Haram

This is going to be a little more serious post but I think you may find it interesting. First off, after we got back from Egypt, every students' blood was drawn and tested for both Hepatitis C and AIDS. Good news is that all of us are clean but the news that bothered me the most is that if any of us tested positive, we would be removed from the country immediately. This bothers me on so many levels. This means that if you are HIV positive, you could never live in Jordan, or even visit for more than a month. I'm sorry, but restricting people like this is inhumane, at least that's what I believe. I spent this past summer in Kenya (www.lukasinkenya.blogspot.com) and the thought of some of the children I met being restricted as to where they could go and what they could experience simply because of a disease they have hurts me. I understand it from a governmental standpoint, preserving the nation and protecting the people, etc. But when it comes to basic humanity, this is wrong.

I'd also like to talk about a word you hear a lot here: haram. Haram directly translates to "forbidden" but it really means "forbidden according to Islam." Here are a few things I've learned about that are haram: eating pork, playing any music whatsoever during the Call of the Prayer, owning a dog, any physical intimacy before marriage, sodomy, and then you have your basics of course like murder, adultery, etc. Now with murder and adultery, I get why those would be haram, those are morally wrong no matter what, you don't need religion to tell you not to kill each other. But when I ask my family or different Muslims why they don't eat pork, or why they can't own a dog, or why women should wear a hijab, I have never once got an answer other than "because it is said in the Holy Qu'ran." I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks like this, but I think there should be a reason for a woman to have to cover herself in public, or why sodomy or homosexuality in general is not OK. I've noticed that Christianity and Islam alike don't give reasons for any of this but people still obey them without question. However, it's far more noticeable here in an Islamic nation though since there is no such thing as Separation of Church and State (and that 95% of the country are Muslim). I don't mind if people follow an organized religion but take time to think about it, understand why you're doing something or not doing something, don't just do it because a book says so. Religion was created by humans, not by a higher power or greater being, so if you do follow one of the mass faiths, try to understand it more instead of blindly following what someone else is telling you to do.

Sorry if I offended anyone in this post. Islam and Christianity both are beautiful faiths, if interpreted and understood well. Ma salaama.

Tis3a Nisa2

So here it is, the quality isn't great since it's on the internet but I think you'll still appreciate it. I created the song entirely on Garageband and I edited the movie on iMovie on Nick's Mac. Nick wrote and rapped the majority of the song except for two verses and the chorus which I wrote and recorded. I'm really proud of this bad boy, I put a lot of work into it so it's kind of my baby. I hope you can read the subtitles, if not, just know it's about nine women who want to marry me and I can't decide which one; then after rapping about all of them, we choose the ninth. Hope you enjoy.

Copyright Infringement

One of the more prevalent/funnier parts of the Middle East is the mass amounts of pirating and copyright infringement that you encounter. You'll be walking through the super market and you see a blurry picture of 1976 Mickey Mouse on a yogurt carton and you know that the Arabic company that made it did not pay for that 1976 Mickey Mouse picture. It's really funny to see all these old cartoons that I used to watch as a kid, I've seen Mickey Mouse, Tom & Jerry, I think Thundercats one time which just threw me off. I also saw a commercial where you could win a new Chevy Camaro and the entire commercial was pirated from Transformers.
I also bought 6 pirated DVDs a few weeks ago for 5 JD (about 7 bucks). I got Boondock Saints 2, 2012, Ninja Assassin, Dark Knight, Wolfman, and Legion. It's usually a hit or miss with pirated DVDs but my friends said they found a legit place which I think I'll be heading to soon. I faced a few problems with my DVDs since I bought them off the street. Ninja Assassin was blank, Wolfman was in Spanish, 2012 was muted for the last 20 minutes, and Legion was slightly diagonal the entire time but if you lay down while watching it, it's perfect. Dark Knight and Boondock Saints 2 are the best except every once in a while, you see a person stand up in front of the screen and walk out of the theater; it's not bad though, it's like I'm at the movies.

Mansaaf and Bacon

So today, I'd like to talk a little bit about mansaaf. Mansaaf is the signature dish of Jordan and is made up of rice, peanuts, either chicken or meat (other than pork) and this yogurty, milky, stuff. I say meat because in Arabic, they don't have a word for lamb or goat or beef, they just have the word "meat." The yogurty stuff is made from goat's milk usually and it's very rich. Mansaaf is usually eaten from a giant platter in the middle of a group of people and you eat with your hands. You take a glob of meat and rice, roll it around in your hands until it's a ball, and then pop it in your mouth. It's very delicious, I usually go with just a small amount of the milk but a lot of people here drink it straight out of the bowl, crazy.
Now, after talking about what I do get a lot here, I'd like to talk about what I don't: bacon. I can live without porkchops, and I can handle a few months without ribs, but bacon is something I've been craving for a while now. Pork is forbidden to eat in Islam since they consider it a "dirty" creature. They even have to be careful about marshmallows since those are sometimes made from pig's feet, sorry if I ruined anyone's marshmallow appetite there. Bacon is one of the things I'm going to get without delay when I'm back in the states, I know this isn't too interesting, but I
felt like venting.
This week is pretty packed, I have a few papers, an Arabic final, and the Arabic project is due next week. Good news however is that I'm done with the rap. I created it entirely on Garageband on my friends computer. The song is called Tis3a Nisa2 (Nine Ladies) and it's about how I have nine women who want to marry me but I'm having trouble figuring out which one to choose. I rap two verses and sing the chorus and my friend raps the rest (he doesn't have that great of rhythm but I think it turned out). I also edited all the music and am in the process of making the video right now. I think this is just gonna' be a ballin' project. I'll try to post the final video once it's all finished. All for now, ma salaama.

Back Home from Egypt

Alright, I made it back and I'm alive, so that's all good news on this end. Egypt was amazing, I saw the Pyramids and the Sphinx which were unbelievable, I mean you read about this your entire life but seeing them in person (which are a lot bigger than I imagined) is truly breath-taking. We also visited the Arab League, Alexandria, and many different mosques and sites throughout Cairo. Egypt was beautiful and even though we were busy everyday, we spent every night either at a bar, or disco, or just hung out until early in the morning in the hotel. If there's one thing I learned in Egypt, it's that Cairo never sleeps which is just a blast.

Now the real part, I'll compare Cairo with Amman, the city itself, the people and the overall culture. I'm going to say bluntly that Cairo is so much worse than Amman in nearly every way. This mind you is a bias based off of a phenomenal month and a half in Jordan so far and just a week in Egypt which although was beautiful and an amazing experience with the SIT kids, was brought down by the interaction with the people in many ways. Since Egypt is so touristy, especially Cairo, most Egyptians take this opportunity to heckle, harass, and attempt to rip you off in many ways. Taxi drivers try to charge you twice what you should pay, shop owners make up pathetic stories so that you buy more, and certain men there (not all of them, but many) sexually harass and verbally abuse men, women, children beyond anything you could imagine. Two girls in our program were harassed/abused while we were there; one was chased up the stairs until she made it to our room while the other was actually fingered, and then chased down an alley way with a man's penis out. This is not OK. This is the kind of thing that turns you off about Egypt. Everything in Egypt is cheap, the party scene is awesome, and the scenery is amazing but it's certain people that completely turn you off from all of Egypt. It's sad really because I don't want to view Egypt like this but after living in Jordan for this long and experiencing the culture and it's people, seeing Egypt is kind of a shock. I would compare Jordan and Egypt to the United States and the really sketch part of Mexico. Except I could understand a lot of what Egyptians were saying and I can't speak Spanish. Egypt is far more polluted and the people are a lot harsher there than in Jordan; I mean yes, I am biased but I would also completely recommend Egypt to anybody. It's a beautiful country it's just, this email is a warning and an observation of the short time I experienced in Egypt but that shouldn't change your view of the country or scare you away. I hope this email didn't throw you guys off too much, I still had an unbelievable time in Egypt and I definitely hope to go back someday, but I am also very happy to be back in Jordan with my family and the city I'm used to. You may have also noticed there are no pictures in this blog, that is because I have so many I want to show you so I created a Flickr page to help me out; follow this link to view my favorite pictures from Egypt:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48644224@N08/sets/72157623534172141/

All for now guys, let me know about what you think of my post or if you like my pics. Ma salaama.

Egypt Awaits, And Then Some

Hey, here's just a quick update for you guys as to what's going on. Tomorrow, way too early in the morning, we're heading out to Egypt for a week. We're going to be taking classes while there but we'll also be doing the touristy stuff like seeing the Pyramids, Sphinx, etc. Also, while there, Nick and Marty and I are going to do some filming. We have a final project in Arabic which is due in a few weeks so Nick and I our writing a Rap-Pop song (all in Arabic) and making a music video for it. Marty is our lead cinematographer so since our budget for this film is non-exsistent, we'll just be using my digital camera, quality's pretty good though so I'm not too worried.

I'd also like to talk a little bit about relationships and sex here in Jordan if you'd like to bear with me. First off, the seperation between guys and girls is very strict, not so much in the city as much as the Badia, but the line is still there. From what I've seen, this is why men are given such a bad rap here. They cat call, and flirt creepily with strangers because they don't know what else to do, they're always around other guys and the only girls they see are usually in hijabs. If they don't do this, they just end up staring from across the room at a girl for a couple hours. A girl in the program actually rode in a cab where the driver kept staring at her in the rear-view mirror, she was confused by this but later realized he was masturbating. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about, that is truly pathetic and sad to hear about because that says nothing good about certain men here in Jordan. I think this lack of interaction ties into the emotions seen sometimes around here. Men of a certain age who aren't married yet are angered easily; I've seen it in cabs, on the street, etc. This sounds shallow but I think there is a close tie to these uncontrolled emotions and sexual frustration. Most Muslims here don't even kiss before they're engaged and if one has sex before marriage, they're breaking a law which a lot of the time ends in an Honor Killing (usually both the man and the woman but sometimes just the woman). This causes you to fear one of the most basic and animalistic emotions and urges we have. Sex is a necessary and healthy part of life and people here are forced to suppress this powerful urge during the time of their life when it's the strongest. Along with this, dating is non-exsistent; if you do go on a "date" it's along with a few of your friends and a few of her's. Marriage happens quickly here a lot of the time, just a quick meeting or two, then you agree to get married. In Jordan and most Muslim countries, you don't marry the one you love, you learn to love the one you marry. I understand and respect the customs when it comes to relationships here, but I believe people here don't understand how much basic interaction with the opposite sex could make life easier and better. I deeply feel that the physical part of a relationship is as important as the emotional, and here in Jordan, no physicality exsists until after marriage. A lot of men here come of as perverts or as desperate and deprived but who can blame them? I understand what's happening to them, it's happening to the guys in SIT too. If we see a girl without a hijab, we can't help but stare. I'm done for now, this is something that I've been thinking a lot about while here, I'm sorry if this post made you uncomfortable at all but this is an important and prevalent part of Jordanian culture that I feel people should know about.

Jerash

Yesterday, some of the SIT kids took a trip to Jerash, one of the oldest Roman-era cities in the region. Jerash is about 2000 something years old and used to had a population of 30,000 during the Roman era, a good-sized city then and now. We started our day off with checking out all the ruins, the Roman ruins are just sprinkled inside the city itself. There is the main chunk of ruins with a massive theatre, what used to be the city center, and the hippodrome. The hippodrome is where they used to have chariot races, gladiator fights and all that jazz. We saw re-enactments of all of this which was just hilarious, I loved it. Afterwards, we went to the theatre where we heard a bagpiper and drummer play Amazing Grace
(I'm not exactly sure why, but Jordan is the only other country I've seen that has adopted the bagpipe as one of it's main instruments). We were given a little freetime to just roam around the ruins which was great, we got to climb on them and explore around, they don't really keep them as intact as they probably want but it was cool to experience that. After running around Jerash for most of the time, we went to an elk reservation thing, they kept saying gazelles but once we got there, we realized they were just deer, kind of anti-climatic but still a good time. Afterwards, we went to an area close to Jerash where we saw the sunset. Very beautiful. We were kind of rushed the whole time we were in Jerash but it was still a gorgeous city and I had an amazing time. I also bought a painting while I was their for 20 Dinar, about 30 US dollars. It was done by a local artist and sold by his friend in a market we went too, I didn't bargain with him too hard because he was a legit guy but I still knocked the price down 5 Dinar. I usually spend around $100 or less on art pieces whenever I travel so I'm still going to keep my eyes open for another piece since I still have around $70 more in the art fund.
This Friday, we're going to Egypt. I'm sure I'll post before then but I just wanted to let you all know how sweet that's going to be and how excited I am to finally see the pyramids and junk. All for now.

The Lowest Point in the World

So today, all the SIT kids took a field trip to the Dead Sea. We talked for about an hour and a half about the Badia, ate lunch, and then had about 4 and a half hours to just hang out. We were at a resort-esque place with a pool and hookah and right next to it was the beach and the Dead Sea. After lunch, everyone went down to the beach. We could see the West Bank from where we were right across the sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point in the world attainable by transportation so that's pretty cool. It's a remarkable feeling just floating in the water, at a certain depth, even if you're tall enough, it is impossible to touch the sea floor. You just lay back and you float on the surface of the water, truly unbelievable. If any of you have a chance to go to the Dead Sea, do it. Except here are a few precautions, don't shave before hand, and don't get any of the water close to or in your eyes. Your eyes won't stop burning until you wash them out, I can personally vouch for that. Other than those little hiccups, it was a relaxing time and the sea was breath-taking.

The Badia

So, today, early in the morning, I got a ride back from SabHa (the Badia town I lived in) back to Amman. The Badia was unbelievable. I lived with a man named Shlash who's going to be married in two weeks. He's an English teacher/works on one of his family's five farms (he works with the animals, camels, sheep, goats, etc.). Shlash and his family are in charge of basically all of Northern Badia. Dema, the host coordinator at SIT, is Shalsh's cousin and they used to be engaged (don't tell anyone); that was only a year ago and now Shlash is getting married in two weeks to a woman name Ghadeer. She's very kind and pretty cute, I'm proud of my boy Shlash.
Shlash didn't live in the "traditional" Bedouin style home at all (had a European-style toilet and all) and he didn't dress in a dish-desh, kafia, or sirwal. After I showed him all of my Bedouin get-up, he laughed and said "don't wear that, just be yourself."
The SIT director, Dr. Raed, told us a lot about the Badia but after going there, I noticed the majority of what he said was pretty far off. Friendships, family, etc. are all very close but all the "tradition" wasn't on the surface with clothes and houses, but with relationships and the idea of duty to your family.
Shlash hates being a teacher; not only because the pay is terrible and the hours are bad but because the students (at the all-boy schools) have no motivation. Lives of children here, especially the guys, are completely planned out for them. Since Shlash is the oldest son by about five days (polygamy, it happens), his parents' plan for him consists of staying in SabHa for the rest of his life teaching and farming so that future generations can succeed educationally and financially. The boys in the Badia have no real ambitions, goals, or choice about what to do with their lives because after high school, they have to go back to work on the family farm or business. I went to school with Shlash one day and sat in on one of his classes. After 12 years of studying English, the students didn't know how to say "I want to go to University after high school." I've been studying Arabic for less than two years and I am far better in their language then they are in mine; they're only one or two years younger than me but they just don't care. It's a sad fact I've noticed in the Badia but instead of being seen as a restriction here, it's simply seen as a way of life.
Every night I was there, Shlash's friend, including a guy from Texas who's working there on his own (his name is Loren), came over and hung out: drinking coffee, smoking a lot, and telling juvenile jokes - it was a pretty good time. Speaking of smoking, I smoked about four packs while I was in the Badia (about a pack a day which, I was trying to keep up with Shlash). The reason I smoked so many cigarettes is because it's basically insta-respect while your there. If they see that you smoke, or if they offer and you take it and light up, they smile, nod, and instantly accept you into their culture. If somebody is cautious about you, or think you're a cultural spy or something, and then you start to smoke, they ignore everything they originally thought about you and respect/accept you. My mom did the same thing in Ecuador, it's a necessary part of the culture and I'm glad I embraced it the way I did. In fact, sometimes in the Badia, you just need a cigarette. But after four days of constantly smoking, I'm done with cigarettes, hookah and cigars only from now on.
While I was in the Badia, I saw some pretty remarkable things. I saw Shlash work on breaking (domesticating) a male camel which was frightening, and I also climbed up onto a mountain named Ga'ais where you could see 50 kilometers all around (including a huge chunk of Syria).
I took videos of both of those but since the internet is pretty slow here, I think I'm just going to upload photos for you folks. I also went to a "zoo" with different desert critters and animals. I pet a wolf, pissed off a hyena, and almost got bitten by a snake - easily one of the cooler experiences here in Jordan. I'm going to stop for now, this blog is very long and I apologize for that but I had to try to sum up four days of culture shock and Bedouin experiences. I would appreciate any comments about the culture or my experiences because not only is this blog a public journal for me, but it's a way to open the eyes of Americans to the ways of life here and I would love to here your thoughts. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the Dead Sea for a day so I'll post after that as well, look forward to your comments. All for now, ma salaama.