I should mention first that the people we stayed with in Jordan are a Palestinian family related to Jiries (his sister Hanan’s daughter Rana and her family). A whopping 70% of Jordan’s population is actually made up of Palestinians; they are mostly refugees from 1948 (when the state of Israel was established) who live in refugee camps without Jordanian citizenship, waiting to go back to Palestine. There are also people who have left the Occupied Territories in search of a better livelihood; many of them have obtained citizenship but without the full benefits of a Jordanian native. The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) once had headquarters and military camps in Jordan that were headed by Yasser Arafat. Over time they continued to grow larger and stronger in number, especially after the 1967 Six Day War. King Hussein of Jordan began to fear that the Palestinians would attempt to establish a state within a state, destabilizing the kingdom. As a response, he launched an attack against the PLO with the help of the U.S. at the time of President Nixon; over 20,000 people were systematically murdered. With the interference of Jamal Nasser, the president of Egypt, and other Arab leaders, a ceasefire was worked out and the agreement was to expel the PLO, Yasser Arafat, and his military to Lebanon. For those Palestinians who remain in Jordan, they continue to be treated as worse than second class citizens, especially those who are jammed in over-populated, small area refugee camps. Their passports, which are Jordanian, literally list them as third class citizens. Rana’s husband is Palestinian, but he was born and raised in Jordan and now they live in a wonderful home in a nice area of Amman.
On Thursday, instead of our original plan to go to Aqaba, we opted on going to the Dead Sea. Jane, Jiries' niece/Rana's sister, arrived around 1 p.m. and shortly after we had a delicious traditional Jordanian lunch (rice and lamb meat, it is called mancef). We relaxed for a few minutes after lunch before packing up for the Dead Sea. Jane, Rana, her daughters Serena and Haneen and I all went with Jiries in his car; Joan (Rana's daughter), Lyth (Rana’s son), Nawal (Jane and Rana's other sister) and her husband Atef and son Louis drove with Rana's husband Hanna. We had a pretty big group. We drove around for a while in search of a beach that wouldn’t charge us an exorbitant entrance fee, and we eventually settled on a deserted parking lot that had an unguarded and unofficial pathway to the beach- although you can’t really call it a beach, it’s more like a lot of dirt and sticks and rocks covered in salt. I was really excited because I have been to the Dead Sea on the Israeli side, and now I can say I have been on it on the Jordanian side as well, which is arguably even better because you can watch the sun set over the water.
Deciding where to crash on the beach:
Pay 20 Jordanian Dinars (around $30) for here?
Or go here for free?
Not a tough decision
The Dead Sea is so salty that it hurts; little Joan, who is only 6 or 7 years old, couldn’t stay in for more than a few minutes without crying. Any little knick or cut you have, anywhere on your body, absolutely burns. The sun was hot so the water was hot too. Despite the heat (and pain) it was awesome bobbing around in the water for a while, there is so much salt that it is literally impossible to sink. Even if the water is 20 feet deep you can “stand up” with your hands in the air without sinking at all, and if you try to swim only your belly will be in the water. Even though it is nearly impossible to sink, many people actually drown in the Dead Sea every year because they float out too far and then get salt in their eyes, and once that happens the person is essentially blinded and unable to come back into shore. There is no way to get the salt out (and it is extremely painful) except by rinsing your eyes with fresh water.. For the reason the parents were totally paranoid when any of the kids drifted too far, which was understandable. Also, there is so much salt in the Dead Sea there is no form of life in it- hence the name ‘Dead’ Sea.
Jane and Haneen:
Rana
You can see the salt crusted on the rocks from the water, and also some of the garbage strewn about (the whole beach needs a major cleanup job):
Jiries was digging around in the sand/dirt on the beach, and he came across a huge pile of Dead Sea mud! This is the stuff that cosmetic companies sell around the world; it is famous for its rich nutrients that are very good for your skin. He passed huge globs of it out to everyone and we caked it all over ourselves and then baked under the sun. After a while we hopped in the water and had an interesting time wiping it all off without getting any mud or water in our eyes. Joan insisted on putting mud all over herself to be like the big kids, but she seriously regretted it when she realized she had to go back in the water. I had lots of fun and my skin felt really smooth afterwards, although all my bug bites still hurt from the salt. We stayed late and watched the sun set over the Israeli/Palestinian mountains in the distance, it was really incredible.
Rona and Hanna
Me and Haneen
Wiping mud off each other’s faces
Afterwards we went home, had dinner, watched Arabic soap operas, and played card games. It was Thursday night, the night before Eid, which is like the Christmas of Islam because its the day Ramadan (the month of fasting) is finally over. During Ramadan every year, each night from 9-10 there is a special Palestinian soap opera on that literally the entire country watches; the streets are completely empty during that hour (it plays in all the nearby Arab countries). Thursday was the final episode of this season, and although I could barely understand any of the dialogue (since it is obviously in Arabic), I could still figure out what was going on and it was VERY dramatic. The episode ended with one of the main characters being exposed as a French spy, then the subsequent street justice imposed by the townspeople. When it was over everyone in the room watching the television clapped for the ending and then chatted about it for a while. The kids put on some music and went crazy dancing, and the rest of us enjoyed a nice cup of tea before heading to bed.
Around 5:30, Jiries woke me, Jane, Haneen, and Serena up to leave for Aqaba. I could hear the call to prayer outside coming from the nearby mosque, and it kept going longer than usual, from the time I woke up until we left, because of the Muslim holiday Eid. We were out the door by 6 and drove just over 4 hours until we reached our destination. We stopped downtown first to wander around and eat some falafel. Aqaba, a coastal city on the Red Sea, is on the Jordanian border with Saudi Arabia. There were lots of people in the town dressed in traditional Saudi clothing, which for men is a long white robe sometimes with the checkered red Arab keffiya. I made some friends at the falafel shop.
We walked along the coast in a park for a couple minutes, but then realized that there were no other women around and all the men were staring at us. Feeling acutely self conscious, we got in the car and took off in search of a beach. Rana and her family had told us that “Jordan was very free” and it was totally okay to wear a two piece suit, but everywhere we looked it seemed like modesty was really the name of the game. This can be attributed to the fact that it was a Muslim holiday, and everyone was outside. We settled at a beach that is well known for diving because of its unique corals, and we swam and laid out in the sun all day. From where we were, we could see Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia surrounding the sea; the border between Saudi Arabia and Jordan was only a couple miles away.
Our first attempt at swimming can only be described as painful because we (without thinking) entered the water where the coral reef was (the Red Sea is named after all the red coral in it). I guess it just didn’t occur to us that everyone else was going into the water closer to the dock, but once we figured it out we were already in too far to turn back and almost to the sandy part of the water about 30 feet from shore. Jane got knocked over by a wave and hit her thigh on some of the coral; she left with a nasty bruise and scrape. Serena got a cut on the bottom of her foot and I had some sort of prickly needle-like coral thing stuck in one of my toes for a while. Once we realized the easier way in, however, we were in and out of the water several times. Whenever we went swimming, the beach area surrounding where we had our stuff laid out became completely deserted because all the men followed us into the water and then floated around us, staring; we felt like little fish in the middle of dozens of hungry sharks. Thankfully Jiries was always close by (like a hawk), telling guys to back off if they came too close. All the other women swimming with us were completely covered except for their faces, even in the water. Nonetheless, we had a great time and we all got really sunburned.
Snorkelers
Some industrial sites right before the Saudi Arabia border!
Men from Egypt waiting in the streets for someone to pick them up for work:
Lunch, haha
Stopping to put gas in the rental car:
On our way back to Amman I drove the car on the desert road to Wadi Rum, one of the world’s most colorful and unique landscapes of desert and mountain scenery- it is the place where Lawrence of Arabia was based during the Arab Revolt. We visited there on the Tree of Life Journey this year and I was so excited to go back. As you can see from the pictures above, the whole ride there was amazing with the sandstone mountains looming all around us. We stopped by the tourist center in the middle of Wadi Rum and admired the mountains and talked to some of the people working there. I made sure to get a picture with them.
Can you tell we are totally exhausted?
Jiries next to a picture of King Abdullah II, the current king of Jordan:
Intimidating guy at the front entrance who told me he expects to see this picture on Facebook:
Tourists decked out in Wadi Rum apparel on their way towards the desert tour by Jeep:
We left the tourist center in search of one of the Wadi Rum campsites, where visitors have the opportunity to spend as many nights as they want in Bedouin-style tents in the middle of the desert. The one we visited was beautiful, and we would have crashed there for the night but they were completely booked. It was an awesome location and definitely worth going back to.
Asking for directions to the campsite
Touring the “honeymoon suite”:
Since it was a designated junk food day, when we got back to Rana’s house we decided to go to the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC- right down the road) for dinner. I had totally forgotten that it was Eid (the Muslim holiday) but I was quickly reminded when we rounded the street corner and the KFC was completely packed with Muslim people, vendor selling toys, all sorts of crazy decorations, and kids everywhere. It was 11:30 at night! I have only been to a KFC restaurant once in my life when I was a little kid, but I’m pretty sure they are not usually this busy; even if it is really popular in Amman I’m sure it was really crowded because of the holiday.
Jiries and I left the next morning and went through the security process back into Israel, but it wasn’t difficult. This time the bus crossing the border was totally packed, though, and we were wedged in back with a mob of small children. We bought massive chocolate bars at the duty free shop, ate some lunch on the way back, and made it home by midday in time for me to do some work on the PWLS report with Amy and Robin, the other volunteers. A few hours later it was hard to believe I had been in Jordan that morning.
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