A little over 3 weeks ago I had a pleasant and unexpected adventure. It all started with a phone call from a villager, "Natalie! Where are you? There is another foreigner visiting our village. She speaks English. Do you want to meet her?!!" Because my village is actually getting more exposure as a tourist spot, there are actually quite a few foreigners that pass through. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to meet with them because usually I am at work. But, it was the weekend, and I really was doing nothing but watching re-runs of some TV show. So....why not?
So I walked down to my neigbors house who was hosting this "foreigner who speaks English." I was greeted by German lady with a very pleasant personality. She was here in Jordan collecting data for her reseach. You see, she is a social anthropologist and professor of anthropolgy of some university in Germany. She was collecting information on how tourism affects culture. We chatted a bit and asked the usual introduction questions that western foreigners ask each other "Where are you from?" "What are you doing in Jordan?" "How long are you here?" As opposed to Jordanian introduction questions "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Why Not?" "Would you like to be my father's second wife?" (yes, I have actually been asked this all as part of an introduction, seriously!!).
Anyhoo, as this German lady, Mieke (pronounced Micah) and I got to talking, she was shocked that I had lived in Jordan for almost a year and had not visited Petra or Wadi Rum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Rum. Meike, being the kind and generous person she is, offered to take me there, in her rented car (big deal, since I usually travel everywhere, very slowly, by bus), even though we had just met. Needless to say, I didn't hesitate to accept the offer. So two days later, she picked me up and we headed 5 hours south to Wadi Rum.
As I had gotten to know Meike more (which can't be helped on a 5 hour drive between strangers) I found out that 10 years prior she had come to Jordan and studied Arabic at one of the universities here and then stayed over for a couple more months to work in Petra and live with a Bedouin family. We were on our way to meet a former aquaintance of hers that now lived in the bedouin village of Wadi Rum. This former aquaintance, Ibrahim, used to work in Petra when he was a teenager, trying to convince tourists to ride a donkey. Fun job, eh? Well, now Ibrahim is a struggling tour guide operater and professional camel racer. Yes, camels actually do run, and fast, although very awkwardly.
When Meike and I first arrived to the village of Wadi Rum, we visited a bit with Ibrahim's wife and extended family, ate lunch with them and took a few pictures. We then drove out to the actual desert of Wadi Rum to meet Ibrahim. Ibrahim was a young man of about 25 with a pleasant smile and relaxed nature. He was a gracious host, as most Jordanians are. We sat and drank tea, as is always the custom, and visited for a bit. Then He offered to let Meike and I go for a camel ride. Yes!! I was hoping he would offer. Ibrahim instructed us that because these were his prize racing camels that we'd be riding, that we needed to take off our shoes so as not to harm the aminal in any way.
So I rode barefoot, on a camel, through a desert for over an hour and it was the most amazing experience.
It was just me, Meike and a bedouin boy, riding our camels though this amazing desert/canyon landscape. All you could hear were a few birds chirping and the sound of the camels feet against the sand. It was so peaceful. A soulful kind of peace. The landscape was so beautiful. The contrast of the orange sand against the tall jagged mountain and narrow canyons was breath-taking.
After our camel ride, Meike asked me what I was thinking about during our short journey. I thought about it and replied, "I don't think I was thinking about anything. I think I was just.....Being!" I was actually surprised by my own response, because my mind never stops going, going, going. Meike smiled and replied "Yes, I know. That is how I feel every time I come to the desert. I can just "BE" and all my worries and stress disapear and I think about nothing. I am happiest when I am here."
By then, it was getting dark and Ibrahim and his group of bedouin men started to set up camp and make dinner. While our dinner of rice and lamb was cooking, we sat around the camp fire, watching the sun set and drinking tea. As the night wore on, other groups of bedouin men came and shared our campfire and conversation and exchanged laughs and dinner, and, of course, drank more tea (otherwise, jokingly known as bedouin whiskey). The fire started to die down to a warm glow and the conversation became softer. Meike and I laid on our backs attempting to find constellations in the midnight sky and digging our toes into the beach-like soft sand. That amazing sky!! With billions and billions of mysterious twinkling stars. Then finally off to bed, in my sleepingbag, on that soft sand in the company of a warm fire, bedouins and of course, the camels:)
Wow and Wow!! I was so pleasantly surprised at the experience I had in Wadi Rum. Pure joy. And I am not talking about happiness. I am talking about Joy. That combined feeling of peace, happiness, calmness, assuredness all mixed into one. Well, at least that is my definition of Joy, and it is so refreshing to feel that special feeling from time to time.
The next morning, Meike and I said our "thank you's" and "good-byes" and head on our way....towards Petra. Petra was short and sweet trip because we only had a half day but I hope to make it back again soon to really explore it more. We didn't arrive in Petra until almost noon and then Meike sought out some old friends to chat with and I went off and explored Petra on my own for the next 4 hours....not nearly enough time.
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| Entrance to Petra |
I decided to do the longest hike, up to the Monestary and then the top of the Petra. There must have been seriously a thousand steps up to the top with just as many shop keepers trying to sell you handmade trinkets in perfect English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and every other western language. I stopped to rest and chat with shopkeepers along the way, who were always pleasantly surprised I could speak their language and then always disappointed that I didn't have any money on me to buy their trinkets.
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| Shop Girl who insisted that the this girl in my guide book was her sister |
I finally arrived at the Monastary, with only a few other tourists (advantage of going during the off-season). It was so quiet, beautiful and awe-inspiring what these people created from stone. An entire civilzation literally carved out a city from stone and made it an amazing trade post for centuries. Wow!
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| The Treasury |
I ended up climbing to the very top peak and spending some peaceful alone time listening to the wind and the echos of bedouins herding their goats through the canyon. And just smiling inside. Much needed personal time.
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| The Top of The World |
What a nice trip. And I made a wonderful friend, Meike, in the process. A wonderful down-to-earth person with a wealth of knowledge and a love for people. It was an unforgettable experience.
The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or of the Peace Corps
