Trip of a Lifetime - Conclusion (Part 2 of 2)

 COMPANIONS

The final section of this blog will introduce you to our trip companions. 

When the trip started in Jerusalem there were seven of us, plus our guide. The seven of us were six Americans and an Australian.

Nazeeh, who goes by Naz, was our guide for our week in Israel. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. He speaks four languages fluently. He shifted easily between Hebrew, Arabic, and English. He also leads tours for Indonesians who come to Israel. Naz used to be a teacher, and he loved the teaching part of teaching, but the rest of teaching wasn't his cup of tea. So he went back to school for a masters degree in tour guiding, and started that ten years ago. He started with G Adventures six years ago, and he is very pleased with them as a company. The tourism industry was hit hard, and he wasn't able to lead any tours for two years. Our tour was his first in two years, and he was greeted very enthusiastically by the familiar people on his regular tour stops. He's very friendly, has a warm smile, speaks in a wonderful baritone voice, and is incredibly knowledgable about the area.

Two of our companions were Ken and Chris. Ken is a general practice physician in Australia, where he has spent most of his life. Chris works in Long Island, New York in finance. Ken and Chris met six years ago on a G Adventures tour, and have been touring the world on tours ever since. It seemed like there isn't a place on earth they haven't seen. Ken has been on 30 G Adventures tours, and Chris has been on 25! When I asked if they had ever been to Antarctica, both said yes, and Ken said twice! Ken would always add extra walking to our extensive walking days, and he's always ready for more exploration. Chris is the one who saved me a lot of aggravation by loaning me her SD card reader for my computer, or else I wouldn't have been able to transfer my photos from my camera every day. 

Tim and Julie are also avid travelers. Both are now retired from careers at the University of Kansas and beyond. Tim spent his career as an accounting professor, and Julie was a Psychologist and instructor at KU until she turned to private practice. Tim has a great, dry sense of humor, and he loves puns. They are living in Los Angeles now, when they aren't traveling the world. Their packing game is on point, traveling with nothing more than they need, and they need very little. They are avid hikers, and they walked up the trails that mom and I chose to ascend on horse carriage, donkey, and golf cart. They made really good time! Most of the hikers in our group clocked 24,000 steps up canyon trails, and it wasn't easy walking. Throughout our trip Julie was on the lookout for a tea pot, because their young grandkids love having tea parties. When mom and I walked into a gift shop Julie was already there, and a salesman was pressing her hard to buy an $1800 antique silver tea pot (a little more than the Fisher Price model that works just fine), and she was trying to escape so she tried getting him to sell to us instead, but mom and I were too quick for that, wanting only to buy postcard stamps they didn'thave, and we left her behind as quickly as possible. Sorry, Julie!

Mary Anne, from Dallas, TX, was a solo traveler, as she often is. Like the others in our group, she has also traveled the world, and she is also retired. She spent her career in early childhood education, and she spent seventeen years of that career as the educational director for Barney And Friends! One of her stories about traveling abroad as a main contributor to the Barney show was hilarious. Through her work with the Barney program she had many travel opportunities to help set up Barney in foreign markets. At one stop she was introduced as the creator of Barney, but she was in a foreign country, being introduced in a foreign language she didn't understand, so she had no way of knowing the mistake, after being celebtated by high level dignitaries. Later it came to light, but it was too late to undo the expectations and misunderstanding. Mary Anne is the one who introduced mom and I to the tiny toilet paper roll, a tip I'll travel with for the rest of my life.

The final two travelers in week one were these two:

The woman on the left is Ethel, from Morton Grove, Illinois. She spent her career in Human Resources at a company in Skokie, Illinois. She's a woman of simple needs, a generous spirit, and an outgoing and friendly personality. She can strike up a conversation with ANYONE, learn all about them in a few minutes, and sometimes even gets their address so she can follow up with a greeting card. And boy is she a good sport! She braved 11 hours in an airport in Munich due to a missed connecting flight, she walked for miles and miles on a hip that's causing her quite a lot of aggravation, she washed her clothes several times in several hotel bathroom sinks, she rode to the top of a mountain on a donkey, she endured an email scam that hacked her account and sent a request for money to all of her contacts, she couldn't get money out of the ATMs because she accidentally forgot her debit card, and she almost never complained. She does, however, apologize several dozen times every day, for inconveniences she is in no way responsible for. She's the easiest travel companion I can imagine, and I've been looking forward to this trip with her for over 30 years. Absolutely everything about this trip with her was perfect.

The woman on the right is me! After reading these blog posts you don't need me to elaborate any further on that.

For our second week we crossed the border between Israel and Jordan, meeting up with a new guide, Monteser, and six new tour companions. These six companions were four Brits and two Canucks. We heard that sometimes when a well-established group of tourists meets up with a brand new group of disconnected tourists, it's very hard for the new group to blend with the established group. This wasn't the case at all with the 13 of us. We all blended really well, and I was so pleased with everyone we met in our two groups.

Week two was less about religious sights, and more about adventure and ancient ruins.

Monteser, who offered to let us call him Monty to make things easier, is a life-long Jordanian. He was very kind and knowledgeable, and you can tell he really loves Jordan. When he talked about the special places we visited his face would light up, like a parent's face lights up when they're talking proudly about their child.  He was especially enamored with Wadi Rum, and he says Petra is always fantastic, even though he's been there hundreds and hundreds of times.

The first two travel companions I'll introduce you to are Ron and Joyce, two trauma nurses from Toronto. Ron has spent the past five years putting away 20% of his income, so that he could take off an entire year to travel. This is a program managed by the hospital where they work, and he's going to really do it up. He came to our Jordan tour from his week at the World's Fair in Dubai. Regrettably, Ron's boyfriend couldn't take a year off to travel with him, so Kevin travels the world with Ron as a laminated photo. In the first photo you see happy Ron and Kevin, when they're experiencing wonderful things together. In the second  you see grumpy Ron and Kevin, for times when they miss a flight, encounter rude tourists, or have bad service at a restaurant. 

Traveling with Ron, and often mistaken for his wife, is B. Joyce Palmer. I don't know why we always say her full name, but it's a thing. Joyce is also a trauma nurse, and a Canadian, so she is twice nice. (Ron is a nurse and Canadian, too, but he's more snarky, and far less likely to apologize for things that aren't his fault the way my mom and Joyce do.) See the beer she's holding? She stole it! Okay, actually she went to pay for it and the woman behind the counter said the bill had already been paid, but none of us ever paid for her beer, so she got her beer for free. I'm not sure Joyce will ever sleep again, knowing that she got away with free beer. Joyce looks super sweet, and she is, but she's also hilarious. They spent quite a lot of free time in search of karaoke establishments so Joyce could belt out some tunes to unsuspecting Jordanians. They also spent some time re-enacting a scene from Lawrence of Arabia in the desert where it was filmed. Like the original movie scene, Joyce's scene was epic.

The next couple you'll meet are Barb and Dave, who live in London. Dave spent his career in Human Resources, which made my mother crack up when she found out, but they didn't compare careers after the realization. Dave is a very sweet guy, who made his wife quite proud when he drank two beers very quickly before we headed from the bar to dinner. (He had been nursing them for quite a long time, so it looked like they were going to go to waste, but he made sure that didn't happen. Barb saw his accomplishment and cheered, "Oh, well done, dear!") Barb spent her career in the schools as a guidance counselor and classroom assistant for kids with special needs. She's incredibly kind, and SO friendly. She has survived three different types of cancer, which makes her a medical curiosity without much precedent, and she is determined to live an incredible life. She certainly did that on this trip!

That's Dave and his second happy hour beer. "Well done, Dave!"

Barb experiencing a donkey ride. She didn't love it, but she looked quite natural and quite happy up there!

The final couple are Tim and Jackie, also retired and living in London. Jackie is a retired archaeologist, and Tim will be retired at the end of this month, but I can't remember what he's been doing with his career. I DO know that he's a fanatic for Sheffield Football (soccer, for my American readers), despite what sounds like a long history of disappointment. Mom had mentioned that the Chicago Cubs owners, the Rickets, were poised to buy the Chelsea team. He doesn't know much about the Chicago Cubs, and I didn't bother him with the "Oh, you think YOUR team has a long history of loss!?" conversation. As an interesting aside, while looking up which English soccer team the Rickets were going to buy just now, I saw in the news today it was revealed that the Rickets will not continue their bid to buy the Chelsea Football Club. As it turns out, Joe Rickets (father of the would-be owner) made anti-Muslim comments two years ago, and the Chelsea fans are not okay with that. They've staged protests, so the Rickets family withdrew their bid. Good for you, Chelsea fans! Anyway, that's irrelevant to the conversation because Sheffield isn't Chelsea. So back to Tim and Jackie, who couldn't have been lovelier people or a better couple, and they were celebrating their 25th anniversary during this trip (but I'm not supposed to tell anyone).

Here they are, looking like bedouins.

Here they are looking like a proper British couple.

And this concludes the final post in this "Trip of a Lifetime" series. Thanks for joining us for this incomparable adventure! I hope all of you have an opportunity to have a vacation as incredible as the one we just experienced.

Trip of a Lifetime - Conclusion (Part 1 of 2)

Conclusion: Curiosities, Companies, Causes, and Companions

The trip is over, and it's time to tie up some loose ends. I didn't intend to make this full of alliteration, but I'm a fan of a good literary device, so now that the title just worked out that way I'll milk it for all its worth.

CURIOSITIES

Bathroom curiosities will start this section. It's curious that the more you spend on a hotel, the less of a shower enclosure you get. 

Here's the Landmark Hotel in Amman. That stationary glass panel only extends about two feet from the shower wall, and the shower head extends out a foot. 

The bath mat would be soaked. The floor would be soaked. 

I didn't take a photo of the one in our Jerusalem hotel. It was similar to this. The mirror was on the opposite wall. It's an incredible motivator for dieting.

Here's the shower in our simple kibbutz. Full closure! They even provide a squeegee on a pole so we could squeegee the floor if it got a bit wet, which it didn't, because it has shower doors.

Here's the shower in a TENT in a bedouin camp. Full closure! Dry floors!

When I just googled "no hotel shower door" to find a photo of the one in our Jerusalem hotel, I discovered that Condé Nast Traveler even wrote an article about The Slow Disappearance Of The Hotel Shower Door. So it's a thing at the fancy hotels. You wouldn't catch that kind of nonsense at a Motel 6 or Best Western. Only at a 5-star hotel will you get the experience of sloshing on a completely drenched bath mat at the edge of a soaking wet floor right outside the shower. And no squeegee or floor drain. Just dry yourself off and throw your own bath towel onto the floor to sop up the floor pond to avoid a nasty slip-and-fall.

Another bathroom curiosity is the kitchen sink dish sprayer mounted to the wall next to the toilet. We couldn't find toilet paper in every bathroom, but we could always find these sprayers. The first time I saw one I got an "ew" face. I've seen bidets in restrooms, and they gained popularity in US households with "the toilet paper shortage of 2020," but bidets usually have the sprayer in the bowl. The wall-mounted kitchen sink sprayer seemed a little more unwieldy and likely to cause a mess on the seat.

One of our travel companions had warned us about the possibility that we might not find toilet paper anywhere. She had packed a small pack of toilet paper designed for travel and camping. (Not my photo. I grabbed this photo from the internet.) See how small this roll is? This roll would fit into the core of a standard roll of toilet paper. It fits very easily in a purse or jacket pocket. 

After her warning I grabbed the extra roll of TP in the hotel bathroom at the Grand Court Hotel. But traditional rolls don't really fit well in a purse or pocket. So my standard toilet paper roll ended up in my suitcase, which got packed away in the back of the bus (and now that roll is here in Longmont, Colorado). I tried to always keep some tissues in my pocket just in case. One time we stopped at a convenience store and our guide stood at the bus door holding out a tissue box for us to grab some tissues on our way in. He said, "The chance that there is no toilet paper in there is 100%." Between the tourist places that had toilet paper, and the times we were prepared with our own, there was only one time that I wasn't prepared. I knew there wouldn't be toilet paper, but in my denial I still looked everywhere. There wasn't a single roll anywhere. No wrapped rolls sitting on the toilet tank, no empty dispensers on the walls where toilet paper would usually be, and not even any trash receptacles for tissues or even feminine products. Just a sprayer on the wall.

It was ... effective! (I might even say... exhilarating?)

Cuisine is the second curiosity. On our first day in Israel we were in our Jerusalem hotel at the buffet, and I picked up a 1/2" thick rectangle of something near the dinner rolls. When I got it back to the table mom asked what it was. "I don't know. I'm just trying a little of everything." I took a bite off the corner. It was firm and not easy to cut through with the side of a fork, kind of like a really dense brownie in consistency. It tasted sweet, and felt a little ... gritty? I told my mom I thought I had just bitten into a slice of brown sugar? But it wasn't sweet enough for that. During our walk through the Jerusalem Shuk the next day we learned that it was halva. 

Having grown up north of Chicago, with Armenian neighbors next door, Greek and Italian and Indian and German and Pakistani and Chinese and Sushi restaurants everywhere, the third-largest Jewish population in the world with their kosher delis and restaurants, mom inviting all the foreign engineers to our house when she'd introduce them to her company as head of human resources, and our travel to many countries, I've been exposed to a lot of foods from around the world in my life. So it was a surprise to see something I had never heard of that we found literally EVERYWHERE in Israel and Jordan. The halva we  tasted was at a place called "The Halva Kingdom." The perfect name for what we experienced, and there were four or five Halva Kingdom locations in the shuk. It was made of tahini (ground, toasted sesame seeds). Each "cake" of tahini in the case you see above was a different flavor. Pistachio, Chocolate, Vanilla, Pomegranate, Date, Walnut, and combinations of two or three ingredients. Our chef guided us from shop to shop during our tour, and the employees at each shop happily handed us samples of all sorts. Across the way we visited another branch of Halva Kingdom and saw how tahini is made in the ancient way. Toasted sesame seeds entered a large stone mill from a hopper above the mill. They were crushed between rolling stone disks, and the oil drained through a pipe at the bottom of the mill. 

This store sold bottles of this tahini in every flavor you can think of. Buffalo chicken, spicy chili pepper, chocolate, honey, dates, walnuts, coriander, parsley, mocha, and more. Gift boxes of multiple bottles were a big seller. We got little spoons and sampled many of the varieties. It's shocking how much can be done with sesame seeds. 

Currency is the third curiosity. We could pay in dollars in Israel and Jordan. We could also use Jordanian Dinars in Israel, and the New Israeli Shekel in some places in Jordan. We could swipe our debit and credit cards just about everywhere except the little make-shift markets on the street that had no electricity, and therefore no credit card processing machinery. Otherwise, even in the smallest of shops in Jerusalem's Old City market we could use our cards and currency.

COMPANIES

National Geographic is the company Amy decided to use for this trip for mom and I. She has seen this trip on the horizon for a long time, and she wanted to go with a very reputable company that would put safety and traveler experience at the top of their priorities. 

G Adventures is a travel partner that National Geographic uses. They have multiple styles of travel. The most economical level is Classic. We went that route, but the tour that went for 15 days through Israel and Jordan was "Upgraded." 

The National Geographic Expeditions page has the same exact tour listed in Journeys. The higher level of travel, with fancier hotels, expert lecturers, and more cultural excursions, is National Geographic Journeys. Their Israel/Jordan tour is exactly the same as the G Adventures Upgraded. Same tour for the same price on the same dates. Their most expensive tour is called "Wildlife of the World by Private Jet." That one lasts 24 days, it offers the ultimate service level, and it costs about $100,000.

What impressed me about G Adventures was their commitment to animal welfare, child welfare, environmental welfare, respect of local culture, and redistribution of wealth through directed channeling of tourism dollars. They partner with Planeterra, which is a non-profit organization that supports communities in need. 

CAUSES

One community in need that we visited was the Noor Women's Empowerment Group in the Aida Palestinian refugee camp. This is a group of 13 women with disabled children, who have banded together to create opportunities for their children by building a rehabilitation and education center for them. They earn money through offering cooking classes, selling hand-stitched embroidery items, renting out space to visitors to the camp, and taking donations. If you'd like to support what they do, you can learn about them and donate through their website. This page provides a video of what they do, and how much good can be done with different levels of contribution. 

Another community we visited was in Jerash, Jordan. Beit Khayrat Souf teaches cooking classes to tourist groups, which brings them income, thus empowering women toward equality in society. They opened their doors in 2016, and began receiving support from both Planeterra and Unicef in 2019 -- just before the pandemic shut them down. 

Jameel, a founding member of the association, says “Every woman should have this confidence to go out and start working, and to share the workplace equally with men.”

Equality in the workplace is a big ask in Jordan. In 2016, when Beit Souf opened its doors, the comparative percentages of economically active men to women was 58.7% to 13.2%  

Here's a sign we saw in a women's restroom at a gas station in Jordan. 

The first thing that jumps out in this photo is probably the hole in the floor. It's a squat toilet. I didn't attempt it. The other stall had a toilet (and this time I had the tissues that our guide handed out in the bus). Anyway, do you see the sign that's INSIDE the women's bathroom? It says "Sorry Bathroom Women." This is an apology to the men who have to walk five paces further to use the men's room. I wish I knew what this says in Arabic, which might reveal more about the message than the sign creator's English efforts. Maybe it says, "Hey bro, you clearly weren't looking at the sign of the woman OUTSIDE this room, but this restroom is for WOMEN, so please get out and walk five more steps to your own bathroom. Thanks, Management." However, I suspect the Arabic also apologizes to the men that this is the women's room. I include this photo simply to say that a center that strives for women's equality in Jordan is doing some pretty tough work. 

For more examples of gender obstacles women face in Jordan, walking on the sidewalks of Jordan turns out to be a daunting thing for women. I know that mom and I clearly look like tourists, which might have had some impact in what we experienced, but my mom and I also a women tourists. The men were not about to step aside for us on the sidewalk, even if they were walking side by side, we were against a building walking single file, and there was nowhere for us to go. On several occasions we had to step off the sidewalk into the street to let them pass. Last month I saw a woman's Facebook post that's going viral in America. It said, "I decided not to step aside for a man on the sidewalk if we were walking toward each other. In two weeks I've collided with 38 men." Well, in Jordan it would be far more than 38. One female in our group said, "I tried to order something at a restaurant last night, and the waiter wouldn't look at or acknowledge me. He kept asking the men questions about what they'd like to order, but when I'd ask for something he'd look away and not acknowledge me. It's been years since I've experienced anything like that." 

So bravo to the women of the Beit Khayrat Souf, in your most admirable goal of equality!

Another place we visited was the Al Numeira Environmental Association. This link takes you to the description of their work from Planeterra, and this link takes you to their own website, which describes their multiple efforts to increase sustainability and improve the environment in their region of Jordan.

Mission Statement: Al Numeira Environmental Association’s mission is to promote innovative water conservation methods and environmental education to build a more sustainable future and improve human well-being in the Jordan Valley.

This association feeds tourists from the foods they grow, they receive broken bicycles and repair them, then rent them to tourists who want to roam the area on bikes, and they repurposed used and discarded materials to make all the furniture we sat on, and all the planters we saw were made from used tires. 

The women in the front and center of this photo made our lunch. Not to sound like a broken record, but it was delicious. (Do people say "broken record" anymore? Does it indicate that I'm an AARP gal, since cassettes and CDs have already come and gone since the last time I heard a vinyl record skip?)

This conclusion has too many parts and words, so I'll cover the final segment, Companions, in a separate post.

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 20 (Israel-Palestine, Part 3)

Today is a day of flying from Amman, Jordan to Frankfurt, Germany to Chicago. Not much else happening, so I can conclude the trifecta of posts on the Israel/Palestine conflict. 

We started Friday, March 29th with stark news. The night before, while our group was enjoying a wonderful dinner and a tour through a West Jerusalem shuk (blog from Day 5), a Palestinian gunman was shooting civilians in an Orthodox Jewish part of Tel Aviv, killing 5 people before he was shot and killed by police. That was the fifth attack in less than two weeks, and brought the death toll to 11 in that short time. 

Here's the news story about that incident on March 29th. 

And here's a news story about the incident the day before, on March 28th, in which ISIS operatives killed two people north of Tel Aviv. 

And here's an article about another shooting in Tel Aviv on April 7th, in which two were killed and dozens more injured.

And here's a news story about an incident just yesterday, in which three different Palestinians (two women, one man) were killed by Israeli police in three separate incidents.

This article explains some of the causes and consequences of the recent violence, which one person interviewed says is reminiscent of the start Second Intifada of 2000 to 2005, during which 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians were killed.

We visited the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque are, on March 26th. On March 29th, the day we met with Ahmad Muna, the Temple Mount was closed to all visitors in an effort to restore peace.

With these incidents as the backdrop of what might be a deadly season of religious holidays coming up in Jerusalem (Ramadan, Passover, Easter), let's look at part 3 of the Palestine/Israeli conflict.

Ahmad Muna is 31, and he just got married last month. He was born in East Jerusalem to a father who was also born in East Jerusalem, which was controlled by Jordan at that time. But in 1967 East Jerusalem was seized by Israel, so when Ahmad was born the people in East Jerusalem were not Jordanians. But they're not Israelis, either. Because they live in East Jerusalem, they are technically... Palestinians? But they aren't really Palestinians, because Palestinians have a different status than Arabs living in Israel. Ahmad is an Arab living in Jerusalem, which they refer to as "Jerusalemites." Because Ahmad's father was a Jerusalemite, Ahmad is also a Jerusalemite. 

Ahmad's parents opened a bookstore in 1986. It focuses on Palestinian culture and history, with books mostly in English. When he was a boy, Ahmad had little interest in the issues his parents spent their lives sharing. He decided to go to college at the University of Kent, in Canterbury, England. He stayed there from 2008 to 2013.

When Ahmad came home for two weeks in 2014 he became sick and needed to see a doctor. Israel has a national health care system, so everyone who pays taxes is entitled to health care whenever they need it. When he got to the doctor's office he was denied treatment because, as he put it, "I wasn't in the system." He checked with the insurance office,  but they couldn't find him in the system, either. They told him to check with the national health insurance office. He checked with them, and they just validated that he wasn't in the system. 

This made no sense! Why wasn't he in the system? He's from East Jerusalem! He was born and raised there! He just went to college for a few years, and now he was home and needed to see a doctor!

It was eventually explained that it was because he was out of the country for more than six months, so he would need to be put back in the system now that he was back. He said, "Okay, great, put me back in the system." They told him they couldn't, because he didn't have an ID card. He asked them for an ID card, but they told him they couldn't issue one because he had been out of the country for more than six months. He had lost his residency status. This is the tricky thing about residency versus citizenship. I am a resident of Colorado, and a citizen of the United States. If I travel to England for a college program for several years, I will no longer be considered a resident of Colorado. But I'll still be a citizen of the United States. 

This experience got Ahmed really interested in the issues his parents have always tried to educate people about. Suddenly these issues were completely personal, and the injustice of his situation became very clear.

The complicated status of those in Israel goes back to the war in 1948. During that war over 30,000 Palestinians were killed. Over 750,000 fled Israel for Palestine, and today their population has grown to six million who still have refugee status. But 150,000 Palestinians didn't flee. They stayed in what would become Israel, and today there are 1.5 million Palestinians in Israel without Passports, which is 22% of Israel's population. These "Arab Israelis" are integrated into the overall Israeli population. They pay taxes to Israel, they've been educated in the Israeli school system, they speak Hebrew, they are residents of Israel (a very modern country), they dress just like the rest of the people in Israel, they drive the same streets, and they eat the same cuisine. But they aren't citizens, so they experience limitations that the Jews of Israel don't have.

In Jerusalem there are two types of ID cards. One is for Israeli citizens. It grants access to health care, education services, and grants people the ability to run for office and vote in elections.  

Ahmad has the second ID card. Until recently it indicated "Arab" as the nationality, but there's no nation called "Arab," so it isn't a nationality. The ID card allows Ahmad to travel throughout most of Israel and Palestine, and to access health and education services, but it does not allow him to run for office or vote. Ahmad still pays taxes to Israel. He is technically Palestinian, but he can't prove that to anyone. There is no formal statehood for Palestine, so there is no citizenship of Palestine. As for travel, because Ahmad's status doesn't include national citizenship, travel between nations is exceedingly difficult. He has to make plans months in advance and apply for a visa. But if he stays out of the country for an extended period, like to earn a college education, he can't come back. He'll lose his residency status and all of the benefits that come with that residency. Also, he isn't allowed to fly out of the airport in Tel Aviv. To fly internationally he has to go to Amman, Jordan, and to go to Amman, Jordan, he needs a travel visa first, because he isn't a citizen of Amman.

There are 350,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem. That's 35% of the population. 

Ahmad wondered aloud, "If you want to claim all of Jerusalem as your territory, then why not provide everyone there with passports?" The message Ahmad and others are getting from Israel is a frustrating one. He said it feels like they're saying to Arab Israelis, "We want your land. But we don't want you."

Ahmad explained that the current situation is not working, and hasn't been working for decades. Currently there is no Palestinian nation. It's just the nation of Israel, occupying Palestine, and not affording the people of Palestine with any rights. In addition to denying the people of Gaza and the West Bank equal health care and education, Israel has broken the law in creating settlements within the Palestinian territories. But what can Palestine do? They bring up their concerns to the United Nations, and the United Nations acknowledges that Israel is breaking the law, but then they don't do anything about it. As he was looking at our group of 6 Americans he said, "We don't have a problem with Americans, but your government always stands by Israel, even when Israel is breaking international law." For many years Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes. Here's an interesting video about it. It's only 10 minutes long, but it packs in a lot of information about the frustrations we heard about during our trip.

The "Two State Solution" would result in a nation of Israel and a nation of Palestine. This idea has been under negotiation for decades, but it is not a popular idea with Palestinians, and Ahmad doesn't think it can happen. About 70% of Palestinians don't believe in a 2-state solution. If it did work Palestine could have their own passports, their own airport, they'd get East Jerusalem back, they'd have freedom of movement, and they'd have self-rule.

But what about the idea of a one-state solution? If Palestine and Israel were unified into a single nation, Israel would be an automatic majority, and Palestinians would be a minority. But the Palestinians would have equal rights, and they could move freely. They'd also have access to what Israel takes for granted. Right now there isn't a single hospital in East Jerusalem -- only West Jerusalem. While Israel has 5G and 6G cell phone service, Palestine still has 3G. So unifying into a single state has its pros. But a one-state solution would end Israel's identity as a Jewish state, which was the entire motivation for creating Israel in the first place. Israelis wouldn't want to give up their Jewish homeland.

The violence that has happened in recent weeks, Ahmad explained, is very alarming for everyone because of who's doing it. Most of the time, when terrorists attack Israel, the terrorist is an angry Palestinian from the West Bank who crosses the border to shoot or bomb civilians in Israel. But the recent attacks haven't been by Palestinians coming to Israel. They've been by Arab Israelis who have always lived in Israel. Border control isn't going to help if the terrorists are already living inside of Israel. 

That was the end of our conversation with Ahmad. Since hearing from him we've been traveling all over Jordan, not hearing any news for over a week. But the situation worsened after negotiations in the Negev fell through last week. The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is a far-right politician who voiced the opinion that it isn't a good time to grant Palestine rights. He defends the Israeli settlements in Palestine, and just a couple of days ago he suggested that all Israeli civilians carry guns to protect themselves from terror attacks. That suggestion has bloodshed written all over it.

It's hard to find a side that's "right" in this conflict.

• Should Israelis be concerned about Palestinians going on shooting rampages? Yes!
• Should Palestinians be frustrated that none of their efforts to resolve these issues through the United Nations and other legal channels have fallen short for two generations? Yes!
• Should we expect Israel to change their policies when they are being manipulated through acts of terror? No!
• Should we expect Palestinians to be patient while another generation is born into refugee camps? No!
• Should Israelis do whatever they can to maintain a Jewish state? Yes!
• Should Palestinians do whatever they can to live in the land that has belonged to their ancestors for the past 2,000 years? Yes!

Unfortunately, two nations cannot occupy the same territory at the same time, and two families cannot occupy the same house at the same time. This is why the situation is not resolved, and why no easy resolution is at hand. Smarter people than me have worked at this problem for decades, and there is still no solution that will satisfy both sides. I'll be watching the news over the next few weeks, as Jerusalem swells with people observing their religious holidays there. If you're the praying type, feel free to send some words of peace toward Israel and Palestine.

Shalom and Salam
שָׁלוֹם
سلام

Trip of a Lifetime - Day 19

To get back home we'll travel alllll day.

So yesterday we napped. 

But not before we went on a hunt for a local mosque, and then we were scooped up by a local woman, who very politely ordered us to come to her house.

I'm not kidding!

First we enjoyed an epic breakfast buffet, where we joined two from our tour group. They suggested that we go to the King Abdullah Mosque, which was only 800 meters away, according to Google Maps. This isn't the most noteworthy of mosques (not the biggest, oldest, fanciest, etc) but it is the only mosque in Jordan open to non-Muslims. With Google Maps leading the way, we followed the trail and I accidentally led us to the Amman Courthouse. 

On the sidewalk outside was a long row of card tables under umbrellas, where men sat with manual typewriters, typing up forms of some kind. They also had a large supply of ball point pens and surgical masks, depending on what the customer needed. I still didn't understand this was a courthouse. We went through security to get into the building, which I assumed would open on the other side to a courtyard and then the mosque, but it never did. Everything inside was written in Arabic, so there was no way to know which door would reveal the mosque. I told my mother that my strategy for getting through the building was to keep walking down corridors, only turning into corridors where I saw a woman exiting. That's what we did for about 15 minutes, up and down stairs, under a beautifully domed atrium. It was bustling with people, many of whom were in what looked like the robes that professors wear at commencement ceremonies, with three bands on the arms. We'd learn later that those were judges.

Just outside security.

Just inside security.

Inside the courthouse. Nice, right?

I finally pulled out my phone and realized my mistake. I showed my mom that we needed to walk to the next block for the mosque. She reassured me that it had been an interesting stop on our way there, and was pleased with my mistake. (She's a great travel companion!)

Another block of walking and we arrived!

We went into the visitor's entrance and followed other people through a network of souvenir shops to a room that had two racks of brown robes on hangars. We had already been prepared for this requirement by our breakfast companions. But we arrived quite sweaty after our 1/2 mile walk, and when we entered the room we observed other tourists taking off and re-hanging their robes. We still had to get a negative COVID test to be allowed to come home, Jordan is pretty relaxed about mask-wearing, and I wasn't really eager to don someone else's sweaty robes before taking that test. Besides that, I was really thirsty after our walk, so I was ready to leave and get something to drink, which wouldn't be easy because it's Ramadan, everyone is fasting, so everything related to food and drink is closed. We were on our way to the door when a man came and asked if we'd like to see the mosque. I explained that we weren't dressed appropriately, and he led us back to the room with the robes. I explained that I was afraid of COVID, and he directed me to the robes on the hangers in the back, which were still in their dry-cleaning covers. I was happy to wear that robe to visit the mosque. Mom and I donned our robes and headed up the stairs to the mosque. 

Immediately to the right, once we entered the mosque courtyard, was a small museum full of interesting and very old artifacts. Regrettably, even after a week in Jordan, I am still not able to read Arabic. So most of what was in the room was just interesting to look at, but not very informative. There were several Qur'ans in many languages on the front table. 

That's mom in the center of the photo, in her hooded robe.

Images of the late King Hussein, current King Abdullah II, and Crown Prince Hussein are everywhere. This is the King Abdullah mosque, but it is named for King Abdullah I, who was the first king of Jordan. These three represent the third, fourth, and eventually fifth kings of Jordan.

Then we walked out of the museum to the mosque entrance.

Before we could enter the mosque we had to remove our shoes.

Inside the mosque.

Images of people in a mosque is considered idolatry, so the decorations are always geometric shapes, or the calligraphy of the Qur'an. You can see the calligraphy etched into the golden-colored fixture that holds the lights.

Here's mom in the middle of the mosque. Directly behind her is the wall Muslims face during prayer, and in the middle of that wall, immediately to mom's left in the photo, is the mihrab, or niche that indicates the direction of Mecca.

This clock shows the time (12:01pm), date (8th day of the month of 9th month Ramadan, 1443 AH), and five prayer times of the day. The first two times indicate a range during which the first prayer must be said. The bottom right number is the current temperature. That's a comfortable 70° inside the mosque! But much warmer outside, and I was still VERY thirsty.

After getting our shoes on and walking down the stairs toward the exit, I noticed another gallery. I had no idea what it was, because everything is in Arabic, but we decided to have a look. It was an area with a sort of auditorium in the center, and the halls outside were full of very cool things. Here's a gigantic Qur'an.

Here's a silver replica of the mosque in Medina, where Muhammed is buried.

They had replicas of several mosques. Here are the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

This is the King Abdullah mosque we were in! This display is in an area just under the minaret that stands in the foreground.

It was time to leave, and by now I was REALLY thirsty! I told mom we could head to the shopping mall we had passed on the way there, and hopefully find something to drink, if only a vending machine. The mall was 500 meters away. We headed that direction in the heat, walking mostly uphill. Not the uphill your grandparents said they walked both ways to school in the snow when they were kids, but actually uphill. It's a very hilly place. My thirst grew and grew.

We finally got to the mall. Curiously, we had to go through a metal detector and a bag search at the entrance of the mall. They saw my camera in my purse and said, "NO PICTURES." We had just been in a courthouse and a mosque, and no one prevented us from taking photos. At the mosque they told us we can take photos as much as we like! Then we get to a mall and couldn't take photos? It seemed odd, but I wasn't going to fight it. Thankfully, right inside the mall there was a grocery store. Whew!! We bought 1 liter bottles of water each for about 50 cents a bottle, then headed toward the door. Have I mentioned, I was SO thirsty! I stopped at a wall, not wanting to drink in front of anyone who was fasting, and faced the wall while I took giant swigs from my water bottle.

That's when we met Hala. She was entering the store and saw us drinking at the wall near the exit. She stopped and said, "Oh, hello. Excuse me. It's Ramadan. I'm Christian, like you, and when it's Ramadan we don't drink in public, because everybody here is fasting. Just so you know, okay?" We thanked her and sheepishly put the caps back on our bottles of water. Mom had drank a sip. I had emptied a third of the bottle. She took a step away from us when she stopped to ask, "Where are you from?" We answered that we're from the United States, and she got a very bright expression. Then she asked more questions about what we were doing there and what we had seen, and after our answers she said, "Oh, you will come to my house." Mom and I looked at one another with surprised expressions, and mom was all smiles. I replied, "Oh, thank you so much. We can't." She replied, "Yes. You'll come. Give me five minutes." She went in to do her shopping. Mom and I stood there, puzzling over what to do next. Mom said, "Well, we can decline graciously when she comes back." We were going to wait for her to do her shopping, and then thank her again and head to our hotel.

Hala checked out and headed our way. We thanked her again, told her it was nice to meet her, and said we'd be heading back to our hotel. She said, "No. Never decline an invitation. You're coming to my house. You need to see how a real Jordanian lives!" I tried again, telling her I needed to find an adapter for my computer, so I was afraid we had more shopping to do. She asked where, and I said I might find it in an Apple store or electronics store. "Oh! That's upstairs! Come!" We followed her up the escalator to the Apple Store, only to find that the adapter I needed would cost 80 Jordanian Dinars ($112), so I didn't get it. She said, "Okay, come with me to my house. We'll have Ramadan sweets." We tried to decline again. It was hopeless. We were going to her house.

When we got there she opened the door and told us to come look around. She's 60 years old, she's Greek Orthodox, she's not married, and has no children, but she has siblings and nieces and nephews who make her very proud. Some live in Jordan, and some live in the United States. Her father was a diplomat, and his photo with the late King Hussein is on the wall of her home. 

Hala's dad with the late King.

Hala in front of one of the walls of family photos.

Hala asked us what we'd like to drink. I held up my large bottle of cold water and told her I was fine with that. As if not hearing my refusal she said, "Do you want coffee?" I said no thank you, and mom explained that I don't drink coffee. She said, "Okay, juice then? Orange or raspberry?" I told her, again, that I was fine with my water as we walked behind her in the hallway toward the kitchen, as she repeated that she has juices to offer. Mom turned to me behind Hala's back, and with a stern look only a mom can give she mouthed, "ACCEPT IT." So I replied, "Uh... ok.... Raspberry?" That seemed to put Hala's mind at ease a bit as she reached the refrigerator pulled the juice out of the fridge, telling us to go sit because she'd be preparing some snacks for us and needed to warm the oven. Mom said, "No, Hala! That's not necessary!" Hala stressed that she'd be doing it, and we needed to go sit down.

So mom and I went and sat down in the sun room, while Hala prepared our juice and pastries in the kitchen. A few minutes later she emerged with our juices and sat down. Mom started the conversation, "So, Hala, do you always pick up strangers and bring them home?" Hala laughed so hard. Yes, she does! She told us that one time she picked up a group of 19 Pakistani male athletes, who were in Amman to play in a tournament (can't remember what sport), and she brought them all home and made them food. A friend of hers stopped by and was very confused by the big crowd in Hala's home. Hala explained that she had invited the men to her house for snacks. Her friend asked with surprise, "You invited them all here?!" Hala replied, "Of COURSE I invited them! Do you think they'd just wander here and come into my house if I didn't invite them?!!" She also opens her house to English-speaking students who want to learn Arabic.

She hopped up when it was time to take the pastries out of the oven. She returned with a tray of six pastries. There was a small pot, like a tea pot, on her coffee table. She asked if we'd like sweet syrup over the pastries. When we looked at each other and shrugged uncertainly she said "okay" and started pouring. Three of the pastries were full of cheese, and the other three were full of dates and walnuts. The syrup she poured over the top is made with water, sugar, a little rose water, and some lemon juice. 

THEY WERE SO DELICIOUS!

I just found a recipe for Qatayef, the Ramadan pastries she served us. Here it is!

Mom got Hala's address, and I friended her on Facebook! She might be the friendliest person I ever met. If you'd like to spend some time in Jordan, she offers her place, and you won't be disappointed. Just be warned, she is unable to hear the word "No."

Hala selfie.

Once we had eaten three pastries each, because she was unable to hear us say "no" after the first and second pastries, we walked back to our hotel. We napped for a bit before our driver came to take us to the airport at midnight. 

So ended Day 19.