The End is Near

We're wrapping up classes and finals start this week and end at the beginning of next week. I'll miss the friends I've met in Amman, but I'm excited to go home and for the stress of learning Arabic intensively to subside. I'm excited to be with my family and be doing Christmas things and relax.

In Suq Abdali, Jarom and I found this little piece of home ;) Suq Abdali is a massive outdoor market that opens a couple days a week and carries all the DI/Goodwill/Ross type clothes. 

This was Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving. Jarom and I went to Hashem's Restaurant for hummas, beans, and pita. I didn't realize it was Thanksgiving till after we left. I ate a Thanksgiving meal with the Lees (missionary couple we work with up in northern Jordan) after church the next day and also on Sunday when we had a day off for the Islamic New Year (which, oddly, none of my friends here knew about).

Saturday we went to Ajlun, a northern town with a Muslim castle built during Crusader times, but we went for the nature walks. 

This is the river where Jacob saw Jacob's Ladder and wrestled with the Angel and got the same promise Abraham received. I don't remember, but I think it's called Jerash River.

We passed by families in the middle of olive harvest. Some of them were from as far away as Aqaba but they came home to help out and visit. The way they harvest olives is to spread a big tarp under the trees and then hit the branches until olives fall. The taste soooooo bitter. You have to soak them for several days till they're edible.

This is Mar Elias, the site believed to be the birthplace of Elijah. There's a church ruin  with mosaic floors from the 6th century 

This is Esther. She and I teach Shahid each Friday after church. She goes to a salon to speak, and her friends there heard she was going to a Thanksgiving party and decided to buy her the cutest outfit they could find and do her hair and make up for her. It reminded me of a 60's powersuit. They were disappointed to see her wear the white undershirt. :)

True Story

So, we live in a ritzy, Western part of town. Yesterday, Jordan descended his dark staircase from the 4^th floor to the ground floor to buy falafel, when, to his surprise, he found three big Arab guys in the entry way holding clubs. “WHERE DO YOU LIVE?!” they demanded. Jordan is big and in the Army, but he was scared and answered honestly, “upstairs.” “WHERE UPSTAIRS?!” When he answered they just nodded, satisfied, and proceeded up the stairs. Jordan followed them to the floor below his and watched them beat on the door of the apartment below his. The three guys got in the door and started wailing on the guy inside. 

Jordan ran upstairs and got his big knife (pshaw, I don't know why a knife is his weapon of choice, it's more of a deterrent than a smart fighting instrument). His roommate, a Jordanian-American named Sami, asked what he was doing. Jordan was just scared and stayed in the apartment with his weapon while he and his roommates listened to this beating of three guys on one for half an hour.

Their neighbor called the police. The police waited outside the building for 10-15 minutes before coming in. When they walked into the apartment, they looked at the guys with clubs then at the guy who was beaten and arrested the latter.

Crazy story. But this is why it makes sense.

The beaten guy is a Saudi dentist. He is either living with or just having a relationship with the woman in that apartment. The woman is a widow of 4 months and mother of a couple kids. When her neighbors saw what was happening with the dentist, they told the super who called the relatives of the dead husband who dispatched these three men to administer what is probably watered-down tribal justice. One of our teachers said that if the widow didn't have kids, she would probably be killed. I'm not sure what the fate of the dentist would be.

Tribes are huge here. The Jordanian government generally stays out of tribal disputes because they follow their own rules and peace doesn't come until those rules are followed. If there's interference, there's usually more crimes committed than if they leave them alone to work out their own truces. Jordan and Sami said they probably arrested the beaten dentist in order to protect them. If they had arrested the three men, they would have just called their cousins and the cycle would continue till justice was served, tribal-style.

Another opportunity to realize “we're not in Kansas anymore.” Most interesting vicarious cultural experience yet!

Random pics from Eid (holiday)

This last week was Eid al Adha, which meant we had fewer classes and more time to visit in people's homes. The Iraqi family had us (Jadyn, Jordan, and I) over the same night their Jordanian landlords came over. The landlords invited all of us over two more evenings that week. You can feel the baby kick, and her name is Fatima. 

Winter is here. Central heating is not. This bum is the result. Catie is my roommate. I made her tea and had her wrap up, but she still didn't get warm. :(

It really makes my eyes pop, our friend, Rania, was doing the Iraqi girls' make up and I decided to join the band wagon.

After drinks, the main course, sweets, and tea, they got us up to dance.  

We're trying to remember any American dances with real moves. This resulted in the Macarana. I did some swing moves with the kids and Jadyn taught us how to Cha cha. They showed us Eastern dancing, which is cool and similar to their singing. I didn't know voices and bodies could move that way, but lo and behold. We have a goal to get it down before leaving.

Rania (can you see similar makeup?), Jadyn the dancer, Jordan, Hilary, Jihad our host, and Nishwan                     

The oldest and youngest of the Iraqi family, Nur and Nishwan

 Also this week, Jarom and I and people from our apartments went to buy keffiyahs in Wust il-Balad (downtown).

Can you tell Peter's loving it

I'm showing my Iraqi colors here

This guy owns the mall our institute is located nearby, but he's been coming in to work at his juice stand for 40 years. He's found what makes him happy :)

As a cultural note, Eid al-Adha means Feast of the Sacrifice. It comes right after Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca. As far as I understand, it commemorates when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, Ishmael in the Islamic tradition, and didn't have to and got to sacrifice a ram instead. The traditions behind the holiday include the patriarchs of the families (dads, granddads, and uncles) giving money to all the kids. It's also customary to visit every family member the first two days of this four day holiday. Each visit lasts about 5-10 minutes because there're so many houses to visit and so much traffic. My teacher, Dr. Khalid, said this meant he and his family were in the car for 7 hours and visited a total of 3ish hours each day. He's not fond of that aspect of the holiday. Also, every family who's able gets to sacrifice a sheep and give a quarter of it to the poor. Accordingly, on our way to Zarqa one day to eat at Hanady's house, we saw live, as well as butchered, sheep on the side of the road. This was really exciting to me until I realized they were butchering future food on the side of the road. Oh well, I guess it cooks out anyway :) and halal meat is some of the cleanest you can get anyway.

Karak, Petra, and Wadi Rum

This week is Eid al Adha, a holiday along the same lines as Christmas. Our teachers have the week off, so we went on a little vacation as a program.

Our first stop was Karak, an old crusader castle.

That night we got to our hotel and in the morning we walked to Petra. Petra is an ancient Nabatean city south of Amman that was at its height around Christ's time with 30000 residents. You, and all the ancient caravans, got there by way of a narrow siq or slot canyon. You come out of it to see the Treasury, or tomb for one of the kings, first (it's also what you see in Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail).  

Petra, specifically the Treasury, at the end of the Siq, think Indiana Jones

Full view of the Treasury. The structure holds symbolism for the afterlife. It's amazing to me it is cut out of living rock.

Me and Matt Martin in front of Petra.

This called the High Place of Sacrifice and is a short hike from the Treasury. I guess Randell sacrificing me may be offensive, so sorry for hurt feelings. There was a hollowed out part to the left here with a blood channel for newly killed sacrifices. It was sort of gross to see Clayton pour some of his water in the hollow and watch where the blood must have flowed. The views around here were breathtaking. The desert is beautiful and it's dotted with tombs.

This is called the monastery, though it's also another tomb. The main gaping doorway is where a feast could be held for the dead and the dead lay buried in the floor underneath them I think. My favorite part about the part of Petra was sitting on a hilltop with a view called  The End of the World, seeing into Israel, and talking with a Bedou guy and some Saudi tourists over tea.

We walked out of the park late. One of the stall-owners whom I had bought jewelry from was walking bak the same time as us. It was fascinating to hear about her way of life and what she expects and hope for herself in the future. We got to the siq and walked back by moon light that lit it only in narrow shafts. Legit Arabian Night.

Here's another legit Arab night. So after we ate, a group of three boys, five girls, and I decided to walk around the neighborhood. We found a small park on the edge of town that bordered the rocky, desert surrounding Petra. During Eid, Dil has warned us that shabab roam even more and are ok with looking for trouble. Accordingly, we saw the same cars cruising the streets and one of them, music turned up, slowed to a stop on the curb of the park. It was interesting to see the girls calmly gather in at the far edge of the park while the guys came in from whatever corners they were at in the park to stand around us between us and the shabab. Jeremy watched the three shabab (young men) get out of the car and come towards us. He went out and intercepted them and struck up a conversation. Andrew joined him, while Mark stayed behind with us. I joked that Mark was the rear guard in case the shabab got through. :) I don't want to exaggerate. This was a really friendly interaction, but the precautions we took to keep it that way were obvious.

The girls and I eventually got bored, so we crossed the wall into the rocky desert on the other side. We went down a big, smooth boulder until we were outside of the view of the boys but could still hear the music from their car. We decided to have a dance party and all six of us really got into it. Kaiti said, “Wait, I can't hear the music.” We all slowed down, then heard a different tune coming from another direction. I turned around and looked across the desert towards the music. Two dark figures were sitting against a rock, one had just puffed on his cigarette. “Guys, I think there's two shabab over there.”

They scrambled like cockroaches when the lights turn on. The shabab were far away and sitting down, so I was fine with just calmly walking up the boulder, but the others were frantic, “Holy cow!” “Hurry up,” “Wait, where's my Sprite?! Who got my Sprite!?” 

The shabab up top left soon after we got out of sight, so when we told our boys what happened, Jeremy laughed and compared it to the dancing Lamanite daughters in the Book of Mormon. It was great. A very fun, very legit Arab night.

The next day, we drove to Wadi Rum. This is an extreme desert that's still accessible to tourists. It is one of the places where Lawrence of Arabia marched through and camped with his army. We rode trucks to sand dunes to play, then to a camel ride, and then to a Bedouin tent for mansaf.

This mountain is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and T. E. Lawrence wrote a book of the same name. Do I look wiser looking at it that way? 

The truck ride across the desert. Ashley, Jason, and Jarom.

Same, me, Randell, and Clayton.

I RODE A CAMEL!

We rode for about 20 minutes. It was fun but a little uncomfortable. Esther asked one of the Bedou  camel drivers to teach her a song. I loved hearing the song echo around the chilly desert sand and reverberate back to us from the rocky hills and mountains that starkly came up out of the ground. That was so cool. Camels are funny and amazing creatures too. I spent a lot of time watching how their feet expand on the ground when they walk and thinking it was like riding a dinosaur.

I'll put more pictures on facebook, and a lot of my friends have already tagged me in photos if you want to see more.

Musing on one Difference between two Desert Kingdoms

So today I was loitering around at Jordanian University talking with a classmate about her opinions on the King recently dissolving the government and what her dad is going to do now (he was a representative in the parliament up until yesterday). Suddenly, in walks this Saudi Arabia procession coming to give a lecture. Leading them was who I assume was the speaker, an older guy with a beard, walking with purpose in a long black robe with gold trimming. Following him were all the men wearing the traditional, white, Lawrence of Arabia gallibiyas with the red and white checkered kifeyas on their heads with the black-rope ties around them. Following behind there was the procession of women in their long black abayas and black niqab (head and face veil with an eye slit). One called out a greeting to us, "Issalamu wilekum." I said the response greeting in return, "Wilekum issalam," then turned back to my friend in her cute, colorful hijab (head scarf), pretty make-up, and trendy clothes. Suddenly, Jordan felt like the most Western place to me. :)

The Iraqi Family

One of my favorite places in Amman is this Iraqi family's house. They're refugees from Basra and are being moved by the UN to San Antonio in a couple months. Before the war, Abu Nur had a successful construction business. They're so loving and so happy. The mom and dad, Majd and Abu Nur, call us their kids. One of our TAs, Randell, met them because they're on his way to the bus stop every day and Arabs are open and friendly enough to ask strangers to come visit. After his first visit, Randell asked if some girls from the program would come too because there are three daughters in their teens and the only son is eight.

Abu Nur, probably just after confusing my name for Randell's and then calling me Habibti or my sweetheart (Habib or Habiba is thrown around a lot here)

They never fail to feed us, but tonight was another exceptional night. I have a food baby named Fatima and she's growing a lot thanks to this family :) We ate rice and vermicelli, hamburger patties, eggplant, tomatoes, and other vegetables and fried chicken.

The boys, Randell, Nishwan, and Abu Nur. Randell taught Nishwan, 8, 4 phrases in English, but his answers to How are you? is usually Iraq and Where are you from? is usually Good ;) This was the first night where he got them all right!

The girls minus Nouris, Me, Jordan, Nur, Nadia, and Jadyn. Randell asked if any girls wanted to come because it's a family of mostly girls. We're so happy we got introduced to them.

 If the video works, it's of one of the card games we played after dinner, after tea, and before hot chocolate. It got real intense, as you may be able to see. We also played Arab Spin the Bottle. I laughed when Majd, the mom, first spun the bottle, not knowing what to expect but excited to find out. It's like Truth or Dare without the Dare part with the person across the table from you.

Wadi Mujib = The Narrows of Jordan

Last weekend, a lot of us took a trip to Wadi Mujib. It was a great break from classes. Wadi means canyon or indicates a low place where water can flow. It was really cool to see flowing water in Jordan. It's in the top five water deprived countries, so we don't even flush the toilets after every use :) My class and I were telling our professor, Dr. Khalid, about Provo's geography and climate because he'll be a visiting professor at BYU next semester. As we told him about it, I was surprised that Provo seemed like a watery oasis compared to what I'm now used to here in Jordan. There's TWO lakes in the region?! There's a river that flows YEAR ROUND! I always thought of it as a desert, which is true, but it's no comparison to here.

I digress, this is Wadi Mujib. We walked up stream and climbed over small waterfalls. Amazing time.

This is the entrance to Wadi Mujib. On the left is Laura Beth, Dil's wife. She came on her lonesome and hiked all those waterfalls and had a good time. 

Me at the entrance

Beautiful. It was narrow, vertical canyon walls the whole time with only a little sun poking in every now and then.

Jarom under a big widow-maker :) I thought this rock was so funny because one slip along the big Rift Valley Fault line running just a kilometer or two away would drop this rock on top of the Unfortunates below. 

The hike ended at a waterfall. It reminded me so much of Havasupai. As I got closer, the spray made it hard to breath or see, but once behind it, you could dive in easily. The falls pummel you twice before you can come up again for air. It was such a great trip!

Church in Irbid and MANSAF!

So every Sunday, there are 8 of us that take about an hour bus ride up to Irbid to the Arabic-speaking branch there. We help teach classes and do what we can for members. Today I taught Young Womens' or Shaabat. The youth here are spot on and have such strong testimonies. There are quite a few not coming though. So we help out the American missionary couple, the Lees, who are the branch presidency, with whatever the branch needs.


The Lees and Huda take half of us and always feed us lunch after church before we go visit families or head back home. Today, Huda fed us mansaf!


This was legit. The restaurant gave us the mansaf flavor, but at Huda’s house, we got the mansaf experience. So let me explain Mansaf to you. It starts with a giant, deep platter, lay down a large, super thin tortilla, pile it high with a rice-vermicelli mixture, place whole, juicy roasted chicken legs on top, sprinkle with nuts and parsley, and the best of the best parts, the cheese sauce. It’s the savoriest flavor I’ve ever tasted. It’s made of sheep milk and yogurt but the secret is some kind of de-fatted, de-hydrated cheese balls. It was like drinking parmesan cheese, but savory, not sharp or kicky.

The platter of delicious itself.

Huda with the miracle sauce.

We ate it Bedou style with our hands. Samor taught us how to flip and roll it in our hands. Their son-in-law, Christian, the dad Samor, Esther and Griffin (married), me.

A shot of me rolling the mansaf and Christian’s face which you should interpret as pain at getting too full but still wanting to eat more.

Esther down at the non-Bedoui side eating mansaf with a spoon with the three daughters of the family, Heba, Arene, and Haya.

It was really cool to be in their home on a family day like Friday. It feels like home, just different people and different food. I think the gospel does that a lot, unifies across otherwise unfamiliar borders. :)

Jarom's Birthday

Jarom, my cousin who is also on the program, turned 26 yesterday! I did refrain from getting the class to sing to him, sorry Bec. I half-heartedly started it, but he didn’t seem to take and the song didn’t take to the people happily leaving for the weekend. 

We ate mansaf at Al-Quds restaurant. Neither of us had eaten it yet and every taxi driver and speaking partner raves about it while salivating. It was exceptional. This restaurant was also recommended by the only guy on the program with an Arab background as having better-than-homemade mansaf. It was just his my roommates who could go, Randell, Vio, Jarom, Kathlene, Kaiti, and I.

Then people from our home evening group made a cake and surprised him! I sang the special Blackhurst birthday song as a solo. They kept clapping after each verse, and then I’d sing the next verse, etc till the song was finally done ;)

Jarom and I vegging. We stayed up late and talked about the interesting stuff he follows on blogs. That kid does not waste time surfing the net at all! He learns so many interesting things.

Jerash

Last weekend about 12 of us went up to Jerash to see the ruins. It reminded me of the Forum in Rome where the Coliseum and other ruins lay in the middle of growing, modern city. We went up in a bus owned by one of the guys at church. I’m not sure how it went down, but apparently he and a husband of a student got talking and he kindly offered to drive us up in the bus he happens to own. J


The ruins start with a grand entrance, Hadrian’s gate, followed by a colonnaded, flagstone street that leads to a central Oval, and then continues on to a smaller arch at the far end. Off to the sides are a hippodrome (horse racing), the Temples of Zeus and Artemis, two amphitheatres (my favorites), and other buildings.


One of my favorite parts were the track marks in the flagstones carved by metal wheels of ancient carts. It was really cool to see the evidence of people using these ruins back when they weren’t ruins yet.

This is the Hadrian’s gate, built around 100 AD I think, to commemorate the Emperor’s staying in Jerash for six months.

The large amphitheatre. Notice the three entrances just like the Globe theatre in Shakespeare’s day. An Arab dressed in tartan periodically played the bag pipe here. Very cool to hear the echoes and feel like I was closer to the UK and Scotland for a brief moment.

My roommates at the bottom stairs of a ruin of a large Christian church that faced the colonnaded street. 

An overview from the end of the street. In the distance is Hadrian’s Gate, the colonnaded street, and on the right the large amphitheatre and Temple of Zeus. Imagine what it must have looked like before it got “ruined.” Follow the columns up the side streets.

The small amphitheatre. The amphitheatres seemed “living” because the acoustics still work so people can still use if for its original purpose. I thought about what plays I would have seen there back when it was first built, them remembered I’m a woman and probably wouldn’t have seen any unless I was some kind of Vestal Virgin. (I think that’s accurate, Wikipedia it if you’re curious).

The very end of the colonnaded street and the far arch. Great track marks here.

The Colonnade and Oval. I walked up and down the street imagining what each stall might have sold.