31. Visit Jerusalem

One of the many things I had not known before this trip is that something like 40 percent of the population of Jordan is actually Palestinian, and that, for most of them, although they or their families left what are now the Occupied Territories of Israel decades ago, most have never been able to cross the border again to even visit friends and family that are still there. In our talks with many new friends and during visits with people working at or living in the refugee camps, we were frequently urged to cross the border and assess for ourselves whether the representation by the American media is really offering an accurate portrayal of the West Bank, and the people who live there. So, although we didn't have much extra time in our agenda, we decided to do a quick trip through the West Bank to the much-disputed city of Jerusalem.

Although the things we saw deserve a much larger discussion than I can do here, I can categorically say that the images in the American media of the West Bank and its largely Palestinian population, as a hostile, anti-American place could not be more wrong, at least in our experience. Every encounter we had with anyone who identified as Palestinian was marked with the same level of courtesy, openness, and hospitable kindness that the three of us came to appreciate so much here in Jordan.

Our first impression of just how different this experience would be came with the crossing, which turned out to be a complicated affair. In order to get there from Amman, you need to take an array of taxis and buses. First, you take a taxi (or bus, which we missed) to the King Hussein Bridge where your stuff is searched and you are processed by Jordanian immigration. Then you take a bus a short distance that seems longer because it is subject to multiple stops and checkpoints, to the Israeli side where you again go through searching and processing, and may be detained, as we were for three hours. Our delay was because, although Siham is an American citizen, she apparently looked and sounded "Arab" enough to warrant repeated seperation from Connor and I, and multiple rounds of questioning and waiting. Ultimately, when you get through processing on the Israeli side, you take another bus or taxi (which is for tourists only -- Palestinians seeking to travel back into the West Bank are placed in a different bus) to your final destination, which in our case was Jerusalem.
Jerusalem has roughly three parts: the Old City (which is the major tourist destination, and which is divided again into four sections (Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian); the predominantly Arab (Muslim) East Jerusalem and the mainly Israeli (Jewish) New City. We stayed just outside the Old City (almost across from one of the major sites, the Gate of Damascus) in East Jerusalem at the Faisal Hostel where things are written in Arabic; ate dinner in the New City where everything is written in Hebrew; and spent most of our time as tourists within the walls of the Old City.

For me, anyway, it's hard to describe Jerusalem. There is a tension there that feels almost palpable, at the same time that it's an ultra-religious place, and the religion comes in many forms. Because there are so many religious pilgrims of all stripes, it also obviously caters to a brand of religious tourism that is a bit jarring, with souvenirs of objects important to Judaism, Christianity and Islam all elbowing each other for pride of place in the scores of tourist shops in the underground maze of shopping that threads itself through the Old City.

Here are a few photos. The picture with all the people in it is of the Western, or Wailing Wall, which got its second name during the Ottoman Empire when Jewish people would congregate there to mourn the destruction of the Temple that the wall had once supported. The picture of Siham and Connor was taken at a pub in the New City (an Israeli area) where you can see from the passers-by, people are much more Western in their dress and habits than in some other parts of Jerusalem. The tower Siham is inspecting is composed entirely of spices, and marks the front of each spice shop (and there are many) in the bowels of the Old City. And finally, there's a picture of Siham and I doing a typical tourist pose near the Damascus Gate as we were saying our farewells to Jerusalem. Our stay was not very long, and our exploration of the city and surrounding area could and probably should have been deeper. But just based on our brief experiences, I would encourage other travellers, and especially Americans, to visit Israel and the Occupied Territories themselves to experience both the hospitality of people of all ethnicities and religions in the region, as well as the complexities, not well-captured (in my opinion) by Western media, of the religion and politics there.

52 Ways to Say I love you...

in Hebrew, but I can't find all the info I collected, so this is my official plea to see if anyone can provide it for me. Here are the Hebrew characters, and if anyone can give me an English transliteration, I'll gratefully edit this one.

Hello שלום
Goodby טוב ביי
May I have two beers, please? במאי יש לי שתי בירות, בבקשה?
I love you.אני אוהבת אותך

30. Visit Jordan, Part III Water: The Silly and the Serious

Although we've had an amazingly good time here in Jordan, we came with a serious purpose, and that was to do some investigation of Jordan as a country (for me, since I'm using Jordan as a case study for a new course I'm teaching in the fall), and as a place that is host to very large refugee populations at the same time that it suffers from a severe lack of water.

We learned a great deal from interviews and meetings we had with professionals and volunteers working on this issue, but for us, I think the most memorable lessons came from our visit to Baqa'a refugee camp outside of Amman. We owe a debt of gratitude first to Katerina, a student at Saint Mike's who volunteered here during high school and connected us with some of the people she worked with then. One of them, Basimah, arranged for us to visit Baqa'a, and her son, Mazen, who graciously brought us there and facilated our tour of the camp and discussions with some of its residents and administrators.

Connor and I have some serious work to do when I get home next week in terms of writing up what we learned, so I'll just make a very few observations here. Baqa'a is a large refugee camp that started as a tent settlement in 1968. The tents have given way to permanent housing, which have started moving up, because there is no room to move out, and the "camp" is now home to about 140,000 people. There is so much more to say, but for now, I'll let a few pictures tell the story, and here are three that I think say a lot. One is of Mazen, sitting between the director of the camp and another camp administrator, taken after we had been invited in for tea. The Palestinians in the camp, like just about every other Jordanian we encountered on our trip, were wonderfully hospitable, and when we passed, insisted that we come in for tea. In another photo you see the outside of one of the homes at one of the margins of the camp, where the poorest people live, with no water or electricity. The bread drying on the cloth was at the same home, and constituted the attempt at a livelihood by that family. They gather leftover scraps of bread from throughout the settlement and dry them to sell as feed to passing shephards, who buy them because it's cheaper than procuring hay for their flocks.

On a silly note, we did a bit of exploration of water in another way -- by spending a night on the Dead Sea on our way to back to Amman from our visit to Jerusalem. The only hotels there range from pretty posh to extremely so, so we decided to splurge on the cheapest one. The deal with the Dead Sea is that it is SO salty that you literally can't sink in it (and no fish can live in it). You float, and the water feels oily because it's so saturated with minerals. Supposedly, the mud there, like the water, is full of healthful minerals, so you're supposed to slather yourself in it, which we happily did as well. Here are a couple photos from our trip to the super-salty water. In one we're drying off while checking out the sunset, and in the other Siham is taking Connor up on his dare to taste the salt (yes, that's what the white stuff is) coating the piece of wood he pulled out of the water (I thoughtfully chose not to share a photo of the face she made afterwards).

52 Ways to Say I Love You
...in Arabic, with a huge note of thanks to Khaled for not only supplying both the Arabic writing and the English transliteration, but also for quickly becoming the best friend anyone could wish for to Siham, Connor and I during our time in Amman.

Hello - Marhaba - مرحبا
Goodbye - Wada'an - وداعا
I love you - Uhibbak (masculine) / Uhibbek (feminine) - أحبك
May I have two beers, please? - Mumkin ka'sayn beerah, min fadhlik (more colloquial) - ممكن كأسين بيرة من فضلك؟
Or - Mumkin qadahayn min il ji'a, min fadhlik (very classical) - ممكن قدحين من الجعة من فضلك؟

Coming Attractions

I'm writing this from the Farar Hostel in downtown Amman, Jordan. The plan is to fly home tomorrow night, and so I'll put together a list of activities coming up in a later post.

30. Visit Jordan Happy Hour, Part II

Strong as the desert, soft as sand, move like the wind, free forever.
-- Bedouin self-description

I'm way behind on blogging, largely because it seems like when I have Internet I don't have electricity, and when my computer is fully charged I can't seem to get on-line. But today I think I may have both in the lobby of the Farah Hostel where Connor, Siham and I spending our last two nights together in Amman. So it's time to do some catching up, beginning with a post of a few more details on what the three of us agree was one of the best experiences of our lives -- our trip to Petra.

I could go on for hours about the whole experience, and that's a warning to friends back in the States, because the three of us probably will. But if I were to try to be a bit more succinct, I'd say the amazingness of the experience boiled down to three things: first, the visit to the actual astonishing site that is Petra; second, the following day, our opportunity to do some things that most tourists don't get to, including having tea with the families of our new friends and visiting Little Petra, and finally, and probably most impactful, going on a sunset hike through the cliffs out of Petra and spending the night in a desert cave with our new friends, Khalide and Ibrahim.

Even if we hadn't gotten to meet Khalide and Ibrahim and had our desert adventure, I'd say Petra is easily one of the most astonishing places I've ever been. It's an ancient city, carved into the sandstone cliffs, and with caves, and huge buildings like the Treasury and the Monstery (pictured above) and a road that winds through steep cliffs on both sides for over a kilometer. It's beautiful and breathtaking, and everywhere you look is another cave or structure just waiting to be explored. It is truly deserving of its reputation as a world wonder.

At the end of the path through Petra, up an 800-step path that can wear you out climbing up (unless you get lazy and ride a donkey, which we had the pride to resist) is the Monastery. Across from the Monastery is a cafe and gift shop owned collectively by 5 Bedouin families, and it was there that we met Khalide and Ibrahim, whose families are part of the collective. We drank tea and chatted, and ultimately took them up on their invitation to go up further in the mountains to make dinner and spend the night under the stars. The whole story is too long for a post, but when they closed the shop for the night, Khalide led us on a long hike out of Petra where we stopped to watch the sunset and then went to a place where we could see beyond the Jordanian borders. Ibrahim went into town and bought some food, and then we met him in their truck and drove out to one of the small caves where they like to camp. They built a fire and we cooked a fabulous dinner, and danced and talked into the wee hours of the morning.

The next day after we got up and broke down the camp (in about 5 minutes flat -- those guys know what they're doing), we visited the cave home of Ibrahim's father and third wife (the first two live in town, but the third is in charge of the sheep herd) and then the home of Khalide's mom. Of course, we had tea and all kinds of goodies in both places, and soaked in a culture incredibly different than our own. Then Ibrahim and Khalide took us to Little Petra, another ancient town carved into sandstone, very similar to Petra only smaller, and with no admission fee and almost no tourists. There, we had free rein to climb all over the place, and we did.

Words really can't do justice to the experience, and it's killing me that I can only seem to get three pictures to load onto the blog. But here is the tiniest glimpse of our fabulous time -- one is of the Monastery, another of the sunset we watched together, and the one of Siham and Khalide, I must confess, is my favorite picture I've ever taken.

I think in many ways the Bedouin way of being is about as far away from the American experience as a culture can get. It's not concerned with money, or time, or obligation. It's about being in the moment and freedom, and for 24 hours we got to be a part of it, thanks to Khalide and Ibrahim.

30. Visit Jordan Happy Hour, Part I

So, I have about 15 minutes of time before the battery dies on this computer and I'm dying to share some images from our most recent adventure. So, here there are, with almost no explanation, which I'll write up soon. The very short story is that we went to one of the most amazing sites in the world and had an incredible adventure when we were befriended by Khalide and Ibrahim, whose families are some of those who cooperatively own the shop across from the Monastery, which is the furthest point of the buildings at the Petra site. They took us on a sunset hike out of Petra and took us to one of the caves where they stayed where we cooked dinner over a fire and danced and talked for hours on end in the middle of the mountain desert. More later, but here are a few images for now.

30. Visit Jordan - And Learn the Meaning of the Word "Hospitality"

So, when I posted about my trip to the Dominican Republic my one-word description was "vibrant". Applying the same exercise to Jordan, the word that immediately comes to mind is "hospitable". And that is really saying something because a week ago I would have been completely willing to bet any amount of money that I had already been to the most hospitable country on earth, which I was sure had to be Tanzania, where the first word you always hear is "karibu" (welcome). But despite Tanzania's incrediby admirable showing every time I've been there, I have come to believe that Jordan has it beat.

I know some people I've taken to Tanzania (and maybe a few who I've now been to the Dominican Republic with as well) who might dispute my claim, so I'm assembling a few points of evidence from the many we've experienced the last few days to make my case.

Exhibit A: Our hosts, Chris and his family, the Omrans. Even though none of them were actually going to be in town when we arrived, they opened up their guest home to us, called and checked in (twice) the day we arrived, and set us up with every form of information we could ever need before we even knew we needed it. Pictured in one of the photos above is the wonderful Ashraf, who works with the family and picked up Connor and I at the airport, and then took us back again at midnight to get Siham. All of this for strangers they had ever met, just because Jamila made a request to Chris.

Exhibit B: Khaled, Jamila's good friend, who took about 10 minutes to become one of ours as well. The first night we were all in town he picked us up, and took us out for dinner and drinks and our first shisha experience (as you can see in the picture here). On top of being a fabulous host, he's a brilliant guy and a ton of fun, and all three of us are now twisting his arm to please come be a tourist with us to sites he's already seen, just because hanging out together is so much fun.

Exhibit C: Inas, our guide to the University of Jordan. My friend Gary also really came through on this trip, and very generously shared his Middle East contacts with me, doing a whole host of e-introductions on my behalf. Inas teaches English literature at the University of Jordan, and she devoted the better part of a day to showing Connor, Siham and I the highlights, and some of the nooks and crannies of the University. I think we all agree that among the unexpected things we will never forget was a tour through the campus medical museum, where an astounding array of diseased human parts were floating in formaldehyde. There were also a number of fetuses, including one with multiple heads that made one of us (okay, me) involuntarily scream when we came upon it. Inas also has the distinction of providing what was probably the most generous portions of lunch we've ever faced, and if you check out the table in the photo of Connor, Inas and I, you will see what I'm talking about.

Exhibit D: All the Jordanians we have contacted about water scarcity and refugee problems, or asked for any help about anything really. We have people who have never met us who have: offered to help us go to refugee camps, offered to accompany us to them; offered to skype in interviews with us because they are too far away for us to get to; and made contacts 3 to 4 times removed to get us talking to people they think would be helpful. And that doesn't even factor in the random acts of kindness we've experienced, including this afternoon when we were re-grouping at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the staff brought us bottled waters and candies (twice as much for Siham, of course, because everyone here loves her twice as much as ordinary mortals).

At this point, I hope I've made mine (point, that is). This place takes hospitality to a level I've never seen. There are plenty of reasons to visit, but this is definitely at or near the top of the list.

30. Visit Jordan -- Part I: in Praise of Jamila, Siham and Leah

So, I think I'm going to have to do a whole bunch of posts to do the tiniest bit of justice to this Jordan trip, but before I even begin, I have to do one about three former students and now close friends who were intimately involved, even though only one of them is actually here.

My first thank you is to Leah, who originated the idea of the 52 New Things out of a more amorphous idea and who was in on most of the plans getting us to this point, and who is very definite that she WILL be part of the next trip to this part of the world (which I hope will be soon).

Although she couldn't come this time, Connor, Siham and I owe an everlasting debt to Jamila,who has the broadest and deepest friendship network of anyone I know, and the greatest logistical know-how. She spent a semester abroad in Jordan, and she spent the weeks before this trip connecting us with friends and helping us figure out flights and a million other things. Her good friend, Chris, is allowing us to stay in his family's guesthouse our first week here. Another good friend, Khaled took us out on our first night on the town in Amman (about which more, later) and greeted us with a question, "So, are you guys okay with following the itinerary Jamila suggested for this evening?".
Finally, I must thank Siham, who is sitting next me as I blog this. In addition to being the best all-around travel buddy anyone could ever ask for (this is now the third region of the world we've travelled through together), she has been translating for Connor and I. She's making everything infinitely easier, from letting cabs know where we're going, to reading menus at local places to us, to showing me how to log in to do this blog posting (all the labels are showing up on my computer in arabic script -- and written right to left). And being Siham, she's charming her way through the country as well. Taxis drivers go from grumpy to insisting on us not paying our fares after she chats with them, newspaper sellers call her the most charming creature they've ever seen and forget to bug us about buying the paper, and perfect strangers offer to drive us home when she asks them for directions.

Wishing they were here, I'm putting in one picture of Leah and Jamila, from a few weeks ago when they were both visiting in Burlington and helping with trip planning. There is a picture of Khaled, Connor, Siham and I eating a feast on our first night out, courtesy of Jamila. And finally, here are Siham and Connor, looking appropriately touristy as we were standing in front of the world's largest flag pole (which happens to be right here in Amman). It's a great trip so far, but it never would have happened were it not for Leah, Jamila and Siham, and before I posted anything else, I wanted to say a huge thanks.

29. Try Glass Blowing

My trip to the Pacific Northwest is winding down. My sister and her family, Katrinka, Brian and Tigist, shared their vacation with me, and we had a fabulous road trip to Idaho together. Tonight we're back home in Tacoma, and tomorrow I'll spend on planes and in airports making my way back to Burlington. A lot of the trip was actually about "old" things -- especially seeing old friends and familiar places from high school and college, which was wonderful, of course, and I just had to throw in a picture of Tigist and me standing in front of the spectacular Snake River Canyon just outside my hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho. But my brother in law Brian and I also did get to slip in another New Thing that's been sitting on the list for a while -- trying glass blowing.

While we were visiting my sister's good friend, Sarah, I had mentioned my disappointment that we hadn't been able to schedule the glass blowing class in Tacoma, which is a sort of world glass art center. Sarah solved that problem in about 30 seconds by pointing out that Boise had its own very fine glass artists, and sure enough, we called and scheduled a class for Brian and me the next afternoon at the Boise Art Glass Studios (www.BoiseArtGlass.com) with the owner, Filip.

The first decision we had to make was: furnace or torch work? In torch work you sit on a bench over a torch and make lovely delicate "breakables" (as Brian put it); in furnace work you alternate between turning a long pipe with a ball of glass on the end into a 2000 degree furnace and working the glass ball with instruments that get so hot they literally catch on fire and you have to dip them in water. Guess which one Brian picked? The furnace intimidated me a little but I'm hugely glad that's the way we went.

It was definitely a learning-by-doing experience, and after demonstrating how to make a paperweight, Filip had Brian and I each make one. Basically, you dip the pipe into a pool of molten glass and get a blob of it on the end. Then you go over to the furnace, and turning the pipe constantly, heat the glass some more. Then you take it to a table and dip it into little bits of colored glass called frits, then heat in the furnace again, and then sit in a seat where you basically play with your glowing superheated glass blob with pliers and other instruments, twisting and pulling and shaping it. Then it gets another coat of clear glass, then goes back in the furnace and then gets rolled in a hollow wooden mold. When it is scored and knocked off the pipe, it gets put in a kiln overnight.

The vases we made were more complicated, with extra steps, particularly involving the actual glass blowing which, like everything else in this art, is much harder than it looks. Filip had to blow the initial bubble that turned the blob of glass into a hollow vessel for each of us -- it takes a long time to learn just how to do it so that it's centered and of sufficient volume. Each of us took a turn blowing more air into the vase form, and it was a little humbling that, just as I thought I was about to blow a lung out, Filip told me, "You can go ahead and blow a little harder."

If I were a scrabble player -- and I'm emphatically not -- I'd have gotten another bonus from the experience in terms of a whole new set of vocabulary words. In addition to the frits, I learned two new verbs, merbering (which is rolling the glass blob on a merbering table to shape it) and flashing (which is moving back and forth from heating the thing you are actually making to also heating the moil, which is the additional blob of glass that is holding your project onto the pipe).

I'd say anyone considering a career in glass blowing should be advised of the following: first, it's an art, and like all arts, takes a super-long time to learn and perfect. Second, if you want to do it well, you need to be both regular and methodical (constant turning is what makes the glass pieces uniform) and quick and decisive (I thought the glass would be pliable like bread dough and but actually you have to really dig into it with the tools to make it bend and move). And finally, glass blowing is not for the timid or those who can't take the heat. Standing in front of a 2000 degree furnace is a little freaky, and also, not surprisingly, uncomfortably hot. As you can see from the pictures, we're all wearing glasses, which we donned after Filip pointed out that it was our choice, but most people like to have something between their eyes and the super-heated glass in case of any mishaps. But having said all that, I strongly recommend that everyone take a lesson. Brian and I are still raving about what a marvelous experience it was. We had a great teacher and a great time, and as you can see from the picture, are quite pleased with our vases. Do give it a try.

52 Ways to Say I Love You

No language with this post because I learned some new English words instead.

Coming Attractions

Nothing makes travel plans seem as tangible to me as buying the actual plane tickets, and the day I got to Tacoma I was finalizing itineraries and charging my plastic with the reckless abandon that makes credit card company CEOs sing with joy. So, below is the travel line-up, as well as some plans for New Things that I hope to fit in between the travel dates.

Saturday, June 19 - Friday, July 2. Head to Amman, Jordan with Connor and Siham to start learning about water scarcity in the middle east and explore the possibility of teaching for a semester or a year at the University of Jordan, and see Petra, among other things.

Sunday, July 3 - Friday, July 9. Fly from Amman to Entebbe, Uganda to speak at and attend an international workshop in Kampala on religion, AIDS and social movements in Africa. I'll have 8 hour layovers in Cairo in each direction, so if anyone has any thoughts about how easy it is to be a tourist for a day there, I'd love to hear them. Then I fly back to Amman for one more night and get back in the US on July 11.

Tuesday, June 15- Friday, June 18. Want to try to get in at least one hike or bike ride to somewhere new, so if anyone's up for either one (likely new hike possibilities: Stowe Pinnacle or Mount Hunger or if either Lucas or Ashley were up for it, an Adirondack 46er). Also I really want to try rock climbing outside, and that opportunity would trump any other, so let me know if anyone feels like doing that one.

Monday, July 12 - Saturday, July 24. In Burlington, and looking to do any of the new things listed above, plus climb Mount Washington with Kristin and try sea kayaking on the actual ocean (and continue to work on ice skating, so anyone who wants to skate in the summer, let me know!). Then I leave on July 25 for a couple weeks combining work (co-presenting a paper with my friend Jerry at Cambridge University) and travel to new places, including the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and Denmark and Sweden.