Jordan 2009: Jordan is Beautiful

We've done so many amazing things and met so many cool people I don't even know where to start! They've been keeping us very busy every day so it's hard to find time to connect with loved ones back home while also uploading pictures and writing in our journals. For some reason I can't upload large numbers of pictures to Facebook (Dr. King is having the same problem but Ashley and Kaitlyn are not and Bonnie doesn't have Facebook) so I have to use the simple uploader which can only upload 5 at a time and takes quite a while here. Yet I'm slowly but surely getting them on.

So far we've been treated with the utmost respect and practically waited on for everything. We've enjoyed much delicious food and the good company of many men and finally some women yesterday at Buthina's. I really enjoyed our visit yesterday and find her family extremely friendly and honest. Her nieces and nephews are very beautiful; they have such big brown eyes and long eyelashes!

I hope we get to spend some more time with them. A couple of us made a little mishap that we had actually read about but forgotten. In Jordanian culture, when a guest admires a specific item in a host's home the host is obliged to give it to the guest and if they do not it reflects badly on them. I told them that I loved the 3 wooden elephant statues sitting on a ledge in their home, and Buthina promptly said "if you like them you can take them" to which I responded with several adamant "no's."

She didn't speak of it again because I think she thought that I wouldn't have known (even though I did and realized my mistake immediately afterwards!) and it didn't seem like anyone else had noticed. Later in the night we all complimented her beautiful sandals as well and she again offered them up. It's so hard t0 remember not to compliment things when I'm so used to always speaking up when I like someone's clothing or possessions. I make it a point to do that since I love it when people do it to me. But this is just one of the many customs that show how generous and selfless their culture is. As Dr. King mentioned we all donned headscarves for a while and each of us was given an Arabic name by Buthina's mother. Mine is Ammerr, meaning moon. I believe she thought my blue eyes looked like moons. I'm very happy with it because I've always felt an affinity for the sky and love nighttime. Also the moon and star is the Islamic holy symbol so I feel very honored. I asked her brother Tarek if he could write it in Arabic and he did along with my real name. I was pumped! It was definitely a well-spent day.

Every day has been so eventful and fun that it would probably take a book to explain everything here. In a nutshell we've been to a couple restaurants all with delicious food and good people (even when we eat at TTU it seems like we're in a restaurant because the food is so good), witnessed the ceremony Dr. King blogged about, visited the guest house and gift shop of the Dana wildlife reserve, obviously visited with Buthina's family, and today we went to a stunning hot spring bath called Affra and were able to soak in privacy and so were able to wear bathing suits which felt great! It was definitely a bit hot for me and took some getting used to but it felt good to get wet on such a hot day and the water's healing properties have definitely helped some skin things I have. After the baths we went to a very special waterfall and ate some luscious watermelon. It was perfect after the hot sun and hot baths. We got the impression that it was not a place tourists would know about. And finally after that we were graciously hosted by a bedouin family and were allowed to take many photos of and with their goats, sheep, camels, and horses and I got the privilege of riding a horse. Afterwards we enjoyed some tasty homemade bread dipped in fresh goat milk. I am loving the food here SO much! So basically I could go on and on and on about the above events but in the interest of time and saving you readers some verbose blog entries, I'll quit while I'm (hopefully!) ahead. They say a picture is worth a thousand words anyway so here's a few. The first one is at the ceremony, the second is the view from the Dana guest house, the third is the hot springs and the fourth is a camel at the bedouin camp.