I just need to preface the next four entries that I was not at all excited about this field study. First of all, I hadn’t even ever thought about Jordan as a country until about a week and a half ago. Then, our professors warned us that we couldn’t eat anything uncooked (like fruits, vegetables, or salad), the meat may or may not make you sick, and drinking the water is absolutely out of the question. So then I ran and stocked up on snacks because it sounded like I was going to come back starved and dehydrated. So I asked what kind of sites we would be seeing, hoping I could get excited about that, but apparently Jordan doesn’t care too much about Old Testament archaeological remains. So none of the remains are reconstructed or kept up well unless they’re from a Roman time-period. The last straw for my patience, was hearing that we had to up and at the bus at 6 in the morning to go through boarder control. I was praying to get deathly ill for a day or two just so I wouldn’t have to go. Some people may say that this makes me an ungrateful brat. I just know where my interests lie, and it did not sound like they lie in Jordan. The only two redeemable qualities were that we were going to Petra (shown in Indiana Jones) and there was a Starbucks at the first place we were staying at. I’m almost out of coffee, so Starbucks sounded pretty good to me.
Stupidly, I stayed up late the night before leaving so that I could work on a paper. I have three ten page papers due at the end of the month and if I could just get the rough draft of one of them done before the field study, I knew I would be a lot less stressed. But at 12:15 in the morning, three and a half pages done, I called it quits and went to bed. So I had to wake up five hours later to wake up and make it to the bus on time. Usually, the graduate and under-graduate students are on different buses because there are so many of us that we need two different groups. Unfortunately, we were just taking a two hour ride to the border crossing before splitting up. So we were all packed on one large bus, shoulder to shoulder, for two hours, after most of us had very little sleep. We were all a little cranky.
Border crossing wasn’t that bad, but when I sat down on the tour bus – after we had split up from the grad students – I sat down to realize that a carton of pineapple yogurt had burst in my purse. First of all, I hate pineapple. That’s why I hadn’t eaten the yogurt in the first place. I was hoping to pass it off to someone else. Second of all, not only did the yogurt now line the inside of my purse, but it got all over my gameboy and my pokemon game guide. Yes, even the pokemon game guide. My day was officially in ruins. I worked hard to buy that silly little book, and it’s slowly helping me to catch them all. Of all things to get covered in yogurt. Of all things!
I worked on cleaning that out while we drove to our first stop – Succoth. Now, I always thought that Succoth was just a Jewish holiday to celebrate the harvesting of the fruits and to pray for winter rains. Everyone camps outside in little tents for a week and hangs out with their family. Apparently, it’s also a place. But, of course, there was so much wind on this particular morning, that I couldn’t hear a word our professor was saying. All I know is that it was important for trade, Solomon used it to supply building materials for the temple, and the people that lived there only lived there in the winter and spring, in little tents. So it sounds like there may be some connection between the site and the holiday. This is also where I realized that my camera battery was stowed away in its camera charger, inside my suitcase, underneath the bus. Not that there were any ruins to take pictures of, anyways. Could the day get any better?
Apparently, it could. Our next stop, Pellah, had a clean bathroom for me to wash my bag in, and cheap Turkish coffee. It’s the little things in life. It also had a really nice view. But Pellah doesn’t have a lot of Biblical connections. Probably because it was a major place for trade and so Israel never really controlled it, because everyone else wanted it. So I just sat down on a shaded porch, sipping my coffee, looking out over the Jordan valley, and watched everyone else rush to some Roman ruins that looked like every other Roman ruin I have ever set my eyes on.
Our lunch stop was at a large Roman site called Jabesh. I think the coolest thing about Jabesh is that everything is made of beautiful black basalt. Basalt may not sound pretty, but when you live in a world of sandstone and limestone, basalt is a nice contrast. What fascinates me about it, is that basalt is very hard and very brittle and the Romans carved amazing Corinthian columns and theaters out of it. I can’t imagine how much work and effort was put into it. I only wish I had my camera to take pictures of the theater there.
After lunch, we only had one more stop – Ramoth Gilead, which was really just a field in the middle of nowhere. But! We got to listen to the story of King Ahab being killed by the Ammorites from 1 Kings 22. The situation with the Ammorites is that they always want Israel’s land and Israel always wants their land. The only thing that divides their land is the Rift/Jordan Valley. I’m sure it seems fair, to both sides, to just reach over the valley and take the land on the other side – along with all its wonderful resources and extended trade routes. Well, apparently Israel and the Ammorites were in a time of peace when King Ahab’s people basically said, “Hey, don’t you know that Ramoth-Gilead is ours?” So Ahab consults Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and Jehoshaphat promises to follow him into battle if Ahab asks a prophet of Yahweh. And Ahab just whines and says, “But they always tell me stuff I don’t want to hear!” Silly Ahab, that’s because you’re far too concerned with making money and not about pleasing God. Anyways, he decides to ask a prophet of God and he tells Ahab that if he goes up against the Ammorites, that he will surely be killed. So, Ahab thinks that he’ll be sneaky, disguise himself, and go into battle anyways. When the Ammorites find Ahab on the battle field, Ahab screams and the Ammorites think, “Surely this man is too cowardly to be the king.” And they move on. But a stray arrow flies through the air and pierces Ahab in between his armor and he dies on the way back to Samaria.
With Ramoth Gilead being our last stop of the day, we drove to our hotel which was next to Starbucks! It also happened to be next to a Little Caesar’s Pizza, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and a KFC. Jordan seems to be trying to westernize themselves, I think. Anyways, Starbucks was amazing – other than that they didn’t have any chai tea… and couldn’t add espresso to it, even if they did. So I sat down with a Caramel Macchiato, listening to Frank Sinatra, and checking my facebook. Just like home.
That’s when I realized, I kind of miss home.
I hate to say it, but I think I may be a little attached to my American culture and heritage. Though I despise my generation and what it's making my culture to become. Though I hate the postmodern worldview. Though I hate the corrupted government. There's something about it that I miss. I miss having the freedom to drive in a place where people use their blinkers and stay in their lane (mostly). I miss walking into a Starbucks and listening to Frank Sinatra while reading a book and drinking hot coffee. I miss having the freedom to walk places without getting hit on. And though I want it to stay out of my church's ideology, I even miss the American dream and our can-do equality attitude about everything.
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