June 18, 2011: Bedouins and the Dead Sea

Instead of trying to catch up on the last couple days, I’m starting with today. Will try to go back and catch up later. We got up bright and early today, and left the hotel at 7:30AM. It’s totally worth it, though - it’s been a kick-ass day! We drove to the South of Jordan, to an area called Badia to visit a Bedouin camp that houses a women’s foundation funded by microloans. On the way, we drove by the Dead Sea. Along the way, we saw donkeys, camels, sheep, goats, cute Bedouin kids who ran in from the fields to say hi to our tour bus, and Lot’s wife. Yes, you read that correctly - Lot's wife, who is now, of course, a pillar of salt. Amy (one of the other people from the seminar) thought that someone needed their money back because the sculptor did a bad job. I had to explain to her that it had been thousands of years, so much of the detail had likely eroded away. I’m not sure she bought it. But dude, who would lie about that?

Donkeys!

Camels

On the bus - Bedouin kids with Rula (our fearless leader)

Lot's wife (for reals! not sure what the thing on the right is, though...)

Then we stopped briefly to look out at the Dead Sea - it's so awesome!

Dead Sea. Why can't I figure out how to rotate this?! Grrrr.

Me, Barb, and Kay

The group

Then we arrived at the Bedouin camp/ women's collective, where the women made and sold handicrafts (e.g., candles, embroidery, rugs), grew and sold organic thyme, and learned computer skills. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the sheikh of the village. Rula (who organized the seminar and gave a great talk yesterday) translated for us. He was very welcoming, and explained how they value their women. He seemed to think that the collective was a good thing. But they segregate by gender a lot - there were separate sections of the tent for women and men. And the men eat first. That said, it was a very different feel than I expected when I first heard that. I was so in love with the people there (well, especially the kids). And I connected more with the women than the men, who were a rather self-contained group. 

I felt very welcome, and after we left, I learned that we were the first foreigners that the kids (and possibly some [many?] of the adults had seen). The great tent in which we were greeted was just for us (and future visitors). We were given coffee (with tons of cardamom - yum!). They give you just a couple sips, then dip the cup in water, then fill it up for the next person. Different concepts of disease control... Well, anyway, I was first to drink, so I didn't worry much (and it's actually a couple days later that I'm finishing this post, so I am apparently not deathly ill so far). Then we were given tea (hot, even though it was pretty hot out) made with their local thyme - very sweet and really yummy. We all had our own glasses for that. Then we went to look at the thyme farm. Gotta get ready now, so more later after I post a bunch of pictures to go with what I just wrote.

June 15, 2011: First Day, Part 1

Today, Barb, Kay, and I went to Ajloun Castle and the Roman ruins at Jerash. We had decided that for these two days that we have before the seminar we wanted to have quick-ish day trips - nothing rigorous. So after breakfast (huge selection, and waaay better than the nunnery food - if you don’t know about the nunnery, ask me sometime) we met our driver and were on our way.

We arrived at Ajloun Castle (see above), and had a lovely view overlooking the area. Somewhere near this nearby hill, the Prophet Elijah was born (see below).

The castle is about 830 years old, and has a pretty interesting history. It has been a castle, with spots to dump boiling oil on people (see below - I guess they poured the oil between the stones above the doorway) and arrow slits. Our guide apparently was some published professor of archeology. Will have to check on that when I have time to post more. Oh, and by the way - internet in my room would cost about $25 a day!!! So I am using the business center when I get the chance. Apparently that is free. We’ll see... (argh - it changed fonts! no time to figure out how to fix it - hopefully you will survive.)

June 14, 2011: On My Way and Arrival

In 2.5 hours, I’ll be in Amman! That will be 22 hours since I left my house. It’s been fine, despite two out of three flights being delayed. Well, and I guess the third was, too, because they held the plane for me and the other people on my flight. We were rushed through the Amsterdam airport directly to our plane. I felt pretty fancy when there was someone waiting with a sign intended for me. And I am **SOOOOO** glad I made my flight!!!

Saw a group of high school students wearing matching neon yellow shirts, complete with cute nicknames on the back. The one I remember said something like “Love God” (not a suggestion, more like a title). Think we should do this for our study abroad, but we could also have neon green so we’d cover both our school colors. I mean, how else are we supposed to keep track of each other, if not with neon shirts???? Btw, I’m open to suggestions on what nickname I should put on my shirt. 

My seatmate on the Minneapolis to Amsterdam flight was pretty awesome. Quite the world traveler, full of energy, probably in her mid-60s. She had just spent five weeks traveling in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, and was on her way home to Bristol (“It’s in England,” she says. “Hey, I’m not *that* dumb of an American!” I say). She had gone rafting for a week in the Grand Canyon. She lived for a while in various parts of the Middle East, including Jordan. She’d gone hiking in Slovakia and then spent time in Budapest. We had a good time.

-----

Arrival

As per usual, my luggage did not arrive with me. Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, but on two out of my last four international trips, my luggage has not been there when I landed - 50% is not a great success rate. Fortunately, I had packed an outfit in my carry-on. I’m just going to assume that the connection was too tight, and that my bag didn’t make it to the last airplane. Hopefully it will show up soon.

Met two people who will also be attending the seminar: Barb Johnson and Kay Hamlin. We shared a car to the hotel (thanks, Barb!!) and checked into our rooms. We were too tired to do anything besides set up our tours for the next two days, so once that was done, we headed up to our rooms. The rooms are pretty nice - I had a smoking room for the first night, but moved to a non-smoking room for the rest of my stay - the non-smoking room is nicer. :)

And now for my next trip: The continuing adventures of Maya in the Middle East

On Monday, I'll be headed off to Amman, Jordan for two weeks!!

I'll be attending an International Faculty Development Seminar sponsored by CIEE (they run a bunch of study abroad programs). The seminar is called "Middle Eastern Women: Tradition, Development, and Change," and you can read more about it here. There will be 14 of us from various universities across the US. I was supposed to be traveling there with my best friend, Rebecca, but due to annoying circumstances, she can't be there. :(

Once again, I'm travelling to the Middle East in order to build up my curriculum. I'll be gathering info to include in my gender courses (and hopefully some for my child courses). In addition, I'll be looking for info and locations to include in a gender-focused study abroad trip. Rebecca and I will lead a 2-ish-week trip to Jordan next summer, which will be preceded by a course on gender in the Middle East. It's going to rock. You should totally sign up for our trip. Seriously, you won't believe how awesome it's going to be.

For example, I'll be heading over to Sodom to check it out. Now, how can you find a place with a more gendered history? Sodom is not all about homosexuality, although of course that's part of it. I'll admit, I haven't read the Bible yet, but I *have* read Wiki, and as we all know, Wiki is *never* wrong. (For those of you who don't know me well, that was sarcasm.) So there are issues of gender and power over women in this story as well - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah#Judgement. Really, letting people do as they may to your virgin daughters is better than those people having gay sex? Well, I will refrain from further comment on that until I have read the relevant literature. Until then, I'll just be excited that I get to visit Sodom, since I never really thought of that as a real place that could actually be visited.

I have a ton of stuff to do before I leave - hemming stuff (ah, the joys of being short!), packing, posting material for my web class, planting the plants I have bought so they don't die while I'm gone... so, back to work for now. :)

Off to Turkey

Soooooo... yeah. They have kept us busy and I haven't had time to update this. Will try to write something substantive soon. Right now we are about to get on the bus to the airport to go to Turkey. :)

I heart snow...

So. Our flight was delayed out of Green Bay, so we missed our connection in Mpls. So I am in a hotel by the Mall of America now, instead of being in Israel. We will fly to Detroit this afternoon, then to JFK, then to Tel Aviv. Hopefully it all goes well, and we don't miss any more connections. Wish us luck!

Israel & Turkey

I'm off to Israel and Turkey tomorrow, courtesy of a Title VI grant awarded to NMU by the US Dept of Education. The goal is to internationalize the curriculum. I'll be traveling with 13 other NMU professors, trying to find material to incorporate into our classes. In addition, my friend Rebecca & I are working on creating a gender-related study abroad trip to somewhere in the Middle East. Tomorrow will be a fabulous day of traveling - drive to Green Bay, fly to Minneapolis, fly to JFK, fly to Tel Aviv. I think we're going straight to Jerusalem for some sort of walking tour once we arrive. Will post when I have internet access! :)