the desert

Micah and I woke up in the morning after I wrote my last post, and we caught a bus out to Ein Gedi, the nature reserve she worked at for three months. She wasn't sure if she still knew anyone who worked there to stay for free, so we carried our heavy backpacks up the mountain to get beds in the dormitory they have there. It was super hot and sweaty, but after we got a little unpacked we threw on our swim suits and snuck in through the back entrance of the reserve so we wouldn't have to pay. We were planning on hiking a little bit to get to this natural pool, but before we even started she saw her Bedouin friend, Suleyman, working in the ticket booth. We made plans to go to the Dead Sea after he got off work and then we started up the hike.

Along the way, we met this kid from Florida named Dylan who was there with his three-week fellowship program. Turns out there was someone from his group named Matt who had just graduated from UNC, and I sort of recognized him from around campus. After talking for a while we realized that we both lived on the same street! There was another guy in their group who is going to work for AEPi this next year traveling around to all the chapters, and UNC is one of his assignments, so maybe I'll run into him on campus some time. We went swimming in one of the lower pools, and it had a waterfall and it was really beautiful... the perfect way to relax after being out in the sun all day.

After we got bored of that pool, Micah wanted to go up to a higher one, but someone working at the reserve told us it was too late in the day to hike up that far. So, we had to go back to the entrance and wait for Suleyman to take us to the Dead Sea. We were right across the street from it, but walking anywhere there is so hot and uncomfortable that it was definitely worth waiting for a ride. When we got there the sun was setting, and I didn't really feel like getting all the way in the water but I put my feet in and let my shoe float for a while. Later that night we hung out with Suleyman and his brother and they made Bedouin tea for us, which is basically just tea with a ton of sugar in it... delicious!

We went to bed early-ish because we wanted to wake up and watch the sun rise over the Jordanian mountains in the morning. We woke up at 5:30 and went onto the roof of one of the buildings and watched it from there, and it was super beautiful... we took a ton of pictures. After a little power nap we went to breakfast, and there Micah started talking to this guy who was staying there who was sitting at our table. She thought she knew him from somewhere and eventually she realized that she and her friend hitchhiked with him when she lived in Israel, and when he had been there on an earlier vacation. He was really cool and lives in New York and performs in this aerial show called Fuerza Bruta, so maybe next time in NY he can hook me up with free tickets to the show :)

After breakfast, we were supposed to hike to some upper falls with Suleyman, but he had to work so two of his friends went along with us. Maybe hiking with Bedouins wasn't the best idea ever because they are used to the heat and practically run up the mountain, but they kept us going at a good pace and they carried our water. We stopped at one pool along the way and went swimming there, and it felt really awesome to jump into cool water after hiking in the desert in the summer. One time, they led us off the trail and showed us some glass tea cups they had hidden. Then they busted out a portable stove, a tea pot and tea and sugar... so we drank real Bedouin tea, Bedouin style. When we got to the top of the hike, we saw where water bubbles up out of the ground, which was pretty cool... but it was cooler to swim in it.

Also, they only spoke Hebrew and Arabic, so spent the whole day having no idea what was going on. I already have a really hard time with spoken Arabic, and then Bedouin Arabic is way different and they spoke really fast. But it was kind of like a one day immersion program, and by the time we were done I felt a little more confident speaking. We left for the hike at like 9:30 and got back to the bottom around 4:30, so we were out for a really long time. When we got back to the bottom we got a free ride to the city Micah used to live in, Erad, and then we caught the bus to Be'er Sheva. Between Erad and Be'er Sheva is desert, and only Bedouins live there. So, along the way we saw lots of little groupings of houses and camels and people riding horses, and we even drove past a wedding.

When we got to Be'er Sheva, we waited at the bus station for like an hour and a half, and we entertained ourself by people-watching and doodling. I made a map of everything we've done so far, and Micah tried to recreate the coexist thing using symbols for money. For some reason, all the girls there wore really ridiculous platform shoes. Eventually her friend Eran picked us up and drove us to his house in the desert. He works as a park ranger, and he had just saved a baby bird that fell out of its nest too soon, so I held the box as we drove the bumpy road to his house. Which is in a kibbutz that looks just like Dharmaville, btw. But anyway, we got in kind of late and we were tired from running up mountains all day, so we made this chicken stir fry thing, talked for a while and then went to bed. Eran went to India for a while (like a lot of Israelis do), so he had some good advice for me about that. He also tried to feed the bird a little and give it some water, but it was probably in shock or something from being in that box while we drove on those bumpy roads.

When we woke up, the bird wasn't looking so hot and he tried to feed it some sugar water, but he didn' t think it was going to make it. We were going to go hiking again, but it's sooo hot out here that we asked him to just drop us off at the pool in a nearby kibbutz. We swam for a while until the lifeguard kicked us out so he could go on his three hour lunch break. We tried to sneak into their community dining room, but we got a lot of weird looks so we found a ride back to Eran's house and now we are here resting and trying to figure out where to go next. The bad thing is his house has no a/c, and this laptop is really hot so I'm sweating right now... gross. So I'm done writing about everything; here are some pictures:

Ein Gedi waterfall

In the Dead Sea, Jordan is on the other side

Sunrise

Bedouin desert tea