Saturday, August 29, 2009
Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22426340@N04/
Thanks for reading,
Nati
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Shepherd Neys and Late-Evening Wolves
Several evenings ago, I decided to go for a stroll and find a nice spot from which to watch the sunset. I descended several hundred feet into the gorge of the enormous Dana Mountains, climbing down stone-lined irrigation channels that watered the cypress, olives, fig and grape trees sprinkled on the mountainside. I picked for my perch the crumbling ruins of long uninhabited Crusader castle. Sitting atop yellow-and-white toppled stones, look westward along the canyon’s Siq, I awaited the sunset. As brilliant lavender, coral, and amber began to streak behind the mountains, I heard the faint, far-away treble of a soft ney (Middle Eastern flute) resonate down the valley. The music became increasingly well-defined, until two Shepherds, riding atop a donkey, trailed by dozens of goats and sheep, came into view. They looked up at me, slightly startled to see a non-hijab wearing women sitting atop the ruins, but immediately flashed me a brilliant smile, and the non-lyre playing one called out in English, “You're welcome to Jordan.”
My entire time in Jordan felt somewhat like that--a travel to a long-ago past. I arrived to Dana Nature Reserve early Tuesday, July 28th, to the Dana Tower Hotel, perched atop crumbling ruins of a town that until 1970, was vibrantly and continuously inhabited by nomads of varied origins (Bedouins -Arabic, gypsies from the ‘dowal afreqee’ African countries of Egypt, Tunisia, etc, or nomads from al Hejaz, the gulf countries) for millennia. It was the very low season of an already unfrequented town, and when I first arrived I was the only guest there, and the owner Nobeera, insisted I smoke hubbly-bubbly with him (hookah) and chat. He said the hotel, a beautiful stone house, with open hallways, arches, atriums, verandas, and lounging rooms on the roof, on a mountain outcrop overlooking a 4500 foot drop into the valley below, had been his grandfather’s, and before that, family’s house for 500 years, before he refurbished it into a backpacker’s paradise with exotic rugs, local artisanry, and merry pranksters-type adornments covering every inch of floor, wall, and ceiling. His family migrated from Mecca to Dana several centuries ago he explained, as he took me to my room, a cozy closet-sized bedroom, nestled in a nook of the house, reached only by a small, spiraling staircase, with a tiny window overlooking the canyon, and through which a wild cat would slink through at night to share my pillow with me. Dana Village had been, throughout the centuries, a meeting point for different traveling tribes, and its verdant hills had seasonally supported livestock grazing and farming of apricots, figs, grapes, and pistachios. Up until thirty years ago, the village felt alive, at night friends would sit atop crumbling rooftops, the dim glow of a shared hookah amongst them, swapping tales. But with the growth of Qaddisayya, a larger village of 30,000 atop the hill, with consistent electricity and water and the increasingly cramped quarters for growing, modern families, most of Old Dana’s inhabitants moved 2 km up the road. Now, only about thirty people, four families or so (though no one can agree on the exact number) remain the largest of which is Khalawaldeh, who staff most of the Hotels, and who my driver to Dana is part of.
After I dropped off my traveler’s backpack, I set out to explore the village. It felt really ruinous and wild, with lonesome cats streaking, packs of dogs roaming, and the odd donkey or horse trotting along freely. Everywhere, stones were tumbling off of small houses, and tufts of unchecked plants growing atop roofs, along walls, and in street cracks. I wound through empty doorways and small alleyways, and crossed an ancient wooden bridge to reach the offices of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, which sat atop a neighboring outcrop. RSCN, an independent non-governmental non-profit organization established by Jordan’s previous King, King Hussein, to conserve and protect Jordan’s natural resources and biodiversity, converted Dana 20 years ago into Jordan’s largest nature reserve. It is over 320 square kilometers in size, encompasses four different biogeographical zones (lush Mediterranean, hilly Irano-Turanian, sparser Saharo-Arabian, and harsh Sudanian ala Arava) and houses over 800 species of plants (three of which have been recorded nowhere else in the world and were aptly dubbed Danaensis) and hundreds of animal species. In addition, RSCN engages in socio-economic projects with the local people, facilitating environmentally-friendly and sustainable professions. They employ Bedouin hunters as wildlife guides, subsidize local organic farming, and train Dana women to make reserve-themed silver jewelry and local produce-based jams, teas, and fruit leathers. In addition, RSCN works to promote environmental education in regional schools, and this was the project I worked on for several days with Lamis, an RSCN employee and Dana native.
I spent most of my time in Dana with Lamis, discussing RSCN’s reserve projects and regional environmental education. I must say, perhaps because it was the slow season, but everything moved at a snail’s pace. Before the day’s work could begin, Lamis, and Miasr (another woman, shop-keeper of the Wild Jordan store where they sell the nature reserve’s silver, tea, etc products) would insist we have three cups of tea and chat a bit about families, and local culture. (The amount of times I was asked by different people about my ‘husband and children’ was comical). It was in those slow hours talking an atrocious English-Arabic hybrid (for most Jordanians speak at the very least, a little conversational English) to these two hijaab-wearing, married young women that I learned the most about Jordanians. Hearing them talk about education (both, though from poor, very large families, are University educated), conservation (the importance to village livelihood of being stewards of nature), family life (sending their children during summertime to participate in volunteer clubs that feed and befriend the very destitute), religion (as they prayed several times a day), lore (the entrancing Kohl-lined eyes of Arabic women are meant to imitate the black facial stripes of the eternally elegant and paeanized white Oryx), was illuminating in the most interesting ways.
As my very independent, defiantly feminist self, I still had severe qualms with the mandated extremely modest attire and head garb. Lamis tried to explain it to me, piecewise throughout the week, and said as we were driving to girl’s elementary school that her sister was the headmistress of, that dressing according to the laws of Islam paradoxically affords women greater security, as she is able to do more things independently and free of harassment. When we arrived at Maysoor’s school, immediately a crowd of the previously-skipping and singing little girls came up to ask me in unsettlingly accurate English, how I was, what my name was, where I was from, how I liked Jordan etc… The headmistress, immediately brought a cup of tea, and she and the girls told me all about (in the usual mixed Arabic/English hybrid) the school and its environmental focus; their trip to Aqaba (Jordan’s port city), one girl’s recent Marine Conservation Research Project, their knowledge about the Dana Nature Reserve, conservation songs they had written and recorded (one called, mohemat al bea’a, the importance of nature). Three of the girls ran off to change into shimmery blue smocks, and returned to put on a wonderfully entertaining, five minute musical about the food web. I was so impressed with these little girls’ enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity, perfectly pronounced (though still beginning) English, and their passion for the environment. One girl in particular, Aseel, left a big impression. She asked me all sorts of questions about Obama, King Abdullah, and (yes) Hannah Montana, and showed me her PowerPoint (the school was amply equipped with computers…I swear the more I travel the more abysmal the US educational system seems) on the English alphabet, numbers and colors. When we walked outside, she insisted I take pictures of all sorts of things, the painting of the Jordanian flag, the banner with the school’s name, films of her and her friends singing (in the deep, enchanting Arabic vocal style, no less) traditional songs. When I left, she demanded I take a bag of dried flowers she had prepared, and promise that I would never forget her.
I was sitting for dinner at my hotel, and Abed, a Khalawaldeh employee who worked at Reception, and who I had gotten to know quite well over the last couple of days, was sitting with me. He asked me in Arabic, what is your favorite part of Jordan? Immediately, the breath-takingly gorgeous gorges, rolling hills, Wadis winding through valleys, and windswept rounded circular rock columns came to mind, but after a second more, I realized it was the unwavering hospitality of the people. Take Abed, who had no need whatsoever to sit with me, but chose to do so anyway, engaging me in conversation, telling me jokes, etc. Then there was Lamis, who I expected only to teach me a couple things about education, who invited me to her home on Friday, to meet her mother, eleven siblings, and dozens of nieces and nephews, feed me until I was bursting full, and not let me leave until she had packed an entire bag of food for me to take with me. There was Lamis’ brother, who happened to be heading south to Aqaba the same Saturday morning, August 1st, as I, and insisted on paying for my bus fare, carrying my bags the entire way, and haggling with the Aqaba taxi driver to ensure I got a fair price to the Israeli border. There was Wateel, who while driving me to Dana, gave me a lesson in spoken Arabic, sang a family song for me, and called me Osfoor, little bird, an affectionate Bedouin nickname. And then, an incredible Bedouin wildlife guide, Sala’, who told me all sorts of lore about the arm of the hyena reputedly resolving barrenness and his observations of the social norms of the Tristam’s Crackle bird, who invited me to spend my last night in Jordan in the desert with him and his cousin, burning Juniper branches for fire, drinking SamSam Bedouin tea, and learning to the fullest extent the Bedouin hospitality concepts of “a’ash oomoloh” bread and salt and ‘macahwea’ making a sister of a stranger.
It was thus, I reflected, late Thursday evening toward the end of my trip, as I sat atop a stone house in the process of sliding down the slope, looking Westward to the Arava desert of Israel, an incredible week in Jordan and a magical month in the Middle East. I was writing down some thoughts and observations, watching the near full moon turn ivory, yellow, gold, and orange as it sank in the sky, when I heard the chilling howl of a wolf in the distance. The wolf, in Bedouin lore the symbol of noblesse, stood in a moonlight silhouette atop a canyon cliff 20 km to the West. And then, softly, in a barely audible rhythm, I heard the beating of drums thousands of feet down, down and far away in Rashaydeh a tiny Bedouin village in the depths of the Dana valley. The drumming continued for 15 or so minutes until the moon with a final wink, reddened, rounded and rolled away behind the furthest mountain, and silence fell across the deserts, gorges, canyon, and valley of the Dana Nature Reserve.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Nabataean Cliffs and Arabic Lessons
We arrived in Petra a full two-hours after my travel companions had intended (they have yet to learn the sanity-preserving trick of abandoning your watch) too late to head into the real Petra ruins. We were told the inn that Lonely Planet recommended, the Valentine Hotel, was just around the corner and after a lovely half mile shlep up a steep hill in blistering heat, we finally arrived. It was quite nice, cloth tarps strewn over a pillowed lounging area; Nargila in the corner; walls full of maps, posters, rugs, paintings, tapestries; a friendly English-speaking hostess; tea while we were waiting for our rooms, and a nice view of the relatively small city of Wadi Musi, nestled in slopes of a small valley than runs into the Petra ruins and then the Edomite Mtns. We decided to splurge, and spend 3 Jordanian Dinar (5$) on a dorm bed instead of the roof (2 J.D.) left our bags and set out to explore the city. We walked 2.5 winding kilometers down the rocky hills to the Petra entrance, and tried unsuccessfully to get our hands on some free tickets in all manner of spotty and ultimately fruitless ways. After being completely shut down (serendipitously it would seem to be), we decided instead to see if we could hitch a ride to little Petra, another smaller, less well known set of Nabatean ruins an hour's walk away. We were turned down by trucks, cars, and camels and finally opted for a taxi, which we got for a cheap price and Jpreel promised to wait for us.
Jpreel drove us through more rocky hills and desert sands to the entrance, a sliver between two rock faces. We were the only tourists when we arrived, and instantly two Bedouin kids, Amr andFaheed, came to ask if we wanted guides. Thinking it was yet another attempt to get money from us, we politely but firmly refused. But they insisted, still smiling, totally free of charge, so we couldn't say no. They ran us through the two crevices, and to the first temple etched into the red stone. Amr took my sandals and hit them in a rocky outcrop for me to come get later. The temple started 20 feet up the rock face, and there were no stairs to reach it. I was just about to content myself with snapping pictures below, when Amr started climbing up between two rocks to swing himself around a final rock and land on the solid temple base. Yallah, he insisted, grinning in Arabic, and Dave immediately set off, nice Canon in tow to follow suit. Of course, they didn't give me any break, through a fortunate combination of hoisting, climbing, and sheer luck, I was able to pull my white-skirt totting (bad mistake) self up the twenty feet of rock to run in and around the temple's columns, atriums, and rooms. The kids started hollering, and singing, the sound reverberating in and out of the open rooms and off the opposite rock face's walls. Climbing down was terrifying, more than once I thought I would die, to the exagerrated gasps of a small group of onlooking tourists. Once back on solid ground, it was up, over, down, and around ancient cisterns, shower wells, silos, kitchens, and dining halls. All of these rooms were fortunately either ground level, or had a shady set of stairs ascending into the rock face to reach them. In one series of kitchens we were joined by a 14 year old Bedouin kid, and we started beat boxing aboutmataam and taam (kitchens and cooking). Then, slightly bored, our two intrepid guides insisted we climb another stair-less rock face, this one only 15 feet, and ascend about a hundred steps to a rocky outcrop overlooking the ancient Nabataean temple ruins. Then, down running between the rock faces, up a hidden set of stairs through a tiny, barely passable crevice, into a shady enclave where Bedouins were drinking tea (thalith lil dayf, thalith lil kayf, thalith lil sayf...loosely translated to three cups of tea, one for the guest, one for the stories, one for the sword) which they offered us, and then another series of incredibly sketchy rock climbing (this one with 100 foot consequences as opposed to 20) to an outcrop over a beautiful, Utah-like canyon filled with rocky gorges and nestled wild olive and bougainvillea trees (a clump of flowers of which was offered to me in a mock-wedding proposal, along with an inquiry of what else would have to be conjured for me to move there). One of the kids had brought a Rababa, a one stringed guitar made with horse tail hair and goat skin, to play the eery, resonant Bedouin music at that magical overlook.
Then back to the hostel, driven by Jpreel who invited us to dinner at his family's house the following night (no joke), an amazing vegetarian buffet, recharging while watching a gorgeous sunset over the distant mountains, a candle-lit walk through actual Petra (too touristy for my liking after our incredible afternoon) and a short night of sleep before waking up to get picked up to come to the Dana Nature Reserve where I am now. My driver Waleed was awesome, he spent the whole time giving me an ameaa (spoken Arabic) lesson and detoured to show me off-the-beaten path ruins. I'm now at the (Harry Potter) Weasley house of the Middle East, a place I was supposed to be five days ago to do some volunteer work before being hopelessly swept up in a stream of spontaneous adventures. I'm overlooking a canyon and gorge even Steinbeck couldn't do justice. So I'll spare myself the embarrassment and leave it to you to google Dana Nature Reserve if you so please. Now off to wander through the tiny village (alone for the first time in ages) and stop by the Reserve Offices... That's all for now
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Long Egyptian Dream
I am accumulating scars like no other. Somewhere between being eaten alive by Red Sea coral and scaling up 20-foot Nabataea rock faces, I have decided it is utterly futile to try to keep them at bay. I have just arrived to Dana Nature Reserve, in Southern Central Jordan, near the Israeli border, after an incredibly overwhelming past week that has spanned the likes of the Arava Desert in Israel, the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, and Aqaba, Petra, and Wadi rum in Southern Jordan. I have currently stopped for a breather, and am sitting atop the Dana Tower Hotel, on plush tapestry cushions, overlooking a valley (Wadi Dana) a precipitous three thousand feet below me. There's a sign to my right that tries to get at the vibe of this place, which is like a Middle Eastern version of the Weasley house (sorry non Harry Potter fans), "Welcome tower Hotel the home and paradise of back packers. you enter as guest, you leave as friend".
The last week on the Kibbutz was bittersweet. I had started to become attached to the whole scene, waking up for communal breakfast at the Chadar Ohel, chatting there with sleepy volunteers, perky Kibbutz families, and professors from the institute. Doing work in the morning, coming back for the yogurt, humus, tchina, fresh vegetable lunch, relaxing in the midday heat until an afternoon class, and socializing and chilling the rest of the evening. In the last week, I really started to talk more with the remaining interns and students from the spring semester, a lively, fascinating crew. There was my 30-year-old water resources professor, Osama, a Palestinian living in Jordan and doing his masters on regional water use, who introduced me to all sorts of incredible Arabic music, brought a huge nargila (hookah) to our overnight camping trip in typical Middle Eastern fashion, was as likely to break out into Shania Twain songs as Jewish Shabbat prayers or beautiful hymns about yearning for the Palestinian motherland, taught me a Jordanian version of sesh besh (backgammon), and was always willing to answer my myriad question about the conflict. And then Moishe, a program associate at the Arava, who drove us to and from us endless destinations, with a big hearty laugh and excellent music taste (in terms of familiars, the likes of Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, and Santana) and on coming back from one trip detoured to stop at a sweet record shop where I could buy awesome Israeli music for as cheap as six bucks (30 shekels) a CD. My academic director, who joined our camping trip, to smoke some hubbly bubbly, and was an excellent sport when I cleaned him out at Texas Hold Em. Etan, an incredibly friendly ex-soldier, who leads solo trips into the desert wilderness, and spent an evening talking to me about the stars. I had also become really close to several girls on my program, in particular a Marin, a New York Jewish girl who was absolutely hysterical company. The last several days were particularly tough, a combination of very little sleep (I averaged about four hours) as we tried to cram in as much fun time together as possible, and heavy-duty field work in the blazing heat (gardening, weeding, mud building, etc.) I must say, manual labor in the extreme desert is not for the weak of heart. Several times, my five sleep-deprived fellow students and I, thought we were certainly tottering on the brink of senseless, delirious-laughter insanity. After a particularly raucous bout of giggles, as the girls and I were picking Neem leaves in the sustainable orchard, our supervisor asked if I was alright and sent me to the shade for ten minutes to drink water.
After the program ended abruptly on the morning of Friday, July 24th, I had had all sorts of grand delusions that with only a light backpack I would go traveling solo into the great unknown of the Arab world. Unfortunately, I kept meeting dynamic fellow travelers who insisted on accompanying me. The first of such was a friend from the Kibbutz, an Israeli Dutch (yes, I too did not know they came in that combination) banker-cum-wanderer who proposed a weekend in Sinai. Not in my schedule per se, but hey, my grandmother is half-Egyptian, so I figured why not, I always could chalk it off as some janky re-connecting with my long-lost roots. We were an interesting travel pair, as he ended up being as spacey as I am, though with better skills (a.k.a. fluent in more than just one language...the banes of American education). Getting to Egypt Friday morning was a ceaseless comedy of errors, from which I fortunately learned early on, that the best way to travel through the Middle East is to abandon all hope that anything will get done. We arrived at the Israel, Sinai border and passed through the Israel ports quite quickly, after paying a hefty exit tax, and coming to the drastically erroneous conclusion that the whole process would be relatively painless. After walking into three entrances, instead of exits, we were firmly guided to the actual border patrol line, in a hot air-con lacking, packed, crowded room in the stifling midday heat. We waited in a long, long line for what seemed like an endless time, until we finally reached the stamping window, only to be asked for our immigration cards and discover that we had not filled them out. Back, back to the back of the line we were told in a screaming English/Arabic hybrid with many strong accompanying gestures. We had the good luck of queueing behind an enormous group of travelers from India, and it was another thirty minutes before we were back at the ticket window, overly eager to hand our passports to the customs officer, only to have him stand up abruptly and say he'd be back in five (you guessed it, it was more like 45 minutes). Then, past several more passport checks, and straight into an influx of taxi drivers, all insisting simultaneously and loudly that we get in their cab. We consented to one guy, who said he would take us for 10$ a head, a huge rip off but we were in no mood to argue. It ends up by 'take us' the man really meant, have us sit in the overheated taxi for an hour and a half as he futilely waited for other tourists to fill up his van and make his trip worthwhile. Only when, entirely fed up, did we honestly threaten to walk the 40 kilometers rather than wait another minute in the parching heat, did the driver acquiesce to leaving, though charging us another 5$ a person for the inconvenience.
We were enjoying pulling away from the border, watching camels just chilling on the roadside, when our car was stopped to collect a"tourist tax:. It sounded sketch, and the price was steep (100 lira, 20$ per). Moment of semi-panic as this unexpected tax cleaned us both fully out, but the driver assured us he would stop at a cash machine before our final destination. The drive down the coast was absolutely stunning. After 10 km or so of some Marriot-type development, we were zooming down a desolate desert highway that ran parallel to the red sea, with giant, crumbling granite mountains to our right, and the Jordan and Saudi Arabian coast to the East. The whole land was desolate...sand, stones, sun, and the occasional Bedouin man or woman, in full-length black robes, walking a lonesome camel, laden with colorful scarves, down the empty road. There were some, far and few between, outcrops of houses and building along the Sinai coast (the real estate was too prime to be completely undeveloped), but they were all small-scale, made of local materials like sand bricks, stones, with rounded arches, open doorways, circling outdoor stair cases, white washed adobe walls, niches, colonnettes, domes, towers, and colored stones that accentuated, not blighted, the landscape. We passed by tall mountains, hidden alcoves, single huts nested in mountain crevices, and Bedouin encampments (Haiyma) made of tattered cloth and tarp, blowing in the wind.
We pulled into our destination, a semi circular beach, dappled with small straw-roofed huts and with its namesake Devil’s Head rock. I jumped out of the car, immediately taking off my shoes to inquire about an ATM, the negation of which the simplicity of the place belied. I hopped back in the van, with no alternative than to travel an additional 20 km south to Nuweiba (never saw the shoes again). It was a nearly abandoned port town with several stops where we got money and bought a drink. It must have been quite the site, I the only woman in view, the two of us the only tourists in several weeks, and all the men chilling, watching TV., smoking Nargila, and joking in a relaxed, lackadaisical fashion. We were easily persuaded by a very cute young man that Yoni was in dire need of a haircut, and I spent the next two hours chatting with the owner of the shop in (admittedly terrible) Fosha (classical Arabic) about politics, and Obama’s speech at Cairo. Many, many hours after our intended arrival time, we rolled up to our destination.
The pace at which the rest of Egypt had been moving was warped speed compared to the rhythm at the Devil’s Head. The first night, it took over four hours for us to get to our room, probably near on two to get our meal, but only several seconds before we realized that all pretenses of efficiency were completely disregarded and that that was totally chill. There were circular shaded areas, with low lying pillows and lower tables, scattered around; hammocks, dream catchers, and paintings swaying in the sea breeze. Groups of friends sat around straight chilling, wondering amidst a languorous stupor whether it was worth walking 10 m to the sea to cool off. You’d catch bits of conversations in Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, French, occasional bouts of laughter, and snippets of music (whether it was the melodious singing of the Bedouin working in the adobe kitchen, someone mindlessly tapping to an unheard beat, or the lazy strum of a guitar). I couldn’t even really tell you what it was we did for the two full days we were there. We talked to some people (including awesome Bedouin waiters who’d come by to chat, bring tea, or share a smoke), went swimming in the Red Sea once, played a couple games of sesh besh…but mostly it was just watching people watching you, and watching the shifting landscapes: the dancing sky dense with twinkling stars, the red sand red sea and red mountains of red hot midday, or the pastel-hued waters and lavender, baby blue, and pink hills at sunset. Everyone seemed to have completely lost track of time, and no one missed it in the least. Going back to the border two days later felt like waking up from a very long intoxicating dream.