Jordan 01.09.2012 - 14.09.2012

01. September

It’s hot, it’s getting hotter but it’s not as hot as we looked in our neon coloured hats. Ok, but let us begin with the first day in Amman. How to get to know a city best? Well probably the NGO “Hamzet Wasl” offers the best and most adventurous scavenger hunt. First we had to proof our Swiss engineering skills while building towers with spaghetti and marshmallows; we lost. Maybe we should study engineering in Amman like nearly every Jordanian does. After that we were split into five groups with brightly coloured hats storming down to downtown. Downtown at the market the next task awaited us. We had to look for five different items that are starting with the arabic “f”. The challenge was that we had to get them for free. Each team managed to get the item; but to be honest we probably just got them because we looked so ridiculous in our hats, so that they felt sorry for us. No hard feelings here. Probably the highlight of that day was to let our self built kites fly in the sky of Amman which gave us the feeling of real kite runners. Have you ever heard of Mezze? Well, also we didn’t. Just to let you know, Mezze is only an appetizer and not a main dish as we thought. We felt like in heaven while stuffing our stomachs near to the point of explosion, inshallah. We slept all like stones that night, hamdulillah. Shukran

02. September

Today was the day we were gonna make it happen… The document on everybody’s lips, deemed to the modest structure of a paper, but yet transcending its material qualities by far as it would bring us to the Baqa’a refugee camp, the biggest refugee camp in Jordan, set up in 1967 and currently hosting around 120 000 Palestinians: the permission fort he camp visit from the DPA, Department for Palestinian Affairs. Neither did some serious wasta (Swiss contacts at the UNRWA), nor ordinary procedures (Jordanian Embassy in Switzerland sending a request 4 weeks before) help us in the desperate quest through the bureaucratic jungle of the Jordanian government and the UN. Not denied, but the permission yet had to make its way through the mukhabarat (Jordanian intelligence) who insha’allah would consider us sufficiently innocent (herzlig or megageil) to enter. Broken dreams, green smelly smoke coming out of the organizers ears of anger (with the exact same sound of a teapot with boiling water..), followed by non-exemplary curses in Arabic-likish Esperanto… But, as unpredictably as a meeting can suddenly disappear from the consciousness of the person you set to meet, as quickly can another one be arranged in the country where flexibility is not only an additive quality needed in a specific situations, but rather a central problem-solving asset and really a key to understanding Jordan - all can happen at any time, if there is the willingness to do so (goes in the opposite sense as well of course).

The refugee day turned into a women’s day faster than we could rabble the already on the 2nd day well-known mantra „My name is…, and Im calling from the Swiss student organization IFIL…“ Hamdullela!

Dean – a dear friend and master of Arabic held the first Arabic crash course with clear instructions from us organizers for making it as hafartali (vulgar in the Jordanian very mild sense…) as possible! After this, our travellers were linguistically fit fort he road.

After having lost only one cab with four participants on the way to the Jordanian Women’s Union we entered the gates of women’s rights defenders. As a well-functioning political entity, shelter, hot-line for women in need and provider of legal support etc. they deserve the nomination for being the most organized women’s center in Jordan. It was underlined that violence against women is nothing specifically Jordanian, and they offered some nuances to the problem, pointing out the legal drawbacks which complicate protection of women rather than cultural aspects. Spoiled by their incredible hospitality (home-made muajjanat and drinks), we left for a meeting with Rana Husseini, a women’s rights activist, journalist, author of « Murder in the Name of Honor ». Her dynamic presence enlightened us on the current issues related to women, her career as a journalist tackling and reporting honor crimes and about the progress that has been seen in terms of constantly stretching the limits of the permitted for women a bit further… She left hastily as the busy woman she is, and we left for a last meeting with Dua Fino, a Jordanian woman who holds a Ph. D in Islamic law and conducts research on women in Islam, whose anecdotes and story-telling narratives took all participants by surprise, charm or sincere wonder. Key message as understood by us: Islam as a pure message can in itself not be blamed for any oppression of women, but rather the often biased interpretations of Islam…

After this, the challenge was to get all participants to arrive to their host-families safely - a situation that caused great mental distress for the organizers (nightmares the following nights), standing in the middle of Ammani rush-hour traffic, trying to pair students with cabs and directing their drivers to the numerous enigmatic destinations! As far as we know, all went fine, everyone arrived at his or her host familiy’s place and spent the evening playing basket ball, eating traditional food or just chatting and finding out about their reality, aspirations and life style. The two of us left to do some more organizing for future meetings, and, as so often after these intense days, ended up in the adamant sleeping coma.

04. September

The day started with breakfast at the host families. After that, our group met at the Identity Center with Mohammad Hussainy. He talked to us freely and honestly and we really enjoyed this meeting. The center is involved in the political field and its activities are outreach, research and training. They want people to take part in the political life in Jordan. In the end, he even offered us an internship! Outside, our friend Dean was already waiting with a bus that would take us to the beautiful Wadi Mujib. The drive was an adventure in itself! We could really feel the air getting hotter and hotter on our way to the wadi. When we finally reached Mujib and got out of our bus, it was like entering an oven. The air was hot and dry, the sun was burning from above and even the ground was boiling hot. Inside the wadi, equipped with safety jackets, we finally got a refreshment walking through and floating on the river. Climbing up the wadi wasn't as easy as we thought. There were big rocks and small waterfalls to tackle and it all was an awesome adventure. We looked like Indiana Jones - or let's say at least some of us did. :-) Having reached the last waterfall, we floated back down the wadi, back to the bus which then took us to the Dead Sea. Unfortunately, there some really nasty guys from Yemen but we got rid of them and enjoyed the oily feeling and the burning sensation of the salty water. The stories are true, one does actually float on the lake's surface like a rubber ducky in a bathtub. We even got a chance to watch the sunset there, which was incredibly beautiful. Dog tired we went back to our host families to get so e sleep and dream about this awesome day.

06. September

We stared our day with an interesting visit at Deza (Departement für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit), where the Swiss embassador and the head of the Deza informed us about their work, their coorperation with the Jordanian governement and the actual Syrian refugee situation. After this informative meeting, the group members spread all over to find something eatable. We gathered after lunch in a café where a communist writer was expected to talk about his work. As he didn’t show up, we enjoyed Hubble Bubble and lemonmint, during a feedback about the first week. After this break we went to vistit Injaz a organisation for youth, their goal is to encourage young people to engage themselves in social projects or starting an enterprise. The aim of this initiative is to prepare the participants for working live. It was very motivating to listen to all these excited and involved people talking about their project. As an other highlight of the day we enjoyed getting lost at Abdali secondhand market, where we bargained as good as new shoes and vintage handbags. Fadi, a local blogger told us about being gay, sex before marriage and honor crimes. It gave us a deep inside into Jordanien society to talk about such delicate issues with a local. To complete this packed day, we met local youth at a café in al Weibdeh.

07. September

Rise and shine IFIL group! The day started at five o'clock in the morning. We got tea and coffee at the hotel (at least the early birds did) and then left to catch the bus to Petra. Unfortunately, the bus company messed up our reservation so that we couldn't get on the bus. Luckily, our trusty guides Maia and Anna used their bartering skills to get us on another bus an hour later. After about three hours we finally reached Petra. The architecture was lovely and for the ones getting tired of walking in the heat there were lots of horses, donkeys and dromedaries to ride (in exchange for money of course). The poor donkeys had to carry fat Americans and we really felt sorry for them. That's why we fed one a cookie :-)Some ate lunch in Petra, others bought souvenirs and some even had a little nap in a bed of sand.In the evening we met at Ali Baba's in Aqaba for dinner. We ate traditional foods that we all shared. We spent the night at the Bedouin Garden Village hotel and went for a night swim in either the hotel pool or the Red Sea with the sea urchins.

11. September

After an introduction to Islam in the morning we discussed religious questions with 2 muslim women from the students group Al-Nahda: "When did you decide(not) to be religious?", "What role does religion play in your life?", "What role should religion play in politics?" etc. The discussions gave us interesting inputs from different points of view. After that, we went to the hotel to pack our luggage and took the bus to Madaba. The afternoon brought us an insight into this little town with both Christian and Muslim inhabitants. The mosaic-map in a church and many other historical Mosaic sites were beautiful and impressive to look at. In the mosaic workshop, we tried ourselves (more or less successfully) as the new mosaic masters of Madaba. Lateron we watched the sunset on Mount Nebo, enjoying the beautiful view and not forgetting to take a "Gruppefotti" (->Fotogruppi, photogroupie?). The dinner at Hared Jdoudna was delicious, including the best jordanien tomato-vegetable-sauce ever, various salads and Um Ali for dessert. After a slightly adventurous bus trip in the evening, we reached the charming "Friends of the Earth"-eco village near Irbid where we stayed for the night.

13. September

After trembling two weeks if we would get the permission for the refugee camp, the expectations to the refugee camp were high. The more we were disappointed that for security reasons we were not allowed to wander threw it. The responable UNRWA person showed us the women house of the camp, where we could have a insight into their work. So we saw the beauty saloon, the sewing center, the computer room and the nursery. After tea and cookies we were escorted to the bus that took us back to Abdali station. From were we finally got the time to enjoy some freetime. We met again at 5o’clock at a panoramic café close to roman amphitheatre, were charming Russia awaited us for a Dabke class, dabke the tradional Jordanian and Palestinian way of dancing is a very dynamic and cheerful dance. We enjoyed the lesson and the dabke party afterwards.