Scorpion Attack!

Check out what happens when a bunch of tipsy Jordanians find a live Scorpion!

The Abouna Band

The Abouna Band plays one of its favorites before disbanding . . .

Guess What I Got!

Look closely to discover what's had me geeked out for 20 hours and counting . . .

Israel Trip

I wonder which one's the Dome of the Rock.

I'm going to cover this trip in one post, because I've been putting it off for a while.

Caroline, Marlise and I went to Israel with about 30 residents of al Houson. The group we were with was a little scattered, but they were good Housonites. The trip was a great opportunity to see the Holy Sites and also see things from "the other side of the line." There was a definite tension between the Israelis and our Jordanian group, and this came out especially in a couple situations. I think that perhaps the worst was when we were invited into the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, which is quite an honor considering that only Muslims are allowed inside. Some of the Jordanians (who were all Christians) had made it, and Marlise and Caroline had just gotten into the mosque when an Israeli policeman showed up, mad. I had taken my shoes off and was about to enter the mosque, but he stopped the rest of the group and I from entering and had an argument with our tour guide about his jurisdictional authority. Granted, the officer was doing his job - there had been problems in the al-Aqsa mosque before, including an assassination. But the thing is that Jordan owns the land that the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa occupy. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

We saw a lot of Holy Sites, including Lake Tiberias, Peter's House in Kafer Nahum, Mary's cousin Elizabeth's house, the Church of the Nativity, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Wailing Wall, the Jordan River Baptism Site (the Israeli version, that is), the Church of the Annunciation . . . and I'm forgetting a lot. The cities we saw included Haifa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Tiberiat. It was a really exhausting trip, especially because I had just been touring Jordan with the Germans, but it was worth it. Caroline almost got baptized in the Jordan River, but she decided to wait 'till her boyfriend could be there. I really would've fought to be godfather.

Towards the end of the trip, we got to meet the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Msgr. Michael Sabbah. I'd seen him before at a scouting event, but this was the first time I had a chance to meet him in person. He even gave each of us a really cool See of Jerusalem rosary.



We all had fun at a last-night party in Jerusalem before heading back to Jordan to sleep for 3 days straight.

Caroline Sings!

Here is a video of Caroline doing her thing in the Ajloun amphitheater. Isn't she great?

Last Day with the Germans: Ajloun and Jerash

Triumphal Arch build specifically for the Emperor Hadrian's visit to the most Oriental of Roman Cities

On day 8 of the German - Jordanian trip, we first visited the ancient Roman city of Jerash. It is one of the Decapolis (one of the 10 Easternmost Roman Cities in Syria and Judea), and it's extremely well-preserved. We wandered around the city a while, a even got to hear Caroline sing in the old outdoor theater (a video of which will be posted later, by the way). One cool little thing about the pillars in the city - they all sway ever so slightly. You can test this by sticking a piece of metal into a crack in the pillar and watch it move up and down. Very cool. We also got to see a bat cave - complete with bats flying inches above our heads. Most of the girls didn't like it.

There was a Roman Soldier demonstration that we saw part of, until we got shooed away by the guy who runs the business (I did not want to pay money to watch a bunch of Jordanians march out of synch).

After seeing Jerash, we checked out the castle of Ajloun, which is totally sweet. I'd been to Mar Elias (near the castle), but the castle was closed every time before. We climbed to the highest point of the castle and looked over the edge. They were filming some Jordanian music video, too.

This was the last chapter of the German Trip. I think I forgot some cities, but honestly, you get the idea. Stay tuned for the update on my trip to the Holy Land!

al-Husn Games and German Night!

After having toured through all of the South of Jordan, we took it easy for a day in al-Husn, playing games with some of the Summer Camp counselors. It was a good day, but EXTREMELY hot (around 110 degrees Fahrenheit). The Germans were good sports though and kept up with everyone else. People got a chance to check their e-mail at AbounaCafe (in the area where I live, using Marlise's, Caroline's, Abouna's, and my laptops). At one point, I walked into my room to find Carla passed out on the other bed in my room - which is cool, because that IS her bed. I inherited her room from last Summer when she was volunteering in al-Husn.

I was in Heaven during German Night - there was Bockwurst und Sauerkraut and beer! Definitely a recipe for a kickin' night. There was a German quiz show, German songs, and lots of nice Jordanian families. Good times.

Stay tuned for our trip through the North of Jordan!

day 6: Karak Castle and Summer Program Closing Party

I think that field is the only green patch in all of Jordan. People come from miles around to gaze at its novelty.

On the sixth day of our travels through Jordan, the Germans, Jordanians, and Americans found themselves at the awesome castle of Karak. After spending some time wandering around the spacious halls and archways, the fearless team headed out to an ancient ruined Christian city. It was freakin' hot out. Luckily, the ancient city still had a McDonalds that was pretty intact (see photo above). Marlise was thoroughly geeked out by the architecture. Here she is being really happy! We were tired after the long day, but not too tired to go to Husn to see the closing night of the Summer Camp. I even did a song with the kids that we'd worked on during the Camp - "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Boy, do I hate that song. It was good for the Germans to see all the families in Husn having a good time. Stay tuned for the rockin' day we had in Husn playing games with the teens and eating bratwurst mit sauerkraut on German Night!

Wadi Rum Vid

As a bonus, here's a video of the trip through Wadi Rum. Booya!

E5: the waterless desert

Wow.

Traveling through Wadi Rum has without a doubt been the most amazing experience in Jordan so far. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking. Except for the occasional wild camel or passing tour truck, the desert was deserted. We hired three trucks (driven by Bedouin guides, the youngest of which was no more than 13 years old) and flew across the sand to take in the view. One of the trucks broke down for a while, and so I took the opportunity while we were waiting to take my David of Jordan pictures. Luckily, the Bedouins were able to send for a new truck for our habibis. After climbing up a sand dune that lay against a cliff, we took a short ride to watch the sunset before heading to the Bedouin camp to spend the night. The camp is located in the middle of Wadi Rum, and we had the privilege of eating Bedouin-cooked meals, participating in traditional dances, witnessing a traditional Bedouin wedding, and watching the stars 'till 3 AM. It turned out that I got to see the sunrise as well as the sunset - Christoph, Theresia and I set our alarms for 4:20 and waited for the helu shems to show itself. It was well worth the wait - it was a gorgeous morning. All in all, an awesome episode.

Ep. IV: beach, baby!

Yee-ha!

I love the beach. Located in the south of Jordan, the city of Aqaba is on the red sea. We got a chance to snorkel around the coral reefs and even see a sunken Jordanian army anti-aircraft tank (placed there for touristic purposes). Although the beach wasn't as nice as Siesta Key back in Florida, it was a good spot to relax. Unfortunately for the Germans, there were lots of water hazards - very few of them made it through the day without a wound of some sort. Christoph stepped on a sea urchin, another Christoph gashed his leg on the coral. Luckily, no one died. Despite the bakingly hot sun, we Americans managed not to get nuked. Some of the Germans got a little cooked, though - it's a little colder / darker in Deutschland. A sunburn's kinda like a souvenir: "Hey Mom, look what I got!"

At one point, this boat with two guys and a bikini-clad woman drove up to the shore and "offered me a ride" - i.e. wanted my dinars. The part that really set me off was the barefaced lying. The girl, for example, said: "I just got on, and it's great! You can see everything better from here!" as if she didn't work for the boat owner. The owner talked himself down price-wise until he was offering me 1 JD to get on. Yeeeeah . . . so they took off in search of other prey.

The city of Aqaba is a great place to hang at night. There is plenty to see and do, and the city stays open late. Plus, most items in Aqaba are duty free (tourism scheme of the King's). Hurray for no taxes.

Stay tuned for the most exciting visit of the whole two weeks: Wadi Rum with the Bedouins!

Day 3: Camels are Cool!

Mohamed the Camel and I trek across the desert

Petra! This ancient Nabatean city was built with the money its creators made from mercantile endeavors. The Nabateans started off as a nomadic people who discovered that they could make money by offering to guard trade convoys through the desert. Apparently they learned a thing or two from the merchants they were guarding, because they took up the practice themselves and made a fortune. Petra is an enormous city, with kilometer after kilometer of awesome stone-carved treasuries, temples and palaces. Kudos to the Jordanians for the recent nomination and election of Petra as one of the World's New 7 Wonders. I sure voted for P-town. By the way, camels are awesome. You are really high off the ground, and it's a comfortable ride. Plus, the way that camels sit down is a ride in itself - they have to get on their front knees first, which pitches you forward. Then they lower their haunches all the way down, which pitches you backwards. They are the most Star Wars-ey animal I've ever seen. I can't remember the name of my noble steed. We'll call him Mohamed. Mohamed the Camel.

Petra is also the site where they filmed the final righteous scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. No Nazis to be found while I was there, unfortunately.

Spending the whole day in the sun was really tiring. Note the key cultural difference between Jordanians and Americans in these two pictures. See the sluggish, pained, almost pitiful look that Amer gives the camera as he sleeps sitting up (a traditional Jordanian sleeping posture)? Contrast this with my reclining body and smiling face. Heilige schlafe!

German Trip, Episode 2: Pea Soup, etc.

On day 2 of the trip, we found ourselves roasting in the hot Jordan sun as we trekked towards the Jordan river, where Christ was baptized by his cousin John. A week later, I went with the Jordanians to Israel, where there was another baptism site where Jesus was baptized by John. Apparently, there are four different sites, where 4 different Christian sects insist Christ was really baptized. I'm not really sure where my allegiance lies . . . so many choices! The riverbank had a guard to make sure none of us got the brilliant idea to escape to Israel. The river itself is, as you can see from the photo, a lazy, greenish soup. It was great to be there, though.

Right beside the river, on the Jorda
nian side, is a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church. The Eastern style is my favorite - the round golden domes, the icons on the inside. This church is actually fairly new - it was built seven years ago. I'm not sure how many parishioners it retains, though. It's kind of in the middle of the desert. After being scorched by the sun for a while here and having visited the baptism site, we decided it was high time to visit the dead sea. There was a great resort with swimming and a slide, plus access to the salty dead sea, where we floated around for a while. Note: it is unwise to swim freestyle in the dead sea. My eyes burned.

After the dead sea, we traveled to Aqaba to call it a night at Abouna's sister Theresa's house. She is my mother-in-Jordan. When I had a fever the second week I was in Jordan, she nursed me back to health with soup, juice, water, medicine, etc. She's great. Aqaba was our base of operations for the next 3 days. Stay tuned for our visit to Petra, which is one of the world's new 7 wonders!

Back from my Sabbatical

So, I finally made my way back to al-Husn after wandering in the deserts of Jordan and Israel. As I mentioned earlier, the first week was spent with the Germans touring all of the good Jordan sites. Immediately afterwards, Caroline, Marlise and I went with Abouna Imad and about 25 al-Husn Christians on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. My loot consists of only a bag of incense, but I think it's pretty good loot. I'm going to be posting photos and commentaries daily for the next two weeks, covering all that happened in the last two weeks. So please stay tuned; I don't want to go through all this trouble to get carpel tunnel syndrome just to find out that I'm talking to myself here.

Marlise was really, really happy during the trip. She's a big archeology buff, and so Madaba was quite the treat. We had been there before, but had only seen a couple things. With the Germans, we were able to see lots of ancient mosaics that had been made in what was once a mostly-Christian city. Today, the Christian population of Madaba has shrunk considerably due to immigration from Jordan to the U.S.

Marlise is wearing my hat. The sun in Jordan is so hot that you'll get a headache really quickly if your head isn't covered.


Caroline teaches Ameen Al-Saddi how it's done in da hood. Not that she's from da hood. Or even the hood. We and the Germans stayed at one of the Twal (i.e. Abouna's family) houses in Madaba. This is the patio area on the third floor - much cooler during the night than indoors. I was really excited to practice my German, so I didn't much sleep the two nights we spent here.

Ameen Al-Saddi, al-malik al-ardu (king of his land) surveys the promised land from Mt. Nebo A running joke throughout the week that Ameen and I had between us was that Ameen was king of the promised land. As the week progressed, it turned out that Ameen was really king of most of Jordan - in fact, of every place that we visited. Whenever I thanked His Majesty for allowing me to visit his lands, he always responded gracefully with the same message, "no, no my son, do not thanks me. Thanks God for giving me, Ameen, your king, this land that you and my people might enjoy it and thanks God for it." He was a trip the whole trip. Behind Ameen is a representation of the bronze serpent that Moses wrought on Mt. Nebo.



That evening, we watched the sun set over the Promised Land from a hill near Mt. Nebo. The view was majestic and tranquil at the same time.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on the Jordan River!

Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles!

On Saturday, I leave with "the Germans" to see all of Jordan for a week. "the Germans" consists of a group of friends of Michael, who is a middle-aged German guy and friend to Abouna Imad. He's done lots of work with the scout leaders here in al-Husn over the years. Caroline and Marlise are coming too. We will be visiting the Roman Ruins at Jerash, Wadi Rum (where I will take my David of Jordan picture for the website - stay tuned!), Petra (which was elected as one of the new 7 wonders of the world last week!), and Aqaba (a really sweet gulf locale with plenty of motor boats to rent). I am really stoked. As an added bonus, I'm going to be able to speak German with people! No one in Jordan likes German (as the girls all say, "it's so ugly. 'I love you' is 'ich liebe dich.'" I've come across similar complaints from girls in the US though, so what can you do? al-neeseah! At least German girls like German). I will be sure to post many awesome pics when I return.

Water Fight!

Here's that water fight video I promised:

On Friday, July 13th, I went with 20 scouts to Amman to celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting. In 1903, English Lord Baden Powell wrote a manual for military scouts that was subsequently used by youth scout groups. With encouragement from his friends, Baden-Powell was convinced to re-write the guide for youth scouts. In 1907, he held a scout camp for 22 kids of mixed social backgrounds to test whether his ideas about scouting would work or not. The result of his youth scout guidebook was a major pickup in scout groups and a general scout movement. Hence, Baden-Powell is generally recognized as the founder of scouting.

Patriarch (Arch-Bishop, basically) Mgr. Michael Sabbah said mass, and there were lots of other ministers giving each other all sorts of shiny medals. Pretty standard ceremonial stuff. At least they played music we could dance to for a while.

The day was fun enough, but really tiring. I love the kids, but after 12 hours I was glad to have time to myself in Al-Husn.

Today we had a crazy water-balloon fight. I'll post the video later today.

Summer Program

So the opening ceremonies for the Summer Program was on Monday. There are about 85 kids in the program, ages 6-14. They're separated into 4 different age groups. I run two different station: music and dancing. The kids are really cute. Even though there's a bit of a language barrier with the younger kids, they like to sing and do hand gestures. The little kids are way better than the older ones at swing dancing, too. The program basically keeps me busy and lets me learn a lot more Arabic. Plus I get to be a kid all day, which is great. I have two students now that I'm giving private lessons to: Krestal Nimry on the guitar, and her relative (pretty much everyone on Al-Husn is somehow related . . . there is a very limited gene pool here) Maia on the violin.

I actually got to go swimming the other day, which was great. There is a really cool swimming pool in the middle of town that's well-maintained and relatively inexpensive. On Friday, I'm going with the scouts to Amman to celebrate 100 years of scouting.

Interestingly enough, people here are shocked when I tell them that I come from a family of eight kids. The Christian families here tend to have three to four, something that surprised me at first. I figured that they would pattern after their Muslim neighbors and have more. Then again, even the Muslim families in Al-Husn are starting to have fewer and fewer kids per family. There is an emerging trend of globalization that has its roots in Amman and is trickling down to the smaller cities. Amman seems a lot like a European city, and it has a gargantuan four-story mall that has every Western store and restaurant you could imagine. Plus, the religious practice in Amman seems to be fairly low - Muslim women commonly walk outdoors without a hijab, and everyone dresses in Western fashion for the most part. It'll be interesting to see what happens in Al-Urdun in the next 50 years as this trend continues.

Demographically, Jordan is interesting because over half of its population is Palestinian. Although it's not open war, there are a lot of ethnic tensions between Palestinians and native Jordanians. I think that this tension will lessen as time passes, however, since even now most of the Palestinians have been living in Jordan for several generations. A third group of people, the Egyptians, also live Jordan. The Egyptian presence in Jordan is very similar to the Mexican presence in the United States. Egyptians do janitorial and construction jobs, and maintain their own culture and dialect of Arabic.

I have an opportunity to go to Israel, and I've already applied for the Visa. What remains to be seen is whether the Jordanian group we'll be traveling with will be allowed to cross the border (Jordan, being half-Palestinian, doesn't get on so hot with Israel). I've been able to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Arabs' perspective now, which has been and will continue to be enlightening.

Happy Belated 4th

I forgot to add this photo I took on the 4th. Abouna Imad and I ate steak and french fries for lunch. God bless America!

Bedouins

Caroline, Marlise and I blend into our surroundings. It's like we never spoke English.

Art, Ambassadors and Arab Weddings

The last week has been a little slow. The scout camps are over, and the Summer program hasn't started yet. So, other than playing music, studying Arabic, preparing for the program, and writing things for Abouna, I don't have a lot to do. I'm going to teach the kids how to dance Swing, Waltz, and Polka, so I've been adding to my music collection. I'm also going to teach them how to sing 4-part Gregorian hymns. We'll see how it goes!

Caroline and Marlise were busy last week setting up an art gallery displaying the works of Dutch painter Piet Gerrits. Piet Gerrits lived in Husn for 5 years in the early 1900's. He is known for painting Biblical scenes with a particularly Eastern flair, using the locals from Husn as inspiration. For example, Piet Gerrits had witnessed a Husn woman holding her murdered son in her arms as she mourned. He transformed this memory into a painting of Mary holding the already crucified Jesus in her arms. Abouna Imad plans on including a Piet Gerrits gallery in a community center he is currently raising money for. This is Caroline and Marlise's project while they are in Jordan. Attending the gallery was the acting Dutch Ambassador to Jordan, who's a nice guy interested in maintaining the link that Jordan and Holland have through Piet Gerrits. I was able to practice German with the Ambassador's secretary, which was great because most Jordanians don't appreciate the language. All of the girls complain that it's ugly because "I love you" is "Ich liebe dich." Girls. A group of us went with the Ambassador to lunch at the Touristic Castle. It was a pretty interesting place. It doesn't really cater to walk-ins; it's more for group reservations and large-scale celebrations. Speaking of which, Caroline, Marlise and I were able to see a wedding. The wedding took place in the Al-Husn Church (I am currently a flight of stairs and 10 steps away from it), and the guests were all Christian Arabs. Wa'il was there, of course, because he is related to and / or knows everyone in Husn. We went ahead and got in line to congratulate the bride, groom, and their family. I got a lot of "okay . . . don't remember seeing you before" looks, which is pretty understandable considering they haven't. I also took some of their chocolate. I don't think I'm a very good wedding crasher. At the end of the ceremony, the audience erupted into Bedouin-style cheering (think "aiiilaiilaiiilaiiilaiilaiii"). It was altogether a good experience to see how things were done over here marriage-wise. The thing I like best about Jordan so far is the importance the people place on family life. Divorce is almost unheard of, and families are always spending time together. A typical evening for an Al-Husn family is to spend a few hours relaxing outside in the cool air, drinking tea and coffee. Neighbors will drop by, and there are always enough chairs to go around. Even the sitting rooms inside are remarkable. I have yet to see a sitting room in any house that will seat fewer than 12 people. There are some that I've seen that can sit around 24. Families are bigger here, and there is a tremendous respect for hospitality. I haven't met most of my neighbors. I couldn't tell you what their last names are. It's pretty ridiculous. I love technology, but I think it comes at a price: we can connect with a person anywhere in the world, but that makes us unwilling to walk out of our homes to meet the people to whom we live next door. Weird.

Madaba

A couple of days ago, Abouna Imad took Marlise, Caroline and I to Madaba. His family is originally from Madaba, and so he knows everyone in town. Abouna took us to see the Orthodox Church. On the floor of the Church rests the remnants of a mosaic map of the Holy Land. Abouna gave us a brief history of the map, and identified key cities and details. Decorating the walls of the sanctuary are many beautiful mosaics, all made locally in a room no bigger than 14 square feet. The mosaic-making process is actually fairly simple. There are Italian soft stones that have been cut into long rectangles. The artist selects the proper shade, and with a pair of strong clippers separates a small rough square from the stone stick and begins to make small adjustments on the square's shape and size. The square is then ready to be laid in the appropriate spot on the mosaic. The artist uses an original picture or painting in order to determine the proper stone coloring of the mosaic.

Among our several visits to different family members, we visited the local Abouna. The Madaba Abouna is the pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, named so because of the proximity of the location of John the Baptist's beheading (about 30km away). Madaba Abouna was very genial and invited us into the rectory for cookies and strong Turkish coffee (quickly becoming my favorite coffee style - thick and strong, without cream or sugar). Pictured at left is the courtyard of St. John the Baptist. Abouna Imad joking accused the Madaba Abouna of stealing the Roman-style pillars. The Madaba Abouna denied the accusation, saying, "they were Christian to begin with! I just took what was ours!"

We found out that Abouna Imad was baptized in St. John the Baptist. He seemed very happy to be in his hometown - he kept stopping the car and getting out, saying in his heavy Arab-Gallic accent, "I must show you something." We were able to see his house in Madaba, which is full of many old Jordanian artifacts that he has collected over the years. We got to meet several of his brothers, and got to meet one of his brothers' wife and little daughter. She and I had a reading contest to see who was the better reader in Arabic. I got smoked by a 6-year-old. In my defense, she's really smart. Yeah, I'm reaching.