't Islam at all, but tribal elements from Arab culture which have existed from before Islam such as honor killings, violence, ect.. And another interesting thing is that even though it seems like Islam discriminates against women, it's actualy a better deal for the women than the men, and more women then men convert to Islam. I will discuss this more in the Mormonism vs. Islam blog (that actual dosen't very nice, all change it).
The other day, I featured a story about a girl in the group who had an intereting run in with the waiters at a restaurant. Well after she read my blog, she reminded me of another story. We went to this restaurant somewhere that had a lot of wierd stuff on the menu, so when she saw that there was a grilled cheese on the menu she ordered it. When the waiter brought it out it wasn't two pieces of bread with cheese in the middle that had been grilled. But in fact it was just cheese that had been grilled, a small piece of cheese to be exact.
Well cheers everyone.
Well other than that, I went to a really good lecture yesterday where one of the professors from the religon department of the University of Jordan came and talked about the basic elements of Islam. I've said this a lot to various people over and over again, but Islam is extremely similar to Mormonism, in fact it seems closer than most christain religons. I'm going to prepare a special blog where I will compare and contrast the two. But anyways, this guy was very sharp! He explained how the bad things that we hear all the time about Islam aren't Islam at all, but tribal elements from Arab culture which have existed from before Islam such as honor killings, violence, ect.. And another interesting thing is that even though it seems like Islam discriminates against women, it's actualy a better deal for the women than the men, and more women then men convert to Islam. I will discuss this more in the Mormonism vs. Islam blog (that actual dosen't very nice, all change it).
The other day, I featured a story about a girl in the group who had an intereting run in with the waiters at a restaurant. Well after she read my blog, she reminded me of another story. We went to this restaurant somewhere that had a lot of wierd stuff on the menu, so when she saw that there was a grilled cheese on the menu she ordered it. When the waiter brought it out it wasn't two pieces of bread with cheese in the middle that had been grilled. But in fact it was just cheese that had been grilled, a small piece of cheese to be exact.
Well cheers everyone.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Yesterday was a very unexpectedly pleasent day. So last weeks we took a trip to the 2nd biggest city in Jordan called Irbid where we met with university students. You may recall if you have read this blog before that the bus driver refused to take us to a castle because he "wanted to go home". Well I guess after some complaning, they got the same bus driver to take us back to Irbid and go to the castle with the same students. Of all the castles I've been to, this one has to be the most impressive. It was built by the people who were fighting the crusaders, so they put it one the top of a very tall mountain so that there was almost no chance of the castle being overthrown. The university students all had their favorite people from the time before who they followed around, and even one of them is coming down here to Amman to pick up some of our group, take them back to Irbid for a barbeque, and take them back to Amman and drive back (the drive is 2 hours one way).
Latter that night when we returned the news was set on Al-Jezzera, which for those of you who don't know is kind of like the CNN of the middle east except that al-jeezera will show just about anything. Well anyways, there was a story about a building in Lebanon which had been bombed by the Israelies who were using AMerican bombs, and killed over 50 little kids and maybe 2 adults. The owner (who I think I've discussed before in this blog) was absolutly furious! He started yelling at the TV as they showed pictures of childrens dead bodies being removed from the ruble of this building. He then started complaining about Geroge Bush and how he is a evil man because he supposedly told the Israelies to keep bombing. I started talking to him about how many Americans don't support what he is doing. A few minutes latter, my friend Faud called his dad in Florida to see what the news was there. According to Faud, his dad didn't see any thing on the news about it, but on al-jeezera (they get it through satelite) there was no signal. Coinsidence?
That brings me to today. After classes were finished with, I was going to walk out to the front of the university with my friend Eman to get Filafil when we noticed that the front gate had been stormed by a few hundered people holding up signs and chanting "allah akbar" which is what they say when they are getting very emotional about something. The protest was because of the bombing yesterday, and at that momnet I was scared out of mind to be an American!
I'm seeing things being reported about this whole Lebanon thing here in Jordan which they don't show on TV in America because it makes Israel and us look bad! There is a whole part of this conflict which America just isn't seeing and it's really upsetting me a lot right now. I've lost almost all respect for President Bush (there wasn't much there before) since I've arrived here in the middle east and I can now understand how bad he makes America look to people over in this part of the world who are watching their fellow brothers and sisters being slaughtered by Israel, and the United Sates who is all the way across the world is supporting them!
Well that's all I can right for now. Sorry about the over zealous nature of this entry.
cheers
Latter that night when we returned the news was set on Al-Jezzera, which for those of you who don't know is kind of like the CNN of the middle east except that al-jeezera will show just about anything. Well anyways, there was a story about a building in Lebanon which had been bombed by the Israelies who were using AMerican bombs, and killed over 50 little kids and maybe 2 adults. The owner (who I think I've discussed before in this blog) was absolutly furious! He started yelling at the TV as they showed pictures of childrens dead bodies being removed from the ruble of this building. He then started complaining about Geroge Bush and how he is a evil man because he supposedly told the Israelies to keep bombing. I started talking to him about how many Americans don't support what he is doing. A few minutes latter, my friend Faud called his dad in Florida to see what the news was there. According to Faud, his dad didn't see any thing on the news about it, but on al-jeezera (they get it through satelite) there was no signal. Coinsidence?
That brings me to today. After classes were finished with, I was going to walk out to the front of the university with my friend Eman to get Filafil when we noticed that the front gate had been stormed by a few hundered people holding up signs and chanting "allah akbar" which is what they say when they are getting very emotional about something. The protest was because of the bombing yesterday, and at that momnet I was scared out of mind to be an American!
I'm seeing things being reported about this whole Lebanon thing here in Jordan which they don't show on TV in America because it makes Israel and us look bad! There is a whole part of this conflict which America just isn't seeing and it's really upsetting me a lot right now. I've lost almost all respect for President Bush (there wasn't much there before) since I've arrived here in the middle east and I can now understand how bad he makes America look to people over in this part of the world who are watching their fellow brothers and sisters being slaughtered by Israel, and the United Sates who is all the way across the world is supporting them!
Well that's all I can right for now. Sorry about the over zealous nature of this entry.
cheers
Friday, July 28, 2006
Today we went on a trip around western Jordan which included the babtisim site of Jesus, Mt. Nebo, and the famous mosaic which is thought to be the first map of the middle east. Our tour guide was Daud, and was the same one who we went to Petra with. It was kind of an awkward situation because a lot of people have been making fun of him lately because of his "twenty sick soldiers" joke (you have to hear the joke, it can't be written). So when we found out two days ago that he was goingt to be our guide, there was kind of an awkward silence. But he's a really nice guy. We started off this morning by Daud giving us a speech about how horrible the situation is in Lebanon because it effects the tourism industry. He tried to get Alex into an argument over the U.S.'s role in the whole thing, but Alex wouldn't give in.
According to certain evidence in the Bible and archaeological findings, they think that they have found the site on the Jordan known as Bethany, or also known as the place where Jesus was Baptized. The area in which it's located is extremly sensitive because it's on the border of Isreal. To get there we had to pick up a speacil gaurd who acompanied us into the sight, and then we had to get permission from the military to let us in. Once we got there, it was a long walk to the place that is where they think Jesus was Baptized which isn't actualy on the JOrdan River but a little ways off. Then we went to the actual Jordan river. The problem with the whole site is that once you cross the river, you're in a different country. So there is a place where a Jordanian soldier is standing on a deck that goes out looking onto the other side of the river where there are a lot of other people accompanied by Isreali soldiers all consintrating on this tiny river. The guard told us that we weren't aloud to talk to the people in Isreal. I found this all very ironic that a place that is key to the message of peace and brotherhood that Jesus taught is a military hot zone, pretending to be a tourist attraction.
We then went to Mt. Nebo where Mosses died. It was very nice, and so was the mosaic map we saw in Maddaba, but I pretty much just summed it up in a few sentences.
When we returned to Amman, we went a restaurant that was in a Bedouin tent but was really nice. The problem with the food here is that because it's so good, it's really horrible for you. I'm begining to realize that I'm going to come home with a few extra pounds even though I do a lot of walking around.
Tonight, a lot of people are firing of their guns into the air in celebration of getting their TOJEHE scores back today. The TOJEHE is kind of like the ACT and SAT except that if you don't get a 90 or higher you don't graduate from high school.
The place I'm writting this is a flea bag internet caffe which is a 5 minute walk from my appartment. It smells like smoke, and some guys are yelling at each other right now. I'm not sure about what but it's pretty commin over here for grown men to get into big arguments over little things, but in the end, everything is just fine.
-inshallla
According to certain evidence in the Bible and archaeological findings, they think that they have found the site on the Jordan known as Bethany, or also known as the place where Jesus was Baptized. The area in which it's located is extremly sensitive because it's on the border of Isreal. To get there we had to pick up a speacil gaurd who acompanied us into the sight, and then we had to get permission from the military to let us in. Once we got there, it was a long walk to the place that is where they think Jesus was Baptized which isn't actualy on the JOrdan River but a little ways off. Then we went to the actual Jordan river. The problem with the whole site is that once you cross the river, you're in a different country. So there is a place where a Jordanian soldier is standing on a deck that goes out looking onto the other side of the river where there are a lot of other people accompanied by Isreali soldiers all consintrating on this tiny river. The guard told us that we weren't aloud to talk to the people in Isreal. I found this all very ironic that a place that is key to the message of peace and brotherhood that Jesus taught is a military hot zone, pretending to be a tourist attraction.
We then went to Mt. Nebo where Mosses died. It was very nice, and so was the mosaic map we saw in Maddaba, but I pretty much just summed it up in a few sentences.
When we returned to Amman, we went a restaurant that was in a Bedouin tent but was really nice. The problem with the food here is that because it's so good, it's really horrible for you. I'm begining to realize that I'm going to come home with a few extra pounds even though I do a lot of walking around.
Tonight, a lot of people are firing of their guns into the air in celebration of getting their TOJEHE scores back today. The TOJEHE is kind of like the ACT and SAT except that if you don't get a 90 or higher you don't graduate from high school.
The place I'm writting this is a flea bag internet caffe which is a 5 minute walk from my appartment. It smells like smoke, and some guys are yelling at each other right now. I'm not sure about what but it's pretty commin over here for grown men to get into big arguments over little things, but in the end, everything is just fine.
-inshallla
Thursday, July 27, 2006
As-sallamu allaykum from Jordan. I just got back from a trip to Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan way up near the sea of gallilee. When we left, we weren't quite sure what we were even doing there, so when we arrived and were greeted by about twenty students it was kind of a shock. I feel bad for the people who organized this trip because everything fell apart because of the bus driver. He was almost an hour late, and refused to take us to a castle in Irbid because he "wanted to go home" even though we had reserved the bus until 7:30 that night. But I had a really great time talking to all of the students. Most of them are studying English Literature so it was interesting to get their take on Shakespeare and MArk Twain.
One of the funniest things ever happened at the begining of this trip, but I didn't hear about it until just a few days ago. A girl in the group wanted a take away box at the restaurant down stairs from our appartment and thought that the waiters wouldn't understand her english, so she drew a picture of a box on the placemate and even gave it an extra touch by putting a smily face on it. The waiter thought that in stead of drawing a take away box she had drawn a picture of a trash can and that she wanted them to throw the food away. So they did just that. Pretty soon the manager and the cook came out to ask what was wrong with the food, and they had to explain in Arabic what whe really wanted. They made her a new what ever it was she ordered and made her pay for both.
Fuad (one of my roomates) and I finnaly got the opportunity to move out of our cramped room into the old girls room, because they finaly found enough host families for the girls. We moved and found the place to be a complete dirty mess. Now when I say dirty, I'm talking about actual dirt. Here in Jordan, they don't use carpet but tile floors. So to clean them they pore water on the floor and scrup out all the dirt and use a scweegie (I have no idea how to spell that) and push the water into a drain. Once we had scwegied all the floors in the apartment, we had come up with water that looked like Lake Erie, and then when we opened the drain in the kitchen a whole bunch of little tiny insects swarmed out. After all of this cleaning we had a perfect room. But, unfortunetly the next day, a girl had to leave her host family so we are currently in the process of moving everything back to are old room.
Today was my last day of volunteering at the King's Academy. I think I'm going to miss this the most from the whole experience because all of the people there are just so nice. The school itself hasn't officialy opened except for the two week summer program I was involved with, so a lot of things are still in the makings there. Most notibly is the food situation. They decided to have all of the meals catered because it was only two weeks. And of course they insisted on feading us when we came on tuesdays and thursdays, but it was food of the healthy but not very interesting kind. When we showed up this past tuesday, they gave us a big box with chicken, fries, and peta bread topped of with Pepsi. We soon learned that the catering service had been fired because they kept giving the kids really small portions or something, so instead they go out and by fast food for them. So much for trying to change their eating habbits. When we showed up at the kings academy today, they were eating McDonalds and had forgotten to get us lunch. Even though we insisted that we didn't need lunch, they had someone drive all the way out to Maddba and get us Shwarma.
When we went to dinner tonight, we went to a FIlafil shop that most people in the group have been to and liked. But when we arrived and started looking at the food, Fuad noticed that there was funguss growing on some kind of mixture of meat and potaatoes. After a failed attemot at trying to explain to the manager that there was mold on the food we had to leave. As were waking out we noticed him mix the mold back in with everything else.
-cheers
One of the funniest things ever happened at the begining of this trip, but I didn't hear about it until just a few days ago. A girl in the group wanted a take away box at the restaurant down stairs from our appartment and thought that the waiters wouldn't understand her english, so she drew a picture of a box on the placemate and even gave it an extra touch by putting a smily face on it. The waiter thought that in stead of drawing a take away box she had drawn a picture of a trash can and that she wanted them to throw the food away. So they did just that. Pretty soon the manager and the cook came out to ask what was wrong with the food, and they had to explain in Arabic what whe really wanted. They made her a new what ever it was she ordered and made her pay for both.
Fuad (one of my roomates) and I finnaly got the opportunity to move out of our cramped room into the old girls room, because they finaly found enough host families for the girls. We moved and found the place to be a complete dirty mess. Now when I say dirty, I'm talking about actual dirt. Here in Jordan, they don't use carpet but tile floors. So to clean them they pore water on the floor and scrup out all the dirt and use a scweegie (I have no idea how to spell that) and push the water into a drain. Once we had scwegied all the floors in the apartment, we had come up with water that looked like Lake Erie, and then when we opened the drain in the kitchen a whole bunch of little tiny insects swarmed out. After all of this cleaning we had a perfect room. But, unfortunetly the next day, a girl had to leave her host family so we are currently in the process of moving everything back to are old room.
Today was my last day of volunteering at the King's Academy. I think I'm going to miss this the most from the whole experience because all of the people there are just so nice. The school itself hasn't officialy opened except for the two week summer program I was involved with, so a lot of things are still in the makings there. Most notibly is the food situation. They decided to have all of the meals catered because it was only two weeks. And of course they insisted on feading us when we came on tuesdays and thursdays, but it was food of the healthy but not very interesting kind. When we showed up this past tuesday, they gave us a big box with chicken, fries, and peta bread topped of with Pepsi. We soon learned that the catering service had been fired because they kept giving the kids really small portions or something, so instead they go out and by fast food for them. So much for trying to change their eating habbits. When we showed up at the kings academy today, they were eating McDonalds and had forgotten to get us lunch. Even though we insisted that we didn't need lunch, they had someone drive all the way out to Maddba and get us Shwarma.
When we went to dinner tonight, we went to a FIlafil shop that most people in the group have been to and liked. But when we arrived and started looking at the food, Fuad noticed that there was funguss growing on some kind of mixture of meat and potaatoes. After a failed attemot at trying to explain to the manager that there was mold on the food we had to leave. As were waking out we noticed him mix the mold back in with everything else.
-cheers
Monday, July 24, 2006
Well I'm in the process of trying to add more pictures, but for some reason it's not working. So please be patient as I try to make ajustmants to this ever growing blog.
This past weekend has been quite rough. All of us who have been stuck back here at the Al Amera appartments have been getting on each others nerves. After spending a mounth with some people and never having a break from them you start to go insane. It might be partialy because we don't have much to do that we've already done. Some days we just don't feel like going anywhere, and instead just get mad at each other over some pretty stupid stuff.
We went to our Jordanian Arabic teachers house for breakfast the other day, and it was absolutly wonderful. I think I'm going to miss the food so much here such as Hummus, Falafil, bread with all kids of stuff on it, shworma, and mensf.
More to come dawgs.
This past weekend has been quite rough. All of us who have been stuck back here at the Al Amera appartments have been getting on each others nerves. After spending a mounth with some people and never having a break from them you start to go insane. It might be partialy because we don't have much to do that we've already done. Some days we just don't feel like going anywhere, and instead just get mad at each other over some pretty stupid stuff.
We went to our Jordanian Arabic teachers house for breakfast the other day, and it was absolutly wonderful. I think I'm going to miss the food so much here such as Hummus, Falafil, bread with all kids of stuff on it, shworma, and mensf.
More to come dawgs.
Friday, July 21, 2006
I find it interesting that the news is slanted from country to country. Here in Jordan, the news makes it seem like Israel is the wicked satan nation while in the United States and on the BBC the news is in favor of Israel. For example, on the BBC when they show a Israeli led attack against Lebanon it’s “an air raid”. But if the any force from Lebanon (hezbollah or not) it’s an “attack”.
Everything here is kind of tense because of the conflict but it’s still very safe. Today at church, I the branch president let out church an hour early so we could get home before Friday prayers at the mosques were over because sometimes the speeches at the mosques are politically charged. In church today, two Arab guys got in an argument over wearing white shirts with the sacrement. Things like this don’t usually happen in Utah so it really shocked me. The church was packed to maximum capacity because all the BYU students were there today. I met up with two who live behind my apartment who I commute with to church.
Mrs. Ann Kok, from the University of Green Bay left us the other day which was really sad. She was here setting up all of our service projects and also as just another adult. We had a going away party for here at this really fancy restaurant which is designed to look like a Bedouin tent. The food was incredibly expensive at 10JD ($16), but well worth it. On the ride home, the cab driver was really friendly and told us that he was mad about Ossama Bin Laden attacking America. It just mad me feel really good inside.
All the international students went on this big excursion to a famous restaurant called Kan Zemat which is the first restaurant I’ve ever been to where you had to go through metal detectors. We all payed 5JD ($8) to go. When we arrived, we were led through the gift shops for a while (and interestingly, the gift shops were aimed towards Christian tour groups), until we arrived at the actual restaurant. We walked in and were impressed by how luxurious it was, but were then led to the family section which was a bunch of coffee tables with stools. When they brought out the food, it was bread, just Bread. It was good bread, but I don’t think anyone realized that that was just what we were getting. At one point the waiters got up and danced Depka (Jordanian folk dance) around the restaurant and forced people to dance with them. Then the bus got stuck between two cars and it took a long time for the driver to maneuver it out. What a night.
I spent my second day volunteering at the King’s Academy by helping kids write Tanka’s (form of Japanese poetry) in their English classes. Now I’ve never heard of a Tanka before, so I was really worried I was going to screw some kids poem up. The teacher is from Ireland and has a very thick accent. She was quite strict at first so she reminded me of Cruela Deville at first but by the ned when she read the Frog Prince to the kids, she completely changed. All of the kids are so happy to talk to us because America is this huge icon for them. Their English ranges from perfectly fluent to perfectly un-fluent. I really wish I could live with the kids like the counselors who are graduates of Deer Field Academy are. The University is paying for a car to take us out there everyday because it’s about a forty minute drive. But unfortunately the bus driver is different everyday and they never speak English, so that has caused some interesting situations when the people at the gate wont let us in and we have to make a lot of phone calls.
We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 last night at Mecca Mall. It was one of the most confusing and boring movies ever! Everybody in the group was really mad that they had wasted JD 5 on it. Before the movie we went to a place called “Chips and Dips” which had real live Utahn fry sauce. It was wonderful. And then these two women got in a fight and hundreds of people gathered around to watch it but it was broken up pretty fast. I think Arabs get really excited when they see that kind of stuff because nothing quite like that has ever happened before my eyes.
Something funny happened this afternoon. We frequently eat at this restaurant called Al Bal because it’s just downstairs and it’s really good. Well today we were eating lunch and this guy came over and asked us why we always ate there. We had never seen him before, but it turned out that he was the owner. We told abut how much we enjoyed the food and the people are really nice. Someone asked him where a good place for ice cream was and it turned out that he owned a ice cream store across town. He asked what flavors we wanted and had someone drive across town it. Now we just kind of assumed for some reason that it was on the house because of the way he talked about it. But when they came back, it turned out to be 14JD ($20) for about 12 scoops of Ice Cream.
Well that’s it for today.
-cheers
Everything here is kind of tense because of the conflict but it’s still very safe. Today at church, I the branch president let out church an hour early so we could get home before Friday prayers at the mosques were over because sometimes the speeches at the mosques are politically charged. In church today, two Arab guys got in an argument over wearing white shirts with the sacrement. Things like this don’t usually happen in Utah so it really shocked me. The church was packed to maximum capacity because all the BYU students were there today. I met up with two who live behind my apartment who I commute with to church.
Mrs. Ann Kok, from the University of Green Bay left us the other day which was really sad. She was here setting up all of our service projects and also as just another adult. We had a going away party for here at this really fancy restaurant which is designed to look like a Bedouin tent. The food was incredibly expensive at 10JD ($16), but well worth it. On the ride home, the cab driver was really friendly and told us that he was mad about Ossama Bin Laden attacking America. It just mad me feel really good inside.
All the international students went on this big excursion to a famous restaurant called Kan Zemat which is the first restaurant I’ve ever been to where you had to go through metal detectors. We all payed 5JD ($8) to go. When we arrived, we were led through the gift shops for a while (and interestingly, the gift shops were aimed towards Christian tour groups), until we arrived at the actual restaurant. We walked in and were impressed by how luxurious it was, but were then led to the family section which was a bunch of coffee tables with stools. When they brought out the food, it was bread, just Bread. It was good bread, but I don’t think anyone realized that that was just what we were getting. At one point the waiters got up and danced Depka (Jordanian folk dance) around the restaurant and forced people to dance with them. Then the bus got stuck between two cars and it took a long time for the driver to maneuver it out. What a night.
I spent my second day volunteering at the King’s Academy by helping kids write Tanka’s (form of Japanese poetry) in their English classes. Now I’ve never heard of a Tanka before, so I was really worried I was going to screw some kids poem up. The teacher is from Ireland and has a very thick accent. She was quite strict at first so she reminded me of Cruela Deville at first but by the ned when she read the Frog Prince to the kids, she completely changed. All of the kids are so happy to talk to us because America is this huge icon for them. Their English ranges from perfectly fluent to perfectly un-fluent. I really wish I could live with the kids like the counselors who are graduates of Deer Field Academy are. The University is paying for a car to take us out there everyday because it’s about a forty minute drive. But unfortunately the bus driver is different everyday and they never speak English, so that has caused some interesting situations when the people at the gate wont let us in and we have to make a lot of phone calls.
We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 last night at Mecca Mall. It was one of the most confusing and boring movies ever! Everybody in the group was really mad that they had wasted JD 5 on it. Before the movie we went to a place called “Chips and Dips” which had real live Utahn fry sauce. It was wonderful. And then these two women got in a fight and hundreds of people gathered around to watch it but it was broken up pretty fast. I think Arabs get really excited when they see that kind of stuff because nothing quite like that has ever happened before my eyes.
Something funny happened this afternoon. We frequently eat at this restaurant called Al Bal because it’s just downstairs and it’s really good. Well today we were eating lunch and this guy came over and asked us why we always ate there. We had never seen him before, but it turned out that he was the owner. We told abut how much we enjoyed the food and the people are really nice. Someone asked him where a good place for ice cream was and it turned out that he owned a ice cream store across town. He asked what flavors we wanted and had someone drive across town it. Now we just kind of assumed for some reason that it was on the house because of the way he talked about it. But when they came back, it turned out to be 14JD ($20) for about 12 scoops of Ice Cream.
Well that’s it for today.
-cheers
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Where to begin? It’s been over a week sense I updated this blog and there is so much that’s happened that I don’t think I can write it all down. First of all, I am fine and am not in any danger from the Israeli and Lebanon conflict which is currently in it’s 7th day right now. It is kind of frightening because I stopped in Beirut on my way to Jordan at the airport that was heavily bombed by Israel. There was a demonstration in front of the university of Jordan the day that Lebanon was invaded, and that’s about all that has happened in Amman relating to that.
I’m still living in an apartment because they can’t find any families willing to take in men because of cultural issues relating to either the fact that a family has daughters and doesn’t want men to be a threat to them, or the hijab issue. The hijab is the scarf that Muslim women wear over their heads because women aren’t supposed to reveal their hair to any man who is not closely related to them. If I was to live with a Muslim family, the women would have to always cover their hair inside their house. They have found plenty of families for girls and all of them are living in a host family except for one.
I guess the first thing that I’ve been needing to right about is the final game of the world cup. I’m currently living in a apartment above a restaurant called Al Bal. Al Bal is one of the restaurants that you can eat at everyday and never get tired of it, which is the reason that we eat at least one meal there every day. During the world cup, they would show the games on big screen TVs inside the restaurant, and project them on a big screen outside. Listening to the nose from the games from are apartment had become a nightly ritual over the weeks and it finally came to the last game between France and Italy. Italy was by far the most popular team, so even though I was going for France, I wanted Italy to win so that everybody would go crazy downstairs and I could take pictures. Luckily Italy won and there was a riot in the street. The police should up a couple of times to get traffic moving but once they left the party just got wilder and wilder by the minute.
Arabic classes that week were long and tedious. I go to school for 4 hours every day taking 2 classes in Jordanian Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic. The problem with the language is that it is so dynamic that depending on the region your in, the language changes so much from country to country. For example, a person from Jordan can’t speak their own dialect to a person from Egypt and be understood. There is however modern standard arabic which can be understood by everyone because it’s basically the language of the Qu’ran updated with 21st century vocabulary. So I’m pretty much learning two separate languages which is like learning French and Spanish at the same time.
This past Friday, we took a trip to Al Karak, which is a town down south kind of near Petra who’s well known for it’s crusader castle roughly the size of any normal English castle. We were invited to visit a family who lives in a village near Karak who has some kind of relationship with our current group leader. We were warned that they were very traditional Muslims with strict rules about gender separation and very large with 10 children and a large extended family who was there as well. When we arrived at their house, the father was the first person we met who waiting outside and gave us the traditional Arab greeting where you kiss them on the right cheek 2 times, and on the left once. I did the same with all of them men, and when I came to the women, they all looked a the ground and acted like I wasn’t there. I wasn’t affended or anything, but I felt uncomfortable about it. When we were upstairs the men sat on one end of the room, and the women on the other. Ann, our group leader who had told us about all the gender separation rules completely ignored them and sat with the men and began taking to them. Once this happened, it was like everyone broke with rules and everyone was taking to each other.
The national Jordanian dish is what’s called Mensef, which is lamb, rice, and a sauce made out of yogurt which you eat using your hands. I had Mensf the week before, but the Mensf which was given to us in Karak was the real stuff complete with the sheep head (the eyes are supposed to be the best part). We took a lot of food initially, but family members kept insisting that we eat more, and more until I felt Like I was going to go into a food induced coma. Once we were done with the Mensf, they led us into the sitting room where they had even more food waiting for us.
It very interesting to listen to Arabs talk about America. They despise the government and our president but absolutely love the people, culture, and everything else. Many of the children are studying to become doctors, engineers, and dentists, so it is very important for them to go to America to study so they could get the best jobs. I started to really appreciate what I have at home because I can do what ever I want in my career and live the way I want to, while people here have to compete to get into schools and don’t have to become a doctor in order secure my future.
That was that day.
The next day we went to the Dead Sea with the international students from the University of Jordan. The university has provided us with some really nice cars, and mini buses in the past, but what we drove to the Dead Sea was pretty frightening. The air conditioning was a fan at the front of the bus which had been rigged to only blow air on the driver, plus we had to stop at all sorts of military check points where men in military uniforms and machines guns would get out and walk around the bus, so it was a very long and tedious drive. The whole Lebanon thing had just started with Israel so I guess the Jordanians had taken extra precautions on the road to Israel which is also the road to the dead sea.
The Dead Sea is the worlds lowest point at a few hundred feet below sea level, and the hottest place I’ve ever been. When we got to the beach, I didn’t feel like going out into the salty water, put mud all over my body, and get sunburned. So I took refuge under a canapé with Eman who is Muslim, so she has a hard time going swimming around men because she would pretty much have to wear a wet suit and bathing cap. We talked for a while, listened to her iPod, and fell asleep. When we left, everyone was shocked that I didn’t go in, but I was fine with it because in the end I had more fun than them and didn’t get sunburned or have an allergic reaction to the water.
On Sunday, we had a meeting with an organization called World Links. I had been dreading this for a long time because we were supposed to make a power point presentation about technology in American Schools, and Jordanian kids would do the same. Sounded pretty stupid and pointless at the time, and it was, except for the fact that I had a great time talking to the other kids. I met one kid in particular named Otti who shared all of the same interests in music and politics. We had a very lengthy discussion about communism in America.
I started volunteering yesterday at the Kings Academy which is a prep school copied after Deer Field Academy in Massachusetts where his majesty King Abdullah the 2nd went to school. It’s brand new and not even officially open except for a summer camp aimed towards underprivileged children in rural areas around the age of 12-15........or that’s what they told us. The rural part might be true, but most of them all come from pretty well off families. The kids are so nice though, and so excited to talk to us in English. When they came back from classes and saw us standing in the dinning hall, we were practically mobbed by little kids introducing themselves. Because the king is in charge of everything, the school is very nice. I didn’t feel like I was in Jordan, but at some high class boarding school in New England. The king paid for graduates from this year to come and be counselors for the kids and to Americanize them. I have mixed feelings about this because I think that the kids are learning valuable things about eating good food and learning to throw trash away in garbage cans, but at the same time I don’t think they should force girls to play soccer with boys and stuff like that which is not part of their culture.
My friend Rashadd was visiting my room and broke the bed when he sat on it. So we had to go ask for nails at a construction site to repair the bed without the owner finding out. The manger is one of those people who puts fear into you when you look at him. So we repaired it ourselves and it‘s better than ever.
Today instead of going to modern arabic class, our teachers took us to the Jordanian parliament. It was just like going to congress except for the fact that there was a thrown for the king (which I couldn’t sit in, but I sat in the prime ministers seat).
That’s pretty much all of the big stuff that’s happened since my last blog. I’ll try to keep up, but I’ve had to pretty much fight to the death for internet access for the last week because there’s a class in the computer lab at school when I’m not in class. So that’s that.
-Sallam Alykum
I’m still living in an apartment because they can’t find any families willing to take in men because of cultural issues relating to either the fact that a family has daughters and doesn’t want men to be a threat to them, or the hijab issue. The hijab is the scarf that Muslim women wear over their heads because women aren’t supposed to reveal their hair to any man who is not closely related to them. If I was to live with a Muslim family, the women would have to always cover their hair inside their house. They have found plenty of families for girls and all of them are living in a host family except for one.
I guess the first thing that I’ve been needing to right about is the final game of the world cup. I’m currently living in a apartment above a restaurant called Al Bal. Al Bal is one of the restaurants that you can eat at everyday and never get tired of it, which is the reason that we eat at least one meal there every day. During the world cup, they would show the games on big screen TVs inside the restaurant, and project them on a big screen outside. Listening to the nose from the games from are apartment had become a nightly ritual over the weeks and it finally came to the last game between France and Italy. Italy was by far the most popular team, so even though I was going for France, I wanted Italy to win so that everybody would go crazy downstairs and I could take pictures. Luckily Italy won and there was a riot in the street. The police should up a couple of times to get traffic moving but once they left the party just got wilder and wilder by the minute.
Arabic classes that week were long and tedious. I go to school for 4 hours every day taking 2 classes in Jordanian Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic. The problem with the language is that it is so dynamic that depending on the region your in, the language changes so much from country to country. For example, a person from Jordan can’t speak their own dialect to a person from Egypt and be understood. There is however modern standard arabic which can be understood by everyone because it’s basically the language of the Qu’ran updated with 21st century vocabulary. So I’m pretty much learning two separate languages which is like learning French and Spanish at the same time.
This past Friday, we took a trip to Al Karak, which is a town down south kind of near Petra who’s well known for it’s crusader castle roughly the size of any normal English castle. We were invited to visit a family who lives in a village near Karak who has some kind of relationship with our current group leader. We were warned that they were very traditional Muslims with strict rules about gender separation and very large with 10 children and a large extended family who was there as well. When we arrived at their house, the father was the first person we met who waiting outside and gave us the traditional Arab greeting where you kiss them on the right cheek 2 times, and on the left once. I did the same with all of them men, and when I came to the women, they all looked a the ground and acted like I wasn’t there. I wasn’t affended or anything, but I felt uncomfortable about it. When we were upstairs the men sat on one end of the room, and the women on the other. Ann, our group leader who had told us about all the gender separation rules completely ignored them and sat with the men and began taking to them. Once this happened, it was like everyone broke with rules and everyone was taking to each other.
The national Jordanian dish is what’s called Mensef, which is lamb, rice, and a sauce made out of yogurt which you eat using your hands. I had Mensf the week before, but the Mensf which was given to us in Karak was the real stuff complete with the sheep head (the eyes are supposed to be the best part). We took a lot of food initially, but family members kept insisting that we eat more, and more until I felt Like I was going to go into a food induced coma. Once we were done with the Mensf, they led us into the sitting room where they had even more food waiting for us.
It very interesting to listen to Arabs talk about America. They despise the government and our president but absolutely love the people, culture, and everything else. Many of the children are studying to become doctors, engineers, and dentists, so it is very important for them to go to America to study so they could get the best jobs. I started to really appreciate what I have at home because I can do what ever I want in my career and live the way I want to, while people here have to compete to get into schools and don’t have to become a doctor in order secure my future.
That was that day.
The next day we went to the Dead Sea with the international students from the University of Jordan. The university has provided us with some really nice cars, and mini buses in the past, but what we drove to the Dead Sea was pretty frightening. The air conditioning was a fan at the front of the bus which had been rigged to only blow air on the driver, plus we had to stop at all sorts of military check points where men in military uniforms and machines guns would get out and walk around the bus, so it was a very long and tedious drive. The whole Lebanon thing had just started with Israel so I guess the Jordanians had taken extra precautions on the road to Israel which is also the road to the dead sea.
The Dead Sea is the worlds lowest point at a few hundred feet below sea level, and the hottest place I’ve ever been. When we got to the beach, I didn’t feel like going out into the salty water, put mud all over my body, and get sunburned. So I took refuge under a canapé with Eman who is Muslim, so she has a hard time going swimming around men because she would pretty much have to wear a wet suit and bathing cap. We talked for a while, listened to her iPod, and fell asleep. When we left, everyone was shocked that I didn’t go in, but I was fine with it because in the end I had more fun than them and didn’t get sunburned or have an allergic reaction to the water.
On Sunday, we had a meeting with an organization called World Links. I had been dreading this for a long time because we were supposed to make a power point presentation about technology in American Schools, and Jordanian kids would do the same. Sounded pretty stupid and pointless at the time, and it was, except for the fact that I had a great time talking to the other kids. I met one kid in particular named Otti who shared all of the same interests in music and politics. We had a very lengthy discussion about communism in America.
I started volunteering yesterday at the Kings Academy which is a prep school copied after Deer Field Academy in Massachusetts where his majesty King Abdullah the 2nd went to school. It’s brand new and not even officially open except for a summer camp aimed towards underprivileged children in rural areas around the age of 12-15........or that’s what they told us. The rural part might be true, but most of them all come from pretty well off families. The kids are so nice though, and so excited to talk to us in English. When they came back from classes and saw us standing in the dinning hall, we were practically mobbed by little kids introducing themselves. Because the king is in charge of everything, the school is very nice. I didn’t feel like I was in Jordan, but at some high class boarding school in New England. The king paid for graduates from this year to come and be counselors for the kids and to Americanize them. I have mixed feelings about this because I think that the kids are learning valuable things about eating good food and learning to throw trash away in garbage cans, but at the same time I don’t think they should force girls to play soccer with boys and stuff like that which is not part of their culture.
My friend Rashadd was visiting my room and broke the bed when he sat on it. So we had to go ask for nails at a construction site to repair the bed without the owner finding out. The manger is one of those people who puts fear into you when you look at him. So we repaired it ourselves and it‘s better than ever.
Today instead of going to modern arabic class, our teachers took us to the Jordanian parliament. It was just like going to congress except for the fact that there was a thrown for the king (which I couldn’t sit in, but I sat in the prime ministers seat).
That’s pretty much all of the big stuff that’s happened since my last blog. I’ll try to keep up, but I’ve had to pretty much fight to the death for internet access for the last week because there’s a class in the computer lab at school when I’m not in class. So that’s that.
-Sallam Alykum
Sunday, July 09, 2006
The other day was one of the most rediculous days of my life(maybe not my life, but it was pretty ridicoulous).So that morning I went to church. Now in Jordan, Church is on Friday becasue it is holy day of the muslims and Sunday is Monday in Jordan. Grechen had the card of the branch president who we had called the night before to get the time. It was in english in Arabic so we figured that if we gave the card to the driver, he would just be able to take us to the church. Amman isn't like other cities. In New York, for example, if you have an address, you can find your destination very easily. In Amman, they don't have addresses, just post office boxes. The driver was very frustrated and droped us off at the king abdullah mosque thinking that that was good enough. We called the number on the card and he told us to flag down a taxi and let him talk to the driver about directions. So we did just that. It turned out that the church was on the other side of town from where we had been droped off. The cab driver was very eager to practice his English on us. He told us that he was getting married the next week and wanted to come to America to get a masters degree. He was the nicest cab driver I've ever had, and will probably ever had.
The Church owns a very nice and large house in the embassy disterect which they have turnd into a church and humanitarian headquaters for Jordan. There were about 100 people there, 20 of them BYU students. I really enjoyed going to church here because it was so basic. There was a puplit, a table for the sacrament, and chairs. That was is! Instead of normail bread for the sacrement, they used pita bread. Sacrement meeting was in both English and Arabic which was extremly confusing. Sunday School was even more confusing, and Priesthood was pretty much in English. We met a lot of people who were mostly Americans who live in Jordan or are just visiting. But there was a suprising amount of Arabs, Indians, and Africans. I sat next to boy who looked like he was 12 from Nigeria named Mathew. The Hymbooks are in Arabic and English and alternate laguages every other verse.
When we returned from Church eveybody had been worried about us because we were gone for three plus hours. When we told them that our church was normaly 3 hours, they were shoked. Some of the Muslims in the group had just returned from Friday prayers where the Emman (the head of the mosque) gives a sermon which lasted about 45 minutes and they though that that was long.
Alex decided that we should take a field trip to a cave on the outskirts of Amman which is belived to be the sight of a story in the Qu'ran. In the story, seven people were being persicuted for there religon, so god led them to the cave and put them to sleep for 300 years. When they woke up they weren't persicuted anymore. The drive was about 30 minutes by cab and costed 4 dinar each way. We had to drive through the industrial section of town to get to the cave which is situated next to a factory on a hillside. We got out, saw the cave which wasn't very interesting because it was just a small room that had been built over the actual cave by the ummyads. There was a mosque further up the hill, but we weren't aloud to go, so it was time to go back home. Cabs aren't to frequent in that part of town so he had to walk to the main road. After 10 minutes a cab cameand three girls got in the back and wanted a boy to come with them because women aren't safe by themselves in the middle east in general. So I got in the front seat and went home. I got the key and went up to my room where I read for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and eventualy almost 30 minutes had gone by and no one had returned. Eventually Erik came back and told that no taxis had come. A bus came by and offered to take everyone back to the hotel so they got on. The driver thought that they should get 20 dinar for the ride and Alex talked them down to 11 dinar. The bus went the really long way through the old city and was a few miles away from the hotel when it broke down in the middle of the road. Everyone got out and had to take taxis to the hotel which was and additional 2 dinar per cab.
That night we decided to go to dinner as a group. So we had past this restauraunt a couple of times called "Pollo Rancheo: Latino Flavor". Someone got his idea that they would like to try Jordanian Mexican food and so half of the group including me got dragged into going. We took a short but tedius cab ride to Pollo Rancheo where we went in and found out that there was nothing Latino about it. First of all, the only thing they had was chicken, lot's of fried chicken which I don't think is a Latino food. We were considering eating there when I noticed that the waiters were all wearing pirate suits. The menu was all in english but with many errors like "Chiken Prest" or "Maxican Food". We decided to go somewhere else, somewhere with more traditional food. We went out side and were approached by an old man with a black plastic bag. He struck up a conversation with Rashadd (who's family is from Jordan and speaks really good Arabic). The man gave Rashadd a small box from the bag which turned out to be French Perfume and went on to give a few other people standing around him a box and take 2 dinars from each of them. I walked away as to avoid the situation because I didn't want French perfume, but decided to approach again to take a look at the bottle when the old man shoved a box into my hands. I tried to give it back to him but he wouldn't take it back while giving compliments to me like "you are handsome man". I decided to just giv him the 2 dinars because the rest of the group was moving away. I took out my wallet to get 2 dinars when he saw that I had a 5 dinar bill and he started asking me for that. I refused and he kept asking for it. After a while I just left with the bottle giving him 2 dinars for it.
We could see a restaurant across the street that looked pretty good but crossing the street was suicide. Everyone in the group except me Erik and Eman ran across the street just barley making it. We decided that we would just either go back or eat at Pollo Ranchero. Somone in the group flaged down a cab and had them drive to the other side of the street and pick us up against our will. Because this street was so busy (it's one of the main streets in amman) we had to drive a mile before we could turn around and drive another mile to the restaurant.
The Restaruant was huge. It was set up so that all the tables faced the front where a band was set up in front of a giant waterfall. We were the only people in the entire restaraunt for about an hour when a few other people showed up and the band started playing. The band consisted of a keyboard player who had done something to the keyboard so it could play arabian scales, a fluetist, two drumers, and a vocalist in a very skimpy dress. The food was pretty good but xpensive. So after drinking a lot of water at dinner, naturally, I had to go visit the restroom, right? So I walk into the mens restroom and there is a guy just siting there with a little table set up with a tip jar full of money and some pictures of what were probably his family. This kind of thing is uncommon outside of America, but it was the fact that he was inside the actual bathroom with one toilet and a urinal against the wall and no dividers. Extremely akward.
That was that day.
The Church owns a very nice and large house in the embassy disterect which they have turnd into a church and humanitarian headquaters for Jordan. There were about 100 people there, 20 of them BYU students. I really enjoyed going to church here because it was so basic. There was a puplit, a table for the sacrament, and chairs. That was is! Instead of normail bread for the sacrement, they used pita bread. Sacrement meeting was in both English and Arabic which was extremly confusing. Sunday School was even more confusing, and Priesthood was pretty much in English. We met a lot of people who were mostly Americans who live in Jordan or are just visiting. But there was a suprising amount of Arabs, Indians, and Africans. I sat next to boy who looked like he was 12 from Nigeria named Mathew. The Hymbooks are in Arabic and English and alternate laguages every other verse.
When we returned from Church eveybody had been worried about us because we were gone for three plus hours. When we told them that our church was normaly 3 hours, they were shoked. Some of the Muslims in the group had just returned from Friday prayers where the Emman (the head of the mosque) gives a sermon which lasted about 45 minutes and they though that that was long.
Alex decided that we should take a field trip to a cave on the outskirts of Amman which is belived to be the sight of a story in the Qu'ran. In the story, seven people were being persicuted for there religon, so god led them to the cave and put them to sleep for 300 years. When they woke up they weren't persicuted anymore. The drive was about 30 minutes by cab and costed 4 dinar each way. We had to drive through the industrial section of town to get to the cave which is situated next to a factory on a hillside. We got out, saw the cave which wasn't very interesting because it was just a small room that had been built over the actual cave by the ummyads. There was a mosque further up the hill, but we weren't aloud to go, so it was time to go back home. Cabs aren't to frequent in that part of town so he had to walk to the main road. After 10 minutes a cab cameand three girls got in the back and wanted a boy to come with them because women aren't safe by themselves in the middle east in general. So I got in the front seat and went home. I got the key and went up to my room where I read for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and eventualy almost 30 minutes had gone by and no one had returned. Eventually Erik came back and told that no taxis had come. A bus came by and offered to take everyone back to the hotel so they got on. The driver thought that they should get 20 dinar for the ride and Alex talked them down to 11 dinar. The bus went the really long way through the old city and was a few miles away from the hotel when it broke down in the middle of the road. Everyone got out and had to take taxis to the hotel which was and additional 2 dinar per cab.
That night we decided to go to dinner as a group. So we had past this restauraunt a couple of times called "Pollo Rancheo: Latino Flavor". Someone got his idea that they would like to try Jordanian Mexican food and so half of the group including me got dragged into going. We took a short but tedius cab ride to Pollo Rancheo where we went in and found out that there was nothing Latino about it. First of all, the only thing they had was chicken, lot's of fried chicken which I don't think is a Latino food. We were considering eating there when I noticed that the waiters were all wearing pirate suits. The menu was all in english but with many errors like "Chiken Prest" or "Maxican Food". We decided to go somewhere else, somewhere with more traditional food. We went out side and were approached by an old man with a black plastic bag. He struck up a conversation with Rashadd (who's family is from Jordan and speaks really good Arabic). The man gave Rashadd a small box from the bag which turned out to be French Perfume and went on to give a few other people standing around him a box and take 2 dinars from each of them. I walked away as to avoid the situation because I didn't want French perfume, but decided to approach again to take a look at the bottle when the old man shoved a box into my hands. I tried to give it back to him but he wouldn't take it back while giving compliments to me like "you are handsome man". I decided to just giv him the 2 dinars because the rest of the group was moving away. I took out my wallet to get 2 dinars when he saw that I had a 5 dinar bill and he started asking me for that. I refused and he kept asking for it. After a while I just left with the bottle giving him 2 dinars for it.
We could see a restaurant across the street that looked pretty good but crossing the street was suicide. Everyone in the group except me Erik and Eman ran across the street just barley making it. We decided that we would just either go back or eat at Pollo Ranchero. Somone in the group flaged down a cab and had them drive to the other side of the street and pick us up against our will. Because this street was so busy (it's one of the main streets in amman) we had to drive a mile before we could turn around and drive another mile to the restaurant.
The Restaruant was huge. It was set up so that all the tables faced the front where a band was set up in front of a giant waterfall. We were the only people in the entire restaraunt for about an hour when a few other people showed up and the band started playing. The band consisted of a keyboard player who had done something to the keyboard so it could play arabian scales, a fluetist, two drumers, and a vocalist in a very skimpy dress. The food was pretty good but xpensive. So after drinking a lot of water at dinner, naturally, I had to go visit the restroom, right? So I walk into the mens restroom and there is a guy just siting there with a little table set up with a tip jar full of money and some pictures of what were probably his family. This kind of thing is uncommon outside of America, but it was the fact that he was inside the actual bathroom with one toilet and a urinal against the wall and no dividers. Extremely akward.
That was that day.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
World Cup fever is pretty big here is Jordan. We live above a restaurant called Al Bal which is very popular among the world cup fans because of it's big screen TV's that broadcast every game. Every night after someone wins the game there will be party with people singing and chanting uintil early in the morning.
We went to dinner at The Royal Autombile Club of Jordan the other night with Daud, whio is a university of Wisconsin Green Bay graduate. This place is kind of the country club for Jordan, very ritzy. The cab drive who brought us hereripped us off though.
WE were supposed to attend a 4th of july party at the US embassy, but Alex, the current group leader decided that it was taking an unnessasary risk because Ossama in Laden recently released a Video in which he talked about overthowing King Abdullah and attaking westerners. We ended up having a party on the roof of our hotel.
We went to dinner at The Royal Autombile Club of Jordan the other night with Daud, whio is a university of Wisconsin Green Bay graduate. This place is kind of the country club for Jordan, very ritzy. The cab drive who brought us hereripped us off though.
WE were supposed to attend a 4th of july party at the US embassy, but Alex, the current group leader decided that it was taking an unnessasary risk because Ossama in Laden recently released a Video in which he talked about overthowing King Abdullah and attaking westerners. We ended up having a party on the roof of our hotel.
I just got back from a weekend excursion to Petra and Wadi Rum. If you've never heard of Petra before, I'm sure you've at least seen a picture of it before. Indiana Jones and the last Crusad was filmed there and so were a couple other movies which I can't think of at the moment. But it's a 2000 year old city which was carved out of the sand stone. Our tour guide Daud was a nice guy withg a lot of information who had visited the place a couple hundered times. He talked us into taking a hike up to what is called the "high place". The trail is 4000 stairs carved out of the mountain. It was shoking to see how many people in my group are out of shape. For some it was their first time hiking. But the view was amazing. On top the call to prayer came over the mountains from the modern city of Petra. My new friend Duff from Ft. Lauderdale is training to become an Islamic Scholar. Upon hearing the call he stood up on a rock and started reciting the call. I will never forget it.
We ate lunch in a resaurant that was 8 dinars (which is a rip off) for the buffet which was food that had been made the other day and left in metal trays. To leave Petra you have to go all the way back the way you came through a canyon called the Siq which was carved by water from flash floods. Are Hotel was on top of a surrounding mountain and looked out over Petra. Besides the fact that dinner gave me and a few other people food poisoniong, it was a really nice hotel. Though I have never had to walk through metal ditectors to get into a hotel before.
The next morning we went to Wadi Rum which is a very famous desert where lawrence of Arabia spent some of his time. Wadi Rum is beautiful with different rock formations and various clorous of sand. To get out into the desert we got in the back of jeeps (they called them jeeps but they were really toyota's)and rode out. The drivers were Bedouin and kept trying to talk the tour guide into paying them more money. To start the "jeep" the driver would hotwire the engine. It was quite an experince.
And of course here are pictures:
We ate lunch in a resaurant that was 8 dinars (which is a rip off) for the buffet which was food that had been made the other day and left in metal trays. To leave Petra you have to go all the way back the way you came through a canyon called the Siq which was carved by water from flash floods. Are Hotel was on top of a surrounding mountain and looked out over Petra. Besides the fact that dinner gave me and a few other people food poisoniong, it was a really nice hotel. Though I have never had to walk through metal ditectors to get into a hotel before.
The next morning we went to Wadi Rum which is a very famous desert where lawrence of Arabia spent some of his time. Wadi Rum is beautiful with different rock formations and various clorous of sand. To get out into the desert we got in the back of jeeps (they called them jeeps but they were really toyota's)and rode out. The drivers were Bedouin and kept trying to talk the tour guide into paying them more money. To start the "jeep" the driver would hotwire the engine. It was quite an experince.
And of course here are pictures:
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