Lost cities

After a few days in Cairo, I was really excited to get to Jordan. I thought it would be more like Morocco in terms of hospitality and people and I was right! I knew there were a few places I wanted to see but I decided just to go with the flow. The morning after I got there, I heard two guys speaking in Arabic about Mount Nebo and, ta-da, a tour group was created. We went to Mount Nebo, where Moses saw the promised land (Deut. 34: 1-7) and also where he (allegedly) is buried. On a clear day, you should be able to see what Moses saw: across the Dead Sea and into Jerusalem. They were doing construction the day we went, kicking up dust, so we could just see a hazy horizon.

(I put the below in the best story-telling order, not actually the order we went to see them)
In addition to Mt. Nebo, we also went to Sodom and Gommorah, you know, the two cities that were so depraved God couldn't even find ten righteous people worth saving. Only their complete annihilation via fire and brimstone (sulfur) would appease Him. And He did. There isn't anything left (but brimstone and ash marks). If it weren't for the signs, we wouldn't have even known it was the site. Actually, Gommorah is a beautiful set of gorges and a little stream that leads to a waterfall. No sign of people though. Lesson to be learned? (Kara- I'm not sayin, but I'm sayin...)
Since this was already a day of dead people and cities, we thought it fitting to drop by the Dead Sea. This is a must if you are ever in the Israel/Jordan area. It's like having a built in water chair, you can't help but float! Oh, and just for fun, I went in a burkini! That's not me in the picture (obvi) but that's pretty much what I looked like, minus the headscarf. Since we were on the Jordan side, you can look right over into Israel, it was pretty damn cool. So we floated and chatted and just chilled out for the better part of two hours. You can put some magical mud on you that is supposed to clear up any skin problems but, since I had my burkini on I couldn't do it.

We went to a few more biblical sights and did a lot of driving but those were the highlights of the day. Jordan is great because the country is so small you can traverse it in about 5 or 6 hours, no matter where you are. The people in Jordan were also very friendly, both the tourists and the locals. Oh, and good cheap food! On the road we got three falafel/egglplant/fries sandwiches for 1.5JOD! That's about $2. And, you can get sugarcane juice for about $.75. Imagine a big Jack Lalane juicer that they stick raw sugarcane sticks through. The result? Pure sugarcane juice (my dentist will be pleased!)

After I split with the traveling boys (they were going to Dubai the next day), I headed down to Petra. After sitting on a "minibus" (a van with every seat packed and bunch of luggage) for almost 5 hours, I had no idea what was in store. I will say, Petra alone would have made the trip to Jordan worthwhile. It is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and you quickly see why. The city was carved out of the mountain, literally! I don't know how these people, in the first century AD, did this but it is amazing. Sometime around the 16th century the city got "lost" and was rediscovered in 1812. Words can't describe and even pictures can't fully capture the majestic nature but I will try. The day in Petra was full; we hiked from about 6:30AM until sunset, but it was so worth it. Enjoy the pictures!



The Monastery in Petra


Another view of the Monastery



Lots of tombs in Petra



The Treasury in Petra


Dead Sea Panoramic




Floating in the Dead Sea!


The view from Mt. Nebo

(some) Egypt pictures

The Nile!



I climbed that minaret!



The view of Islamic Cairo from the minaret



The Sphinx




Pyramids of Menkaura, Khufu, and Kafhre




Me in front of the Great Pyramid

Sometimes you do need a man

I am a slacker. Yes, this I know. I haven't posted in a few weeks and they have been very busy weeks! I will try to keep things in order and start with Egypt/ Jordan. I left Morocco Saturday for a six hour flight across to the other side of North Africa. I was so excited. Pyramids! Ancient Egyptians! Hieroglyphics! What I did not anticipate was the harassment. I had looked on a couple of sites before I left about women traveling in Egypt alone and a lot of people said it wouldn't be a problem if you dressed modestly and kept your head down. Well I can definitely do that, I said to myself. Except for the one "shooma" incident (previous post), I never really had problems with the men in Morocco. Egypt was a different story. Every time I stepped out into the street, some guy was saying something to me. Sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in English, never was it flattering. I had to leave a restaurant in the middle of the meal because the owner kept coming over and trying to kiss me. I thought this guy was being helpful at the train station, trying to help me buy my ticket because my Arabic is not great and no one at the office was inclined to speak English. While waiting in line the conversation went like this... Him: After we buy ticket, we go coffee, then I go to your room. Me: (bewildered look on my face): WTF? Ummm, no! But, he hadn't even asked it as a question. And he really looked confused as to why me, a western, non-married, non-Muslim woman, could possibly turn him down. All these incidents, mind you, were in the middle of the day. Needless to say, many nights I stayed in the room just because I didn't feel like dealing with it. Yes, I could be a brazen, independent, American woman and barge into the bars, shaking off the comments but to me it just wasn't worth it. There were a few times that I latched onto other traveling people that had a man/ men in their group and guess what? Not a single comment. So ladies, if you are planning on going to Egypt, bring a man or find one there!

Egypt wasn't all bad though. The Pyramids are as amazing as you think they will be. They say the Great Pyramid (the only one that is the last surviving wonder of the Ancient World) could fit Peter's Church in Rome, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and the cathedrals of Milan and Florence. I haven't seen all of those monuments but I know that is damn big! Also, each block weighed at least two tons, how did they get them to the top? Someone told me (though I couldn't quite verify this information) that you can leave a piece of meat inside the Great Pyramid for a few days and it won't go bad even though it is hotter inside the Pyramid than outside. And just the fact that these things are still there! They are almost 4000 years old. I can barely keep a car for five years...

The Egyptian Museum was also a nice highlight. You can see some of the mummies who were buried in the pyramids! It's cool and gross that you can still see their faces, their skin and bones. And, when you see families of rulers you can really see the family resemblance. People say Americans are wasteful but to see what they buried in King Tut's chamber... his inner coffin was 110kg of solid gold! Your eyes sparkle in his wing of the museum from all of the gold and jewels.

So all in all, Egypt was OK. I spent a few days in Cairo seeing the Pyramids, walking around town, visiting Islamic Cairo (I climbed a minaret!), and touring the Egyptian Museum. I also spent a few days in Alexandria just walking along the Mediterranean Sea and relaxing. It wasn't as pretty as I thought it might be but I couldn't tell if it was because of the volcanic ash or the generally large amount of pollution in Egypt hazing the sky. The food was incredible. Koushari (a mix of pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, onions and garlic with chili sauce on top) might sound odd but is amazing! They also make a lemonade with mint, yuuummmm!

In between Cairo and Alexandria I went to Jordan...

It's so hard to say good-bye...

The time has come for me to say good-bye to Morocco and it is bitter sweet. Bitter because I have made some true friends here, both from the program and from my class. But sweet because I finally got my invitation for the Peace Corps! I am now an invitee slated to leave for Kenya May 24, inshallah. So after more than a year of deliberating, waiting, running around, stressing, and waiting some more, I have some clarity. More on that later...

First, there are two things I will definitely miss about Morocco (besides the people of course): bromance and hospitality.

Bromance

Even though as a Muslim country, PDA between men and women is a definite shooma, same sex affection is completely ok. It's not a sign of homosexuality (it "doesn't exist" in Islam), but just showing some love. It is not uncommmon to see men holding hands, with their arms around each other shoulders, or just generally being all up in each other's space. One day in class, a student arrived thirty minutes late, but that didn't stop him from going to a friend and giving him not one, not two, but three cheek kisses. It's nice to see men expressing themselves though.

Hospitality

Although the GDP per capita of Morocco is significantly less than America, I rarely see people begging and I can count the number of homeless people I saw on one hand. This is partially because of the devotion to Islam but it extends beyond that. When you are riding the train, people share food (and water) with whomever is around. If you have the fortune to be invited to someone's home, you will be showered with food and ordered to "cul" (eat) even past the point you are stuffed. One home that I went to, not only gave us tea and pastries, but also gave each of us a necklace. My last day of class, many of my students surprised me with small gifts of appreciation. And my favorite thing, the water cup. On the way home from school, there is a house that I pass that has a faucet and a blue cup (picture below) available for any passer-bys that are thirsty.

So, my friends, the Morocco chapter of my life is closed for now. For the next ten days, I will be traveling Egypt and Jordan and then back to the States!

Here are some pictures (I promise a photo album is coming when I get stable internet!)



A communal bread oven




Me and my class!



The house with the blue cup

Shooma

Sigh, I knew this day would come, though I was hoping to escape it. It has happened to other people in the house but so far I have been exempt. Here's what happened. I am a big believer of "when in Rome". So, in Morocco, most women don't go out alone at night. And, unless you are in some of the main sections of the city like Agdal or downtown, there aren't very many women out at all. For the most part, I have used this as a rule and only gone out at night for dinner or to meet a group of people, usually with my roommates. Last night, however, I just needed some alone time. I had a lot of my mind and I needed to go for a walk with just me and my iPod. It was only about 9:30 so I figured I would be OK for about 20 or 30 minutes. There is a shopping center about 10 minutes walk from the house so my plan was to walk there, walk around a bit and then come home. It started out just fine. Listening to music, smelling the jasmine trees, all was well. Then, when I started to come back home, I noticed a guy was following me and trying to get my attention. I ignored him. He started to walk next to me and talk to me, which wasn't that creepy at first (it happens a lot here) so I just kept walking. Then comes the question, "You want to pass a good time?" Uh-oh, time to go! So I started walking in the middle of the street and continued to ignore him. (Just as an added piece of info, the area that we live in is a pretty nice neighborhood. There are a lot of diplomats and ambassadors that live in the surrounding area and many of the houses (including ours) have a full time guard. That's part of the reason I felt safe walking there.) The guy kept pestering me until finally I turned around and gave him a great big "SHOOMA!"

Shooma means "Shame on you!" but it has a bit of a stronger effect here. Luckily, I haven't had to use it much. A couple of times on the train someone is standing just a bit too close and thinks they can get away with magic hands because it's crowded. Nuh-uh. For me, giving a stern shooma has multiple effects: 1) It shows the person you know a little Arabic. 2) It calls them out on their wrongdoing, literally shaming them. 3) It calls attention to the situation so other people will look to see what someone is doing wrong. All of these worked to my benefit last night. This is probably not the best story to tell seeing as how I will be traveling alone for the next few weeks but I guess it's good practice! Actually I had a whole post ready about Bromance in Morocco but I guess that will have to wait. xoxo