Jordan River and Dead Sea

The adventures never end for a man and his scarf.  This week was quite eventful.  Yesterday found us traveling west towards the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  Did I have this song stuck in my head all day? You better believe I did.
As we descended from Amman we stopped at a nifty little marker showing the place where we were right at sea level.

It's all downhill from here.

Not to be delayed for too long, we continued down to the Jordan River.  As we approached, Dil (our program director) started singing a bunch of Jordan River-inspired songs (Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Down to the River to Pray, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, etc.) into the bus microphone.  It was prettttty awesome.  Eventually, we got off the bus and walked out to the river.  This man, faithful scarf by his side, laid his eyes on the river which he has read, heard and sung about all his life; the river of legend and myth and mystery; the fabled locale of such historic moments as the crossing of the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, Elijah's ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire and the baptism of Jesus.  Behold the sight which met his eyes:

As Dil put it, "In Utah parlance, the Jordan River is a crik."

To compensate for the underwhelming sight I was gonna get a picture and/or video of Jordan rolling on the ground so that I'd have evidence of the Mighty Rolling Jordan, but I think she didn't really want to get her dress covered in dirt there and another opportunity never really presented itself.  I'm pretty sad about this. 

We hiked a short ways off to the spot that many people believe to be the exact place where Jesus was baptized.  The river isn't there anymore (rivers can be so fickle you know) but archaeologists have excavated the remains of a church that was once built there.  You can see steps leading down from the church into where the water used to be, and there are four pillars left of what used to be a pavilion erected over the exact spot Jesus was supposed to have been baptized and where Byzantine (I think) pilgrims often went and baptized themselves three times.

Check out the 'stache on this guy.  What a baller.  He should do a blog titled "A Man and His Stache"

We continued on, through a Greek Orthodox Church and down to the river to soak our feet for a little bit.  Mmmmmm-hmmmmm.

When I was on my mission my companion and I once had a lengthy conversation with this one guy in downtown Oakland who had some....interesting ideas about religion.  I think his name was Joseph but when it was just us we referred to him as "Broseph" and it was fitting.  It was obvious it wasn't worth our time to regularly teach him but that one conversation was rather enjoyable and we left on amicable terms.  Near the end of the conversation though, he said, "I've always wanted to get baptized in the actual Jordan River.  I'll join your church if you baptize me in the Jordan River.  If you ever head over that way give me a call, I'll meet you over there and you can baptize me."  We all laughed, cuz what were the chances either of us would ever actually be at the Jordan River?  My companion went to the BYU Jerusalem Center a few years ago and visited the Jordan River and now here I am too.  We should have held on to Broseph's number.

 After hiking back to the bus it was off to the Dead Sea!  This man and his scarf couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

The Dead Sea.  It was a great time.  Except for the part where some of the water splashed up into my eyes.  That water is so stinkin' salty.  It burned. So. Bad.  I somehow managed to stumble my way out over the rocks and up the stairs to a shower where I was able to wash out my eyes, but for a while there I was having flashbacks to the gas chamber at Basic.  That sounds like an exaggeration, but it's really not.  After that though, it was nothing but fun, floating and Dead Sea mud.  Scarves and water don't really mix so I left the scarf up with my bag.  After rinsing off and while heading to the pool, Dil asked me if I'd gotten a scarf picture while covered with Dead Sea mud.  Aw shoot.  I did not.  He shook his head and said, "That is a terrible shame."  And no joke, I felt so ashamed of myself.  Man, that guy is good at his job.  

After swimming for a while, showering and eating a ginormously delicious buffet lunch it was time to head back to Amman.  Great day, everyone.  Great day.

This man is feeling fat and happy

P.S.  I would be remiss if I did not give proper credit where it is due.  I was planning to just use the camera on my iPhone this whole trip, cuz hey, I'm no professional and the iPhone camera quality is generally good enough for my purposes.  Unfortunately something happened and now there's a little doo-hickey blocking part of the lens inside my phone and I can't fix it.  So mega thanks to Chris and Jordan on the photo credits.  Y'all are..ep...ju...s....ha.........good.

Wadi Seer (or also, The Day the Scarf Became a Star)

(I was gonna post this two days ago, but then our power mysteriously went out for a couple hours Saturday night.  No electricity = no wifi. And I was busy with stuff yesterday.)

This week, this man and his scarf visited a little village just outside Amman in a small valley called Wadi Seer.  It was pretty cool.  See that castle behind me there?  Yeah, it was built in the second century B.C.  By Hyrcanus of the Jewish Tobiad family (most likely).  Pretty rad, huh?

Also, there were these caves in the hills above the village where rich Jewish families probably used to live.  We sang How Firm a Foundation in this one.  Pretty good acoustics.  Also, as we explored the caves we saw a bat and a couple of chameleons (and lots of bat guano).  

On the bus ride back into Amman someone suggested playing the Hellen Keller game (I find the name somewhat inappropriate, but it's a fun game soooo...what can ya do?).  I had never played it before, but the way it works is someone puts in headphones and another person chooses a song.  The person with the headphones in then has to sing while everyone else tries to guess what the song is.  So apparently when everyone is watching you and you're singing by yourself you maybe get a little self-conscious so it's nice to have a blind-fold so you can just throw your inhibitions out the window.  But what could possibly serve as a blind-fold?  

Shazaam!  Turns out this man is prepared with a scarf that is just about the perfect size for a blind-fold.  The scarf was a big hit and brought loads of joy and laughter to a bus full of people.  Enjoy.

And my personal favorite:

  

Wadi Mujib

Today, we went to Wadi Mujib.  Unfortunately I have no scarf pictures, as Wadi Mujib, while certainly being a place for a man, is no place for a scarf.  It was one of the most fun times I've had in recent memory.  It combined several of my favorite things: the Middle East, amazing rock formations, hiking and water slides.  Some Canadian dude took a video of his experience of Wadi Mujib with a GoPro camera, so if you wanna get a small taste of what Wadi Mujib was like, check out the video below:

Mt. Nebo and Byzantine Mosaics

Another Saturday, another sightseeing adventure.  Today this man and his scarf overlooked the Promised Land.  NBD.

Just over my shoulder you can see part of the Dead Sea. The color of the water kinda blends with the color of the scarf.

The Old Testament records that just before the end of his mortal life Moses climbed to the top of Mt. Nebo and was shown the Promised Land he would never personally enter.  These days you can find the ruins of a Byzantine church on the top of Nebo as well as a pretty rad lookout spot.  We lucked out in that it was a super clear day.  The Jordan River with the city of Jericho just on the other side were clearly visible, as was the Dead Sea.  While we were told it was just on the other side of the ridges above Jericho, we weren't able to actually see Jerusalem, but the smog cloud above it was certainly visible.

See that agricultural type land behind me?  That's probably where the children of Israel were camping out when Moses delivered his final sermon in Deuteronomy.

We also went to a town called Madaba to check out a handful of old Byzantine churches.  There were tons of elaborate mosaics in these churches.  It was a good time. A man and his scarf know how to appreciate ancient masterpieces.

It's pretty hard to see in this photo but the mosaics in that floor are crazy complex.

Who's ready for a history lesson?

If you didn't already know this about me, I love history.  I read history books in my spare time.  For fun.  Crazy right?  Whatever.  You do you, Booboo, I'mma do me.  So yesterday we had a free day, and our program director mentioned that we could take a bus ride about an hour away if we wanted to visit Jerash.  Jerash is home to one of the best preserved sites of an ancient Roman city in the world.  And I was all like, "Uh-huh-shyeah!"  So a good-sized group of us went to check it out.  I.  Loved.  It. Here's a small sampling of the day's adventures.

It's kinda hard to see but that's me front and center.  Wearing my scarf.  Like a boss.  This was part of the south gate to the ancient city.  It was a lot more impressive than the north gate.  

So check this out.  This triumphal arch was built to celebrate the visit to Jerash of the Roman emperor Hadrian around AD 130.  It used to be twice as big, but earthquakes have reduced it to its present size (it's still stinkin' huge).

 Jerash in ancient times was called Gerasa.  The first sizeable city was built in the 300s BC by Alexander the Great, who settled it with aged Macedonian soldiers.  The name Gerasa comes from the Greek word for old people (like in geriatrics).  Cool, huh?

Yes, it was crazy hot out there.  But a man and his scarf face all obstacles together.  There were two ancient amphitheaters in Jerash.  This one was the larger of the two that was used for performances.  The smaller one was primarily used for government meetings.  There's a spot right in the center of the floor where the acoustics are unbelievable.  If you face towards the seats and speak one step to the side of the absolute center, you won't notice anything special.  Take that one step over to the exact center and it sounds like you're speaking into a microphone.  It's seriously amazing.  Way to go, ancients.  You are smarter than me.






More adventures to come!