Peace Corps Life and a New Year

Biking out of Amarin Village is pretty rough; we left early in the morning after tea with Khaled, pedaling slowly over the rolling hills and finally coasting into town after an hour or so. From Wadi Musa we walked uphill, not stopping until 5 hours later on a cliff overlooking the valley. Another hour later we were pushing along the ferociously windy mountain peak, even higher. Finally the pass inland gave way and we found ourselves near Ayl at sundown. Some girls ran out of a small stone home and welcomed us inside-- after all that we readily accepted.

Bulbous hills around Amarin Village


Wadi Musa (city) and Petra's canyons from above

The family, Egyptian daughters and father, were very excited to have us over. He runs a flour mill adjacent to their house; the young girls go to school and the oldest stays home. Edison, our pcv friend who lives in the village, joined us and we all ate dinner together. My favorite, fhool, accompanied by hummus, olives, tomatoes, and pickled radish. After a few glasses of tea we bid farewell and walked to Edison's house, covered overhead by a deep blanket of stars.

Outside Edison's bait

Ayl is pretty high in elevation, and thus cold. Like our place in Gjiro indoors can be unbearably refrigerator-like, but we huddled by the sobe and stayed cozy. While Edison went to school Chris and I took advantage of the government sponsored Knowledge Station computers. On the third day all three of us set off into the fog, stopping in a nearby village to have tea and meet Edison's counterpart and family. From there we continued through barren land, albeit shwaya (little) sunnier in the afternoon, but terribly windy. So much wind that we had to pedal downhill, the worst.


House visit with Edison's counterpart and family

Sunny but windy ride

Critical Mass to Qrain (Edison and Chris)

Eventually we arrived in Qrain (sort of like Grain but with a throatier Qawf sound), where another pcv, Matt, lives. After a quick tour of his village, stopping in one of two markets for snacks, we bundled up in Matt's house and learned to play Mexican Train Dominoes. He also cooked us a Jordanian dish, cousa mashi, meaning stuffed zucchini.

Culinary pleasures of Qrain's market: "chipz", chocolate, and soda


Matt making cousa mashi, Jordanian stlye stuffed zucchini

Mexican Train Dominoes on a chilly winter night. Ahh Peace Corps.

Time-consuming, it was delicious and worth every squash-hollowing minute. Spontaneously, we decided to follow Edison and Matt on a quick trip up to Amman to celebrate New Years. Their friend, Katrina, an EMdabber from Aqaba, picked us up on her way and together we drove back to the jabels. Easier by car for sure.

We spent the night meeting dozens of volunteers, EMdabbers, Fulbrights, and a variety of random expats. Pizza and alcohol were had in great quantities, then the crowd moved over to a hip French bar to countdown the new year. Normally I would refer to that as watching the ball drop, but in this case it was a sudden screen shot of a Lebanese woman in a studio counting backwards from 10 in Arabic. The crowd of 100 or so Arabs on TV looked pretty excited (Dec 31 is not really new year in the middle east).

Awaiting the New Years party in Amman


Pizza heroes of New Years

The next morning/afternoon a small gathering of people in the apartment we stayed ordered shwarma from Reems to ease their stomachs. We hopped in the car and drive south, back to Matt's village. His landlord, the sheik, or head of his tribe, invited us for tea, which turned into dinner. I relented on the request to visit his wife, but was glad because she was so friendly and showed me tons of photos on their computer. I love looking at people's lives through photography. I kind of make up my own story and feel instantly more acquainted with people when they open up that way. Maybe I'm part of the Facebook generation.


Matt's landlord gives us an Ahlan wa Sahlan (welcome)