Getting My Feet Wet in the River Jordan
My Middle Eastern sojourn has challenged a few perspectives. On Thursday night we experienced daylight savings time in Jordan (apparently the time varies from nation to nation) and the weekend began on Friday (and, I am having a brief break on Sunday, which is a regular full work day here in Dubai.) Anyway, we had Friday off to relax and then headed east from Jordan to Dubai yesterday -- most of the day involved getting here -- leaving the hotel at 7, arriving at the airport, clearing customs, the flight (a couple of hours) and then the luggage/customs/arrival at hotel jig -- I got into my room at 5.
Well Friday was interesting. For r&r we headed to the Dead Sea, which is a resort area -- the Israelis on the west side and the Jordanians on the east side. I really hadn't factored how incredibly close we were to Israel (however, I should have; Jordan is pretty small.) Well en route we stopped at various holy sites.
For the past few months I had been focused on experiencing Middle Eastern culture. However, I really hadn't thought about the Bible. Friday was a little overwhelming as we went to the general area where Moses was buried, and then to where Jesus was baptised. Of course archeologists have uncovered a number of things which give us a fairly good idea generally where these things occurred. Remnants of churches mosaic floors have given the greatest clues. I was pretty overwhelmed though when we went down to a platform on the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptised Jesus. The river is modest, pretty narrow -- but I had to stand in the water. It was pretty surrealistic when I thought about it. The Jordanians are quite proud of this having occurred on the east side of the Jordan. But as we walked down the steps onto a wooden platform so that we could stand in the water we were overwhelmed by something else.
As you approach this Holy Site you pass through a number of Jordanian military check points. The soldiers are good natured and recognize the motives of the tourists. But as we stood in the river on the east side of the Jordan,with the Jordanian flag behind us, a very short distance away (an easy baseball throw across the river) were other soldiers on the west bank, and the Israeli flag flying. The west side is clearly not the tourist destination of the east side and the fortifications on that side made me immediately flash back to when my wife and I were driving from the Republic of Ireland and cross into County Fermanaugh, one of the 6 Irish counties that are part of the UK. The Republic was low key and relaxed; the red bereted soldier as we crossed into Northern Ireland with a submachine gun was all business, and so were the razor wire and fortifications.
My short stay in Amman, and relaxed trek down to the Dead Sea masked the volatile situation just across that very narrow river. Jordan is clearly an island of peace in a tense region. The emotionally moving experience of being where Jesus was baptised was quickly eclipsed by the harsh reality of current events staring us in the face. Our charming Jordanian guide suddenly became subdued and temporarily lost his humor seeing the three Israeli soldiers immediately across the river; he visibly relaxed after they got back in their armored vehicle and left.
The Dead Sea by the way is amazing; the buoyancy is incredible. You didn't need to worry about anything biting you; nothing lives in it. People swear by the cosmetic qualities of the water, and were also slathering themselves with mud, allegedly also a major beauty treatment (I skipped that part). The area was full of Europeans there on vacation; their holiday atmosphere helped to dispell the cloud caused recognizing the uneasy detente close by.
Dubai is everything you've heard, and more. I need to get ready for a college fair in a few minutes. It will need to be the basis of another blog entry.