Karak - Think Crusaders, Muslims, and a whole lot of something

Since I can't remember anything else really worth mentioning since Wadi Mujib, I have thus decided to move on to the recent trip to Karak, Petra, and Wadi Rum. Since I know I can be a little long winded they will be split up into their perspective days and events, more or less, starting with the first event, Kerak.

Now, I know what you are all thinking...What is a Karak? And can I eat that? Well, you would be wrong in wondering that, mostly because Karak is an old Crusader Castle, and unless you are a "rock eater" from the Never Ending Story I highly doubt that you would want to be eating any of that. Karak is located in Southern Jordan on the Kings Highway. The Kings highway was the ancient highway that essentially connected everything in the region, and through which most of the spice and other trade routes went through, and which connected Egypt to Syria and Jerusalem to the rest of the Middle East.

The Castle was built by the Crusaders following the capturing of Jerusalem, and served as the capital for crusaders in the area, who would then travel to other districts of the area from there. The castle belonged to a Crusader of the time Renauld de Chatillon, who was in a nut shell, a bad guy. He enjoyed torturing Muslims, and throwing prisoners off the walls down into the valleys some 450 m (150 ft) below. More over, when Saladin began his campaign against the Crusaders to retake Jerusalem, he made a stop on his way to defeat Renauld and essentially pull a Queen of Hearts, and lopped off his head. Renauld was the only crusader leader who received that type of ending at the hands of the Muslims.

Essentially the castle served as a base for travel and trade, as well as defense and offense both during and after the crusaders. Today it is one of the more famous crusader castles remaining, and is even featured on the movie Kingdom of Heaven.

Wadi Mujib, Its like Zions. Only in Jordan.

Since I have been really lazy in my posts recently, I have decided to back track some and tell you about some of the other things that have happened in the last month or so. Thus, let us begin with Wadi Mujib. Wadi in Arabic means canyon, more or less, and more specifically it means a canyon made by erosion from water. This would be like the canyons in Zions, the Grand Canyon, and most other canyons that we know of in the US. Since Wadi Mujib is one of these types of canyons, the entire area is covered with water, and the water that is in the Wadi runs out in to the Dead Sea. If you remember from my previous post about how Utah and Jordan then you should know what's coming next...yes, this is just like the Narrows in Zions National Park.

Just like Zions, which is a great park in Southern Utah, and located in the desert surrounded by canyons and mountains etc. Wadi Mujib is the same, granted it is somewhat smaller. Like the Narrows in Zions, the whole draw of Wadi Mujib is that fact that you can hike through a river up some water falls and through a canyon all at the same time while staying cool and beating the desert heat. However, unlike the water in the Narrows which is super cold and snow run off, Wadi Mujib's river is rather warm and results from the rainy season in Jordan (not that that really exists here, since I have only seen it rain once).

The trip to Wadi Mujib is about an hour and a half south of Amman, and is located right on the edge of dead sea. Essentially you must drive along the dead sea in order to reach the small canyon that houses the river. Once you arrive at the area, you are greeted by a small welcoming center which houses somewhere between 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 flies all of which like to fly into your eyes, ears, mouth and nose (just like the little game for kids), where you are given a guide if you so desire to lead you through the canyon and up the river (granted you don't really need one unless you decide to do the more advanced trails that involve rock climbing). We met our guide, who initially tried to tell us we didn't have one, even though we had reserved one and put money down, and after a lot of coercion we finally were able to get him to stop being lazy and take us. If you ask me this was the first mistake of the day, but we needed a guide per BYU rules.

With our guide in front of us we all grabbed our life jackets to begin walking through ankle deep river water, for fear that someone might drown not knowing how to swim, since we live in a desert and headed for the trail up the canyon. The canyon (wadi) itself was rather beautiful, the rock like most of Southern Utah is red rock, and as you walk up the river you are able to see the different levels where the water used to run, as well as the way the river carved through the rock over thousands of years. Walking through the river is relatively fun, and if you are not like me, carrying a digital camera along with a few other things which you don't want to soak in the river, then it is really fun to wallow around in the shallow water and try to float for a few feet before becoming a beached whale on a small rock, or sand bank in the middle of the river.

Further up the river you reach a series of small waterfalls which are about 8 feet tall or so, which require some scrambling up of boulders with the aid of a rope or "ladder" mechanism to aide in moving against the "raw power" of the water flowing down the boulders. All in all, very fun, especially if you are carrying a camera, because it adds a new element of difficulty and skill in order to make it up the waterfall without getting soaked. In most cases I through the bag behind me, but the strap in my teeth and scrambled up the rock hoping with all hope that I would not slip smash my face into the rocks like many of the students before me, wash down the rock and into the pool of water below me drenching not only myself but potentially my camera as well. After making it to the top of about 3 or 4 waterfalls you reach the main waterfall of the trail which is really quite nice and maybe 20-30 feet tall.

It was here that the troubles began, seeing as how our guide was rather ambitious to return to his cushy seat back at the welcome both, after about 10 mins max, he ordered everyone from our group start heading down back to the opening of the canyon, which to me was rather ridiculous seeing as how we were paying for the experience, we should be able to determine how much time we spend at the end of the trail. So before I had time to remove my camera from the garbage bad and ziplock bag I was using to waterproof my camera and take a picture of the water fall, I had to begin the precarious descent back down the same water falls back to the mouth of the canyon. This proved to be more difficult than I imagined, seeing as how the haste of our guide resulted in us jumping down the waterfalls into the small pools at the base of each one. This required me to get to the top of the fall, and then throw all of my equipment down to the people before me and hope that they could catch my equipment without dropping it into the water. To my surprise and great relief I made it down all the waterfalls without soaking, dropping, or even remotely getting my camera equipment near the water.

On the short walk back down the river to the mouth of the canyon, and along a relatively level area I managed to drop my entire camera bag, camera, and equipment from off my shoulder into the river. Go figure, just when you think you are home free, something like that always has to happen. However, due to my incredulous cat like reflexes, I was able to grab the bag within a second of dropping into the water, pulling it out with only the pockets full of water. Upon opening the contents of my bag I discovered that no water had made it into the bag, and even more so, no water had penetrated my garbage or ziplock bags, preserving my camera in once piece, and not forcing me to curse the heavens and the stars for their wicked alignment against me that day.

The incident with my camera made me think of a similar accident with my brother and sister-in-law a few years back where they lost there camera to a climbing accident. My brother was wearing their point and shoot digital camera on his belt, while climbing up the cables of Half Dome in Yosemite, shortly before my mission. About half way up the cables, the button snap which was holding the bag on his belt unsnapped dropping the camera, which then proceeded to go head over heels bouncing down the mountain until it was launched into the sky and off a cliff and dropped about a thousand+ feet to its death. However, to make their sad story happy, they did find the camera which enabled them to retrieve the shattered pieces of their camera, and their intact memory card, preserving their memories of the trip.

The hunt for green Ocotober

During the weekend my roommates and I found that we had a bit of free time with nothing to do so we decided that we would go out exploring. One of my roommates Matt Martin had noticed a day earlier or so that there was a large patch of green forest near to where we live, and since we live in a desert, he really wanted to go and find it and see where it was. We decided that we would go along with him just to check things out, and also to simply get out of the apartment. The last couple of weekends I have gone on TV/Movie watching binges, where I literally didn't leave the apartment for about 48 hours straight, so breaking with tradition I decided I would go as well.

After about 5 minutes of walking from our apartment, we found what was the wooded area. It turned out it was just the southern part of the University of Jordan, that we walk by almost daily on our way to speak with our friends and the other students at the University. It was pretty anti-climatic, but we did find a few mounds of what can only be assumed were zombie squirrels of moles or something, and a couple of large shoulder blades, probably from a donkey that had died or something. Seeing as how the adventure had become very anti-climatic and lasted for an extremely short amount of time, we decided to turn around and walk back home by way of the main road going through the University.

Matt Found him some Grass

As we reached the main road, we came up to the Jet that sits next to the road and were on our way down the road when Garrett Root noticed something of intrigue. Just past the jet and slightly further back from the road was a large old locomotive from the early 1900's (give or take). Seeing, as how our forest search had been extremely unprofitable we went over to explore the next best thing, and old Train car.

It turned out to be pretty interesting, especially since we were able to open up just about everything on it, and since, my two roommates, having no sense of limits decided to open up everything that they could find, leading to all sorts of interesting treasures, such as: garbage, pants, shoes, and things similar to that. After about a half hour or so of scrambling all over this locomotive, and Matt and Garrett going on and on about how much this was like being in Back to the Future III, we left our little discovery and headed for greener pastures near the south gate of the university. It was here that Matt and Garrett both found a new love, in one of the only patches of grass that exists in Jordan.

 

 

What's in a Grade? A grade by any other number would still be just as bad...

The other day while I was at the University of Jordan I learned a very interesting fact about the university. That fact is that the university, which is supposed to be the "best" university in the country has decided to change the way that grades are evaluated. It seems that too many of the students are getting bad grades and bad grade point averages such as 2.0, 2.3, 2.5 etc. Moreover, the university feels that job opportunities for graduating students has greatly declined in comparison with some of the private universities within the country. As a result, and in an effort to fix the situation, the university has decided to change the grade scale so that a 2.3 is now really really really high, as opposed to a 4.0. In my mind this doesn't really seem to solve the issue at hand, and demonstrates the way that Arabs tend to view problems.

In general it seems that when there is a problem in the Middle East, whether it is within society, the government, or some other organization, the largest hindrance to the problem is the fact that they don't actually focus on the real problem, rather they focus on the easiest solution, which is usually not related in any way and tends to focus on things that don't need fixing. The grades issue is just one of those examples. Other examples can be seen in the way Arabs ignore social issues, i.e. abuse, education, health, or in the way that the governments go about fixing their issues, i.e.: by releasing political prisoners, or making worthless changes to a constitution that has no influence on the government, or re-organizing the representatives of the people, when the king can simply ignore, remove, or veto any decisions or members that he feels like at a future time, (in most cases the representatives aren't even in power long enough to make a real lasting difference, thus keeping a status quo while holding up appearances of change). All in all, I feel that the biggest problem that Arabs face with their future is the relative smoke and shadows approach to all problems. This however, does seem to be changing and evolving more with the advent of the internet and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook which is helping to educate as well as provide a forum for political and social debate concerning major issues. Hopefully, with the rising generations, which will have lived through the Arab spring, we will see a change in approach to the problems, and an increased awareness with open dialogue approach to solving the issues in their country's.

Raseifa...Its like Tijuana. Enough Said.

This was looking out over the country side of Raseifa

Seeing as how it is that time of week again, where there isn't any pressing assignments or things to be studied, I figured I would write another post for people to read. As a bit of a background, I've decided that first it is important to understand a few things about Jordan. In case I didn't say this already, and even if I did it serves telling it again; it is that Jordan for all intents and purposes to me is a mixture of Utah and Mexico. Here are a list of the reasons:

UTAH AND JORDAN
Both are located in desert climates
Both have a colder northern area, and a hot dry area to the south
Both have red soil in abundance, which also tends to be located within the south
Both are heavily populated with overly religious people, who love their God (though minorities do exist)
Both have a dead sea (Salt Lake and Dead Sea) connected by a dirty river called the river Jordan which has its head waters located in a living lake (Utah Lake and Sea of Galilee).
The weather is only moderately hot in the summer, and surprisingly comfortable in the winter.
Both take about 6 hours to drive from the north to the south of the area.


MEXICO i.e. Mexicans and their Culture AND JORDAN
Both will help a brother out even if they hate your guts, because they have to save face.
Both insist that there is always more food than can possibly be consumed at parties, dinners, and of course on your plate.
Both love to just sit there and talk for hours and hours and hours and hours.
If you don't contact friends and family regularly, i.e. almost daily, then it is assumed you must be angry at them.
It is better to say yes, and then not do it, than to say no and be telling the truth.
Food incorporates hands, lots of meat and rice, and flat bread.
They are Brown, and surprisingly there are lots of White ones mixed in there too.
They love to drive by slowly in their supped up cars and rev their engines to look cool. (That's how I really figured out that Latins are from ME descent).

Best Fake Tree Ever

Anyways with that said let me tell you about Raseifa, and why I happened to go there. Last Friday, I ended up going there with my friend Sami al-Jamal who is part of my Arabic program, even though he is Arab, along with Jenni Boyle, and Garret Root. Essentially, Sami grew up in Raseifa when he was little, before he moved to America with his mom, who is American. As a result we went to go and visit his Aunt and Uncle as well as to see where he grew up. It was kinda like a returning to roots trip for him. The trip was rather interesting and full of all sorts of adventures.

The first problem we encountered was trying to find a bus out to the city to begin with. Normally, it is really easy to find a bus, however, seeing as how it was Friday, the holy day for Muslims, basically none of the normal buses were running. So after a few taxi trips, several phone calls to Sami's Uncle, and about 6 JD later we finally took a Taxi all the way out to the city. When we arrived there, Sami basically told us that Raseifa was a crap hole and just a dirty nasty city. To which I say...I agree, somewhat. It reminded me of Tijuana, and my trip there prior to my senior year with a "group of youth and their fathers," since the church doesn't allow "Church" trips outside of the state to occur. Basically, as you looked down the streets you saw lots of dirt, lots of garbage, lots of graffiti, and lots of sewage. Additionally, you smelt lots of sewage, raw sun baked expired garbage, and dogs (which is actually the only place I have seen any stray dogs in the whole country, since everywhere else it is just cats).

Jenni and Garret

Ma'loubeh

Our first stop after arriving in Raseifa was to visit Sami's father house, which at the time was being occupied by someone else...since his father is in one of the Gulf states at the moment. Then from there we hopped in his uncle's car and drove up the road to his Aunt and Uncle's home, where we met his cousins and were served Ma'loubeh, made by his aunt. I have to say that was by far the best meal I have had the entire time I have been in Jordan, and probably the most substantial one yet. Ma'loubeh is basically a rice, chicken, onion, and few other things dish. Basically they cook all the stuff separate from the chicken, and then they flip it over on top of the chicken and then serve it on a giant platter. It is basically what it looks like...golden deliciousness.

This is one of the trucks used for transporting water all over Jordan

This is also a Water Truck

Took this from a moving car, as we made a U-Turn, was pretty happy with the results

Sami at his Grandmother's Grave, Posing with his G-Ma

Muslims are buried above ground

Following dinner, conversation started between Sami and his family, along with Jenni pitching in while Garret and I basically sat back and watched. I personally felt no need to force myself into a family discussion, and seeing as how this was for Sami to visit his family, I saw no reason to jump in. After some conversation, Sami and his Uncle decided that they were gonna go and see where Sami's grandmother was buried, so we went along for the ride, after which, we then toured through the rest of the city. I'm pretty sure that Sami's uncle was determined to show Sami that Raseifa was not just some ghetto city on the outskirts of Amman, but rather, that it was a beautiful countryside city. Essentially, we were taken all over the city, through alleys, up on the hill side, and look out points, all to help show Sami that Raseifa was not the crap hole that he believed it to be. After all was said and done, I would have to say that I decided that there were some things that were really nice about the city, despite all of the uninviting nuances of the city.

Life in Springville

It has almost been 6 weeks since I moved in with the Juarez, who practically are family.   They have been so wonderful and sweet.  Norma and Alex have all girls and they call me "tia." The eldest, decided to give up her room, so I would be more comfortable.  This is just one example of the many ways they show me they love us (baby and I).
 So the room I sleep in is very PINK!  with a pink chair and rugs and it is so girly.  It is a cute room that is perfect for my niece, but I'm not so sure about me.

So what has happened since my last post:

-new baby purchases
-Surprise Baby shower from my ZUMBA ladies
-Governer's Health Summitt Panelist
-General Conference and spending time with family
-zumba toning
-birthday parties

-lots of movement from our little boy

For those of you wondering, I have had a very easy pregnancy so far.  I didn't get much morning sickness,  I feel pretty good, I am still sleeping ok. I am still doing Zumba ®, and working.  I don't have any particular cravings, although I wish I did sometimes.  It would be easier to know what to eat.  He is growing for sure and making sure mom is aware of him.  He loves the right side of my belly and I'm just waiting to see his hand or feet pushing against my stomach.  In all I love having him inside me and keeping me company while daddy is away.  We can't wait for him to get home, especially if he is bringing us gifts.