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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Email to Friends: North Jordan‏

My decision to wake up early and get out of Amman was a good one. Checked out of the Boutique Hotel and took a taxi to the north bus station. Jumped on a minibus to Jerash. Started chatting with a nice guy on the bus who grew up near Jerash about politics, movies, food and travel. He shows me and two travelers from Vancouver where to get off the bus. We walk them into the ruins and he takes me to the nearby hotel I wanted to stay at and drop off my big backpack. Even though the hotel is empty, a single room with shared bath is $60. There is one other hotel listed in town so we set out to see if it is cheaper. When outside, Mussab offers to take me to his parents' house and let me stay there. I agree to go visit and check that it is okay with his parents.

We head about 8km into the mountains behind Jerash to his town. We pass lots of olive trees as we was up the mountain. We arrive at his house in a complex above the butcher and produce store with his mom, dad, and younger brother. His two older brothers live with their wives in the two other apartments in the complex. As soon as we walk in the door, his parents greet me warmly. They are so sweet, showing me to my room and continually bringing me hot tea, Arabic coffee and Pepsi. His dad has a stern face, but it softens when he looks at his wife or sons. One of his older brothers who is a math teacher drops by before heading upstairs, with "It's a Boy" gifts from the newborn he and his wife had three days before. I watch his mom make mansef for me, as Mussab had told me earlier I can't say I have been to Jordan unless I have tried it. His little brother gets home, and he is a real character. He immediately pulls up a chair next to me for a picture to post on Facebook and the mom calls me his sister, telling him to leave me alone and go study while giving us all the "get out of my kitchen" look I have been known to give many who venture in my kitchen. The other older brother who is a physics teacher finishing grad school stops in, and we all sit on the floor and eat the delicious meal. The mom insisting I eat more and more and cutting up more chicken for me, even when I am full, which makes us all laugh. We all sit and talk a bit more about his father's experience living in Tennessee for a few years working at a Burger King and different world views and events. The mom jokes if I am interested in Mussab and we all laugh that moms everywhere are the same. She is the only one that doesn't speak any English, but her facial expressions and gestures somehow make it so I can often understand her. She is really wonderful and seeing the love and closeness in this family is really refreshing. We "kids" go take in the views on the roof and they point to the complex across the street where people are always coming and going, explaining that it is one of the many Syrian refugee houses that 5-6 families live in, with whole families in just one room. There is talk that there will be up to 2 million Syrian refugees in the future (Jordan's population is only 6 million). Afterwards, we take an afternoon nap.

After dark, we take the family car for a drive to the top of the mountains for a nice view if the twinkling lights of Jerash and beyond below. The oldest brother invites us all for coffee so we go upstairs to his house, and I get to meet his wife and hold his adorable sleeping 3 day old son. The other brother's friend invites us all to a party to watch the Barcelona Madrid football match, but the mom apparently nixes that idea, saying I should stay there. I think she likes the company of another female in her house full of boys (the two daughters live outside the home). Got to do what mom says, so instead we watch the game at the other brother's house. The mom is still trying to feed me, bringing an apple and orange and then a whole dinner tray of bread, spicy olives, something that tastes like marinated heart of palm, meat with pistachios, tuna, and cheese. She is on to me when I try to just hold onto a bit of leftover bread to keep her from stuffing more in my hand... ha! After the game, we head back upstairs to the parents' house and I say my goodbye to Mussab, as he will head back to work in the early morning. The dad sleeps in the living room and the mom and I watch Arabic romance soap operas until we fall asleep in their room.

The next morning, I am sad to say goodbye. There is no way I can thank them enough for their hospitality. We will all keep in touch with Facebook and the mom tells me that I am to come straight to their house the next time I come to Jordan. I really hope to see them again some day. They help me get a taxi back to Jerash and I am off again. I check out the Roman ruins in Jerash. The visitor center is nice enough to hold my big backpack so I am free to clamor up and down the stones and run around the colosseum. It is fun, as they are different from all the Egyptian ruins I visited and there are huge school groups of children on field trips there, all that swarm me for pictures with them. There are red, yellow, white, and blue wildflowers peeking up next to the pillars and the school boys keep picking them and handing them to me as the scream "Hello!","Picture?", or "Welcome to Jordan."

After a few hours I decide to move on. I hadn't decided whether to go back to Amman or head farther north. I decided I needed to see more of the north to get a fuller picture of this country before heading south to Petra. So I walk to the bus station and head to Irbid. I get off at a super busy, chaotic bus station and am lost instantly amongst the many buses going to I don't know where since I can't read a lick of Arabic. A nice man that speaks decent English sees my confusion and tells me I have to head to another terminal to get to Umm Qais. The line for the shared buses to the terminal is super long, but he knows one of the drivers and gets me on, saving me a taxi ride. The driver also helps me get on the shuttle to Umm Qais. I get there late in the afternoon and decide to do the ruins the next day. This is a really small, sleepy town (population of about 7,000) so I only have one hotel choice. But it is not too bad, by my pretty low traveling standards. No room key, but it locks when I am inside and if someone wants to steal my dirty laundry while I gone, so be it (and I am the only guest... all the neighbors had to run around looking for someone to check me in when I got here). I can always use my pac-safe if need be. Went to one of the only restaurants in town, but right as I got there, 20 hungry 15 year olds came in for their after school snack. They all chat with me and practice their English as their orders get made (in fact, their English teacher also stops by) and several want to add me on Facebook. I finally get my kebob sandwich that is wrapped like a Gorditos burrito with french fries and go take a shower in the trickle of a shower (at least it has hot water... sort of). A guy that turned out to be the brother of the hotel owner is an off-duty Tourism Police and was hanging out downstairs and took me to the rooftop to see the sunset and points out Syria and Damascus in the distance. The mountains up here are the most green I have seen so far on the trip. The night is spent with Arabic coffee and watching the kids play in the street near the makeshift fresh made and fried to order falafel stand outside the hotel. Many of the kids and people here are really beautiful. Some have olive skin with striking hazel green eyes. They are all really friendly.

In the morning, I head to Umm Qais ruins. There are Roman ruins and an abandoned Ottoman village. It is really nice to hike around amongst the wildflowers and olive trees. In the museum, I hire a guide to take me by car to see a little around the town. He takes me through some of the farms (olives, wheat, and onions) and out to a spectacular vantage point where lots of families picnic. I can see the Mt Nebo and Nazarath, the Sea of Galilee, Golan Heights, and the Yarmouk and Jordan Rivers. He points out Point Zero a few kilometers below us where Syria, Israel, and Jordan meet. It is also interesting to see the Rift Valley up here, as it is very different than seeing it in Africa. With his binoculars, we can also see traces of snow on mountaintops of Lebanon. On the way back, we pass a cave that Jesus was rumored to have slept in when he lived in the area. Back to the ruins museum, we have tea with fresh lemon leaves and Arabic coffee. He invites me to his farmhouse for dinner this evening. I was going to head to Amman to overnight before catching the bus to Petra, but I really am enjoying the peace and quiet and fresh air up here, so I decide to stay. While he finishes work, I go explore the ruins more, chat with several of the many families having a picnic (the typical Friday thing to do, apparently), and follow around some sheep and goats while the sheep herder sleeps under the shade of an olive tree.

Head back to the hotel and let a group of sweet girls practice their endless questions. Ahmed comes to pick me up and shows me a spot with a sweeping view of the valleys an a reservoir. We watch the sunset over the green onion fields and have a delicious picnic dinner of salad, stuffed grape leaves, chicken, turnover pastries stuffed with meat and a beer (he is actually Christian so has a drink now and again) on the rooftop of his modest farmhouse. I had every intention of going to bed early but end up staying up to chat with the owner and his brothers over coffee (they drink it late and I feel like it is kind of rude to turn it down). I feel so bad for him because a group of 20 Palestinians students made a reservation and they made a huge dinner for them only to have them come in, look at the hotel and cancel. He is far more calm and sweet about it than I would ever be. The owner's wife offers me dinner since there is all this food now, but I am too full.

Today was a long travel day. Minibus from Umm Qais to Irbid, another from the north bus station to south station, bus to Amman, shared taxi from north to south bus station in Amman, and then another minibus to Petra. People are really helpful getting me on the right buses and not overcharging me. I am actually kind of shocked it all worked out, as I was prepared for something to go wrong and have to overnight in Amman. I think the trick to Jordan is staying as far away from taxi drivers as possible. Pretty uneventful day, with passing a random runaway donkey sprinting down the middle of the highway being the highlight. It is strange how the landscape of the north (mountains and valleys with greenery) differs from the south (desert) and changes almost instantly heading either direction from Amman. But it has been a lovely and memorable last few days and I am glad I stuck around in Jordan. And now, I am at one of the 7 wonders of the world... The amazing Petra!

Love,
Betsy

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