Jordan – Page 2 – robinchartier

Petra — no words necessary

but since I’m more of a writer than a photographer, I have another post coming — with words!

Water, water, everywhere . . .

Our next stop after the Jordan River was the Dead Sea. It wasn’t a great day to visit because it was cool and overcast, but the following day (today) would have been Eid (essentially the Muslim equivalent to Christmas) so Mo couldn’t go with us, and the weather forecast was the same. That’s what happens when our vacation schedule is limited by the school schedule (both Josh’s and the boys’), we have to take our trips at less than optimal times of the year. It probably would have been fine for a normal person, but I like my swimming water to be at bathtub temperatures.

But the weather didn’t dampen anyone’s excitement about visiting the famous floating body of water. Caleb was nervous that it was going to burn and kept asking if he was really, really going to be able to float and eventually I told him he’d just have to try it out for himself.

My understanding is that you can only “visit” the Dead Sea by way of private resort — or maybe that’s the only smart way to do it because you have to shower after leaving the water or you’ll end up with itchy, rashy, burning skin. Unfortunately that means you end up paying stupid amounts of money for admission because they know they can get it. At this beach adults were $25 and the kids were $15. Mo was only $7 because he’s Jordanian. On top of that there was a charge for towels, a charge if you wanted to use the mud, and the showers were cold and half broken. (All the other beach access options were much more expensive — crazy, huh?)

Wait up!

The Dead Sea is really beautiful — the beach is more like sandy dirt.

Please stop trying to eat all the nasty cigarette butts. They aren’t food.

The entry is rough on the feet. Lots of sharp rocks covered with salt crystals. Ouch!

Testing it out . . .

It works! We’re floating!

The water feels strangely slick and slippery. It does burn a little bit at first, but that quickly goes away. The buoyancy is so strong that lying on your stomach causes your back to arch and your feet to be pushed up into the air. Trying to flip from stomach to back isn’t easy either.

Camille liked it, but she kept trying to taste the water, which is a bad idea because it tastes like salty battery acid. Mo brought a bottle of water into the water with us for emergency mouth rinsing and eye flushing. Holding Camille was like holding a grenade because she kept smacking the water and splashing it everywhere and whoever was holding her had to constantly dodge the flying liquid shrapnel.

Caleb and Camille quickly got cold and retreated to the shore where they hunted for salt crystal covered rocks and played in the “sand.”

Salt build up on the fence and on the rocks

Instead of paying for the mud, Mo showed the boys how to easily dig up their own.

Waiting for the mud to dry — Carter showing off each one of his ribs.

Back in the water to wash off the mud.

A fun day (even if it was too chilly for my taste!)

Jordan and that famous river

Our time in Jordan has been packed full of fun, which I will get to eventually, but the internet in the room is only wired and the cord doesn’t reach to the bed, which is the only place I want to be after running around like a crazy tourist all day.

I fell asleep at 8 last night (and the kids were out even earlier) and slept until almost 8 this morning. It’s a good thing I was well rested because we hit three major sites today: the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Mount Nebo (the site where Moses looked out onto the Promised Land). We had a private tour guide today, Josh’s friend Mohammed who is from Amman. They met a few years ago when Mo served as an interpreter for Josh’s team in Iraq.

The first stop on our grand tour was the Jordan River, about an hour drive from Amman. Supposedly this is the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. We parked and boarded a shuttle bus which brought us to the beginning of our walking tour. The price of admission included audio guides that the boys had fun playing with.

We followed the path and at the different places were little signs that had numbers on them and you were supposed to listen to whatever it was that you were looking at. I hope the kids learned something since they monopolized them. I was just happy to be out walking and not sweating. It was beautiful and on the cool side, but not cold.

I don’t know why they think this is where John baptized Jesus – maybe that info was in the audio guide. Today Jesus would be getting a mud bath instead. (Mo said that they’ve had very little rain the past few years and are on the verge of resorting to water restrictions).

After seeing this I thought we were done. I hadn’t been paying attention to today’s plans so I thought we saw the river, saw the baptism site, and would be headed back to the car. The path continued on though and led right up to the barbed wire fencing indicating that we were at the border. Then I saw that we were actually going to be able to go down into the river and my interest perked up.

The funniest/most amazing part of it all was that we were standing on one side of the river, in Jordan and there were groups mirroring us on the other side, in Israel. As they were taking pictures of us it felt a little like I was in the zoo. Of course we were taking pictures of them too.

So here we are on the Jordanian side standing on an old wooden dock-like structure, looking upon this huge expanse of white stone architecture. We got the poor man’s version of “The Jordan River Experience” for sure.

compare the two sides:

ETA: I really liked the side we were on — it felt rustic and more natural

In order to enter the water you have to wear a white robe (I guess people buy them before the tour starts). On the Israeli side the groups were doing baptisms and singing hymns; on our side people just went for a swim. There were a few guys getting really into it and splashing a little too far from the dock so they ordered them back before the well armed Israeli police started getting twitchy that people were trying to crash the border.

Unfortunately the “robes” were tissue paper thin and became completely transparent when wet. A few of the guys had on speedos underneath, but one particularly large and well endowed woman in an effort to keep her clothing dry decided to remove everything under the robe. When she emerged from the water she was leaving nothing to the imagination, but she was surprisingly unbothered by it and even had her picture taken in all her glory.

Calvin whispered to me, “I get that the robe is white for purity, but why wouldn’t they make them thicker? Isn’t there a verse in the Bible about keeping your stuff to yourself?”

The boys were impressed that now I’ve been to the Jordan River on the Israeli side and the Jordanian side, although the river was a lot smaller than I remembered and the Israeli side was a much more official looking Tourist Attraction than it was when I was baptized there in 1989. In the olden days, I was baptized in my khaki shorts and peach tank top – or it could have been my peach shorts and khaki shirt. All the clothing I brought on the trip was peach or khaki so I could mix and match and everything would go together and I could pack as little as possible and follow the golden rule of travel with my dad: no checked baggage. After two and a half weeks I was sick of it all and haven’t worn peach since. Anyway, the point is, no white robe for me and I kept all my stuff to myself.

Yea! Family picture taken by a helpful tourist. Except . . . how the heck did she take it so crooked?

Get me to a hotel

It has been a heck of a week. I guess when Lucy gets sick, blogging is the first thing to go. How could I have the time when I’m swamped with getting the kids off to school, taking care of the baby, doing laundry and trying to pick up around the house? And on top of that I have to feed them too? It’s madness!

Not only that, but Josh was sick for 24 hours and the baby has had a cold and nasty cough all week so she’s not sleeping or napping. She took a 20 minute nap the other day and woke up screaming and it was an instant flashback to our first year.

I’m writing this from the plane on our way to Jordan. It’s been a fine morning of travel, but I’m ready for it to be over. I feel like one big stressball. I had a whole list of things to accomplish this week before we left the country and I got them all finished, but that meant that I didn’t have time to pack until last night.

Yesterday morning we had parent/teacher conferences with all the kids and they went surprisingly well. The best surprise was at Carter’s conference where his teacher raved about how well he’s doing both academically and socially. She has been seeing him open up and he has become an active participant in class (including reading aloud!). His reading is great, his math is great, he works well with others, and he is well liked by his classmates, including several of the girls that have a crush on him. After all the apprehension we had about him starting school and after his rough start with homework battles, it was so nice to hear and see how well he is doing.

Caleb’s teacher said he is kind to everyone and friends with everyone. She doesn’t think he has a mean bone in his body. He comes in happy and cheerful every morning and he is a great helper and participator. She said he works really hard and works well in groups and with partners. I had been concerned about his placement before school began – we were debating between 1st and 2nd because his age would make him a young 2nd grader and I felt like his skills were more at a first grade level. She confirmed that 2nd grade was the right placement for him, especially socially and emotionally. We made some plans and goals for his reading and writing. Skill wise he is the normal range for second grade, but at that age there is a pretty big range.

Then off to 7 different conferences with Calvin. All the middle schoolers received progress reports this week with a summary of assignments given to date, scores, and letter grades. The scores showed that there were several classes where he had issues with incomplete work, but it was a different story in person. All his teachers had wonderful things to say about him, they love having him in class because he participates, is interested, and asks thoughtful questions. What he needs to work on is making sure assignments are finished and submitted on time and that his work is complete. All in all, we agree with them that he has made a great transition to school and his problem areas are all things that have been newly required of him: multiple classes, rotating block schedule (every day is different), and determining the needs and requirements of 7 different teachers. I think he felt really good after meeting with all his teachers because he’s been feeling like he has so many things to keep track of and he’s not doing any of them well. To hear his teachers all say they were pleased with him and give him tips to help him for future assignments was really important.

After conferences we had 2 of the boys’ friends over to play and then I tried to pack while they played in the rain. Yes, we had rain! Tons of it. The roads were flooding and there was thunder rumbling and the kids were soaked from head to toe in minutes. It was beautiful.

I managed to get us all packed, but by then it was 10 pm and we had a 3:15am pickup – I know I ended up with less than 4 hours of sleep. Muscat has the craziest flight schedule. Everyone arrives and departs at the crack of dawn or late at night. We got to the airport at 3:30am and the parking lot was full, hundreds of people were gathered around the baggage claim, and in line to check in for flights – you would have thought it was the middle of the day. The worst part about these super-early flights is you end up with jet lag even though you’re only traveling 1 or 2 hours time difference. You get up at 2:45 – travel, travel, travel. Arrive at 10 am and crash at the hotel for a nap. Sleep 1/2 the day and then when night comes, you’re wide awake. Oh well.

So this morning, in the midst of these hoards of people, we have to check in. We’ve already checked in online, but there’s an issue with printing the baby’s boarding pass (there always is) so we have to go to the counter. Thankfully a new window opens up and we bypass many, many people, but those people came and went and we were still at the counter. And still at the counter. Josh was there over 30 minutes and at the end they were only able to give us the boarding passes for the first flight and they said someone would bring our other ones to the gate.

We were at the counter so long they were already loading the bus to board the plane, even though we arrived 2 hours before departure. But we couldn’t get on the bus because we had to wait for our second set of boarding passes. Meanwhile Camille starts yelling and arching her back and Carter starts complaining that he feels like he’s going to throw up. Then Caleb announces (loudly, cause that’s his only volume setting), “He has to throw up?!” And I can feel the people shrinking away from the screaming baby and the germ infested kid. My mind started to formulate a plan of grabbing Carter and the baby and catching a cab home and letting Josh take the other kids on the trip by himself, but when I helpfully suggested it, Josh just laughed.
We finally get our boarding passes and by this time it’s 5:30, our scheduled time of departure. They held a bus just for us along with one other family that had the same problem. The waiting was a pain, but at least we were waiting in the airport and not stuck on the plane like the rest of the passengers.

A private playground

After we’re finally in the air and I have Camille nursing, Calvin leaning on one shoulder and Caleb poking me on the other while hovering over Camille’s face, I start to feel claustrophobic and wonder why this trip sounded like a good idea back when we scheduled it. (Josh was off a few rows back with Carter, who probably didn’t say a word the entire flight – I should have swapped him out for one of the talkers).

Then, after landing, we’re all squeezed in the aisle like a bunch of cattle waiting to exit the plane and I feel someone tap me on the shoulder and say, “Excuse me, can you move so I can get by? I look at the crush of people ahead of me, all standing motionless and look back and the man and say, “Where do you think you’re going to go?” He replies, “I’m trying to catch up with my wife, and I’ve made it up from the back of the plane, but now you’re blocking me.” I laughed and motioned at all the people in front of me, “Oh, I’m blocking you. Right.” And then proceeded to ignore his suggestion that I scooch back in my row so he can pass me. To what? Stand exactly where I was standing? To top it all off, I’ve flown this leg several times so I know that we’re all getting off the plane to get on a shuttle bus. You gain no advantage by getting off the plane faster. You either wait on the plane or you wait on the shuttle.

It’s 6:30 in the morning and I’ve had 3 people hanging on me for the past hour, I’m annoyed by his ridiculousness and utter lack of logic, and I decide to ignore him. I’m further annoyed when I hear him telling Camille (She’s in Calvin’s arms who is wedged in next to me), “When you grow up, you’re going to listen. You’re going to be a good girl aren’t you?” Really?! How nervy. I was tempted to turn around and tell him that I hoped when she grew up she wouldn’t be a pushover, just like her mother, but by then the masses had started moving and I figured it wasn’t worth wasting my energy. The best part? When our shuttle left, he was standing and waiting at the bottom of the stairs for other passengers to exit the plane. I’m presuming his wife didn’t have the same sense of urgency to get off the plane as he did?

If she could talk, she would have told that guy to “bug off.”

Anyway, the rest of the trip was uneventful and I’m writing the rest of this from our hotel room. I’m lounging in a fluffy hotel robe after a bath and a long nap in a ridiculously comfortable bed so things are looking up. I’m totally going to have jet lag now, but it’s worth it.