Postcards, Part Two

Madaba, Little Petra, Petra

I’m sorry everyone. It’s 30 seconds after I hit “post” on part one, and I’ve already realized that I’ve lied to you. The altar and mosaic in the last two photos are in St. George’s Cathedral, not the Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Yes, I got that wrong in The Eyes I Enter With, too. Sorry St. George.

The Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (for real this time), 3/17

(This is still in Madaba, by the way)

You can go into the bell tower and the catacombs of this place if you have time, but I didn’t, so I just spent a little bit in the sanctuary.

I haven’t been to church since New York. It’s not that they aren’t available, but I just can’t muster up a desire to go without being able to speak the language, and it would take up my valuable weekend time, if I’m being real. I’m getting excited to go consistently in Chile, and Rey just mentioned that they’re going to try and join a church choir while we’re there, so maybe I’ll also try that. I have really missed singing. I was going to four services a week last semester, plus Bible study, so on the one hand I’m stocked up, and on the other hand I’m having major singing withdrawal. I also am enjoying the space from explicitly Christian spaces. Going into my college search, I really didn’t want to go to a Christian school, because that’s all I’ve ever known (except for 6th grade, and most of my friends then were Christians anyway). I really didn’t consider the religious make-up of this program when I signed up, and honestly, I would have had no way of knowing I’d be one of three Christians on the trip, but it’s been a blessing. I really like that I don’t feel like I’m reminding people of what they “should” be talking about when I bring up my faith, the way I often do among Christians, and I love how genuine the reactions I get to the things I say are among people who haven’t heard, say the story of Moses, over and over again their whole lives. My host mom here is Muslim, and my last family was Buddhist, and though I still feel weird starting dinner without a prayer, I really enjoy not having any space in my life where Christianity is the expectation or the norm.

All this to say that it was nice to be alone in a sanctuary, though that’s really only an experience that I have while traveling, and to pray in a religious space. I’m learning very clearly, though, that churches are not the holiest spaces I find.

Also, I’ve been collecting photos of the funniest signs I see, most of which are translation errors. I think they knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote this, though.

Little Petra, 3/21

This is the family photo our taxi driver prompted us to take on the way to Little Petra. Left to right, Saavi, me, Rey and Lily. We had arrived in the city, the first stop on our South Excursion, less than an hour before, and Lily, in all her spontaneous glory, told us we should hightail it over before it closed, giving us maybe an hour there. I love Lily.

If you’re ever in Jordan, especially with kids, rock climbers, or hardcore imaginers, you HAVE to go to Little Petra. I don’t care if you’re going to big Petra the next day. I did and it wasn’t as cool. Okay, it was objectively more cool, but the experience wasn’t as stellar. Trust me.

Look! There are stray animals that are super friendly and not rabid or anything, and more importantly, there are no rules. You can go inside anything. You can touch anything. You can climb on anything you want.

Breathe this one in a minute. This is an ancient Nabatean temple, carved out of solid rock, about 35 feet above the current level of the ground (which changes over time, cuz desert). There’s me and Rey, and, if you zoom in, a guy standing behind us who looks like the Arab version of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow (it’s the eyeliner). I had just made a wish for my family (you’re welcome) in the chamber to the right, which also sports a perfectly square sky door, which lets the wish through. Let me show you how we got up here:

This is my favorite photo of all time. It’s us getting down, taken by Saavi, who was less interested in getting manhandled up a rock face by guides who just started telling us cool stuff about what we were seeing totally unsolicited and had just assured us that we could take all the time we wanted, because they could overrule the posted hours if we wanted. Slightly sketchy? Probably, but we conferenced among the four of us (in Spanish, cuz that’s our strategy when we don’t want to be understood, and decided that if we stayed together the four of us and left one person on the ground at any given time, that we’d be fine. And it all worked out, so don’t even worry.

We came back to our taxi driver after an hour of exploring, clambering, and singing Simon & Garfunkel in acoustically cool caves, absolutely glowing. Our driver was so happy to see us that happy that he gave us his card so we could text him after we went to big Petra to tell him what we thought. When we got back to the hotel, he offered to let us just not pay for the two hours of his time we’d used. We insisted on paying, obviously, but he’s our best friend now. Next to Juan Depp Desierto.¹

Petra, 3/22":

The next morning, we went to Petra. This place would be beautiful even if it was just rocks. But it’s got a whole amazing ancient civilization built in, so it’s even cooler. Very touristy, especially compared to the totally empty and totally unrestricted Little Petra, which is why I would recommend doing both if you’re ever here. We had an (intentionally) guided tour here, as well, which changed the vibe but was super helpful.

Oh! and the photo is of a Nabatean irrigation canal cut into the side of the canyon that provided drinking water to the city, filtered by the periodic drops in the channel, which collected sediment.

Partially eroded sculpture of a guy leading a camel. This is why I need a guide, cuz I would never have noticed the camel. Can you spot it?

The man attraction! The royal treasury. If I was sending you actual postcards, this is what would be on them. I wanted to show you this angle, though, because this is what it feels like to look at, and you can enjoy more of the details. Besides, maybe someone has sent you a real postcard from Petra before with the straight-on view.

What’s more beautiful? Riss or the unfinished tomb front? Hard to say. She’s gorgeous and one of my best friends from this trip, so I wanted to include her.

And this is Noa! I think I’ve shared photos of her before, but not with the incredible purple and gold rock layers to complement her smiling face. We roomed together in Nepal and she’s also one of my best people.

I want to have the chance to do a really long hike through here, someday, though I don’t feel convicted to return to Jordan on anywhere near the scale I feel so for Nepal. There’s a lot to process here that I didn’t get the chance too. This is so beautiful and fun, but also all these caves used to be tombs. They were nearly all robbed after earthquakes caused the Nabateans to abandon the city. The bodies were never recovered. Decades after that, the Beduls (subset of the Beduin tribe) moved in, using the caves as homes. They were forcibly cast out when the area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Center, and now many of them make their living selling trinkets yards away from the homes they can’t return to. The tourist police make sure of that. Talk about beauty that wasn’t meant for me.

This post’s too long again, so brace yourself for part three.

1. Guys, I’m sorry for how unhinged this post is getting. I’ve had caffeine today for the first time since Nepal, and am absolutely BOUNCING. Plus, the Little Petra adventure was objectively unhinged, so it was relatively unavoidable anyway.