Wadi Rum/Petra Adventure

Just wanted to post some pictures from one of my more recent trips to Southern Jordan. Overall it was a pretty hilariously fun trip with many unexpected thrills/surprises as usual...

Asmaah and I in front of the Monastery at Petra. and I will have you know that it is not a painless hike up the 800 something odd shaped steps to reach this beauty.

A little further up from the Monastery. Beautiful surroundings, beautiful weather.

Jordanian flag at a viewpoint above the monastery.

Taking a break at this refreshingly windy viewpoint after the last stretch of hike up.

Written on the outside of the canvas tent at the top of this viewpoint. Did you know there is no tax in the end of the world?

An older Bedouin man who wanted to show us his goats. He grew up in Petra and still lives nearby although no one is technically allowed to live in the UNESCO World Heritage site. Forced relocation for most Bedouins living in the designated UNESCO site started in the 60s and continued throughout the following decades. Now most Bedouins who previously lived in ancient caves carved by Nabateans live in neighboring villages, but some still use the Petra area and caves for livestock grazing and shelter like the older Bedouin man we met.

The night before we stayed a few kilometers away from any villages. This picture is the outside of the "cave" we slept in the night before with some people I might describe as "rasta Bedouins," big dreadlocks, wild political views and all.

View of the cave entrance.

The cave was situated in the neighboring terrain of Petra. It was several kilometers off any real road so our hosts kindly picked us up in town and we had quite the adventure being thrown around in the cab of a toyota pickup in the dark to reach this destination.

Wadi Rum

Mickey taking one of his famous self-portrait shots.

Asmaah and Seth on our jeep tour in Wadi Rum.

VERY tall red sand dune. It may very well have been 800 steps to reach the top of this as well.

Our jeep tour guide Omar lounging in the sand below as we explored the tops of rock formations.

Neat little rock hut. Use: Unknown.

Mickey and Seth being explorers in the strong morning sun.

We camped on some mats with blankets provided by "couch surfing" Bedouins in Wadi Rum. The Wadi Rum night sky is unlike any other that I have seen.

I have a feeling I'll be missing the warm desert sun almost immediately upon my arrival back home to the soggy (but beautiful) Northwest in less than a week.

love to everyone at home!

Current Situation

Despite the overall chaotic nature of events in the region right now, life in Jordan just keeps on keepin' on. Everyday I talk to different people about what is going on outside of Jordan's borders, sometimes about what is going on within. The widespread consensus (from who I have talked to... consisting mainly of roommates, some of whom are arab, some not, opinionated and chatty taxi-drivers, and other friendly Jordanians in places like markets or corner stores) is that things in Jordan most likely won't be drastically changing anytime soon. The population is too split, mainly between Jordanians from tribes within the country, and Jordanian-Palestinians who are more recent residents of Jordan since fleeing their homeland in the 1948 and 1967 wars in Israel/Palestine. Many people remain behind the King here despite frequent talk of corruption, high living prices, and low working wages.

Every Friday since early January there have been protests in downtown Amman surrounding discontent with the above mentioned issues, but none of these protests have been anywhere near sizes that were seen in Cairo up until Mubarak finally stepped down, and the protests that are now being seen throughout Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and others.

Last Friday the protests downtown were relatively small. At some point in the afternoon a group of "thugs" or "pro-government supporters," depending on which news source you read, confronted the protesters with wooden bats and metal clubs as police stood by and watched without intervening. Around 10 people were injured and had to be treated at hospitals. This came as shocking news, not only because the demonstration was small in comparison to previous weeks, but also because it was the first occurrence of violence since the weekly demonstrations began. Jordanians I have spoken with are not convinced that the "thugs" were acting on their own accords, basically hinting to the fact that it is quite possible they were paid... especially since police who stood by did not stop or arrest any of those involved in the violence.

To find a NY times article about this instance go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/middleeast/19jordan.html?scp=1&sq=amman%20protests&st=cse

I am interested to see what happens this Friday. If there are more protests, if they are larger, if any more violence occurs (hopefully not)... my goodness. What a crazy time to be living here.

As far as my own personal happenings go, I have been happily interning at an organization called Ruwwad in the low-income neighborhood of East Amman called Jabal Natheef. I teach English to a group of women from the community, tutor some young students in conversational English, and help out with other small projects. Overall I love it. The women I teach are really motivated, intelligent, and positive warm people to spend time with. Class time can be chaotic as there is a different number every day, and new students come often. Almost every woman in the class has a different level of English comprehension and speaking, which adds to the difficulty of teaching English, a task I have never dived into until now. Despite some difficulties teaching the experience so far has been very satisfying and rewarding. I feel as though I have been learning so much here, some of which is not even knowledge that I could necessarily put into words and share with others but rather more experiential. Maybe I am just becoming more aware of myself growing up? No matter what it is, I know that it is a really wonderful feeling.

(picture above from last Friday's protests, 02/25/2011)

p.s. I will add a more picture filled blog update soon about my most recent adventures around Jordan (including Wadi Rum and Petra for the second time, Umm Qais, Ajloun Forest Reserve, Afra Hot Springs and Dead Sea also for a well-deserved second visit). Promise.

the Holy Land Adventures Part Two

The coffee seller in Bethlehem let Julie give it a try before we left the city early that day...

The only beer made in Palestine, "Taybeh." It is mmmm mmm good.

Our international group of friends (we had people from Argentina, China, Norway, the States, Canada AND Uruguay) we had gathered soon dispersed as we left Bethlehem on Christmas day. Out of the group I ended up sticking with my friend Casey who is also from Oregon and had been studying abroad in Amman as well but on a different program. We decided to head back to Jerusalem for a night and then explore the West Bank.

First night was spent in Palestine's capital, Ramallah. In Israel and Palestine there were so many more local fruits and veggies available than in Jordan (hint: water).

After Ramallah we headed north and briefly stopped in Nablus. There were no other travelers in sight, not surprisingly, so we got a lot of stares but had fun wandering around the old city back alleys.

Ridiculously filling lunch in Nablus for not too many Shekels.

That evening we decided to head straight to Haifa where we had plans to stay at a couchsurfers house. Re-entering Israel proper was a little stressful and involved taking a shared taxi from Nablus to Jenin, then we had to pay for a private taxi from Jenin to the border-crossing in another nearby town, and THEN we had some trouble getting through the border (they thoroughly searched our bags as we waited in an isolated room), but after finally getting approval to cross into Israel proper again we realized that we had to pay for another pricey private taxi to get to the nearest bus station in a town called Al-Fula. Finally from Al-Fula we hopped on a bus to Haifa where we luckily found our host's house without much trouble.

The view from our host's balcony the next morning was a nice reward for the exhausting evening we had the night before...

Same view but at night... Haifa is the 3rd largest city in Israel and has the largest port.

Casey and I on the balcony

The next day we mainly spent time exploring a beach outside of town on the beautiful Mediterranean.

(says "the birds" in Arabic... I was a little surprised to see Arabic on our hike in Israel proper)

The above five pictures were taken one morning when our host in Haifa gave us the wonderful idea of hiking down a Wadi (canyon) from the high hillside his home is perched on straight down to the Sea. Beautiful!

Akko. A small, dominantly Arab, fishing village just north of Haifa.

Exploring Old Akko

New and Old Haifa

View of "Jesus' Playground"(quoted from the pastor of a large group of American Christian tourists who happened to be perched up on top of the hill with us) from a small Druze village east of Haifa.

It was windy.

We celebrated New Years in Tel Aviv. Overall it reminded me of a smaller (much smaller) L.A. Really beautiful in some ways, but expensive and a sort of stressful city to hang around.

After a long journey around the Holy Land we headed back to Jerusalem for one night before Casey and I had to part ways. She was to stay in Israel but head south where she would start an internship in the bedouin village of Rahat in the Negev Desert working with a local Women's empowerment organization. I was to head back to the Allenby/King Hussein border crossing alone to recoup from the extensive travels for a few days before beginning my own internship at Ruwwad, the Arab foundation for sustainable development in the poor neighborhood of Jabal Natheef.

Currently back in Amman. The above pictures were taken from the roof of the house I am currently living in. Picture in the middle of one of my adorable neighbor friends.

More to come soon!

Sending lots of love,

Elise