Community: Real Life

Tales from Jordan


Naomi

Naomi Prior, 23, is studying Arabic in Yemen. She tells us what life is like for an English woman in the intriguing Middle Eastern country.
Entry: 6
Date: 21/06/2007

Naomi experiences a sand storm in the beautiful setting of Wadi Rum and discovers the cultural differences between Jordan and Amman.

Wadi Rum

"You know, they're small black things... make fire... heat... you cook on them." No I wasn't in a game show hybrid of Supermarket Sweep meets Christmas charades, but battling to communicate in Arabic in Amman, Jordan. And so went my desperate attempt to ask the bemused shop assistant whether she had any briquettes for sale for our barbeque awaiting us in Wadi Rum later that evening.

Wadi Rum is the breathtaking setting made famous because of 'Lawrence of Arabia's' historical camel treks during the Arab Revolt in the early 20th century. It's a stunning environment. Like most visitors, I love the rich colours of the sands which change with the light. Although many deserts around the world offer that attraction, what I think is so special about the Wadi Rum desert are the hundreds of red rocks scattered across the sands. It's as if a child has tossed them over the floor. The stars were breathtaking - like a scattering of diamonds across a dark velvet blanket.

One morning I woke up to hear what I thought sounded like rain on my tent. I blinked in disbelief - I was in a desert, surely it wasn't raining? And then I thought, hang on, I'm lying in a flat wadi and it looks like flash floods are on the way, I really ought to move! I stumbled out of my tent to discover it was blowing a gale, which led to a very gritty breakfast. But the biggest surprise came when my tent blew past. Naively I thought because it was pegged down and had my rucksack and sleeping bag inside it would be secure. But oh no, off it went to Syria... actually my travelling companion, Dominic, rather impressively caught it with his right hand - his left hand heroically protecting his cheese sandwich from being completely consumed by sand.

"I stumbled out of my tent to discover it was blowing a gale, which led to a very gritty breakfast. But the biggest surprise came when my tent blew past."

We left the sandy wilds of Wadi Rum to head to Aqaba, Jordan's Red Sea resort with Saudi Arabia to the east, Israel and Egypt to the west and the shimmering Red Sea stretching out to the south - geographically, politically, and historically, it's a fascinating point. It was also intriguing for me as a people watcher, fresh from Yemen. I'd visited Aqaba two years earlier, but this time I picked up on details that hadn't grabbed my attention before. I was struck by how many more women had their hair uncovered and wore tight western clothes, how many more places there were where young men and women mixed, and how many more women I saw out on the streets. It's all relative - visiting Saudi Arabia from Yemen made Yemen look liberal. But visiting Jordan made me realise how much more conservative Yemen is than Jordan. What really caught my eye were the alcohol stores and the availability of alcohol in restaurants. I simply don't remember them from before, but perhaps I wasn't looking.

Of course things aren't that straight forward. I had a very illuminating chat with a Jordanian friend who argued that Jordan was a land of extremes. Urban Amman is unsurprisingly more liberal than rural Jordan, yet within Amman things are very different. She talked of a childhood like many my friends and I are familiar with - arguments over how long she would stay out at the disco, wearing short skirts without her Dad noticing and having crushes on boys. At the same time in the local neighbourhood, she explained that some of the other families were quite the opposite. Uncovered hair, short skirts, boys and discos were totally out of reach for the daughters in many families. In her view the extremes in society had increased, following pivotal moments like the first Gulf War.

The influx of Iraqi refugees suddenly made Amman a less familiar place where you no longer knew everyone. Jordanians responded by asserting their identities, which led to an increased polarisation between the liberals and conservatives (apologies for my convenient and somewhat lazy terms). The ongoing upheaval in Iraq has prompted a similar reaction. She spoke of some friends turning to religion as they struggled to find their identity in a very Western Amman, neighbouring a traumatised Iraq where Western forces are perceived to have brought on the intense suffering.

The next time I write I'll be sharing stories from my trip to Syria, including snacking in the Baghdad Café and discovering stuffed eagles for sale in Damascus Souq, and tales of playing Crusader Knights...


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