مصر

The best way I can possibly convey the craziness of Egypt is through a listing of unrelated, completely separate instances, so here I go:

On the plane to Cairo: The safety video featured a Jimmy-Neutron-like animated character with a unibrow.  He announced that electronic devices were to be switched off during take-off and landing, with the unusual exceptions of handheld electric shavers and small handheld calculators, which apparently are normal items to use during take-off and landing and do not interfere with the navigational equipment on the plane.

In the Al Azhar Gardens: A boy ran up to his family with two flowers.  I assumed one was for his mother and one was for his sister.  Instead, he gave one to his brother and ran away with the other one for himself.

On the street: A man approached, and got closer and closer very slowly and deliberately, and when he was breathing down my neck, said in the creepiest voice possible: "Welcome to Egypt".

Outside Amr ibn al-As Mosque after Friday prayer: A man selling watermelon on a cart.  He has opened up several watermelons and is holding a piece in each hand.  He is holding them above his head, and screaming at the top of his lungs as the juices run down his arms.  He sticks one of the pieces into a woman's mouth, forcing her to take a bite.  I have never seen someone so excited about watermelon in my entire life.


At the airport in Cairo: The guard decides that Justin cannot bring glass of any kind onto the plane, even without liquid inside.  I try to ask him why glass is not allowed on the plane, but instead of responding to the question, he then takes all of Justin's Egyptian pounds as baksheesh and says there is no problem.

Every man on the street: "You're a lucky man." (to Justin)  "Are you Egyptian?" (in English)


Marriage proposals: "200 camels."  "Five million thousand camel."  "You.  You and me.  Right here.  Right now.  Do you want babies?"


In Luxor: A man tried to sell a normal size bottle of Gatorade to me for 35 LE, which is the equivalent of over six dollars.  He tried to tell me it cost more than American Gatorade because it comes from Italy, which doesn't make sense since that is less than half the distance to America.

فلسطين

I got the stamp of death.  That is how my trip started, but it only improved from there.  Also, apparently things are not Middle East-priced in the land of the occupier, so that was not the greatest, but we found some good prices in Khalil.  There were many soldiers, which was definitely the first thing I noticed.  Two soldiers, each with an extremely large gun, entered our minibus to check passports on the way from the border to Jerusalem.  There were soldiers stationed at every corner, so I guess in some ways, it is a little bit safe to be surrounded by machine guns at all times.  The vast majority of the soldiers looked my age, or maybe even younger, which was kind of sad.  Jerusalem was amazing, and we saw a good deal of exciting things.  The Dome of the Rock was gorgeous, and visible from almost everywhere in the city, its gold dome shining in the sun.  St. James Cathedral was also beautiful, and we accidentally slipped inside with an Armenian group, guided in Armenian.  I didn't understand much, and by much I mean anything, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.  We took a bus up to the Mount of Olives, and saw a few churches, but unfortunately the Mary Magdalene church is only open 4 hours a week, and we missed it by about an hour.  The following day, we embarked for Bethlehem, where we had to enter a checkpoint.  There were a lot of Palestinians coming through from the other side to enter Jerusalem, and it seemed as though many of them were interrogated before they were let through.  A lot of women came through, and waited almost 20 minutes for their husbands.  Once we got through, we took a service taxi to Khalil.  Khalil definitely had a different feel than Jerusalem, and because it was Friday, there were even more Israeli soldiers standing around.  It seems to me at least, that this type of situation is not very sustainable, just based on the amount of soldiers needed.  It was very clear which parts were Muslim and which parts were Jewish, as marked by guards, metal detectors, fences, barbed wire, and tall walls.  Some Israeli settlements were actually built above Palestinian homes and shops, and fences had to be placed above the Palestinian level so that Israelis couldn't throw trash and other things at the Palestinians below.  It was humbling to walk through, and to realize the amount of privilege I have as an American.  Usually, a few words in English or a wave of my American passport got me fast-tracked through checkpoints.  Back in Bethlehem, we saw the Church of the Nativity, and went back through the checkpoint to Jerusalem, which closes before dark.  We did some shopping in the Old City, from the multitude of vendors selling things from every end of the spectrum.  There were "Free Palestine" shirts next to "Israeli Defense Force" shirts.  There were "Peace: It's a beautiful thing to see" shirts next to shirts depicting laughing characters next to the words "Peace in the Middle East".  I guess that is just an example of the contradictions existing everywhere in the country.

Monsoon Season in Jordan?

So, a normal week in Jordan for me this week. I got to go to a meeting with Nestle, which yielded some free Nescafe, but no free chocolate. I did get chocolate from the Islamic Finance Convention though!

I also went to the Royal Car Museum, which was exciting.  It makes you think though, of how many priceless cars the king has, while so many Jordanians struggle just to live day to day.  The cars were amazing, but you have to wonder if it is really necessary to own a Rolls Royce tractor.

In other news, we had a monsoon. It rained for about four days, but it stopped in the morning on my way to class. However, by the time I got out of class, it was pouring and the streets had turned into rivers. The manhole covers had been blown from the ground and the manholes were spurting water. One of the main streets in the university had flooded so badly that someone had set up benches to cross it. I waited in line for my turn to cross the street over the benches, which is quite strange now that I think of it, because lines are not implemented in any other way in society here. People were yelling at everyone to so faster, as girls with covered faces wearing long robes and heels tried to cross the benches somewhat unsuccessfully. Eventually I got out of the university and went home for the day, where I couldn’t dry my shoes or my clothes because my brothers couldn’t figure out how to turn on the heat, and of course there are no dryers.

I also took a quick trip to the Dead Sea with my brothers, which was exciting. We clearly went the way everyone in Jordan goes, rather than floating in a marked off area in a nice resort. We parked the car in a nice dirt parking lot, which probably used to be the Dead Sea before the water level went down. We walked past people trying to sell camel rides on camels that looked like they were about to die. We paid a dinar and a half to rent a table for an hour to eat the 1.5 rotisserie chickens that we bought on the way there. We watched little kids swim in the shallow water and some teenagers swimming fully clothed out a bit deeper. Suddenly, we were serenaded by a man with some sort of small guitar-like instrument with one string. He even incorporated our names into the song. Everyone proceeded to stare at us, so that was an experience. It was interesting to see how people treat their children here. I saw a couple babies almost dropped into the sea or onto the rocks as they were handed off to another relative by their arm. American kids are babied for sure. The biggest problem I noticed was the amount of trash in the large dirt parking lot. There were zero trash cans, and trash was everywhere. Because the sea is so salty, all the trash that had made its way into the sea was visible, because it floated. I would love to implement trash cans at the Dead Sea.

I am slowly adjusting to how communal the culture is here, and how it is very anti-individualistic. It is sort of a nice feeling to realize that you belong to something bigger, even if you might have to sacrifice your own wants or needs. For example, in Arabic culture, it is important to eat with your right hand, especially when taking from a communal dish or bowl. The reasons behind this involve the tradition of the right hand being clean and the left hand being used for cleaning and therefore dirty. I tried to ask my brother if you could just switch the hands to make it easier for yourself, as I am left-handed, but he just reinforced the fact that it is not for you, but for the community that this practice continues.

This week, I had to read some disheartening stories for my Contemporary Arab Women Writers class. “Distant View of a Minaret” was the most interesting and thought-provoking for me. The class continues to be depressing and extremely interesting at the same time, but it is important to take everything the professor says with a grain of salt. She tends to make some very sweeping generalizations and this can be dangerous when teaching to a class filled with Western students, some of whom have never studied the subject before. I guess the plight of being a feminist in an Arab country can be a lot at times, and it is hard to not be passionate about such a topic.

High Point: Ghadeer telling me I am the best student in my فصحة class!
Low Point: 4 days of rain

I could see the Holly Land!

So, several exciting things have transpired since my last post. This past weekend, I took a trip to Jerash and Ajloun and Irbid and Umm Qais. It was filled with many Roman ruins, castles, and rocks of all shapes and sizes. Our trip was also characterized by interesting bus trips. Regrettably, I was not involved in the planning of my rather sudden and chaotic leaving for the weekend. We left bright and early on Friday morning on a bus, which only cost 70 cents for the hour long ride to Jerash. Of course, I had to figure out that the old bus station closed and there was a new one and the buses don’t pull up to the signs that say the names of the destinations and that the service taxis try to convince you on the nonexistence of the bus and charge you to drive you there. After that was all straightened out, we embarked on the journey. We easily found the ruins and walked through them for a few hours. It was interesting to just look past the ruins and see the city of Jerash so close by. At the end, we went to see a chariot race, which featured a guy explaining the excitement of the chariots and Roman soldier in awkward English. After finding lunch for a decent price at a nearby restaurant, the waiter told us that we could catch a bus to Ajloun, our next destination, by walking down the main road. Of course there was no bus station or clearly marked stops. Several people along the way tried to invite us into their cars for an overpriced ride to Ajloun. Eventually, a nice little van with no windows in the back pulled up next to us to kindly offer a ride for the low price of ten dinars. Instead of completely ignoring him, as all girls have learned to do by now, the guys decided to negotiate with them and then when they decided to turn down their not so generous offer altogether, the van decided to follow us. I might add that two cars with men in them stopped with the van as it stalked us down the road. Eventually the bus which so many people told us didn’t exist showed up, and we had our ride to Ajloun for 50 cents. Ajloun had a gorgeous castle on the top of a mountain, which we walked through and eventually got a great view of the surrounding city and mountains from the top of the castle. We then pressed on the Irbid for the night, which was mostly unremarkable, but it was a Friday, so most things were closed. In the morning, we headed to Umm Qais, where we found some tombs, more ruins of assorted rocks (including marble and a Roman theater interesting constructed from black rocks), and a great view of the Sea of Galilee, Israel, Mount Hebron, and the Syrian border, as we were in northern Jordan. We hung out for a little while with some lovely Jordanians we met on the bus and a random hiker showed us how to bypass the barbed wire fence for a better view of the Sea of Galilee. But then the road was blocked by cows, so we had to turn back. Overall, an exciting trip, but quite tiring.

Sidenote: It is a wonderful thing to travel with boys. For one thing, the harassment from people on the streets is limited to lewd stares and the occasional honking and whistling or comments I don’t understand anyway. So, it was great for me. But because we have girls, everyone is super helpful and nice to us, which is something the guys aren’t quite used to here. It is really a win-win situation. Also the boys earn the protection of our wonderful awareness skills and they are slowly learning how to ignore people from us.

Sunday, I started my internship with Oxford Business Group. When I got there, they called down to the main desk of the Chamber of Commerce, and within two minutes, two men carried a desk into the room for me and left. When my supervisors took their next smoke break in the hallway, they realized that the men had taken the security guard’s desk and left the guard’s belongings, which were mostly newspapers, on the floor in the hallway. It was definitely interesting, but not completely surprising. I learned a few interesting things from my market research, which involves me searching the archives of Jordanian news sources in English for information relevant to the company. For example, I learned that people eat camels. In the form of burgers. Apparently, they are fat-free and quite healthy, but also expensive. I also learned that the few hours of cold rain slash slush that shut down Amman for two days was referred to in the news as a “blizzard”. The internet decided to stop functioning at 4:50 p.m., which probably wasn’t an issue for anyone else in the building, since most office close at 3:30 p.m.

High point: Getting a 100% on my first Arabic quiz!
Low point: People trying to feel you up on the bus.

عندي أسرة!

So, I moved into my homestay family this week and they are awesome! They are quite multilingual and speak English, Spanish, Arabic, and a bit of French. The mother is from Spain and they have spent a few years in France, as the father was a general in the Jordanian military, and travelled a lot. They have been very nice and welcoming, and maybe a little bit crazy too. I’m not sure what I expected from my couple of days at my homestay family, and this was definitely not it, but it has been great! Today, we drove to السلط and basically climbed down and mountain and then back up to hunt small birds. On our drive, you could see Palestine from across the reservoir. It was very rocky terrain, and I was clearly not dressed for the occasion, but it was well worth the effort. Never before have I shot a gun or ate a little bird, but I guess I will be having quite a few firsts here.

In other news, I have encountered the range of the wonderfully dependable Amman bus system. And when I say system, I mean that there is no system. Sometimes they remember to stop, and sometimes they just don’t. However, it is a nice way to save some نقود.

Interesting Observation 1: Probably about 95% of the women at the university wear hijabs, which is not consistent with the rest of the population. My host sister works at another university and said that she is one of two women on the campus that does not wear a hijab. I’m not sure if this means that more religious or traditional women are educated, or if it has something to do with a more structured personality type that is more likely to pursue higher education, or some other reason altogether. I’ll have to do some investigation.

Interesting Observation 2: If it snows, or it might snow, or someone thinks it might snow, the entire city shuts down. Today, classes were cancelled because they were calling for snow. When my roommate took a taxi back from her interview, her driver exclaimed that the city would be white all week! So, I get excited and start to make plans of hot chocolate making and cake baking and sledding and then I look at the weather. Turns out it is 39 degrees with a high of 51 degrees, with a forecast of rain. Oh well, we still got out of class today, so it is a three day weekend!

High Point: Our snow day!
Low Point: Having 8 am class.

Day Three

Day Three:

Today, I was in my first car accident. It was pretty uneventful. Our coach bus decided to back up in the middle of a busy road and hit the taxi behind it, crushing the taxi’s hood. But not to worry, two “Accident Investigation” vans were on the scene in a jiffy! To add to the five children dying each week from automobile accidents in Jordan, apparently a Jordanian dies every nine minutes from an automobile accident. It is hard to tell why exactly this happens, since Arabs aren’t exactly known for their punctuality. Our director hinted at some other reasons involving a certain amount of “frustration”. The lanes are even made widely (where there are marked lanes, of course) so that a few cars can almost squeeze into the lane. Miraculously, it seems that people do stop for red lights, but all other driving rules go out the window.

We also had a fascinating safety lesson for about two hours. We learned that the secret police are our friends, but that stalkers try to pretend to be the secret police, because they are so ubiquitous. I also learned a thing or two about taxi fare negotiation and legitimacy. I got a small chance tonight, but I can’t wait to put that into play!

Later, we saw a wedding reception ceremony in the hotel of our restaurant. The bride was of course covered, but had on a very large white dress. There were musicians and dancers and guests dancing around the happy couple, which didn’t actually look so happy, and looked very serious.

High Point: Registering for a free internet spot right across the street from campus!
Low Point: Oral Arabic interviews

Week 1

Day One:

Got to Jordan alive. It was raining when I left DC and it was raining in Amman when I arrived. Apparently that is a miracle here. It was a short day since I lost about 7 hours, but long enough to be completely overwhelmed by the amount orientation materials reading to do. More tomorrow after the Dead Sea!

High Point: Having an entire row to myself from DC to Paris.
Low Point: Utter lack of internet that functions.

Day Two:

Today we sat through some not-so-exciting presentations about things that we shouldn’t do and life in Jordan. It turns out that the number two cause of death in Jordan is car accidents, and 5 children die nationally each week from car accidents. It was never mentioned what the number one cause is, but my guess is lung cancer. One of the resident assistants rattled off that in his three years living here, he has been in eight or nine car accidents, but he couldn’t remember. I don’t think my parents were worried about the prospect of me dying in a car accident here, but I guess you never know.

The Dead Sea turned out to be pretty awesome. It is shocking that the water level drops by 92 cm each year, which is a pretty significant amount. With Jordan being the 4th most water poor nation in the world, I guess it is no small wonder that they started collecting all the rain water running down the valleys of the mountains to use, instead of letting it drain into the Dead Sea. Our tour guide mentioned a Dead Sea – Red Sea project to create electricity that works as a collaboration of Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. It is an effort to save the Dead Sea, create an energy source, and foster community growth in the surrounding area. If I actually had internet, I could probably find out some more information, but I guess that will be saved for another day. Even though it was a little cool today, I went in the Dead Sea, which is about has about 33% salinity. I guess I didn’t believe that it was actually possible to “walk on water”, but as it turns out you have to do no work to stay afloat and I don’t think it is possible to drown as you can’t go underwater. Definitely an interesting experience trying to swim there.

High Point: Floating in the Dead Sea
Low Point: Technically, the lowest point in the world is the Dead Sea, so I guess that counts for the low and the high point of my day.