Yesterday was a highlight. Nick, my uncle, and I met up with some local climbers and their friends and drove about an hour north of Amman into the forest. After a slow start to our morning, we drove out of Amman, past the old roman ruins of Jerash, and through some old farming villages in the countryside before turning right down a dirt road with no name and a recognizable landmark of 3 large trees on the left. Winding through muddy and rocky jeep trails in between plots of farming land (in my grandma's Honda Accord) we encountered a small fallen rock wall which blocked the road with some limestone blocks. We had to all roll the blocks off the road before we continued on, only to find that the road turned into a clay-filled puddle which we had to carefully navigate and not sink into. We continued up a very steep paved section of road with short rock walls on each side to arrive at a shack and small grassy patch where we left the cars. This was opposite the car park:
My camera is just not doing justice to the colors here. The trees you can see here are olive trees (this is likely an olive farm. ever wondered where your extra virgin olive oil comes from?) and the flowers in the foreground are lavender. The climate here is much more mediterranean than "arabian night middle eastern". Imagine yourself on a vineyard in southern France. After all, we are just a short jaunt to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea!
We hopped over some short farm-separating limestone block walls and hiked just around the hillside for not even 10 minutes to arrive at the cliff. Some people in our group set off for a hike to Ajloun castle, and the rest of started to uncoil our ropes. Climbing highlight of the day: flailing up a super delicate route on a sheer vertical face that was just about 10 feet from an arete off to the left. 5.12a, but felt totally do-able with some work. (Jake & Alex, you better be workin hard too for this summer!) We climbed till the sun set, at which point I was half way up a route with a pink sky above, and a rainbow poking through some scarce clouds. I had to stop and soak it up! Here I was, a stones through away from the village where my Grandma was born, solving tricky move after tricky move to dance my way up this awesome limestone cliff that less than 50 people even know about, with a beautiful scenery behind me under a pink sunset and a rainbow. It was as if the world was saying "yes, you're winning Yazan, keep on livin! do your thang!" Words can not describe. As Nick, my uncle, and I walked back to the car, we rounded the hill side just as dusk was setting and we were hit with the call to prayers from a nearby village across the valley. I say prayers, not prayer. There must've been at least 30 or 40 mosque's singing to the people all at once. So cool.
This sparked some pondering about Islam. It's impossible to be in the Middle East and not receive quite the introduction to the religion which spawns the world's most common name: Mohammad. Mosque's sing the call to prayer 5 times a day, which can be heard from most places in any city or town, reminding practicing Muslims to stop whatever they're doing and take 5 or 10 minutes to recite prayers. I've thought multiple times about how great it would be to stop for 5 minutes 5 times a day, and just chill. Not to recite pre-written prayers which you've had no say in the making of, but just to close your eyes, relax, and take a little breather. Aren't hip businesses now a days encouraging their employees to take some down time during the day to rejuvenate for the rest of the day? Yes, Google gives their employees free massages. Driving back through the villages, we noticed how frequently we came across mosque's. People don't have to drive to pray in the Middle East. Nick observed that mosque's are about, or at least, as frequent as gas stations are in the US. They pray, we burn gas.
Weekly demonstrations in Amman are started after Friday prayer in mosque's and migrate downtown. The separation of church and state is such a blurry line in even Jordan--the most peaceful country in the region. Ironic since Islam spread to it's modern day stomping grounds in less than a hundred years. Why? because the Muslim Caliphs who conquered from Spain, across North Africa, and all the way to Pakistan from about 640 to the mid 700's did so because of their tolerance of local religions of their conquer-ees, and their not requiring newly conquered people conform to any new practices, except paying less taxes... This part of the world is so homogenous today...what happened? I can't wait to learn more about this in my classes.
Back to the adventure, we were now at the car, it was dark, all the local climbers had either already left or were camping at the cliff, and we had to navigate our way out of this farmland & dirt road maze. We eventually wound our way back to paved roads, and spent quite a bit of time meandering through tiny villages with no English within earshot. Despite being lost in one of the poorer parts of one of a developing country, we couldn't have felt safer. If we popped a tire on a rock on the side of the road, we could have knocked on anyone's door and not only gotten help with our flat, but also be served tea and dinner! Where in America would you encounter such poverty and not make it a point to lock your car doors as you drove through. Keep in mind, all the nations near us make for one of the most war torn parts of the world today.
On the way back to Amman we met up with some family in Dibbeen (the tiny nearby village my grandma grew up in) and had some dinner (and tea) as the day came to a close. More pictures from today that I wanna share with you are on the way! including some awesome climbing ones =)
My camera is just not doing justice to the colors here. The trees you can see here are olive trees (this is likely an olive farm. ever wondered where your extra virgin olive oil comes from?) and the flowers in the foreground are lavender. The climate here is much more mediterranean than "arabian night middle eastern". Imagine yourself on a vineyard in southern France. After all, we are just a short jaunt to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea!
We hopped over some short farm-separating limestone block walls and hiked just around the hillside for not even 10 minutes to arrive at the cliff. Some people in our group set off for a hike to Ajloun castle, and the rest of started to uncoil our ropes. Climbing highlight of the day: flailing up a super delicate route on a sheer vertical face that was just about 10 feet from an arete off to the left. 5.12a, but felt totally do-able with some work. (Jake & Alex, you better be workin hard too for this summer!) We climbed till the sun set, at which point I was half way up a route with a pink sky above, and a rainbow poking through some scarce clouds. I had to stop and soak it up! Here I was, a stones through away from the village where my Grandma was born, solving tricky move after tricky move to dance my way up this awesome limestone cliff that less than 50 people even know about, with a beautiful scenery behind me under a pink sunset and a rainbow. It was as if the world was saying "yes, you're winning Yazan, keep on livin! do your thang!" Words can not describe. As Nick, my uncle, and I walked back to the car, we rounded the hill side just as dusk was setting and we were hit with the call to prayers from a nearby village across the valley. I say prayers, not prayer. There must've been at least 30 or 40 mosque's singing to the people all at once. So cool.
This sparked some pondering about Islam. It's impossible to be in the Middle East and not receive quite the introduction to the religion which spawns the world's most common name: Mohammad. Mosque's sing the call to prayer 5 times a day, which can be heard from most places in any city or town, reminding practicing Muslims to stop whatever they're doing and take 5 or 10 minutes to recite prayers. I've thought multiple times about how great it would be to stop for 5 minutes 5 times a day, and just chill. Not to recite pre-written prayers which you've had no say in the making of, but just to close your eyes, relax, and take a little breather. Aren't hip businesses now a days encouraging their employees to take some down time during the day to rejuvenate for the rest of the day? Yes, Google gives their employees free massages. Driving back through the villages, we noticed how frequently we came across mosque's. People don't have to drive to pray in the Middle East. Nick observed that mosque's are about, or at least, as frequent as gas stations are in the US. They pray, we burn gas.
Weekly demonstrations in Amman are started after Friday prayer in mosque's and migrate downtown. The separation of church and state is such a blurry line in even Jordan--the most peaceful country in the region. Ironic since Islam spread to it's modern day stomping grounds in less than a hundred years. Why? because the Muslim Caliphs who conquered from Spain, across North Africa, and all the way to Pakistan from about 640 to the mid 700's did so because of their tolerance of local religions of their conquer-ees, and their not requiring newly conquered people conform to any new practices, except paying less taxes... This part of the world is so homogenous today...what happened? I can't wait to learn more about this in my classes.
Back to the adventure, we were now at the car, it was dark, all the local climbers had either already left or were camping at the cliff, and we had to navigate our way out of this farmland & dirt road maze. We eventually wound our way back to paved roads, and spent quite a bit of time meandering through tiny villages with no English within earshot. Despite being lost in one of the poorer parts of one of a developing country, we couldn't have felt safer. If we popped a tire on a rock on the side of the road, we could have knocked on anyone's door and not only gotten help with our flat, but also be served tea and dinner! Where in America would you encounter such poverty and not make it a point to lock your car doors as you drove through. Keep in mind, all the nations near us make for one of the most war torn parts of the world today.
On the way back to Amman we met up with some family in Dibbeen (the tiny nearby village my grandma grew up in) and had some dinner (and tea) as the day came to a close. More pictures from today that I wanna share with you are on the way! including some awesome climbing ones =)
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