I am currently sitting in a five star luxury resort in Aqaba as I’m about to write about my experience in the Southern Badia, which was pretty much as far as I could get from the lifestyle I have been living this weekend in celebration of my friend Katherine’s 21st birthday.
A little over a week ago I spent four days with the Bedouin family of Sheikh Hussein in the South Badia town of Qrain. The town of Qrain has about 400 families, most of which are somehow related giving the town a really strong feeling of community and warmth. I was welcomed into the home by Sheikh Hussein, his sons, and another Sheikh from a nearby village with whom another student would be staying with for her Badia home stay. I was feeling a little nervous because I had no idea what to expect. Dr. Raed had only told us about where we would be going and which families we would be staying with the day before and for this reason I did not have much time to mentally prepare myself for whatever situation was about to come my way. But, thankfully, I found myself feeling pretty comfortable in the home after the first few hours. After the initial meet and greet period with the Sheikhs and sons in a large welcoming room with cushions surrounding all the walls on which you sit on the ground I saw very little of the father (Sheikh Hussein, aka Abu Omer which means father of Omer, the oldest son). An obvious separation between the females and males in the town was apparent as my host Mom (Umm Omer, meaning mother of Omer) would bring each meal of the day to me in my room, where she would share whatever dish she had prepared for us with me. All meals were eaten on a large silver platter on the ground. Breakfast usually consisted of pita bread, olive oil, zatar (a thyme mixture I have never eaten in the states, it is zaaaaaaaaki (tasty)), jam, sometimes thick sweet cream you are supposed to eat with the jam, cheese and hard boiled eggs from chickens they had in the backyard. Lunch is the main meal that is usually eaten at any time between 2 and 5pm and was different each day. One day I had Matluba which is a chicken, rice and eggplant dish. One day she served a chicken, tomato, potato dish that was sort of soup like. It was delicious and probably my favorite meal. The last day I was there she specially prepared some sort of fish from the nearby Red Sea (which I can currently see out my fancy hotel window as I write this blog entry) which was interesting although not my favorite. Enough about food…
The four days I spent there were pretty slow-paced and I felt myself feeling stir crazy at times. I did not really do all that much while I was there besides socialize with family members I was introduced to and try to carry on a confusing conversation in a blend of Arabic and English while being served copious amounts of the sweetest black tea I have ever tasted with a little hint of mint. I got over this stir crazy feeling after the 2nd day as I began to just adjust to the slower pace of life and my acknowledgement of the fact that not every waking minute has to be spent being efficiently productive (which I believe many Americans are almost programmed to be like so that it often makes it hard for people to learn how to relax). One evening one of my sisters dragged me out of the house yelling “jamal jamal jamal” at me, I followed her outside to see five camels sauntering down the road. That was definitely a highlight.
The last evening I was there the family decided to take me to Little Petra, a smaller version of the more well-known area of Petra. It was only a 40 minute drive from their home and about twenty minutes in you begin to see a backdrop of rocky, sharp mountain peaks in the distance, within which Petra and Little Petra exist. We went in the evening, which was beautiful because the temperature had dropped significantly and the lighting was perfect for wandering around an ancient town carved out of red hued rocks. I was amazed by the fact that despite the fame that Petra has acquired for a must-see tourist destination people living immediately outside the site still went about their lives in a fashion that seems as though they could be doing the same exact thing even if it were centuries earlier in time. I saw many houses literally carved into the sides of mountains with the Shepherds in the area herding their goats and sheep, sometimes with the appearance of a camel, sometimes riding a donkey. After we left Little Petra I expected us to head straight back home since the sun was setting, but as we got back on the main road we quickly drove right off again straight into the desert… I was sure we would pop a tire or get stuck in the mixed sand and jagged rock covered desert ground, but Abu Omer confidently drove the eight of us in his tiny sedan to a nice little spot where we laid out a rug and made tea and the sun went down completely.
By the time I left Qrain the next morning I was feeling as though I could’ve spent a lot longer with the family in the village. So many people that visit rural areas and have experiences with the Bedouins within these areas comment on the hospitality they receive from the Bedouins as a guest. I completely agree but want to comment on the fact that it is some of the most genuine hospitality I have ever experienced. I felt as though I was completely welcomed and embraced by many people that knew very little about me but were willing to offer me anything in an attempt to make me feel the most comfortable I could feel. I think I could have walked through the village alone and been welcomed into most all of the houses because of how tight knit the community was, and the fact that it in itself is a huge family both literally (many people are related) and figuratively. I plan to go back to Qrain many times to visit before I leave Jordan.
So now it is a week later and I am sitting in a very luxurious hotel room situated directly on the shores of the Red Sea in Aqaba. My friend Katherine is turning 21 today and for this celebration her father decided to reserve a hotel room for a weekend of celebration in a beautiful area. I won’t go too much into details because I think debriefing Aqaba could be a whole separate blog entry, but to just summarize briefly, I love it here. It is a coastal town that borders Israel and Saudi Arabia, is surrounded by huge rocky bare mountains, and sits on the edge of the turquoise-blue colored Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) that I even got to go snorkeling in yesterday! Amazing? Yes.
(above two pictures taken by another SIT student, Ian Goldin, staying in a different village near the village of Qrain... I thought I would include them since they are such nice pics... credit to him)
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