Jordan

My pilgrimage to Israel offered an extension to visit the country of Jordan. It was a few more days and a little more money to go to Jordan. I jumped at the chance because it fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine, to see Jordan.

An unusual lifelong dream you might say. I would agree. Here is the back story--When I was in 6th grade one of the traditions was that the 6th graders put on an international fair at the end of their 6th grade year. We learned dances from other countries, sang songs, ate food, costumes, the works. And the one of the major elements of the fair was a display of a different country made by each one of us. I had toured those displays throughout my elementary career.

And for reasons that confuse me now, I ended up with the country Jordan for my year long study. We were encouraged to pick countries we knew nothing about so I randomly picked Jordan because I knew a lot about other countries. I had never heard of Jordan as a 6th grader. There is a reason for that. In the early 1960s before the Internet, encyclopedias were a main source of information for such things as reports. My encyclopedia at home had only a very small group of paragraphs about Jordan. I struggled to find any information at all for my display.

And what I remember from my study of Jordan was that it was a desert, with Arabs, and nomads. Over the years I read about Jordan whenever it came up in the news and I knew more things about Jordan than most people because I was interested. I thought I would never have an opportunity to see the real country. And then this Jordan extension thing was offered. A chance to see this country that I had studied throughout my life.

But, first we had to leave Israel. I took one more shot of the corner across from the hotel. That was the mosque tower was below my room. I stayed at the Olive Tree Hotel which seems like a place that a lot of pilgrims stay. Little raindrops kissed the bus, even though the sky was blue.

Light poles, traffic, street lights these were things so evident in Israel.

Even though they travel on the right side of the road, I am glad that I didn't have to drive in Israel.

My eyes wanted to eat up the last looks at the Holy land.

Jerusalem in the morning was a familiar sight.

The hills were turning green from the rainy season.

The food was grown in many different ways in Israel to protect the plants from the sun and to maximize production.

These crops were covered in plastic to hold in the moisture. This kind of food production makes it possible for Israel to produce most of the food necessary to feed the people.

And the ever present date palms. They raise a lot of dates in Israel. We were approaching the border. I put my camera away. I had heard horror stories of people arrested for taking pictures of the wrong things or all of the photos destroyed. I decided not to have my camera out at all. At the border crossing our Israeli guide left us and we had to change buses. One of our ladies on the pilgrimage lost her ticket to enter Jordan, she apparently dropped it and it was stolen by someone. She had to pay another $60 for a permit to enter Jordan. We sat around until our bus came and then we loaded up. Our luggage was loaded for us.

In Jordan things were less neat and tidy. I tried to get a picture of the stop sign.

Things were not close to the road. They had had some rare rain in Jordan that day. The desert fields were muddy.

Those may have been Jordanian date palms in the distance.

It was a dry brown desert in Jordan.

Sheep in the field.

And still desert.

And desert.

At the far left side you can perhaps see a camel. Poor photography for sure. But hard to take pictures from a moving bus.

We were aiming for lunch because even though we reached no where in particular, half the day was gone.

So we stopped in this little town and went to this little restaurant buffet. The cook was Indian, from India...a sister on our pilgrimage was from India and she was delighted by the food.

We went to a town that was far up the mountains or hills. We were headed to a church. Madaba, Jordan has the oldest map of the Holy land in a mosaic on the church floor.

We parked and walked up hill to the church.

The sign explaining that this is the Church of St George.

This is a reproduction of the mosaic map.

Look at the potty symbol. I had never seen one doing a potty dance before.

And the mosaic.

Ancient mosaic in a Byzantine church.

Some of the parts of the mosaics were missing.

It is beyond imaging who would make a map out of little stones and place it in a church way up in Jordan.

Our Christian guide told us that the Christian community wanted to build a church, but the Islamic authorities would not permit a church where there had never been one before. Finding the mosaic proved that there was a church there, and allowed this church to be built.

The church was decorated like this above the mosaic.

I wonder if this is the Baptismal font.

Walking back to the bus, we went through part of the town. I would have liked time to shop. But, I had no Jordanian currency. See the dolls?

At the top of the three story building see the pillars? Our guide told us that houses were taxed by stories, and since land was expensive, families built floors on top to accommodate new family members. But until the money was saved or the story was needed, the pillars were left on top of the buildings.