Jordan, Day 2

After a blissful 8 hours of sleep and breakfast on the patio, we went down for our Dead Sea dip. Last year in Israel, the place we swam in the Dead Sea was very rocky and hard to maneuver - many people came out with bloody scrapes (at least they were clean!). You'll also recall I didn't get any pictures last year either. So - yay for beach access to the Sea at our hotel!We floated.
They also had some mud to play in.
I met a guy floating with his teenage daughter who was from Southern California and went to Talbot (like me)! He is a seminary professor in Amman.

After a dip in the hotel pool(s) and getting cleaned up, we set out for the desert - to Wadi Rum, Jordan's biggest desert valley. We had been planning to visit this Wadi all along, maybe get a camel ride to tour the rock formations that are there. The night before we went, the idea came up to see if we could spend the night in a Bedouin camp. I am obsessed with Bedouins :) (even after my disappointment in learning they are involved in human trafficking); I just find the nomadic desert dwelling lifestyle fascinating and maybe a bit mysterious. (Not that I would ever consider it myself.)
We weren't sure how long the drive down there would take; someone told us 2.5 hours (saying "it depends on who is driving" - hmm) and the guy at the front desk told us 4 hours. Armed with our Jordan map, we set off. The roads in Jordan are pretty straight forward; there are a few highways and main roads that run the length of the country. We took one of these main roads over to the main highway, or so we thought; an hour of windy mountain pass roads and driving through towns later we were a bit frustrated and not sure exactly where we were. Finally we found our road and stopped quickly to make sure we were where we wanted to be - it was here that a guy in a passing car stopped his car, backed up, and asked where we were going. (Perhaps the huge "AVIS" sticker on the back window gave us away.) He pointed out the quickest route with a big smile and a "welcome!" (the most commonly uttered English word in Jordan) and was on his way. And we were on ours.Turns out there's a bit of a Bermuda Triangle in the middle of Jordan where a bunch of roads meet in the mountains and unidentified cities sit interspersed among the roads. (We got stuck in the middle of it on our way back, too - you are never really lost, because you know the direction you're going, but a couple hours pass without you being certain you are in the right place because the street signs cease and you are just guessing.) Anyway, by the time we finally approached Wadi Rum over five hours later, the sun was already setting. Our first item of business was the bathroom, followed by checking with the visitor's center to see if we were too late to find one of these Bedouin camps.

Fortunately, we were greeted (perhaps "accosted" is more accurate) the moment we got out of our car by Attalah, a clever little Bedouin guy around 20 who apparently ran one of these camps. Ecotourism is a growing business for the Bedouins in Wadi Rum; from climbing to overnight camping experiences to several day treks into the desert, they are capitalizing on the tourism to make a living. There were a couple recommended camps, but we decided to follow Attalah since he was here right in front of us. Another Slovakian guy was "recruited" from the visitor's center as well, so I felt more comfortable having another guy coming along. (My brain automatically assumes I'm going to be trafficked in any given situation. It's just my job.)(Photo of our drive through Wadi Rum, the next morning)

We followed Attalah to a local village, where we left our cars and hopped in a truck and took off into the desert. WOW - the stars were magnificent as we drove into the darkness, seeing only sand and desert bushes in the headlights. We drove for about a half hour, bumping along in the blackness, local music blaring on the radio, before I thought I saw a faint light ahead. It must have been something else (maybe another camp - there are several), because we turned away and finally came to a stop in the middle of nowhere.

We could make out the big black tents of the camp, which were situated next to a huge cliff. The only light was a campfire and a very faint gas lamp, all hidden from the outside by the black tents. A few "campers" already sat around the fire, drinking tea and making small talk. There were ten of us tourists (we were the only ones from any of the Americas), plus six Bedouin - brothers and friends of Attalah who helped run the camp.

They cooked the chicken over the campfire and we sat in one of the tents to eat dinner - the chicken, potatoes, the local flat bread, yogurt, tomato & cucumber salad. Luckily Andrea had a headlamp with her so we could actually find the "bathroom" and get situated in our tent that night. They had little two-man tents set up nearby, with thick blankets (I chose not to think how long it had been since they had been washed!) inside.

I knew it would be cold - but it was FREEZING! I had packed for the hot weather we had during the days, certainly not a night in the desert, so I wore almost everything in my suitcase! We didn't sleep much because of the cold, but when we got up a little after dawn, we were greeted by the spectacular desert scenes around us and were able to get a good look at the camp for the first time...

Jordan, Day 1

Monday night I flew out of Athens with great anticipation - Petra has been "on my list" and one of those things I wasn't sure I would get to cross off. How exciting to be on my way - and to be able to experience such a great culture as well!

First impression of Jordan: "I totally understand the head covering thing - I wish I had one right now!" I arrived at 2am, exhausted, had to stand in line twice to get a visa (before and after I changed money), and there was not a woman to be seen - instead I walked out of the customs area and was faced with probably 100 men all watching my every move, winking, staring. I was uncomfortable, my hotel shuttle never arrived, and the thought crossed my mind that I had my stamp for my visa, I could just go home now. :) But, I got a taxi, found Andrea at the hotel, and got some sleep - despite the toilet that ran all night, giving us both dreams that incorporated some form of water feature.

The next morning, still a bit on edge, we got a little rental car, "the Raisin." Actually, Andrea went to get it, and I ate breakfast at the hotel, the only female without a head covering, wondering what I would do if she never came back. Haha. We set off to find Jerash, a Roman city from the first century with pretty impressive ruins. The temples, pillars, theaters, and other structures stretch on over the hills, and presumably many more are still buried under the modern city of Jerash.
By afternoon, our somewhat negative (or uncomfortable) first impressions of the country were dissolving. It is amazing how friendly the people are - genuinely, not out of a creepy interest or inappropriate intentions (for the most part). A couple of times as we wandered around Jerash looking for the entrance to the ruins, people stopped us to tell us how to get there, whether they spoke English or not. This was a common theme to the trip - people were so talkative and friendly. One guy, as we were stopped on the side of the road at one point studying our map, even backed his car up after passing us to ask where we were going and point out the fastest route.

That afternoon we intended to drive to the Dead Sea, take a dip, and head down farther south toward the desert. But the sun sets early, and we arrived at the Dead Sea after dark. There weren't really any budget choices for hotels, as the clientele in this area tends to be retired travelers and new-agey health spa seekers. So we settled on the cheapest option: the Marriott Resort & Spa, which was actually very reasonable, and decided to make full use of the facilities, including the jacuzzi and a great on-site restaurant. Goodbye awkward/uncomfortable feelings - we love Jordan! :) We woke up to this:But that is for Day 2...

campfire + donkey + dust = I'm a little stinky.

Just got back this morning (and consequently haven't slept in about a day and a half, I think) from a little visa trip to Jordan. My friend Andrea from high school met me there in her jaunt around the world following 8 months in Antarctica, and in fact treated me to this little trip so that I could share the experience and she could have a traveling companion! Win-win! And I will be eternally grateful. (Or is that with grate thanksfull?)

It was a GREAT trip. A few highlights that I shall share more details and pictures about in the next few days: the Dead Sea (my second time, but first from the Jordan side), Petra, donkeys, spending the night in a Bedouin camp in the desert, and great food.

A weekend in Amsterdam...

Stacie in front of our hotel

Bike nation (ask me how I was nearly killed multiple times by these crazy people)

Hot chocolate on a cold day!

My favorite...to add to the door collection :)

TTFN...I am off for warmer climates...

blur

The president of the organization I was with in Holland sent me this photo yesterday that he took with his phone of the group at the train station in Amsterdam. He thought it was funny the way it turned out. He took a normal one, then he told everyone to jump in the second. Clearly I didn't follow his instructions. :) Anyway - I'm going to be working with some of these people, too bad you can't see them!

shocking!!!

I spend lots of time in brothels and bars and red light districts. I'm not exactly shockable. Try me. Good luck.

Today, I was shocked. :) Stacie and I are back in Amsterdam after our meetings out in the (beautiful) Dutch countryside. This afternoon we were sitting in a square on a bench eating waffles and watching people. There was this lovely building across from us:Please notice the bottom right corner of that photo. Let's take a closer look:Public urinals. Very public urinals. The thing is, it wouldn't have even caught my attention if I hadn't seen a guy walking away from one zipping up. It's one thing I guess for them to be there, but it's another thing entirely for them to be USED!!!

And they are! Just while we sat there for under ten minutes, we saw these three (just call me a voyeur, I guess...I couldn't help it! Stacie said I should title this blog "Peeping Kelsey." I was really just in disbelief and had to document this newest form of public urination, which is actually more shocking to me than actual public urination)...
This guy was looking around and giggling nervously the whole time as his friends stood at a distance and laughed at him. Now I have seen everything. And I am disturbed that I can sit on a park bench, eat a waffle, and watch people urinate, shake, zip, and walk away like nothing happened. Am I on Candid Camera?

The prayer summit was great. Pretty life-changing, actually. I can tell you that some really exciting things have come out of it that I am going to get to play a significant role in on a global scale. Stay tuned... ;)

yes, yes...

I'm in Amsterdam. Today we are heading to a top secret location outside the city (I only say this because some of my friends in Greece are convinced I am in the CIA or other secret agency!) :) for a prayer summit on human trafficking. This will be an important few days for the organization I will be there with as they seek to figure out where they are going as a global organization in the field of anti-trafficking, but also for me as I figure out my future in Greece and what that might look like. SOOOO - prayers please!! And I'll keep you posted. :)

guess where I am?

(not fair if you already know)

OHI! (subtitle: Meteora)

Clearly I am aiming for once-a-week posts now. Slacker.

Today is Ohi Day. Which means, if you are new, that everything is closed and nobody works and the cafes in my neighborhood are packed. We can make a holiday out of anything here, including the day that the prime minister Ioannis Metaxas said "Ohi!" ("No!") to Mussolini in 1940. You know, Mussolini wanted to enter and occupy Greece (those Italians and Germans and also the Bulgarians) at the beginning of World War II. So Metaxas said NO! A lot of good that did.

But still, we get a holiday out of it. Yay, Greek pride.

So, since I am saying OHI to work today too (actually not - it's a perfect day to catch up on everything and maybe not even leave my house), I wanted to share some pictures with you from my weekend excursion to Meteora. I went with some girls I know, crammed in a car for 5+ hours both ways, braving city traffic, torrential rain, fog, windy mountain roads, and landslides (well, those were there before we got there). I am now a pro rain and fog driver!

Here are some photos...it is really quite spectacular there. The first two are the view from our hotel room, the first day and then the second morning with fog...then we went all up in there, in the rocks and into the monasteries and "nanneries" (gotta love foreign sign misspellings). There are seven total, built right into the cliffs. One of them you still have to get to by cable car thing suspended in the air, in the original fashion.

humdrum

How is it Thursday again already?

Today my life is consumed with the sex industry. :) Preparing today to teach tonight on addictions, STDs, sexual violence and abuse, and long term care for trafficking survivors. Tonight at 11, I'll be out on the street with the Nigerian girls. On my break from studying today, I finished writing a blog on the legalization of prostitution. Oh, and I did some laundry. :)

Thankfully Saturday is near and I have a short get-out-of-town excursion planned with a few girlfriends. I need it after this week!!! I miss the summer when we can pop down to the beach and go for a swim to wash all the cares of life away. Not sure yet what you're supposed to do here in the winter to relieve the cares of life!

ministry...and I need a motorcycle

Wow, Thursday was a long day. Well, 6pm to 4am seemed like a whole day in itself. The class was great! I wrote a bit about it here, since I figured it was about time to update that thing. Can I tell you, I have never been more excited to see four men in my life? And one was even Greek! (Gasp!) AND more than half the attendees are Greek! (Big gasp!) It's great. Will be fun.

And, boy, I did not exactly feel up to outreach that night. Getting home after 10, after teaching, who wants to go back out at midnight? But I did. And wouldn't you know, it's always those nights you don't feel like going that turn out to be the best. It was a good night. Nothing overly spectacular, really...it was raining, so we set up a table undercover and many of the girls came to get hot tea and cookies and chat for a bit. But what I really enjoyed were some other girls!

We have had bunches of new volunteers for outreach (normal for the start of the fall; we'll see how many stick around), a lot of whom are from the Bible college here. Monday night I had a little group of 18 year old first year Greek students in tow for outreach, and many of them came back Thursday night. Two of the girls in particular have latched onto me, and I love it! I love college students. :) Nothing like walking down the street arm in arm at 2am past drug dealers and women in prostitution talking about college and life decisions and plans. :)

My friend Stefanos, another volunteer, gives me a ride home on his motorcycle on Thursday nights since we finish after the metro closes. Woo! This is like the highlight of my Thursday (well, it's Friday by then). I need to get me one of those!!! I am pretty sure I would be smashed in an instant if I tried to navigate the crazy streets of Athens on one of those things on my own...I guess I'll leave it to him. Still, I dream of pink vespas... :)

class starts tonight

It is a rainy day, I am sitting on my couch in my sweats with a cup of tea and studying for the Hands That Heal class that starts tonight. I'm only teaching it tonight and next week and then have a few weeks off (whilst I travel) and I come back for the last session in mid-November.

Anyway, given my circumstances, in actuality I am trying not to fall asleep. I had a deliciously fattening creamy & cheesy tortellini lunch at Voula's after my Greek lesson this morning, and now with the sweats and the tea and the couch and the rain outside ... all I want is to take a nap! Class schmass.

There is a possibility that I will have to go to outreach afterward, into the wee hours of the morning - waiting to hear about how many people we have ... Here's to hoping I can manage to get out of my sweats in a few hours!

Hania

Before I got sick, Crete was calling. At the time, a weekend out of Athens, in this beautiful Venetian-Turkish-Greek setting, sounded perfect. The two nights sleeping on the floor on the ferry felt a small price to pay for two days of wandering through the old town, visiting friends, laying on the beach, and eating whatever I wanted (vacation rule!). :)

The lack of sleep hasn't helped decrease my body's rate of snot-manufacturing, but I have to say, it was totally worth it. I still love this place. My favorite island. I spent so little money, ate so much good food, laid on the beach, and discovered this Cretan cookie with sweet mizithra cheese and cinnamon that has changed my life.

And now that it's raining in Athens, the weekend away was that much better. :)

over a week without posting...

such freedom I feel! :)

I am still sick, last week was uneventful, and I was away this weekend (which didn't help the sick thing). Really didn't think you needed to hear about any of it.

Anyway, I just got off the boat after a 9+ hour ride and fun sleeping on the floor experience (second time in the same weekend), so I'm going to bed. :) Ciao.

really??

I have managed to top off my fabulous week with a bad cold and a mildly sprained ankle. That's what I get for trying to get some fresh air. That makes my second sprained ankle since moving to Athens - almost laughable, especially if you've ever been here and seen the sidewalks (and I use the term "sidewalks" loosely). Have I ever sprained anything before moving to Greece? That would be a no.

I had in mind to tell you about all the other interesting things that you can observe in public here (see previous post re: shooting up in public) that take place in other locales but not quite on the public scale that occurs here. Examples: peeing, nose picking, making out... but I'll save the apparent lack of need/desire for privacy here for another post.

One interesting note - I was actually able to make it out to a neighborhood art exhibit last night with some friends that is located around the neighborhoods we work in. Sprinkled throughout the brothels, etc. were old buildings full of abstract art - a real estate company is buying up these decrepit old homes and commercial buildings and turning them into art galleries in an attempt to make the neighborhood more artsy and attractive. We took the opportunity as unassuming "tourists" to snap some photos of brothels, too :) which is what the one above is.

various and sundry items

I had my first lesson with another Greek teacher today...I'm not cheating on Voula, just wanted to add an extra hour or two a week and be able to hear different Greek speakers. Alionka is actually Albanian, but has lived here for 13 years and speaks English and Greek fluently and has many students for Greek lessons. She's great - and she said I speak very well, so I like her even more! :) I can communicate what I need to communicate, but I have been having a more difficult time understanding when people speak to me. My friend Joanna figured out that it's probably a mental block - I've gotten so good at tuning out the Greek around me because I don't understand it, that I just do that automatically now. I'm trying to be better at listening to conversations around me - if that can be considered a good thing, ha! - and tune my Greek ear up a bit.

It's election weekend here, so we've been having lots of rallies and demonstrations - so far peaceful, but I am not hanging around them to see what happens. How quickly they turn otherwise around here. There is a lot of cynicism and apathy about both parties among Greeks, because of corruption and all the economic troubles, and because "nothing ever changes," regardless of poll results. Still, it is looking like the currently governing "democratic" party will be ousted by the "socialist" party...these two basically trade off every few years. My rule of thumb - when there are hoards of police waiting and ready, evacuate the premises. :)

I've been making friends with the Nigerian "boys" (if you can call them that...they are probably mostly in their 20s and 30s) in my neighborhood who sell CDs, sunglasses, purses, etc. I have wanted to be friends with them since I got here, especially after learning so much in the past few years about the plight of many children and young boys in many African countries. I know some names now, am learning bits and pieces of some of their stories, and am doing my best to avoid coffee invitations. Haha. There are SO MANY Nigerians in Greece, and they are mostly from the same areas - the guys and the girls we work with.

Of all the disturbing sights I have seen since being here and working in this field, I am forever scarred by something I saw a few weeks ago. There are people shooting up everywhere where we work at night - that is nothing new. It is strange so see it so flagrantly in public here, but you get used to it. Except one evening I saw a guy shooting straight into the groin. I still cringe when I think about it. And then there was another guy, into his foot. These sights are almost too much for me, as far as personal comfort and gross-out factors. BLECH!!! Just thought I would share this rich cultural experience. :)

One last thing...does anyone have any hotel recommendations for Amsterdam??? Next conference destination...

blugh

My absence is explained quite simply. A couple days on my death bed, in which nothing decided to remain in my stomach; some very stressful (to me) situations and meetings; much pondering on what I am supposed to be doing with my life; missing/spotty internet, which, among other things, effectively removes my "phone a [neutral] friend" lifeline in all of the above situations.

One of those weeks that we all look forward to for their strong character building qualities. :)

P.S. My knees are hurting again. :(

Ah, the good old days

Remember how much fun I had in Israel? I just love it there. Could live there, even.

redefining safety

I watched the movie The Soloist last night. It takes place largely on Skid Row in LA. I have been there so many times, during the day and night, yet the intensity of the place in the movie still surprised me. I have forgotten. It's not the same here.

Thursday nights we start outreach at 11. I walk there alone, to some of the worst parts of Athens. I have walked home alone from the center square at 2 or 3 am. Yet I don't really think twice about it. Athens is different from LA. Tonight on my way to the outreach center I saw the customary drug deals, the guys who are totally strung out shooting up right on the sidewalk, the bazillions of refugees in the streets, the girls at work. I suddenly realized how my perception of danger or being unsafe has changed.

Athens is not a dangerous place. Ok, it would not be shocking if I were mugged, or if someone broke into my apartment. Petty crime has risen with the poor economy and the increase of refugees and immigrants. But violent crime is so rare. It's almost unheard of here. In this way, my self is safer than my stuff. So I can walk alone at night (being smart, of course - it's not like I choose the darkest alleys or the worst areas and walk into them at 3 in the morning) without much fear. Seeing Skid Row in this movie last night made me realize how different things would be elsewhere. My perception of safety will need to be readjusted when I leave here. Maybe it will just naturally readjust in a different environment with different levels or definitions of danger.

In LA, it's not uncommon for people to hurt others. Here in Athens, it's more common for people to hurt themselves.

bad habits

A few bad habits I have picked up since living overseas:

1. Speaking Greek in English (ex. "I like shrimps" or "I am bored to do that.")
2. Calling my country "America"
3. Staying up SO LATE (partly because the culture and work are late night things, but also because everyone at home is awake during my night for skype, IM, etc.)
4. Eating the same things because walking to the grocery store and carrying the bags all the way home is such a pain
5. Hoarding plastic bags (the Greeks do this and now so do I...for garbage bags, carrying things, etc.)

:)