It was a long, tiring, and wonderful day. We went to 4 great places in the country of Jordan. After going to bed at 2:30 a.m. I woke up at 8:00 a.m. to a knock on the door saying “our ride is hear early, get up!” Oi!! Bethany and I got ready in record time and were out the door to meet with Fawaz our tour guide for the day. Our plan go to the Jesus’ Baptism site in Bethany (the city my wife is named after), The Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo and Madaba. Jeff’s initial guess was we would be back by 2 so we could rest and prepare for class. I was not as optomistic and in this situation pessimism was victorious! HAZZAH!!!
As we began our travels I was reminded of a funny article on a website called “Stuff White People Like” which is a tongue and cheek analysis of as the title things white people like. This article in particular stuck out
Traveling. Though our trip is not traveling in the typical sense, we are here with a purpose to build relationships, teach English, share God’s truth and fill a much needed gap. I do see myself in certain phrases such as “During this time they are likely to wear a back pack” guilty as charged…
Today was great, seeing all of these wonderful places brought certain scriptures to life. For Example: The wilderness John the Baptist walked in was much less “deserty” than I had imagined. It was full of foliage and brush to thick to walk through. This gave me a whole new perspective. There were many places we saw the supposed spot of Elijah’s ascension, Jesus’ Baptism site. These are no longer words on a page but places I have seen. My only regret which followed most of us throughout this day is that we were not able to spend more time in these locations. We could have easily spent all day what we did in 8 hours.
Next was the Dead sea, mentioned at least 23 times in the scripture, the Dead Sea played a key role in Middle East history, specifically that of Israel. One thing very odd about the Dead Sea is that it is literally impossible to drown in, apart from being held under. There is so much sediment and salt that all you can do is float. I know many would say… so? I can float and a pool. To that I say “cool story bro, it’s different.” If you shoot down you will only make it so far and it will shoot you back up, Literally. We have video of this happening it looks like Jeff, Jim and Dean are jumping in fact the opposite happened. They tried to push down and the sea pushed back. Very interesting. Also… don’t get water in your mouth or eyes you will regret it. Think pepper spray. A student told us that when he was young at the Dead Sea his sister asked for water so he bottled Dead Sea water and gave it to her. No good. Boys will be boys no matter what country you find yourself in.
Finally we went to Mt. Nebo located just outside Madaba. Mt. Nebo is known as the place Moses went before his death to view the promised land. This is quite a drive to get to so I can only imagine the walk in this heat. The view is nice but it is difficult to see these days due to smog. There were interesting artifacts and mosaics in the exhibit and the church that once stood there is under renovation. We attempted to climb over the fence to get a better shot of the cross but were told by a worker to stop… worth a try. After this we ate in Madaba at Haret Jdoudna which I am told means “Grandfather Castle.” The food was delicious I ordered Kebab which was not what I expected, but very good. I was told by a field worker that is almost always the case. “This isn’t what I thought it was, but it is delicious!” We spent a few minutes in a local church which beautiful mosaics and headed home.
The one downside to my day is possibly losing my phone. I like my phone, it does all sorts of fun things. All hope is not lost I believe it to be left in Fawaza’s car, but am not sure. If not… In the end it is just a phone and I will get a new one. I would not let that get me down we still had classes to go.
Bethany taught for the first time tonight. She did very well. There were things she thought she could do better speaking slower things like that. But overall she did very well. It has been fun to teach with my wife and grow relationships with our students together. We are a good team and that is exciting to me. Tonight we will tag team on the lesson start with her and than go to me. We have had some great conversation with our students after class. Tomorrow night we intend to invite our students out to eat. Hopefully some will come so we can have a good time.
<3
Bryce
Fail of the day: My students trying to teach me Arabic, it always ended in laughter….
