Things in Jordan have gotten a lot more interesting. For starters, I spent last week in the Badia (tribal, rural area) of Jordan. How different life can be sometimes. I thought Amman was so different from Orlando? Try Al-Rajif from Amman from Orlando. The culture of Al-Rajif is conservative and tribal. The people of the town hold to old traditions and, in a lot of ways, the old ways of life. I got to visit a nomadic family that still herds their sheep and goats right outside of the town. They live in a tent made of goat hair and thick blanket material and who pack up every winter and move farther down the mountain side to keep warm. Ways of lives we learn about in school, how people lived in the beginning of days thousands, hundreds of thousands, years ago. And knowing that my mind, my millennial brain could only handle being in a small rural town in Jordan for a week before going mad was disappointing to me, I expect more from myself. But knowing and seeing what I have, I know now that with some effort and a little patience, I can.
What mattered to me about that experience was not only that it was mandatory, but that it taught me so much about myself. Spending a week in the rural town, not being allowed outside without a male escort definitely pushed me to my limit, but I did it and now I know how to do it again. This who trip is about studying the world, studying a different way of life and learning that I am stronger than I think I am.
On the extreme downside, I am now sick. The children aren’t really hygienic when it comes to covering their mouth when they cough or nose when they sneeze. So getting coughed and sneezed on/around for 6 days it was bound to catch up to me. I am hoping that this cold or whatever virus this is goes away soon because in a week from now we leave for Dubai! That, I cannot wait for and no sickness is going to slow down that experience for me.
After returning from the Badia homestay we left to spend the day at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth and the saltiest body of water. It was a rejuvenation of group morale after some pretty intense weeks of class and the excursion to the Refugee Camp and Badia (the whole group really struggled through). Spending the day in the Dead Sea and poolside at a hotel was what we all needed to keep ourselves going for the next couple months that are sure to be intense as well.
This SIT program has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities in my future, most of which might have little to do with the Middle East directly. But the understandings and lessons, friends and networks, research and studies I have gained here will no doubt propel whatever future I have set out.