Salty enough for ya?
Today I got to go to the Dead Sea. It was sooo neat to be in such a historic and unique place-it is the lowest point on earth outside of the ocean. Indeed you cannot sink as the water is around 30% salt. It also happens to be a great picnic spot and I went with Alex’s sponsor family: Dr. Ahmed & Intisaar and their three kids, Zaid, Zain, and Yazid. Since it is winter the temperature was probably in the high 60s-just warm enough so that you aren’t cold. Apparently it gets unbelievably hot in the summer and is often quite crowded. Today was pleasant and relaxed, though.
The tradition is to cover oneself with the dense clay found in the shallows, which is attributed with many healing properties. It is dark grey and you let it dry before washing it off in the fresh water showers. I followed the protocol and now my skin is silky smooth, though still a bit saltier than usual. Alex claims that at the current rate of inflow the Sea is expected to have completely evaporated by 2050 so this was probably once-in-a-lifetime. I imagine that the local municipalities will realize they make far more money from tourism than from the agriculture in the valley above which currently diverts much of the water, so hopefully the Sea will persist longer into the future than predicted.
My Arabic lessons (from Alex) are going slowly but I am able to sound out many signs in a rough fashion and I am getting more of the polite conversation type of stuff down. This is far, far harder than Spanish, that’s for sure.
Yesterday Alex and I went downtown to see the sights and find a spatula (more challenging than you’d think if you don’t know the word for it). One thing that we take for granted so much in the US is air quality, both indoor and out. LA had nothing on pollution and a few minutes out on the street leave your eyes burning while there is little respite inside, since all the men smoke constantly, indoors as often as out. We stopped into a little café to get some kinneffa (a dessert) and it was miraculously smoke free inside. Kineffa is a difficult-to-describe dessert that seems to be made up of sweet crumbly stuff, melted mild cheese, and crushed pistachios. It’s super tasty but I have no idea if it’s available in the States.
Later Alex and I stopped by one of the many bootleg DVD vendors. This guy had a particularly good selection and we bought “The Incredibles” (among other things), which I don’t think has even been released on DVD in the US yet, which isn’t particularly surprising. It was a totally hilarious movie and I recommend it to all.
So I’m enjoying Jordan, strange as it is. I’m definitely having some difficulty adjusting to the gender dynamics here. In the US we like to talk about diversity but people usually mean racial diversity and we are exposed to relatively little religious diversity. Here there is such a spectrum of what it means to be Muslim and of course many other religions thrown into the mix. Overall, though, I have to say that I am glad to be a woman in a Western-type country. Here it is difficult to function in public as a woman and this would be nearly impossible if I didn’t have my brother to stick up for me, deal with strangers, and basically accompany me everywhere I go. However, it was fun to be at the beach today where kids are just kids and people are just people-I feel like if it weren’t for the hijabs (head scarves) and argillahs (tobacco hookahs) I could have been anywhere in the world. Take care and write me comments!
The tradition is to cover oneself with the dense clay found in the shallows, which is attributed with many healing properties. It is dark grey and you let it dry before washing it off in the fresh water showers. I followed the protocol and now my skin is silky smooth, though still a bit saltier than usual. Alex claims that at the current rate of inflow the Sea is expected to have completely evaporated by 2050 so this was probably once-in-a-lifetime. I imagine that the local municipalities will realize they make far more money from tourism than from the agriculture in the valley above which currently diverts much of the water, so hopefully the Sea will persist longer into the future than predicted.
My Arabic lessons (from Alex) are going slowly but I am able to sound out many signs in a rough fashion and I am getting more of the polite conversation type of stuff down. This is far, far harder than Spanish, that’s for sure.
Yesterday Alex and I went downtown to see the sights and find a spatula (more challenging than you’d think if you don’t know the word for it). One thing that we take for granted so much in the US is air quality, both indoor and out. LA had nothing on pollution and a few minutes out on the street leave your eyes burning while there is little respite inside, since all the men smoke constantly, indoors as often as out. We stopped into a little café to get some kinneffa (a dessert) and it was miraculously smoke free inside. Kineffa is a difficult-to-describe dessert that seems to be made up of sweet crumbly stuff, melted mild cheese, and crushed pistachios. It’s super tasty but I have no idea if it’s available in the States.
Later Alex and I stopped by one of the many bootleg DVD vendors. This guy had a particularly good selection and we bought “The Incredibles” (among other things), which I don’t think has even been released on DVD in the US yet, which isn’t particularly surprising. It was a totally hilarious movie and I recommend it to all.
So I’m enjoying Jordan, strange as it is. I’m definitely having some difficulty adjusting to the gender dynamics here. In the US we like to talk about diversity but people usually mean racial diversity and we are exposed to relatively little religious diversity. Here there is such a spectrum of what it means to be Muslim and of course many other religions thrown into the mix. Overall, though, I have to say that I am glad to be a woman in a Western-type country. Here it is difficult to function in public as a woman and this would be nearly impossible if I didn’t have my brother to stick up for me, deal with strangers, and basically accompany me everywhere I go. However, it was fun to be at the beach today where kids are just kids and people are just people-I feel like if it weren’t for the hijabs (head scarves) and argillahs (tobacco hookahs) I could have been anywhere in the world. Take care and write me comments!