Jordan

Sunday, May 1^st, 2011

Today was such an adventure!!! We explored Petra, which was recently voted an “Ancient Wonder of the World”!!!!

Yesterday we flew into Jordan and then drove 3 hours on a bus to our motel named “Taybet Zaman” located by Petra. The motel was so unique and AMAZING!!! The entire resort was a restored village, so the entire paths and buildings were made of cobblestone.
I felt just like I was in the New Testament times! I am honestly not sure what it was that we ate for dinner, but I was excited when I recognized pancakes at breakfast!!! J This morning several people were sick from the food after DAY ONE!!!! We are encouraged to avoid all salads, unpeeled fruits, any vegetables that are not cooked and all unbottled water. In fact, we can’t even sing in the showers because the water and unfamiliar bacteria’s could get in our systems. So far, I have managed to avoid the stomach aches and other problems! haha

I am in absolute amazement with the civilization here! It is all very dirty and I see trash all over. There are pop bottles scattered across the ground and garbage bags living the fences. When the wind blows, there is a tornado of trash whipped through the air.

Another thing that is new to me is the tight traffic and teeny spaces that our tour bus fits through!!! The roads are incredibly skinny and our bus driver just flies down every road! In fact, today we were cruising down the road right next to a line of vehicles that were parked on the side of the road and one tried to pull out without even looking! We heard a loud crash after the bus driver SLAMMED on the brakes. We had totally taken out the side mirror on the car! The bus driver ran out and was back in a few seconds (literally), then we took off again! I guess I am used to people exchanging insurance numbers and spending an hour trying to work things out, but none of that happened! It is CRAZY to me!

As mentioned previously, we went to PETRA today!!! We hiked nearly 2 miles into the red rock canyon, which was full of carvings in the rock. The whole while, there were donkies, camels, and carts pulled by horses giving rides to people. At last, we came around the bend and the breathtaking view of the Treasury came into sight. It is HUGE!!!! And people made it all those years ago! The intense details that are carved into the rock absolutely amaze me. There were little Jordanian boys and girls running around all over selling items like jewelry and other souvenir items. They were probably only ten year old children chasing us around trying to make a bargain and send you away with more than you want. It made me so sad!!! One little boy with big brown eyes and beautiful dark skin (listen to me…they ALL have brown eyes and dark skin) approached me and wanted to sell me post cards. I was planning on buying some anyway, and he was so dang cute… I looked into his deep and desperate eyes and my heart just went out to the little guy. I wish that children so small didn’t have to live like this…I took a pictures with him, paid him for the post cards, then set out on my next endeavor- I came all this way to ride a camel!

Men were offering camel rides all over the place, so it was not difficult to find a guy more than happy to give me a ride. I wanted to be extremely cautious because I had heard stories about girls getting kidnapped on camels. Zac and his family were with me, so I felt pretty safe. The man that was going to give me a ride got down off of his camel and I felt his eyes creep up my body. I felt this uncomfortable chill run up my back. I looked over my shoulder at Zac and his 6’5” dad. “I will be OK,” I gulped to myself.

I hopped up on the camel’s back while it was kneeling down and took a deep breath. The camel’s back legs curled up first as the back half of his body rose up first, so I was sitting on a total slant, then the front half came up. HOLY MOLY. There I was!!! Sitting on a towering camel in Jordan!!!! Woo!

The man started leading me around and before I knew it, he wasn’t walking a circle anymore, he was walking away from everybody. I quickly looked back (with a terrified face I’m sure) to see if we were really walking away. Zac’s dad yelled and asked where we were going and the Jordanian man looked up at me, high up on his camel’s back. I think I gave him a defensive looked of death. He gave me a spine tingling smile and responded, “Oh, we’ll be back!”

“I’m going to have to jump off!!!!” I thought to myself as I looked down at that ground that was a lot farther away that it was usually on a horse’s back. “Oh my heck!” Zac’s dad came to my rescue! I jumped off the camel and once my feet landed on the ground from the high heights that I had been at, I sighed in relief, smiled at Zac’s dad, and thought, “I RODE A CAMEL and I am safe!!!”

On the way back out of the canyon, we stopped to rest on a bench. Several of the dark skinned, dark countenanced creeper creepin’ creepy guys would walk by and glance at me out of the corner of their eyes, take a double-take, then look me up and down! AH!!! Of course I was AWARE of them and was watching in my peripheral vision, but tried to pretend like I was NOT aware of them. One time, a boy driving a cart looked at me and gave me just enough time to look away before he winked at me, but not long enough for the lady sitting next to me to miss it. She giggled and said, “I think that guy just gave you a very OBVIOUS and flirtacious wink!” Several of these instances took place and it was so uncomfortable! Haha I soon discovered that my blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin attracted creepy men like a magnet to a refrigerator. YUCK! One friend on the trip said, “Hey, we should charge 25 cents to let guys touch Heather’s hair!” then shouted, “25 cents to touch the blonde hair!!!” haha J

There are also tons of the tall prayer towers called minarets EVERYWHERE! Seriously they are around every corner! In the morning, we wake up to the prayers that sound a lot like the wailing moans on the Other Side of Heaven when the man dies.

Also, OSAMA Bin Ladin (big time bad guy for the US) was hiding for YEARS was found today!!!! He was over here in the Middle East with me! You’ve gotta love all of the big events!

Monday, May 2nd

Jerash is known to be the place with the best Roman ruins outside of Rome and I was able to see them today!!! They are AMAZING!!! There were SEVERAL parts of the city including a huge theatre, John the Baptist’s church, large pillars, and a track for chariot races! It is absolutely amazing to me that people were able to build things with stone and with such detail!

I also floated in the Dead Sea today, and when I say that I FLOATED, I mean it! It was AWESOME! There is so much salt in the water! I walked into the water and immediately felt an intense sting in a cut on my leg! OUCH! As the water level got near my hips, I couldn’t stay on the ground as I was lifted up on my toes. When I allowed my legs to do what the water wanted, my body popped up to the top of the water and I was floating in the water! It was impossible to get my entire body underwater and it was a really, really neat and DIFFERENT kind of experience!