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

Istanbul, the Holy Land, the Separation Wall, Holidays Abroad, New Home, New Friends... and on and on and on!

Uh oh... over a month has passed since I last updated this blog. My idea is that more pictures and less words will be a more time friendly way of updating whoever is reading this on what exactly I have been doing for the past month.

(the whole SIT group on the Southern Jordan trip in November... pic in Wadi Rum)

I said farewell to all of the wonderful friends I made through my study abroad program mid December as most of them headed straight back to the States in order to make it home for the holidays. I, on the other hand, was about to jump right into so many more adventures.

The day after the SIT program ended my friend Christina and I flew from Amman to Istanbul (short two hour flight) for an exciting seven day Turkish adventure. Simply stated, it was amazing. So amazing in fact that I would seriously consider moving there one day if given the opportunity.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

(inside the Ayasofya... obviously pictures cannot capture how incredible it is so I have to tell you, it was incredible)

Outside the Ayasofya and Blue Mosque... I know the lighting on our faces is dark but I like the background of the Minarets.

Another outside shot of the Ayasofya

On one of the many side alleyways off of Istiklal Street

View of the Bosphorus Strait from the hill that we lived on for the first few days in Istanbul while staying with some University Students

....I am hoping to add more Turkey pictures later when I get some of my lovely travel companion's pictures <3

THE HOLY LAND

View of the Dome of the Rock with the Wailing/Western Wall below it

Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City

Birds perched on the Western Wall

Western Wall

... from Jerusalem we went to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve

Beautiful art on the Separation Wall (Bethlehem is inside the West Bank and the wall directly wraps around many parts of the city)

"Merry Christmas World, From Bethlehem Ghetto"

Before christmas eve events we spent a long time wandering around the winding wall taking pictures... not the cheeriest few hours I have experienced on Christmas Eve.

Above by the famous Graffiti Artist Banksy

But we didn't let the serious political tone completely ruin our Christmas cheer...

Small old city roads of Bethlehem PACKED with people as a band marched through town

Lots of Mosques and Churches side-by-side in Bethlehem. From what I have experienced in Jordan and Palestine Christians and Muslims live, work, and play together peacefully. Sadly, the recent New Years day bombing at a church in Alexandria, Egypt seems to be a blatant indicator that this is not the case throughout the entire region.

That evening we went to the Shepherds' Fields (where it is believed that shepherd's saw the star of the nativity) where masses were being held in over twenty languages.

more to come soon...

Romping around Roman Ruins and other previous adventures worthy of mention...

UPDATE: Just wanted to add some pics to this previously WORDY entry...Coop president and beekeeping supervisor having a looksy at one of the hives

(from left to right Ogab Al-Shurafat: Project Site Supervisor, Khalaf Al-Massaed: Beekeeping Supervisor, A'eada Kassab Al-Shurafat: Cooperative President, Dr. Mustafa Al-Shudeifat: My ISP advisor, Myself: American Female Researcher... so out of place)

Nighttime Citadel Exploration

Evening view from my new roof of the Citadel (on the left side of the hill in the distance)

boy oh boy did I have a wonderful past two days or what!

I have to apologize yet again for the infrequent blog posts but it is just plain tough to keep this thing updated.

I am thoroughly exhausted and so I'll try to keep this entry short but I thought that the past few days are above and beyond worthy of mention (as my blog title points out).

#1 Finished my Independent Study Project (ISP) yesterday! It was due at 8pm. I finished the final touches around 7:20 pm after about an hour of frustration with interspersed bouts of hysterical laughter over creating the Table of Contents page... that is when you know you have been sitting in a library writing for too long.

Just to fill those in who do not know I chose to write my ISP somewhat in the form of a case study for a cooperative in the Northern Badia of Jordan called Anaqeed Al-Khair. Research for the paper consisted of as much background reading about the cooperative as possible, but most of the information I obtained was through interviews that I conducted while staying in the small village where the cooperative is located for a few days. Overall my ISP ended up being a study of the projects that the cooperative has executed in the past and is working on in the present... It is actually quite the amazing little organization. Some of the projects that are most successful presently are 1. Honey (they have 50 hives of honeybees that are placed on the Jordan-Syria border for a few months out of the year where vegetation is thickest since it is a no-go zone for humans and their animals... mainly herds of sheep and goats. A lot of nutritional honey from this project is produced and sold. Yum yum yum. 2. Sun-dried Tomato Project 3. Brick Project that has a really great revolving loan system (a certain number of loans are given out at a time with some of the cooperative's money, and then once those loans are paid back the next group of people who have applied get funds) that supplies people from villages throughout the area with the funds to purchase bricks and other construction materials.

The bottom-line for why I studied this is that first off I am interested in small-scale approaches to sustainable development, secondly it is a really interesting model of success in an area where previous development/attempts at generating income for the overall poor region of Jordan have failed miserably, and lastly it could be used as a model for other cooperatives or small scale development organizations to follow in other regions suffering from the same problems, and insha'allah help to solve those problems!

Enough about the ISP.

#2 After turning in the paper last night a lot of my friends and I decided to go out and celebrate. Part of these celebration plans took an unexpected turn as we found ourselves gazing at a view of the Citadel (ancient ruins on the top of one of Amman's many hills that are lit up at night), and almost immediately hailing a taxi requesting a ride to the Citadel... why not.

The taxi ride was great. We danced in the backseat shaking our hands in the area singing "shuggah, shuggah, shuggah," a common dance move for traditional Bedouins have their own celebration, as a popular Jordanian song about the King blasted from the taxi's speakers. Our driver was unbelievably impressed with these dance moves.

After the momentarily disappointing realization that the Citadel was closed to visitors at night we recovered quickly and decided to visit anyways. . . are rules like this in Jordan really that important? After slipping through a break in the fence we found a nice spot to perch, gaze at the ruins and at the city surrounding us like a lit-up blanket spread over many hills.

Five minutes later a security guard approached us. Uh oh, time to leave we thought... maybe? My friend Vanessa decided to attempt to sweetly discourage (using her Arabic skills) the guard from making us leave. "But the view is so beautiful... maybe just a little longer we can sit?" Surprisingly the guard told us he'd ask his boss. After a short discussion with his boss nearby they decided we could stay a little longer if the guard accompanied us around the area. And so our private tour of the area followed. I'll just say that this is not the sort of experience that you can plan in advance. It was a wonderful night to say the least.

#3 After sleeping in and making a tasty breakfast at Vanessa's house we headed to our appointment at the Turkish Hammam as a little reward for finishing the lengthy forty page paper the evening before. For only 25JD you get an afternoon of steaming, jacuzzi, being scrubbed and massaged while drinking fresh pomegranate juice in a traditional style bathhouse.

Yep, I am a pretty happy lady right about now.

Southern Jordan and Pictures

I cannot believe it has already been three months since I arrived in the Middle East. It has been increasingly hard to keep up with written accounts of all of the experiences I have had throughout the past several months. Day after day I continue to live in a region so far from my own home, but I am finding that despite this great distance between myself and most of what I have found comfort in my whole life, it is still me that is living these experiences.

After a couple of months of spending most of my time in cities much larger than Eugene, or even Portland, the largest city in Oregon, I felt a strong pull to explore outside of the cities. In Amman, where my home stay family and school is, there is a unique blend of western restaurants, stores, and modern lifestyles that similarly reflect what is commonly seen across the U.S. and other "western" countries. While living in this city it is easy to get caught up in the same sort of routine that I would find myself in at home in Eugene, and rarely venture outside of that routine to remind myself that I am in fact in the Middle East, one of the most misunderstood but commonly discussed regions by international reporters and critics. But back to this strong pull towards the desire to explore outside of the cities... I spent a week with the rest of my program venturing around Southern Jordan at the beginning of November, and this was by far the most enjoyable excursion for me.

After leaving Amman we headed south stopping at Kerak Castle and then Dana Nature Reserve, where we spent the night at a remotely placed Youth Hostel. From there we headed to Petra where most of the day was spent wandering the enormous ancient Nabatean city. Before visiting Petra I expected to be in awe of the Treasury, but had no idea how huge the area actually is. You could spend several days exploring all of the hidden nooks and crannies. Even the mobs of tourists didn't take away from my amazement of this ancient city.

The next morning we continued to head south, briefly stopping at the campaign "office" (in reality it was a beit sha'ar, or tent made of goat hair, where a bunch of men hang out and drink tea) of my host-dad from my Badia home stay. He was running for Parliament, although sadly did not succeed in obtaining one of the 120 seats out of the 800 something candidates running for seats. After a short speech from Sheikh Hussein talking about his campaign, he invited our whole group over for a Mansaf lunch prepared by his wife (my Badia host mom). Needless to say, it was delicious, and really great for me to see their family again. I hope to visit a few more times before leaving Jordan in March. We left their small village of Qrain and headed to Wadi Rum.

After arriving in Wadi Rum we took a jeep ride around the desert, ran around some sand dunes, watched the sunset, and then returned to camp for a dinner cooked in an iron stove buried a meter under the sand. After dinner people wandered in different directions and all I wanted to do was lay down in the desert and star gaze. That night in Wadi Rum the sky was one of the most star filled night skies I have ever seen... AND I saw the brightest and longest shooting star that I could ever imagine. It was so huge that it looked almost like a flare shot up into the sky, but no, it was definitely a shooting star. The next morning we woke up with the sun and hung out for a few more hours wandering around the picturesque desert before the sun heat really started to beat down on our backs. Next stop, Aqaba.

In Aqaba we had an evening boat ride on the Red Sea. As you can imagine, this was beautiful. After heading off the shore a ways we jumped off the boat and swam around in the sparkly turquoise water until a barbecue dinner was ready. Mmmm, lovely evening.

Although that was a very rushed preview of my favorite excursion I thought it was necessary to at least explain briefly all that we did during the week in the South.

Since then classes have finished and now we are in the Independent Study Project (ISP) period of the program which ends December 12th. Following less of a strict routine has been really nice as I can spend my time outside of the classroom wherever I would like to research, read, or just enjoy the weather that is only now beginning to cool down to an even mildly Fall like temperature (comparative to Eugene). On Sunday I am heading up to the Northern Badia to do some field work at a cooperative project site called Anaqeed Al-Khair that I am doing a case study on for my ISP. More time out of the city to be enjoyed!

sunset over the Red Sea

Camp in Wadi Rum Desert

No Explanation

King Abdullah II present at all times... (a peeling poster of him in the Youth Hostel)

Dana Nature Reserve

Wadi Rum Jeep Ride

Wadi Rum (Camels in distance)

On the Red Sea (Christina and I)

In one of the many rooms carved into the sides of rocks in Petra

Bedouin just relaxing.. trying to rip off German tourists

The Treasury! Tourists galore!

Wadi Rum

Egypt Recap

Egypt... there is so much to say about Egypt....

I could begin with an expected commentary on how rich and vast the history of the country is.

I could attempt to explain the bizarre feeling of standing in front of a tangible relic of that rich and vast history.

I could delve into the intense topic of the ever-growing gap between excess of possessions and the lack of items necessary for life that Egyptians have.

I could write about my shocked reaction of entering a beautiful park in the middle of Cairo that was filled with young (and mostly Muslim) couples openly expressing their affection towards one another through holding hands, or sitting closely on the grass... something unlike anything I have seen in Amman where the topic of dating around or hanging out with someone of the opposite sex in a possibly affectionate manner before marriage is discussed very quietly and not often seen in the streets or parks.

There is also the comparison between my experience in the dry, water scarce country of Jordan that I have been living in for the past two months, and the green and lush fertile Nile delta that Cairo is placed.

There is that amazing fresh seafood meal that I ate while on a short excursion to Alexandria.

There is the experience of trying Egypt's national dish called Koshary, a bizarre but surprisingly tasty mix of macaroni noodles, tomato sauce, fried onions, rice and garbanzo beans...

Okay, enough of that. Bottom line is that Egypt exceeded all of my expectations. It is difficult for me to even begin to explain what my brief but packed seven day adventure consisted of. My senses were often bombarded by the heat that was still lingering in late October, the pollution that nearly every day inhibited a clear view of the city, the honks and yells and songs blaring from car windows and pedestrians... you all probably get the idea.

One thing I can say with confidence is that I am so grateful for the opportunity to travel to another country within the region of the Middle East. It is so important to expand your idea of what one culture may be like, rather than simply assuming that your first impressions, or even final impressions of one area, are the final say. One thing I learn more and more every day is that this region that is often clumped into one solid idea (especially from the view point of Americans), whether is be titled as the Arab World, the Muslim World, the Middle East, or any other generalized label, is in fact an enormously complicated and interesting jumble of separate worlds, identities and realities that has more differences within itself than similarities.

A lecturer a few weeks back made a brief comment on the fact that many people visit this region and find themselves "addicted to the problems." Although I do not particularly like to view individual's interests in the region as an addiction, I understand the point that he was trying to make through this statement. This area, that is so frequently described somehow as one big cluster with some unifying title, is a very complex and interesting area that never ceases to surprise people who were raised from within it, or others like me who are only beginning to explore the surface of these complexities.

The trip to Egypt brought all of what I have stated above to my personal attention as I am beginning to explore outside of Amman or the entire country of Jordan... I cannot wait to travel further in the region and continue to reflect on all of these experiences.

This entry was not as fun as I had hoped so I will attach some pictures to make up for that serious diary style ramble that I just went on...

Katherine displaying part of the delicious fresh seafood meal in Alexandria

Fisherman on the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria

preparing for the Felucca boat ride on the Nile

Shop keeper in the small alleyways of Coptic Cairo

Some man trying to snap secret pics of our group... so my friend Christina snapped a little picture of him.

Does this picture really need an explanation?

from left to right, Christina, Victoria, Great Pyramid, Sphinx, Myself, Katherine

Cemetery in Coptic Cairo

A group of Egyptian teeny boppers that literally ran up to me like I was a movie star, took a picture with me, and then ran away screaming "OH MY GODDDD, OH MY GODDD"... pretty hilariously unexpected.

Laurentina and I at the Mohamed Ali Mosque and Citadel in Cairo

Camels near the Pyramids

Camel ride!

Umm Al-Duniyeh Awaits Me!

Just a quick update since I have not written in a few weeks. Since I returned from Aqaba (which was a brief but amazing getaway weekend trip for Katherine's birthday) two weekends ago I have been quite the busy bee with lots of school work, more adventures exploring Amman, and some time with the family.

Tomorrow all twenty-three of us and a few staff members leave Amman for yet another big adventure... this time to Umm Al-Duniyeh (أم أدنيا), aka EGYPT. Umm Al-Duniyeh translates to Mother of the World which is what many people in the Arab World know Egypt as because it is known as being a place where one can find everything... the extreme contrasts between tradition, modernity, excessive wealth, extreme poverty, new development, ancient ruins and holy sites, and of course, the Nile River. We will be there for seven full days that are mostly scheduled by SIT but we have one free day to do as we wish. My plan is to take a little day trip to Alexandria which is not very far by train and is situated on the Mediterranean Sea. I want to venture outside the mega city of Cairo at least once so that I do not have that experience as my only impression of such a diverse country. We'll also be visiting the Pyramids, of course.

That is all for now as I am truly making this blog a quick update! More to come after Egypt! Love and miss everyone dearly!

... just some fresh fig eatin'