Green Space

Lately I have started to get stir crazy in the house and realized that I have really been missing the outdoors. Coming from Minneapolis, I would run or walk to the four parks with lakes within 15 blocks of our house at least four times a week. BUT here in Amman such outings in nature are just impossible. There are "parks" but they usually exist in the middle of an intersection and that to me does not count as a park.

So I have tried to start walking every night BUT that seriously is risky for various reasons. First, the obvious is the cultural issue. There aren't tons of people that exercise here on the streets, let alone women. Matt has gone walking with me a few times and I usually don't have many problems when he is around but without him it is a different story. It is crazy what grown men will yell out of their cars to you! The second issue is traffic. Amman is an ever growing city - currently it is estimated that between 3.5 and 5 million people live in Amman. This is a city that just 20 years ago was only a million! So, the increase in people and cars has seriously impacted where one can walk and not feel like they are on a highway. So I have come to realize that living in the desert is something that is hard to get used to when you are used to surroundings like these:

Just for fun!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

40 Year Anniversary

Today marks the 40 year anniversary of the end of the 1967 Middle East War--also called the Six Day War--in which Israel fought against Jordan, Syria and Egypt. All week long the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and local newspapers here have been commemorating this war and its effect and consequences on the region. For Jordan the consequences have been great. Around 350,000 people fled to Jordan from the other side of the Jordan River because of the war. Added to the refugees from wars prior to and after this, they form part of a Palestinian refugee population of nearly two million here in Jordan. Many of these people still live in one of the 10 Palestinian refugee camps here, although many others live outside of the camps and have comfortable lives.

One thing all the news coverage on the war has done for me this past week is provide me with some context for many of the stories I've been told or experiences I have had during our time in Jordan. For instance, the three men who installed our satellite dish last year all hail from the Baqaa refugee camp, which was established 40 years ago for Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war. None are over 40 years old, so they were all born there. This camp is just outside of Amman, and it used to be necessary to drive past it to reach certain tourist destinations in the north. You still can, but now it is not necessary, as the government has built a nice, new road to those same places, far away from this camp. The cynics among us think it was built so the big tourist buses--and anyone else--could avoid driving past such an unpleasant sight.

Another man I know came to Amman from the West Bank--at that point part of Jordan--for college at some point before the war. Before he finished his studies, though, the war started--and ended--and Israel was suddenly the governing authority of his homeland. He couldn't go back, and he hasn't been back since. Going away for college turned into a lifetime. Also, for many people here, 1967 was just one of several times they were uprooted from their homes due to a war. A taxi driver we know, for example, fled the West Bank in 1967 to Kuwait. Then, he fled with his family to Jordan in 1991 during the first Gulf War. Also, I once met a man who worked at a shawarma stand who actually fled from three different wars, first as a child to the West Bank during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, then to Kuwait because of the 1967 war and then to Jordan in 1991 because of the Gulf War. Finally, we've met many people who are originally from Jerusalem, people who were among those who fled during the war that has been recollected so many times this week.

The images we've seen on television this week have been sometimes grainy, the color dull and dim. The 40 year old commentary from Israeli, Arab and other news sources that is sometimes played alongside these images has that tin can quality of historical documentaries. For a long time I've known about the 1967 war, but watching this coverage all week has helped bring to life the stories I've heard from people here. Or maybe the stories I've heard have helped bring to life the coverage on the news. Either way, what happened 40 years ago has become less grainy to me this week.

A Needed Break in the Mediterranean

Last week we finally took a break from the Middle East and travelled to Cyprus, an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea just 45 minutes by plane from Jordan. It was our first foray out of the Middle East/North Africa region in our year here. Cyprus is a break from the Middle East because it is a European nation, and as such it is a tiny bit more like home and has a much less conservative culture than Jordan. For one week we wiped the dust off of our shorts and Annamarie's skirts and tank tops, relaxed on the beach, held hands in public, interacted with members of the opposite sex and were the focus of no one's attention because of our blond hair, white skin, nationality or Matt's beard. It was quite noticeable that no one paid any attention to us on the street, and when one becomes accustomed to being the daily object of much attention, the lack of any attention is striking. We were just tourists in a place filled with tourists.


Cyprus is not all European, though; it is a little Middle Eastern as well. Although southern Cyprus is Greek speaking, the northern half of the island is Turkish speaking, the result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. As a result, the capital of Cyprus--Nicosia--is the only remaining divided capital in the world. We visited Nicosia several years ago and there is a wall right down the center of the city. This division of the island is of course still being disputed today. For more information about this history, click here.


We were too busy relaxing to take many pictures, but here's us relaxing at a cafe in Cyprus.