Madaba

Today was our first free day in Jordan. Me and six other people decided to go to a town called Madaba where Mt. Nebo, a couple of ancient churches, and some hot springs are located. We had no idea when we left the hotel this morning how we were going to get there except that we might be able to catch some kind of bus from the university to Madaba. After arriving at the university we walked around and asked some people if they knew the way. Finally we ran into two students who were from Madaba and waiting for the bus there. They showed us the way.

It was great because I got about an hours worth of speaking practice on the bus ride. The guys knew English but were willing to work with us if we helped them out a little bit with English. The guy I was sitting with told me that there is a town in Jordan called Tafeeli that everyone makes fun of. He told me one of the jokes about these people that went something like: "A man from Tafeeli goes into a store and wants to buy a TV. He puts his hand down on the item he he wants to buy and says 'I want to buy this TV'. The store owner says 'I can never sell anything to a person from Tafeeli. The next day, the same man from the town goes back to the store after he has changed his appearance and went back and put his hand on the same thing which he wnated to buy...to which he is again told that the owner will never sell anything to someone from Tafeeli. This happens mulitple other times and the man is puzzled how the store owner knows he is from Tafeeli. So he goes and asks, "how do you know I'm from Tafeeli. The owner replies, "Because you keep puting your hand on the microwave when you say you want to buy a TV." After just typing it, I realize that it isn't as funny as when I first heard here, but it's still kind of interesting. He wanted to here an American joke, but jokes like "Why did the Chicken cross the road" and "Two cupcakes sitting in an oven" didn't make much sense to him.

(I found this blog entry about the Tafeeli joke thing: http://www.black-iris.com/2006/10/10/the-bittersweetness-of-a-tafeeli-joke/)

In Madaba, these same students took us to a couple of ancient churches in downtown Madaba. Madaba is known for these churches and the maps on the floor of one of them. It is also mentioned in the Bible apparently. What was really interesting was that these students who were showing us around got us discounts on the entrance fees because they had family conections with the people taking tickets. We would show up at a church and the students would talk with the guy at the door for a couple of minutes and shake his hand multiple times until he brought down the price. After that, we hired a microbus to drive us up to Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo is the palce where Moses is beleived to die. I kept trying to explain to our new friends that we have a place in Utah called Mt. Nebo, but they kept saying "yes but this is Mt. Nebo. This is in Jordan." After Mt. Nebo we went to a restaurnat for Mensef, a traditional Beduin dish consisting of Lamb, rice, and a yogurt sauce. It was fantastic. The university students who helped us get to Madaba turned into really good friends by the end of the day. Unfortunatley we had missed all the busses back to Amman and there was no time for the hot springs, so we had to hire a microbus to get back. We flaged one down which was covered in a Jordanain flag and various propoganda like pictures of King Abdullah on the windows. It turned out that the driver was somehow related to one of our new friends, so we got a huge discount on the fare. Everyone here is somehow related to everyone else. Its hilarious. It's interesting because people who live in the towns and villages can tell where each other are from by the way they speak because each area has its own tribal dialect.

Jordan is such a fresh breath of air after Egypt. We are no longer considered rich tourists, but rather facinating curiosities. Except at the airport, not one person has asked me for 'bashiish' (tips). In fact several people in my group have been given free taxi rides and given all sorts of discounts just for being foreign. I feel kind of bad about that since we are much better off finacnially than the people here, but there is a strongs sense of hospitality that people feel here towards foriegners. Very interesting.