Jordan

October 24, 2008

Queen Aleeya Airport, Amman Jordan. I’m sitting here in the terminal waiting for my 1315 flight to Cairo and am just now starting to digest the past 2 days. I arrived here on Thursday from Baghdad for the first leg of my 3 week R&R. I’ll make my way to Cairo, Sharm Al Sheik, (on the Red Sea coast), and back to Jordan again before the vacation is over. Maybe I’ll have a few surprises for myself along the way, make some stops I hadn’t planned on, I don’t know…but I hope so.

So Jordan has been a mixed bag. The country is beautiful, the country-side that is. I stayed in a hotel in Amman that was in an upscale side of town with upscale prices. But someone forgot to tell the ownership to provide upscale amenities. I stayed there at the recommendation of other people from the mission who use a local guide while in town rather than have to ride tour buses all over to see the sites. That part was great because I got to go to Jarash and see some ancient Roman ruins and then went up to Ajloun to see a castle built by Saladin the Great to battle the crusaders. The drive through the country side was terrific. We went through some quaint little villages and I got a better feel for the local flavor than if I had taken the same trip on a tour bus. My guide, Naseem, was born and raised in Ajloun so he knew everyone and we even came across his father in the street while driving through. The soft, rolling hills are covered in a kind of pine tree I have never seen before. Maybe they are just pine trees like the pine I know from home, but they are much smaller. And then there are olive orchards….for as far as the eye can see there are olives. The hills and valleys are covered neatly in regimented rows of the small round trees. It reminded me very much of the California I grew up in with orange trees blanketing the valley as far as the eye could see. And there was a very simple feel to the way of living there in the small villages. I just happened to be going through at prayer on Friday. This is like Mass on Sunday back home. So the streets were empty and everyone in the village was at the mosque. The loud speakers billowed out the 45 minute sermon for all to hear. According to Naseem the sermon on Fridays is live. I was amazed at how long someone could go on preaching with such fervor and passion without pausing. But these are Muslims… And so after prayer the streets filled with people pouring out of the mosques. The shops opened their doors, the cars blocked the streets, and the people milled about without purpose, content in the fellowship of their neighbors.

The ancient Roman city of Jarash was as amazing as any place I’ve ever been. I was so happy to finally get to see the history I have been longing for since leaving home almost a year ago. It’s a national park so the fees and tourist trinkets kind of take away from the experience. But this was another benefit of having Naseem instead of a guided tour bus. His full time job is as a driver for the US Embassy in Amman so he has made this trip hundreds of times while escorting visiting dignitaries. So he knew the short cuts and back corners that I love. I told him up front when he asked me what I wanted to see that I’m not the kind of man who prefers a traveled road. He understood and I believe he was happy to take me off the beaten path. The ruins were amazing. The amphitheatre was acoustically engineered as well as any place I’ve ever been…and it’s over 3000 years old! I stood down in the center of the bowl and basically whispered and Naseem could hear me from way at the top where he was standing to take my picture. And when I actually spoke out loud I could hear my own voice in crystal clear stereo. It was crazy! The detail taken by the builders of the place just blew me away. Then they were having a chariot race in the track, but I wasn’t interested in the show. So I waited until it was over then went inside to get some pictures of the grandstands. We spent about 2 hours wandering around and I feel like I saw everything I went there for. Then we headed north to see the Castle at Ajloun.

The castle was really something to see. Considering it was built roughly around the same time as Jarash, (give or take a few centuries), the engineering was equal to that of the Romans without question, even if the craftsmanship wasn’t as detailed. These guys knew how to build a place that could be defended! There was a moat, arrow slits built into the stone all over the castle, towers, (or what was left of them), and catapult stands. But the best part of the battlements for me was the way the inside of the castle was designed to be compartmentalized. Each section of the keep was designed to be singularly defended. In that I mean that if the outer perimeter was breached a retreat to an inner section of the castle could be made and from there the fight could continue until they had to retreat again deeper and deeper into the castle, each step of the way closing off access as they went. Until finally a last stand could be made from the innermost section of the keep, hopefully lasting long enough for reinforcements or aid from another castle could arrive. Naseem told me there was a tunnel going all the way from the castle to the bottom of the mountain, which easily had to be 2 or 3 miles in a straight line. I assume this tunnel would be used for a final escape if need be, but no such place was advertised on the maps or brochures. Naseem said the government sealed it up so people wouldn’t wander into it and get hurt, etc. The whole place was amazing. It was a bit overwhelming, to say the least.

OK, so I said that Jordan was a mixed bag. The flip side to the amazing things I saw here is the people and their seeming distaste for foreigners. I guess I should say that this was mainly in the city because out in the countryside I got a whole different feel. But as I walked around the city near my hotel I got nothing but stares and cold shoulders. At one point I walked around a corner and came upon a little girl and her mother. The little girl looked as if she had seen a monster! She couldn’t get out of my way fast enough, all the while pointing at me and saying “Momma-momma-momma!” I tried to calm the child with a smile but had no luck. The mother wasn’t any more friendly, clutching her child and looking at me as if I was about to snatch them both up and take a big bite. I should have growled and waved my arms in the air…watch the little darling scream and cry now! But I kept my American composure, as I did everywhere I came across a cold shoulder. The men were especially rude, unless I was digging into my pocket to give them a tip. Then it was, “I love America!” But on the street a standard “man nod” greeting was met with blank expressions. Now, I did get lots of stares from women…and really, who could blame them? But I think in the Arab culture a place like Jordan, where the women are much freer than in Baghdad, the women saw this big bearded white man with curiosity more than anything else. But I did strike up a conversation with a woman at the restaurant. And when I complimented her on her beauty she smiled and thanked me seeming genuinely flattered. So based on this one gracious act maybe I will give the locals here another chance at hospitality and good manners when I come back through next time.

-Jim Franks