Dead Sea and the River Jordan

Saturday was awesome! You shall find out why through reading the next few paragraphs and taking a gander at the accompanying photos.

A few of us went on a journey to visit some historical sites and take a dip in El Mar Del Muerto. Or as it is known by the English speaking world: the Dead Sea. We started off the day by meeting up with our energetic driver, Shawki. He knows everything about Jordan and is an excellent tour guide. Our first pit stop was the town of Madaba. It’s an old Christian city with a basilica dedicated to Saint George – the patron saint of England. The town has these old mosaics that date back to the 1400s. I have since learned that mosaics are all the rage here. Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan. I’m not even sure how one gets into mosaics. The only memory I really have of mosaics is an old computer game that was impossible to win and always made me mad. But I have been enlightened and now appreciate them much more.

 Outside the basilica in Madaba

Speaking of mosaics, after visiting Madaba, we stopped by this organization that provides work for disabled Jordanians. We watched them make mosaics (I told you they love them here), and they had some beautiful crafts.

Our next destination was Mount Nebo. The very same Nebo where Moses died  (see Deuteronomy 32:49-50). It was pretty awesome to walk around the same area that Moses had. The Mount itself is not very high, and you can get to the top by car. The view from Nebo was fantastic. You could faintly see Jerusalem, the River Jordan, and the Dead Sea.

 The view from the top of Mount Nebo

On to the most significant site of the journey: the River Jordan. Although no one knows exactly where Jesus was baptized, there are many ancient monuments and churches built around this location that’s been established as the traditional site. It was pretty unreal to be there. Being in this area of the world has brought the life of the Savior closer to my heart. It’s been a great experience that I’ll write about in more detail another time. I loved being around people from all over the world who were all visiting this sacred site.

 Standing in the River Jordan

The traditional site of Christ's baptism

We finished our day with a visit to the Dead Sea. Being from Salt Lake City, I propose we trade the Dead Sea for the Great Salt Lake. Why? 1. The Dead Sea doesn’t smell like an outhouse. 2. You float in the water. Yeah, float! No effort required to keep your head above water to breathe. I usually don’t find swimming as relaxing as most people make it out to be because you have to tread water the whole time to prevent yourself from drowning. I have dense bones, which makes the experience more of an effort for me. Not in the Dead Sea. No arm floaties or water weenies required. 3. The water supposedly has oils that nourish and strengthen your skin. 4. You get to cover yourself in mud. 5. The mud supposedly nourishes and strengthens your skin. 6. You are at the lowest point on Earth. 

 Floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea

Needless to say, I had a blast at the Dead Sea.  We ate at a buffet, floated on the water, covered ourselves in mud, washed off said mud, and then took a dip in the swimming pool to finish it all off. A great time was had by all. Even our driver, Shawki. He just swam in the pool the whole time. I think that’s why he likes to take groups to the Dead Sea.

 I get tan really easily

I’ll finish off this post by listing the very important rules that were on the back of my ticket to the Dead Sea resort I went to. If any of you are planning on visiting the area anytime soon, please take note of these rules (spelling and all):

-Please Keep up the public

-It is just for families

-the administration is irresponsible for the loss of your property

-please don’t sit on she green yards

-don’t enter any kind of animals

-don’t enter tables or chairs or nargniles

-don’t enter balls or bikes

-you will bear the responsibility if you swim after the sunsit

-the ticket just for one use and at the same date

-don’t enter alchoholic beverages pubc

-Prevents swimming for more than 100 meters

Want to know what a nargnile is? So do I.

Machine gun wedding

I am writing this blog post whilst listening to “The Circle of Life” by Alex Boye and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It’s a good one.

Speaking of music, there are some crazy Arabic songs out there. And crazier music videos. Today at a restaurant I watched this animated music video that showed a guy who was creepily obsessed with his neighbor. He watched her from his balcony with binoculars, followed her around, and so forth. Not quite sure what was going on there.

Arabic music at its finest.

And here's a link to a music video if you're really curious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT-MeHJhtEc&ob=av2e

Back to reality. Yesterday the green team (what the manager we work with has affectionately nicknamed us) went to visit KPMG. Yes, all of the Big Four accounting firms have offices here. They’re everywhere. Like the eye of Sauron. Always watching. They were extremely helpful in giving us some insights about the client we are working with and how we can help them move forward. Following the visit, we went to McDonald’s and had a taste of good old American fast food. It’s kind of scary how a Big Mac and fries tastes exactly the same here as it does in the U.S.

Steve and I at KPMG.

Last night we ran into the shabab (roving youth of the neighborhood) and played soccer with them. Then we taught them American football. They were hilarious and we had a great time. I was pretty much the MVP of the night, scoring at least three touchdowns. I am now known as James Bond by these kids.

 Rollin with the shabab.

I woke up at 4 this morning to a light shining in my eyes and my roommate trying to kill a mosquito by my bed. Steve is allergic to mosquitoes, so he went on an extermination rampage to destroy all flying blood-suckers in our room. I was kind of freaked out, but fell back asleep after about ten seconds. I don’t know why, but the wee bugs don’t like my blood. Which is strange since I have liquid gold (aka O negative) flowing through these veins. Those mosquitoes have no idea what they’re missing out on.

 A photo of a cool mosque to break up these last two paragraphs.

Bachelor parties and weddings are quite the event here. There have been some festivities going on down our street for the past couple of nights. When you hear loud Arabic music mingled with spurts of gunfire, you know someone’s getting hitched soon. I’ve decided I also want random gunfire at my wedding reception. To my future wife: I won’t budge on that one. You can have the colors, food, music, decorations, location, and whatever thousand other subtle things you’ve dreamed of since age 5, but there must be a few AR-15s at our reception. Deal? Thanks.

Carpet for dessert

The past few days have been packed with fun adventures for man, woman, and child. On Saturday we decided to go explore the Citadel, which is an area with a bunch of old Roman and medieval ruins on top of a hill near downtown Amman. As we walked up the hill, we could hear the call to prayer coming from mosques all over the city. That was pretty dang cool. Also, the Citadel was great. Imagine most other ancient Roman ruins you may have been to or seen, and you’re not far off from what it looks like. In fact, here are a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure:

 That is me standing under a very old Roman structure. Apparently some of the ruins are neon green. Or the internet messed up my photo. Take your pick.

A couple of Arabs saying "that's pretty neat."

That very day I was also introduced to a dessert called kenafeh. It looks like a random piece of 1970s shag carpet with bits of mystery food that have accumulated in its long strands over the years. But looks can be deceiving. What it really contains is shredded wheat coated with sugar smothered on top of what tastes like a giant blob of mozzarella cheese. Sounds weird? It is. But you’d be surprised at how tasty that stuff is. I think one piece covers your whole calorie intake for the day. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Eating some kenafeh with Steve.

We topped off our Saturday by going to see The Avengers (my third time) and then watching the Champion’s League final (basically like the Super Bowl of European soccer) at a café. We had some avid Chelsea fans with us, so everyone else in the café decided to cheer for Bayern Munich. Too bad they lost. It was an awesome game.

 Just watching a soccer game.

Yesterday we went to the birthday party of George, a man in the English branch out here. He is the nicest man ever and bought us all dinner for his birthday. We ate chicken, hummus, pita bread, French fries, salad, and cake to celebrate his day of birth. Matt McKnight and I then kicked off the evening with some karaoke. I never realized how much I sound like Elvis when I sing “You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog.” Yeah, I’m pretty dang good. Other renditions may or may not have included songs by Chuck Berry, Justin Bieber, and various Disney movies.

All in all, a fun weekend. Work continues to roll on at the concrete company. And now it is time for me to retire to bed for the night. Buenos noches.

Cassette tapes are back

I know that my avid blog follower(s) have been waiting on pins and needles for my next post.  Sorry to keep you waiting, mom.

Life continues to roll on here in Amman. Basically all the interns who are working with Zaytoon are now here and acclimated. At least somewhat. Some of them are still taking naps in the name of jetlag. I’m so beyond that. Yesterday we split up into teams to tackle the 5 main projects that our organization will be working on. It’s exciting to hear about all the work we’ll be involved with. Like I mentioned before, I’ll be working with a concrete business over here that is doing quite well. Steve Kenny (my Irish comrade), a guy named Teren, and I will be spearheading this project. The people at this company are fantastic, and we’re excited to help them achieve their goals. Among the other projects that Zaytoon is involved with are: improving an organic farm’s products and branding, evaluating a microfinance program, and assisting with a community development project. If any of that sounds vague to you, it’s okay. I’ve spent most of my time trying to just understand the business I’m working with so that we can actually give them advice that may be useful. It’s been humbling and exciting to be thrown into an environment with little knowledge of the business/industry and no knowledge of the language and try to piece things together.

 The shops just by our apartment. It is here I buy my pita bread and hummus. I know this photo has nothing to do with the paragraph above, but I wanted to put it in somewhere.

Guess what? I met another Ahmad yesterday. As cool as my two previous friends named Ahmad are, this guy blows them out of the water. He must be 60+ years old, has as much energy as my little brother Michael, looks like a mix of Mahatma (aka Mohandas) Gandhi and Albert Einstein, and is hilarious. He is in charge of the organic farm that a few interns are working with, and loves to hang out with us. Last night, we went to a Yemeni restaurant with him. He ordered the food for us (which was way too much), and cracked jokes the whole night. I ate half a chicken and lots of rice. After dinner, four of us got a ride back to our apartment with him. He decided to take a little detour on the way back. Ahmad popped a cassette tape in (remember those?), and started speeding down the road. We listened to tons of songs I’ve never heard before. The best way to describe them are 90s techno remixes that never made it to any audience beyond his car. We were all laughing our heads off. Ahmad was singing and dancing along to these songs while swerving down the road. Lanes don’t really exist on the roads here, so he was just weaving his way through traffic. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

 That half chicken is now in my stomach. Along with some of the rice.

We went to church today and it was awesome. Because Friday is the day of worship in Islam, we follow suit. We went to the English branch here, which is composed of lots of interns and U.S. military and government employees. One of them is named Steve Young. That same person was not a quarterback in the NFL. After, a few of us decided to stay for the sacrament meeting of the Arabic branch. It was fun to hear the services in a completely foreign language. I tried to sing along to the hymns in Arabic, but failed miserably. I resorted to humming, and eventually just singing in English.

A few of us Zaytoonies just after we finished church.

Remember how we have ice cream trucks in the U.S.? Here they have natural gas trucks. And fruit trucks. The gas trucks play this intriguing yet creepy music that will haunt my dreams for months. The fruit trucks just shout at people as they drive down the street. I don’t think I’ll ever need natural gas here, but maybe someday I’ll buy fruit from those angry trucks. I’ve heard it’s crazy delicious.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Tis time to eat more hummus. Until next time. Ma'a Salama.