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.

Crazy Egyptian Dance Party

The second scout camp kicked off at 6:30 AM on Thursday, June 21st. It lasted 'till Sunday the 24th. It was teenage kids this time. I got to play about 10 games of chess in a row on Saturday with different kids. The weekend was the hottest Jordan has had in many years. Heck, today (Tuesday the 26th) it's 97 degrees, and it's not the hottest part of the day. I was going to teach the kids how to play American Baseball, but playing sports in the sun that weekend would have been suicidal.



The scouts found 2 baby birds that had fallen from their nest. One of them died during the weekend, but one of them made it. The kids fed it ants and water. Scrappy little guy.










Marlise is crazy dancing again. I haven't posted the video yet, but soon I'll show you how she is when an Egyptian dude shows up. Craaaazy Marlise!










Ranger Dave, hard at work. I don't always get to wear the hat - it's one of the scouts'. I do get to keep the fancy (yes, Cass - fancy) "7" that I painted like an American Flag, however. It's a 7 'cause there have been 7 campouts that year. To my right, you can see the owner of the hat, Crystal. She's Arab-Romanian (weird combo, eh?). I'm teaching her how to play the guitar.

Luggage!

It finally came! So good to have clothing that's mine.

First Scout Camp

From 6-14 to 6-17, the Scouts had a campout in Shatana, which is 7 kms from Husn. We walked there, and spent the weekend on craft projects, music, food, sports, etc. It was fun, except for the day I got a fever (Al Harar). I slept for 15 hours and felt much better the next morning. It was probably a combo of the sun exposure and something I ate.


The Scouts take a breather. They were real troopers, considering how far they had to walk in the blistering sun. We had them hold onto a long rope while we were on the main road (most of the walk) so they would be safe.









Ameen Al-Saddi does his thing. He's really good at crowd control - he's always got some chant or song to keep the kids' attention.












It wasn't all fun and games with the kids. After the dust had settled, sometimes it was good to just take 'er easy, Jordan-style.

Finally, Pictures!

Not a good picture, but several al-Qaida members are housed inside this jail. Jordan is a small country, but apparently King Abdullah's secret police are second-to-none. The al-Qaida members were arrested for plotting to kill thousands in Amman using chemical gas in April 2004. Four plotters were killed in the shooting, and three are held in this prison.







This is a Palestinian "refugee camp" outside of Amman. It's really more like a housing project. Palestinians that were kicked out of the West Bank by Israel live here. About half of Jordan's population of 6 million people are Palestinians. Most of these Palestinians want the right to return to the West Bank, but few would return if given the right. They have lived in Jordan for years; even generations, and it is now their home.




Wa'il tosses me a piece of candy. He was a University professor at UF in Gainesville, FL. His English is very good. A brilliant guy, and more like a little kid than an adult. He's lots of fun to hang out with. Caroline, Marlise, and I are at his house in Husn in this picture. I don't have a picture of his sister and brother-in-law yet, but they are the ones I was telling you about in my earlier post. He comes from a very nice family.





Marlise, Caroline, Wa'il 1, and Wa'il 2 hang out at the Golden Spoon in Irbid. From the name of the restaurant, you'd probably think either Chinese or maybe Jordanian. Not so - this was a burger-and-friends sort of joint. Things in Jordan are really cheap - an entire meal, including burger, fries, and a Pepsi cost around $3. The Wa'ils are good friends, and apparently there is a third friend. The three of them make up a "three amigos" group; they're usually inseperable (except that on the night of this picture, the third friend was out of town. Still haven't met him yet). Wa'il 2 is a nice guy, who was horrified at the idea that Carloline and Marlise were willing to smoke Arghela (scented tobacco smoked through a large device - same as a Huka). "very very very bad!" he said.

Will post on yesterday's crazy Egyptian chicken barbecue party tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Still No Bag

The Department of Luggage is still at a loss as to where my bag is. Hopefully, it made it onto the flight that arrives in Amman tonight. I'm going to pester the heck out of the luggage people until the bag gets here - apparently you have to do that to get results (or so Abouna [Fr.] Imad tells me).

On a better subject, I'm going to mass in a little while. It'll be interesting to see the mass in Arabic. The language seems to be coming slowly; I'm doing my Rosetta Stone course daily, and speaking as much Arabic as I can, but it's a really difficult language to learn. The grammar is really different from any other language I've tried to learn. Lessons from one of the teachers at the Latin School are going to start on Monday. Apparently, I get to learn one-on-one, because I know a little more Arabic than Caroline and Marlice.

By the way, Caroline and Marlice are both graduate students who are doing an internship with Abouna Imad. They're trying to raise money for a building that Imad wants to restore.

It looks like I'm going to have a chance to visit Israel, which I'm stoked about. It's a 6-day trip; I have to decide by the 15th whether I'm going to go. The answer is yes.

I've gotten a chance to practice guitar and violin a lot in Husn, because the Jordanian Scout Camp hasn't started yet. By Thursday, I need to have learned some good campfire songs to play on guitar, for the kids. Abouna Imad says he wants them to have "jests" - he means "gestures." So far I have seven songs; I think that'll be enough.

Marlice has a cord for a Canon Camera, so it looks like I won't have to wait for my bag to arrive in order to be able to upload pictures. Sweet. Stay tuned for pics / vids. Ma'a salaama!

First Post

This is my first official post on my Jordan blog. Later, I'll be uploading pictures, videos, and maybe even Jordanian food onto this website. For now, however, I'll bore you with words.

The flight over was pretty long, but I slept for some of it. I made friends with the girl on my left, whose name is Amal. She taught me a couple things about Arabic, and was very nice. There were a lot of huge families on the completely booked flight, and I think I was one out of 3 non-Arabs on the plane. There were a lot of little kids on the plane, so it was pretty noisy. I didn't mind, though. The kids were cute!

It was good to land in Amman. As the plane got lower to the ground, I glanced out the window and realized that we were flying over nothing but sand. Jordan is a very dry country (in fact, they have a really bad water situation. It's estimated that if recent conservation efforts fail, the country will be waterless in around 50 years).

I still don't have my suitcase. Luckily, my guitar was considered "oversized," and so it made it on the plane through a different process. My suitcase is still in Detroit, presumably. I should get it tomorrow. Fr. Imad was kind enough to buy me some shirts and lend me a couple pairs of pants until my clothes get here.

Jordanians are very hospitable. Wa'il, a professor who is a friend of Fr. Imad's, showed Caroline, Marlice and I around the town of Houson (where I live). He took us to his place for coffee (really strong stuff!), and I struggled to stay away because of the long flight. I was determined not to sleep until night, because otherwise I would be jet lagged for days. It worked!

Wa'il took us to his sister and brother-in-law's place. Wa'il's sister is beautiful and has a smile that would make Hitler at ease. She was very kind, and got us tea, coffee, cookies, and even made us dinner. Wa'il and I had a contest to see who could eat the most hot pepper at once. I think he won.

Tonight, I'm going to check out the city of Irbid. It's not far, and is apparently much bigger than Houson.

There's a lot more to say, but I think I'll leave that to the pictures once I get my connector cord (it's in my suitcase, of course). Until next time, ma'a saalam!