Anyway after scary water talk at 8am we got on the bus and drove to the Jordan River at the site where Jesus was baptized. This was really amazing and sad at the same time for a variety of reasons. It was amazing because on the bus ride there we all had a really great conversation on Jesus and how if he were to come back to earth now he would pray in a Temple and probably not a church and how his baptism was just a mikvah and it really brought home how close all the religions are. After that when we actually got there it was so sad because this great and famous river that was once huge, is now this tiny polluted stream. What was
interesting was that people were still going into it and filling water bottles with the water, I hope someone told them that the water is cancerous. It was also interesting because right across the border was the West Bank, occupied Palestine, the Israeli territories whatever you want to call it and believe me its a big deal what you call it. For instance our tour guide never once called it Israel he called it Palestine...the whole of Israel, he just didn't acknowledge that there is a country there. But I digress so I was standing right across the river from the West Bank and our program director, Gal, is the son of an Israeli general who had charge of that portion of the West Bank for a long time. And he told us a story about never thinking he would ever be looking into that region from the Jordanian side because when he was there as a kid was before the peace and there were always terrorists and militants coming through Jordan and now he was standing on the Jordanian side of the river next to a Jordanian soldier and it was a very meaningfully experience for him which I thought made it more meaningful for me.
After that we drove along the Dead Sea (very pretty) got out a few times to see it but never got down to it. Also we went to this cool Wadi Mujib (a dried river canyon) where I really wish we
had time to go camping. Its like this little nature reserve hidden away in this crack in the dried cliffs. And if you go hiking there you have to wear life jackets because there is a danger of flash flooding (unfortunately we didn't get in that far) The one we visited used to be a major source of water for the Dead Sea, but now they take the water and pipe it to Amman. Luckily a nature society convinced them to let the water come almost to the Dead Sea so that the habitats in the cliff are still around.
After that we went to the village of Fifa. Amazing place. Its this tiny poor village in the Dead Sea valley and this amazing Muslim family let us all 20 of us come into their house, fed us and than took us on a walk through the village. It was so touching and amazing. We all sat on cushions on the floor and ate with out hands and pita off of big trays of potatoes and peas and chicken. I was so happy that we went.
Than we went for a walk outside and it was heartbreaking the poverty here. We were surrounded by little children running after us without shoes on. One child was on a donkey that he kept whipping after us. So we walked through the village and than we were in this barren field of dust and holes that we walk across to see down into the Dead Sea valley. Well we get all the way across and than someone explains that this was a graveyard until an earthquake a
couple of years back and that for fun the children will bury themselves in it! Now I was wearing flip flops so I was a little freaked out to be walking through open graves and on the way back I def saw some bones. ewww.
Anyway after that interesting experience we went back to the village store where we all bought a coke or something to support the local economy, and our RA Asaf bought a big coke bottle and some plastic cups and passed them out to all the kids, so cute.
We were supposed to have gone hicking today but for a variety of reasons we were too late so a few of the kids took us up to their Wadi where their water catches were, and the irrigation tanks that they go swimming in, and than a few of us climbed half way up a mountain side to get a view of the valley (unfortunately no camera on me since I was wearing a long skirt for propriety sake)
Finally we made the long drive to Karak where we would stay the night. This hotel was perhaps the worst we've stayed in. A bunch of people either got bed bugs or fleas we still can't decide. Through this day one of our program directors, Marla was sick too (we started dropping about 2 a day after me) and we got her into bed but she would get bit up that night all over her face and arms by the mysterious bugs.
Anyway we wanted to go out because it really was Becka's birthday that night so we went to a cafe with our incompetent guides Gundi and Riad who promised drinks but didn't deliver, fail. And than I had to explain to them the significance of the 21st birthday in American life and that its not just about getting drunk (just mainly about that) but that its a rite of passage and all that...I don't think they got it.
So we get back from the cafe and some of the others had gotten drinks from a convince store and were drunk and Grant (one of the two gay guys in our group) decided it was a good idea to climb into bed with our bus driver and tourist police officer and watch tv with them. Well they were cracking up and Riad and Asaf were trying to get him out of there. It was all just pretty funny.
After that bed time, which wasn't really bed time because the mosquitoes kept flying into our ears and buzzing around. Eventually I made a tent out of my sheets and hid under them, but from about 3am to 5am no sleep and than just as I'm going to sleep the Mosque next door starts its 5am call to prayer and its all Alu Akbar, Alu Akbar....goodbye sleep, hello misery :(
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