Category: Jordan

The intense schedule at Qasid leaves students with little time for leisure, but one of the first things I did in Jordan was make some time to see the Roman Citadel that dominates the center of the city. It was an extremely hot and sunny day when we made the trip, and I could not help but wish that we had brought an umbrella to shield ourselves from the sun. In retrospect, I probably should have used more sunscreen.

Whatever the case, the Amman Citadel (or Jabal al-Qala’a, lit. The Mountain of the Citadel) was clearly chosen by so many ancients for its location, for it is situated on a high hill from which one can see Amman in its entirety. Our tour guide pointed out various parts of the city from our vantage point, from the long strips of green trees of the King’s palace to the dusty marketplaces of the heart of the city. Everything is laid before the Citadel, and we spent a lot of time simply admiring the vista.

But the ruins atop the hill are the main reason I went up. A crossroads of civilization, the citadel has Roman and Byzantine roots, with the remains of Hellenic temples interspersed with early Christian churches and Umayyad masjids.

The giants of both Western and Eastern civilizations have passed through here, and I found it interesting how this hilltop, which was a symbol of dominance for centuries upon centuries, is now hardly being used at all and apparently of little interest to the Jordanians themselves. For there were only a few small groups of tourists on the grounds of the citadel and most of the Jordanians we saw there, save for a hijabi art student who was sketching the pillars, were only there to serve as tour guides. While the ancients, be they Roman or Arab, may have been using this spot to lord it over the common folk, but now the descendants of those same common folk could now care less for their citadel.

But while the indifference Jordanians have towards their Citadel can be considered amusing, it is unfortunate to see that that indifference also translates into neglect. Everywhere we looked, be it the pits used by the ancients to form cement or the hands of Hercules, there would be discarded water bottles or cigarette boxes simply left lying there.

Indeed, it often felt like very little effort was being undertaken to preserve the location. Our tour guide told us that twelve guards were meant to be stationed at the Citadel on a round the clock basis in order to protect the gathered historical relics. As we walked around the Citadel, however, no such guards were anywhere to be found. While we were walking in the old Church ruins, we watched as a group of tourists were casually climbing up on top of the old Church walls in order to take a few selfies. No one seemed to care as they desecrated these ancient ruins (while also, incidentally, put themselves at great risk of breaking their necks) all in the name of having another photo to upload to Facebook.

An argument could be made that not every country has the resources to preserve its historical sites, but Jordan is most certainly not a country without resources. The opulent, western-style malls filled with the very latest Hollywood blockbusters, designer clothing and lavish body care products are evidence enough of Jordan’s wealth. So why is it then that the Citadel is left to its own devices?

Perhaps part of the reason why this occurs is the obsession Jordanians seem to have with becoming Western. Throughout the roads of Amman, I’ve seen so many Jordanians driving ‘high status’ cars, be it the BMW, the Mercedes or the Priuses. There is a very real drive here to indulge in all of the petty opulence that ‘the West’ has to offer, and as a result it often feels as though the Jordanian identity itself is being eroded.

Sadly, it is not enough to be connected with the storied past of three magnificent civilizations that laid roots here in Jordan.  For many Jordanians, pride seems to stem more from what one can possess now, be it the cars they drive or the clothes they wear.

Perhaps attitudes will change in time, but for now I left the Citadel wondering just what those Roman Patricians, Byzantine Emperors or Umayyad Caliphs would think knowing that one day their awe-inspiring citadels would simply be a passing curiosity to a city that is far more interested in emulating someone else entirely.

From the very moment that I landed in Amman, I was struck by the inferior place that women are regulated to in this society. To be sure, last week the Jordanian Parliament repealed the Article 308 from the national constitution (an article that pardoned a rapist as long as he married his victim and stayed with her for at least three years) and it was a great news for the Jordanian women in general. However, the ‘Arab Machismo’ culture, that becomes the main root of the rape cases in the first place, is not going away anytime soon.

Indonesia, from which I come from, is a Muslim country where women may wear hijab and certainly experience sexism in their daily lives, but women are nevertheless able to exercise some level of agency independent of men. They can go about their business in the cities, be it at work or while shopping or at school, without feeling unsafe or victimized. I thus was expecting a similar situation in Jordan.

But as soon as I landed I began to learn that there are a different set of rules here. On my first night while walking home from the Qasid Institute (the place where I got my Classical Arabic training from) after dark, a man started to follow me for no reason down the street. He offered me a drink and was incredibly persistent, to the point where I feared for my safety. After getting home, I learned that women did not typically walk the streets alone after dark here. That was considered unusual and men saw it as an invitation to harass any such woman. The fact that I am Indonesian and do not look like anyone else here made me a particular target for these harassers.

This was my first encounter with the culture of sexism and patriarchy that is very much alive here in Jordan, and I would soon learn the other ‘rules’.

For instance, it is considered risky for a woman to get into a cab by herself. Horror stories abound about cab drivers driving women off to who knows where when they do so. This means that I, as a woman, am left with few choices in terms of mobility. I can either travel with a man or go with groups of other women. Travelling by myself, as I regularly do in Indonesia and America, is simply not an option if I want to avoid harassment

More than that, rules and etiquettes concerning gender dictate all aspects of Jordanian society. When travelling with my significant other, it was a rule that he should sit up with the cab driver in the front seat while I had to remain at the back. He did not speak a word of Arabic of course, and found this to be very annoying, but a man had to sit up front. That was the rule and not following it could result in conflict.

By violating these ‘rules’, it seems many Jordanian men think that I am inviting comment and harassment. For instance, I have learned to change the route I take when walking between Qasid and my home. This is because when I walked on the main street, men would approach me and say things like ‘how are you sweetie?’, often quite aggressively. The presence of a woman by herself, even in broad daylight seems to paint a target in the minds of these men, which indicates the fact that male power is more or less unquestioned here in Jordan.

No man seemed to fear that they might get in trouble or suffer any repercussion at all when engaging in this behavior. Indeed, it seemed that the only time they were deterred is when I happened to be walking with another man. This means that I, as a human being, was dependent on the presence of men in order to simply go about my business unharassed on the streets.

For some of the Jordanian women, street harassment seems to have become a part of their lives. I have seen Jordanian woman respond to crude and demeaning comments shouted at them from cars and random men on the street with smiles and patient indulgence.

To me, this is the most discouraging aspect of my experiences living in Amman. Many cities, from Jakarta to Chicago, have problems with men who think they can degrade women, but in those cities there are at least some potential social consequences to behaving in such an idiotic fashion. In Amman, however, this idiocy and indecency is the norm and has come to dominate the public sphere. Women here thus have a significant uphill battle to change this behavior and reclaim the streets.

Still, what this teaches us more than anything is that the feminist struggle must continue until behavior such as this becomes unacceptable, no matter where one walks on the globe.

First, I’m going to say that I’m extremely sorry that I haven’t updated this in quite a while. Life just keeps happening here and it seems like it won’t ever stop!

Second, let me update you finally!

After all the initial craziness and the first couple days of classes, I began to go to nearby coffee shops to do my work. Olga (my roommate in case you forgot) had mentioned that she had never had Starbucks before (WHAT?!) so we went there to do some work together. I was s-t-ruggling with my work and luckily a guy came over to help me with it! Olga and I got his contact information and ended up going to the Dead Sea with him! I know this sounds sketchy, but being a foreigner, it’s very common to have people approach you and want to become your friend since you speak English! Besides, how often can you go to the Dead Sea in your life? I guess as many times until you’re…. DEAD. Okay, that was bad.

The weekend after that, Olga and I were invited by our friend Elias to go to Madaba, an area north of Amman, where we could go on a mountain and take some pretty sweet pictures. (If you look carefully, you can see the Dead Sea again). It was so nice because after we went to this amazing place, we went back to the home of his friend, Mohammed. I have NEVER drunk so much coffee and tea in my life. I’m not joking when I say I had about 6 cups of tea and 5 cups of coffee. Now these aren’t necessarily large cups, but still, continuously drinking coffee and tea can get kind off tiring and uncomfortable when your stomach becomes the size of a watermelon.

 

 

 

Of course, my time here in Jordan wouldn’t have been complete if it didn’t continue the craziness that it had started with. Olga and I had decided to cook some noodles for dinner and we didn’t have a lot of bottled water left to boil so we used the water from the sink. Now, before you think that it wasn’t a good idea, I googled it to see if it was okay and everywhere I looked, I saw that you had to boil the water for 30 minutes. Not too shabby, I mean I even saw that you could purify water by adding bleach to it?! I was not about to drink bleach so I figured boiling it would be no problem. WRONG. After 40 minutes (I needed to be extra sure), our water had GREEN FOAM. GREEN!!! This next part was where I went wrong… I decided to pour the foam out and use the water anyways because how bad could it be? It was boiling for a while! Let me just say, it was pretty bad. I suffered the consequences of my mistake for about 5 days with only so much anti-nausea medication, but al-Hamdulilah! I finally overcame that just in time for our next trip!

That week, we went to Wadi Rum and Aqaba! I’ve already been to these places, but let me say, these are by far my most favorite places in all the world. In my opinion, I think they’re better than Petra, but of course, several others would disagree. Wadi Rum is a desert where there are several Bedouin camps for tourists to stay. That weekend, I was your typical tourist taking pictures of EVERYTHING. We first arrived in Wadi Rum and hiked around the rocks to get a pretty fantastic view of the camp and our surroundings. Afterwards, we went on this “Jeep” excursion (really, it was a pick-up truck with two benches in the back) around the area and saw some really cool things! For instance, in case you didn’t know, you can use the rocks to make make-up! There’s also a place where the Martian was filmed as well! AND there’s a plant that you can crush up and mix with water and make soap! You’ve got everything you’ve ever needed. Plus, at our camp, a great dinner was provided for us and following dinner was a HUGE dance party in the middle of the area. The best part was going out in the middle of the desert where there is absolutely no light, laying down in the warm sand, and looking up at the stars. You can see EVERYTHING—the Milky Way, shooting stars, constellations, airplanes, or whatever comes to your mind. It’s a beautiful time for reflection and relaxation, which you don’t really get while you’re here. It’s honestly my favorite feeling in the world because even in an unfamiliar country with so many crazy things going on around me, there’s a sense of peace that overcomes me. I can’t help but realize that regardless of how well things are going, there is a much larger picture of life that I can’t quite see, but I know that God has a mysterious way of fulfilling His will.

 

 

 

The morning after an extremely hot night in Wadi Rum, we headed to Aqaba for a luxurious day at the Red Sea! This is also the most beautiful and clear water I’ve ever seen, which is a good thing and a bad thing for me. In case you didn’t know, I HATE fish! I mean, they’re okay to look at but if they are anywhere near me, I will lose it. I definitely lost it quite a few times that day because a group of us decided to go out on a boat to see the coral reefs and swim further out in the water. Let’s just say I also learned how to swim REAL quick because I was NOT about to let some fish get anywhere near me. Despite all that, I absolutely loved the Red Sea and can’t wait to go back! Also, pictures will be coming your way in the next post!

I also can’t forget to mention my language partner, Abeer! Her family was kind enough to prepare the traditional Jordanian dish, Mansaaf, for me to try and eat until I couldn’t eat anymore! Then they also made kataif for dessert, which is only made during the month of Ramadan. Talk about being welcomed with open arms! It was probably one of the best dishes I’ve ever tried in my life. Both of them! AND I ate with my hands, which is another one of my favorite things to do.

 

 

 

 

Every day, I always feel a range of emotions. Sometimes I want to cry because I’m going to miss this place or maybe the day was just very difficult for various reasons, other times I’m overwhelmed with joy because people will show me so much kindness that I’m so undeserving of. I can’t describe this trip in one word quite yet, but once I process everything, I’m sure I could describe it in a few words… I hope anyways! One thing that’s for sure is that I am learning more and more each day. Looking back, in the beginning, I didn’t feel confident in speaking to people at all. I’m not saying I’m the best or even good quite yet, but the amount of improvement that I’ve seen is something I’d consider an achievement. I’m able to understand significantly more now than I was before; now when people speak fast, I’m beginning to process the sentences as a whole rather than trying to translate every single word. THIS IS CRAZY TO ME! People can speak to me and I’m at the beginning stages of processing things in Arabic instead of English! The keyword here is “beginning.” I’m also learning patience in so many aspects. I expected to leave here almost fluent (wow, why did I actually believe that?), but I realize that there’s a lot more to learn to become fluent besides just vocabulary; I need to learn the culture in its entirety. Not just a short immersion, but I need to acquire every detail about this culture and language, or at least as much as I can! Stay tuned for my last couple weeks here!