upon alighting at Amman

May 5, 2010

Hello gentle readers,

So, I think I've been in the Greater Holy Land for a week now, but I could be wrong. We do so much each day, we spent what felt like two weeks on planes and in airports trying to get here, and we lost so many hours to the time change that a day has begun to feel like an antiquated and negligible unit with which to measure time. I have seen so much up to this point that I have already begun to forget where I've been and what I've seen. I wish I'd had better internet connections so that I could have kept you updated with my activities instead of getting to this point and feeling overwhelmed by the thought of summarizing the trip thus far. I also wish my camera hadn't broken the second I put lithium batteries in it at the beginning of our first day in Damascus. Thankfully, my roommate had an extra camera, but without the proper cord I'm unable to transfer pictures onto my computer and keep you updated that way. Ah, the unexpected and obstacles of travel! Oh wait! Actually, as I was formulating my thoughts in order to convey them cogently to you, I MacGyvered a way to transfer my photos. Stay tuned for the results of this, the latest miracle to occur in the Holy Land. 

Anyhoozers, about an hour ago we arrived in Amman, the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. I have to say, I heard some awful stories about this country, but I'm having difficulty believing them now that I'm here. Jordan is absolutely beautiful. We spent the last day and a half in the north-western region which is where the majority of the country's olive and almond trees are located; seeing the terraced slopes and disciplined greenery thereupon instantly brought my thoughts back to that other blessed land, Tuscany. 

Being in countries like Syria and Jordan has made me wish that I understood more about the political history of the Middle East. Every ten minutes our guide makes reference to some war or other, some international land dispute, or some region that I know I should be familiar with, but I'm just not. I didn't have time to prepare myself properly for this trip, and I discovered that I left all the reading packets I received for this part of the trip at home. At least the principles still make sense to me. Today, we journeyed to the ancient Roman/Christian city of Gadara, which overlooks the Sea of Galilee and part of the Jordan Valley. We could see the Israel/Jordan border and the Golan Heights that have been the site of so much conflict between Israel and Syria ever since Israel's inception. But our minds were opened to the fact that these disputes have had far less to do with land, oil, or even religion than they have had to do with water. Here, water is everything. However lush the northern regions of the country might be, Jordan is one of the poorest countries in the world where water is concerned. In Canada, we take water for granted, there's no question about that. But I had not considered that my taking a natural resource for granted could actually hamper my understanding of a seemingly never-ending political conflict that the entire world is caught up in. It is interesting to gain some perspective on Israel from a land that is currently enjoying peace with that controversial country. Israel is not a taboo topic in Jordan, but it definitely is in Syria. The day we arrived in Damascus, we had a formal dialogue with two sheikhs, three professors from the Al Fatih Islamic Institute, and the Grand Mufti of Damascus. At one point in the dialogue (the point at which it ceased being a dialogue), the sheikh who was our host apparently intuited that Charles' questions and comments had something to do with the issue of Islam and Israel (which they absolutely did not), and so he began an enraged rant against the state of Israel. Nothing could be said or done to slow his passionate momentum; he appeared to be overheating as much emotionally as he was physically. It was apparent that most of the sheikh's fellows on the Islamic panel were in agreement with him; those who had other opinions were careful to keep their eyes averted from his sight line. We had thought that in a diplomatic, organized setting like the one they had established for our dialogue we would be able to speak at least cautiously about Israel in order for some light to be shed on the Syrian/Muslim stance on Israel. We got much more than we bargained for, which was illuminating in a different way. Thankfully, Arabic people seem perfectly comfortable with yelling and then forgetting it ever happened; following his soliloquy the sheikh welcomed us into his home and treated us to drinks, music, speeches, and heaps of food. 

Visiting both Syria and Jordan has been very informative historically and gastronomically speaking, but I think the information I will value most as time passes is that which I have learned about the internal conflicts of the Middle East. We tend to think of this region of the world as one big minefield. We think of women covered head to foot, unquenchable bloodlust, expansive deserts, oil barons, and violent religious fundamentalism, but there are so many wonderful things happening in the Middle East, so many wonderful things that have happened over the millennia, and we cannot turn a blind eye to that. The people here adore their rulers and trust them, and recently they have had some pretty good reasons to do so. But in some cases, they have appropriated all the negative qualities of the West while being slow to accept the West's good ideas. Lasting progress must germinate slowly in places where tradition goes back so much further than we in our young country can imagine.