Skip Ahead to Jordan: Day 1

So because I'm terrible at blogging I'm going to skip about three weeks of events in Israel to go to Jordan while its fresh on my mind, but no fear I will backtrack and hit the high points of life here.

Jordan is one of the poorest and most naturally beautiful countries I have been in. Its reputation, or perceived reputation, as a leader in the "civilized Arab world" may or may not be deserved, but from what I have seen this is a country with little money or natural resources, precious little water, a failing infrastructure and a poverty stricken population surrounded by some of the worlds greatest history and natural beauty.

My journey to Jordan began on Sunday morning at an un-godly early hour. We hopped on a bus and drove northwest around the West Bank to the accessible border between Israel and

Jordan. We crossed with little trouble through the Israeli line and than took a bus across the

Jordan river to the Jordanian side where we underwent another security check, and than we were on our way.

Inside of Jordan we picked up our two tour guides, Gundi and Rihad (whom we would call Ghandi and Rihana) * note for anyone traveling, never pick up 2 tour guides it promotes competition and longer more boring talks.

Once in Jordan we drove through the country side listening (or not) to a lecture on water shortages in Jordan and how the Jordan river and the Yarmouk river have been dammed and

channeled for irrigation leading to the destruction of natural habitats and the promotion of farming over other industries even though farming uses about 50% of the water and only contributes about 2% to the GDP (also a problem Israel has but not as severely).

The country side showed this poverty in its uniform gray bleached colors of nature and buildings and the constant irrigation lines permitting crop planting in rocky plots that barely deserve to be called fields and looked capable of producing nothing but dust. And this was all in the fertile Jordan river valley nothing to the poverty that we would see later.

A little better off than typical Jordanian town.

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Jordanian countryside in the fertile river valley.

We drove through towns where children pointed and waved or threw rocks and flipped us off, and where every adult in the vicinity started with open curiosity at our bus, until we came to the King Abdullah Canal damming the Yarmouk river for irrigation. It runs parallel to the Jordan river and the border with Israel.

It is a small river, lessened by damming in Jordan and further upstream and from across its banks we can see the border with Israel and into the Golan Heights.

King Abdullah Cannal

Damn of the Yarmouk river into the Canal

Looking across the border into Israel

After seeing the damn we took a drive up to an "eco-park" and had a picnic lunch on benches there. The park was surrounded by a fence to protect its few trees from the Bedouins who graze their animals across the countryside and can be seen in tents with their animals dotting the mountains. Above the park a reservoir of water is hidden between two mountains. This year it is only partially filled due to the rain shortages.

Rain shortages and a general lack of water are a huge problem in Jordan where water is rationed, flash floods can't be absorbed and lowering water levels promise mass migration/flight from Jordan within 5 to 10 years if the problem is not solved.

Bedouin tents and sheep The eco park from above

The reservoir

After the reservoir (which our bus driver skilfully drove up a one way road about an inch

wider than the bus and than backed down it with all of us convinced we are going to die and making bets on who will survive the fall) we drove to see the first of our Roman/Greek ruins. I say "Roman/Greek" not only because they were occupied by both at different times according to our guide but because he could not make up his

mind for most of the trip who built what and when they lived there. Still the ruins were

interesting half excavated temple and amphitheater accompanied by a far more primitive cave near by.

After that the first day was pretty much over. We drove to a small town on the top of a nearby hill and stayed at a local hotel that was actually one of the better hotels we stayed at; it didn't have bed bugs, flees, disgusting smells and there was hot water in the shower for maybe two minutes. We ate outside on a covered patio in the cold that only happens in the desert and drank hot sweet Bedouin tea. The hotel staff put on music for us and we danced around like fools to belly dancing music, Arabic rap, ABBA and Michael Jackson much to the entertainment of all of the hotel guests and staff, before we turned in for bed.

My first impressions of Jordan were of heat and sand, houses of a uniform color with the rocks around them and little water and road infrastructure. The sides of the road were littered with trash and latter we would learn that Jordan doesn't have trash or sewage public services. All in all I was shocked at the contrast between the international image Jordan gives off as a modern Arabic country and the reality of its poverty and problems.