O' Little Town of Bethlehem

Christmas seemed to pass as quickly as it came. I'm used to the Christmas season seeming to begin just a little earlier every year, with stores and restaurants playing their Christmas music and pulling out their decorations immediately after Thanksgiving, if not before. A Rotarian I go to church with, Omar, took me to a Christian town outside of Amman, FuHeis. They have an annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony followed by carols. We missed the lighting ceremony, but came back another day to walk around more to look at the Christmas lights. While the neighborhoods back home are often decorated more 'extravagantly' it was a very nice way to get into the Christmas spirit.

My Christmas celebration however, was truly unforgettable. I ended up going to Bethlehem a few days before Christmas by myself, and came back to Amman for a Christmas dinner/party Christmas evening. I stayed at a hostel which is part of a the Dheisha Palestinian refugee camp operated by the UN: the Ibdaa Cultural Center. For approximately $15 a night during Christmas in Bethlehem, it was definitely worth it.

My first full day in the Holy Land I went to tour Jerusalem. While I probably could have went sight seeing more efficiently with a guide, I had an amazing time simply walking around and stumbling upon biblical sites. A man on the bus helped me find the right gate to get off at (the Jaffa Gate or in Arabic "Bab al-Khalil") and asked a nearby shop owner he knew to help point me in the right directions to various sites. I first walked part of the Vio Dolorosa, or the path Jesus walked while carrying the cross and then I went to the birthplace of the Virgin Mary. As I was on my way to find the Church of the Holy Sepulchre I ran into two people I met at the border crossing and ended up having some tea with them. Afterward they pointed me in the right direction and I visited the church which was also "Golgotha" or the Mount of Calvary where Jesus was crucified, and is also believed to be where he was buried. After leaving the church I ended up walking to the Mount of Olives to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and a place where Jesus went to weep over Jerusalem. The hill was quite a trek after a full day of walking and being in the cold, but it was rather spiritual. On my way back to Bethlehem I tried to go to a few places in Jerusalem to see about getting an entry ticket into the Midnight Mass...all places were out since they were giving them away for the past several weeks or even months. The tickets are free, but due to the limited number of space and the large number of pilgrims trying to get in, it was a long shot. Later that night I went to the Church of the Nativity (where Jesus was born, and where they have the midnight mass broadcast worldwide) to see if the parish office could spare one extra ticket. After asking around I was told to find "William" to ask him. He told me to come back tomorrow morning to see what he could do.

My taxi ride back was probably the worst experience of the entire trip (save for maybe the hassle at the Israeli border). I should have known better, having lived in the Middle East for a while now, but the price the taxi driver originally asked for was out of this world: 600 shekels. I knew this was way too much, although I was uncertain by how much since he did take me to and waited at a few different places in Jerusalem to check for tickets...after spending a while talking to him about how unbelievable that was, I told him 200 and no more...he was still insistent and so I paid him 240 and left. That was still 3x the amount I found out I should have paid him. As one can do in Amman and a lot of places in the Middle East, I should have said "let's go talk to the cop to see what he thinks the right price is". Since tourism is a huge part of the economy, the Governments look down on greedy cab drivers that rip tourists off.

I went to find William the next day and my hard work paid off: William gave me a ticket for the Midnight Mass. Since it was Christmas Eve and figured it would get busy, I decided to stick around Bethlehem. I walked around the Nativity Square, bought a few souvenirs and changed into my suit for the mass. I spent a good portion of the day in the Church of the Nativity praying. Eventually everyone was cleared out of the church as they prepared it for the massive amounts of people, news cameras and security. Outside I met up with a nice older couple from California and we had some drinks at a restaurant as I waited for my friend Houston to arrive, since he had planned to come to Bethlehem for Christmas as well. Strangely enough and perfect timing on my part, I had left to go check out the growing crowd outside, and ran into Houston who had just arrived! We had dinner and hung out for a while until I worked my way over to the Church. Fortunately someone suggested I to try to convince the guards to let me in the front gate, where I was, so I avoided a major line/crowd and got in with ease.

The Mass was enjoyable and a nice experience, but not your typical Midnight Mass. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, attended (an tradition I learned Yasir Arafat started and Abbas continues) so everyone was anxiously awaiting his (late) entrance and were focused on his (early) departure. Visiting Diplomats and VIPs took up most of the seats, and mot of us regular attendees stood the entire time...which was over 2 hours. The mass was in Latin and on occasion parts were said in a variety of languages. It was certainly not a Christmas Mass I will ever forget.

The trip was truly amazing to walk around so many of the holy sites and at times, completely unexpectedly, I was filled with a rushing sensation of emotion and almost burst into tears. I will post pictures on this blog, but was actually so caught up in my experience I didn't take as many as I would have liked. I would highly recommend visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem to anyone.

For those traveling to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem here is what I experienced:

The trip would only take an hour, or less, but with Security check-points, crossing the border, waiting for buses, it took me over 7 hours. I left to the Northern Bus Station in Amman to catch a service Taxi to the Allenby Bridge border crossing (Jissr Malik Hussein in Arabic). There you pay the 5 JD exit fee and if you want to travel to any other Arab countries other than Jordan and Egypt, tell them to stamp a separate piece of paper. You then take a bus they have (the only transportation option) through the "no-mans-land" to the Israeli border control (with one check point in between). From there you get off the bus and give your bags up to be checked and briefly have them check your passport. Then you proceed through a metal detector, followed by some other detector that blows puffs of air at you and takes scans, I assume is to detect chemicals (when they saw my American passport they said "goodbye" and I didn't have to go through it at that point). Then you wait in a very slow line to have the Israeli border guards (oddly, all of which are young, attractive girls that look abnormally serious) stamp your passport. The difficulty for me and several others was the fact that we traveled to Syria. I was given a form to fill out which basically asked why am I in the Middle East, where have I been, why am I coming to Israel etc., and told to wait. After 30 minutes a girl came up to me to ask me the questions on the form, wrote a few notes and asked me to wait a little more. Eventually a different security person gave us our passports and told us to go back to the window to get our stamps. Then you proceed to yet another line to have your passports checked...when I gave mine and she asked if I was traveling alone, she told me to sit down and wait again. After a while a security guard came to take us through the "blower" machine. Finally, we go through one last line to have our passports looked at and received a "border crossing ticket". Once through the Israeli border you buy a ticket and get on a bus to Jerusalem, to the end stop which is at a major bus station. To get to Bethlehem you can take the 21 Bus, which its final stop called "Bab al-Zkaak" where you can catch a service taxi to your destination.

Vacation's over..

Last week was Eid al-Adha, or the Islamic holiday that celebrates the sacrifice of Abraham. A difference between Islam and Christianity that I find interesting is that, in Islam, it is believed that Ishmael was to be sacrificed, and in Christianity it was Isaac. Schools and many offices are closed for a week and people visit with family and friends throughout the holiday. It is customary to have a lamb sacrificed in celebration. I remember learning a while ago that it is common for families to send money to have them sacrificed on their behalf, instead of doing it themselves.

The first weekend I went with some friends to Petra and then spent two nights in Aqaba. To my mistake I came back and stayed in Amman the rest of the holiday. Many shops are closed during this time, and most restaurants don't open until much later in the day. While I didn't go out a ton during this Eid did not seem as exciting as during Ramadan or even the first Eid. The vacation was nice and relaxing, but I would rather be traveling and experiencing new things and worry about resting later...

Petra was amazing. We spent several hours there and I could have easily stayed even longer (if my feet and legs could take the walking). Petra was ranked the 8th wonder of the ancient world by archeologists. The ancient Nabataeans occupied the beautiful "rose city" and the area had been ideal for defending against attackers. Giving caravans safe passage for a toll and the strategic location helped the Nabataeans thrive. Water canals were built all along the walls in the canyon passages to help maintain the needed water supply; these were interesting to look at. We walked through the thin canyons and after a nice walk got to the infamous treasury. Afterwards we went to hike up to the Monestary, which I was told is abuot 800 stairs (and probably more, since it you don't only hike up stairs). After the Monestary there are several magnificent look out points which overlook the rest of the canyons and desert. It was a great work out and was well worth it. Unfortunately, as we were approaching the monestary we came across a group trying to recessitate a man, who I later found out, from an article in the Jordan Times, had a fatal heart attack. As many signs are posted, it is a semi-strenuous hike. However, you are able to take an "open air taxi" up (i.e. riding a donkey). We started our hike down at sunset, and ended up hiking through Petra in the dark (save for the beautiful moonlight) which made it even more amazing.

Aqaba was even more enjoyable than the first time. The hotel I stayed at was a cheap and barely "clean enough" hotel. It was in the middle of downtown though which was nice. I went on two scuba dives. The first was a sunken ship (the Cedar Pride) and the second was the "Rainbow Reef." The shipwreck was awesome, but the Rainbow Reef wasn't as exciting as the two dives I did back in October. However, since it was the Red Sea it was still VERY amazing and I saw countless gorgeous fish and other creatures as well as the colorful corals.

So I had this typed and took forever to finally upload pictures and post it. Oh well, late is better than never I suppose. Enjoy the pictures:

Egypt

I'm back from my trip to Egypt. It was amazing! I really enjoyed the entire trip. I'll break it down by day and post pictures.

DAY 1
I arrived in Alexandria with Ghaith (Rotaractor from the Amman-Cosmopolitan club) where his friend Mona picked us up. She was very nice and helpful and coordinated everything. If you read this: THANKS MONA!!! We had Tamiyya (the Egyptian falafel) then later their famous dish "Koshery" which is a mixture of noodles, lentils, rice, tomato sauce, crispy onions and I had mine with liver per their suggestion (which wasn't too bad); I also put the garlic and hot sauce on it for the final touch. During the day we went to see the famous library and the fort Qait Bey(a citadel that was built by the Pharos during the 15th Century).














DAY 2
I took the train to Cairo and got a quick tour of the 'essentials of Cairo' in the limited time. Another huge thanks to Mona for coordinating and Ahmad and Sara Naida for showing me around. I went to the National Museum which is just spectacular. There are countless artifacts, statues, tombs and much more from the ancient Egyptian civilization. While I had learned about the history briefly in college, seeing the artifacts made it so much more 'real' and amazing. Then I went to the Giza Pyramids (and Sphinx)...one of the sites I had hoped for most to see during my year in the Middle East. Afterwards we took a bus to the Souk Khan al-Khalili...2 1/2 hours due to traffic. That is Cairo for you! After eating Faniya we went to the train station. The 10:30pm train ended up showing up around 12:15am...and not leaving until 1:30am.














DAY 3
We left early for the RYLA by bus. In addition to the few sessions (mostly focused on Egyptian History) we had a Galabeya party; a Galabeya is a Middle Eastern robe worn by men and women.












DAY4
More sessions, a visit to an ancient Greco-Roman temple called the Karoun, more sessions and then a scavenger hunt.

DAY5
Other than sessions we went on a desert safari by jeep which was enjoyable and went to an area called "the Valley of Whales". There were fossilized whale bones from around 40-42 million years ago. The sea used to cover that area and the guide showed us where the coastline used to be (which was evident from a line in the silt). Some of the whale skeletons also show their existence on land at one point. We then went to the sand dunes and went sand surfing/boarding (like snow boarding which I had never previously tried). Despite my lack of experience I actually did quite well. It was exhausting to climb up the dunes, so I only made 3 runs, but they were all good. Afterwards we had a karaoke night which was a load of fun! There was a visiting German rotaractor, and we really busted it out on Hey Jude and New York, New York.









































DAY6
We finished up the conference with a photo contest (which I won 3rd place). Our trip back to Alexandria took quite a while, which was partly due to a 30 minute break that lasted 1 1/2 hours!

I had a great time and really fell in love with Alexandria. While I only saw a small piece of it, I think it would be a city I would not mind living/working in for at least a few years. I also met a ton of really nice people with which I had unforgettable good times. The rich history of Egypt is a must see for everyone. My tips for anyone traveling there is to know an Egyptian who can help you out with buying things, especially souvenirs, since Egyptians are known to try and get as much money as they can, especially out of tourists/foreigners.

Iraq al-Emir Castle, Ajloun, Jerash and misc.!

The election party was fun, and I am excited for a new administration to start in January. As I might have mentioned before, all of the Jordanians and non-Americans that I've met here were hoping for Obama to win. Their fears of McCain being president were (1) that his policies would be exactly like Bush's and (2) that he would die in office. They do seem to have really high expectations and hopes for Obama, which unfortunately I think they might be disappointed. The major issues, such as peace between Israel and Palestine, Iraq, political tensions with Iran, Syria and other countries in the Middle East along with all of the other major issues, are not something just any President of the United State's can fix.

I went to a castle outside of Amman with two classmates. One of them, Tim, does a thing called geocaching, which I think I might get into sometime. Basically, people plant capsuls with a log and perhaps other small things inside and post the coordinates for them online. Others go and find the hidden caches and sign the log and then post it online that you found it. If there are items inside the capsul you're supposed to replace what you take with something else. There are more complexities to it, and it sounds like a fun past time to get out and explore. The castle was small but a nice small discovery outside of Amman, which dates back to the 2nd century BC, which had belonged to an old governor of the area. Not too far were some old caves. Here are
some of the pictures:
























Last weeend I went on the Language Center trip to Ajloun and Jerash. Ajloun is a city to the north of Amman, amid hills and more plant life. We visited the Qala'at al-Rabadh, a castle built between 1184-85 AD by a nephew of Saladin. It rests on top of the hill in Ajloun and has a beautiful view of the countryside. Jerash is another ancient city, and has one of the largest and best preserved Roman ruins (outside of Italy supposedly). I had one and a half hours to explore, and I could have easily been there twice as long to explore. Accoring to a really helpful website (HERE) there are even ruins that date back to over 6500 years. I would definitely say Jerash is a must see for anyone coming to Jordan, and I recommend reserving at least 3 hours to walk around. Here are a few of the pictures I took:
































Next week I will be attending a Rotaract conference in Fayoum, Egypt. It will be on history and leadership in Egypt. Since flights are only a few times a week to/from Alexandria, I will be staying with a Rotaract friend in Alexandria for a couple days as well. I am very excited to experience life in Egypt, although I hear it is quite different in Cairo...which I hope to visit before coming home.

Update

I wanted to write a separate post for an update on what I've been doing.

I went to another formal dinner for the District Governor with all of the Rotary clubs and some Rotaractors. It was a pleasant dinner where I was able to meet several more Rotarians that I will continue to struggle with trying to remember the names of when I see them. Afterwards I went to a Halloween party at the U.S. Embassy. Since the dinner started later than planned and ended even later, the party had somewhat died down from what it was before. It was still nice to be able to go in there and celebrate one of our unique holidays with some friends. The next day I went to another Halloween party which, according to a handful of Jordanians I spoke with there, was probably one of the largest parties thrown in Amman. Not to my surprise, the police ended up coming and breaking up the party (peacefully). The reason most likely being because it was after 12am and there was alcohol present...not to mention some pretty "liberal" (for Jordan) costumes.

Fawwaz helped me get in touch with a lady working for the UNDP (United Nations Development Project) for a possible internship or volunteer work. The opportunities sound great and I am excited to gain more experience during my year. Some of the projects might be coordinated with the Rotaract club I am primarily volunteering with (Rotaract of Amman-Petra).

On Friday I will be attending the Marine Ball. There will be over 350 guests in attendance, including the Ambassador, Generals, US and Jordanian government officials and many others. Needless to say, I am looking forward to it.


I also wanted to post a few pictures I just found from some of the events I have been doing:






















Photos from Wadi Rum witht he Rotaractors.













Bingo Night with Rotract








Port of Aqaba...the Red Sea is gorgeous!








Picking Olives in Madaba with the Rotaract clubs for an elderly home.












Much older picture: pre-Ramadan brunch at Blue Fig.