A Day in Ajloun

This past Saturday, I went with my friend to Ajloun to visit my virtual language partner, Haya, and her family.  During winter break, I Skyped with Haya (and sometimes her father) at least two times a week in order to talk about Irbid and Jordan and what I should expect.  She and her father were extremely helpful and they made feel as if I was already welcomed, even before I arrived to Jordan.  The program changed our language partners when we came to Irbid, so sadly, Haya is no longer my language partner. However, I have a new language partner and she is just as great :) Also, Haya is my friend's language partner, so I am still able to talk and hang out with Haya.

We left from Irbid at around 9:00 in the morning to go to Ajloun.  Amanda and I met up with Haya's friend, Hella, and she helped us get on the right bus that would take us to the city.  The bus ride was only about 30 or 40 minutes long, but the sights that we saw on the way were absolutely amazing.  As we ascended the mountains outside the city of Irbid, we began to see the snow-capped Al-Sheikh mountains of Syria. I am continually surprised by how close I really am to the Syrian border.  I wish I had a picture to show everyone of these mountains. When I go back to Ajloun, I will be sure to take a picture.  For the rest of the bus ride, we were greeted with rolling green and limestone hills and valleys, the trademark of the North-West Jordanian countryside.

When we arrived in Ajloun, we met up with Haya and had a breakfast filled with falafel, pita, hummus, and fuul, an Arabic dish similar to hummus but with mashed beans instead of chickpeas.  After this delicious breakfast, we walked through the market in downtown Ajloun where this happened:

:)

We then boarded another bus that took us about 30 minutes outside of Ajloun to where Haya lives.  Again, the scenery was amazing during the bus ride.  We finally arrived to Haya's house, which is situated on top of one of the many rolling hills/mountains of the Jordanian countryside.  The views from her home are incredible because you can see for miles and miles. Haya's town was quiet and peaceful, a much needed break from the noise of the busy city life in Irbid.

We talked with Haya's mother and father for a while and then had a brunch of hummus, fuul, eggs, olives, vegetables, and a bologna type meat. You may be thinking, "Wow! Breakfast and then brunch? That's so much food!" But that is not even the extent of it yet... if this day could be summed up into a few words it would be eating and drinking tea.

Brunch with Haya's family

After brunch, we all went with Haya's father who took us all around their town/village to see the sights of the Jordanian countryside and to meet some (most) of their family members. He first brought us to a stream that runs through the town. When people think of the Jordan, usually what comes to their mind is a picture of either a desert somewhere just really dry.  While some parts of Jordan are desert, the North-West region of Jordan is far from a desert with lush greenery and running streams and rolling mountains and valleys.  This is all exactly what I saw this day in Ajloun:

One of the streams running through Haya's village

Amanda, me, Haya, and Hella

Haya's brother picked flowers for Amanda and I :)

Looking out towards Haya's village

Jordanian countryside

Jordanian countryside

As I mentioned before, Haya's father also brought us around to their family members' houses where we not only talked, but also at least drank tea or also ate a little something. We met cousins, aunts, brothers, sisters and sat around and talked with them.  The views of the countryside from their homes were just as beautiful, so many pictures were taken at each stop as well.

After a full day of traveling around with Haya and her father, we came back to her home and had a traditional Jordanian dinner with mansaf, the national dish of Jordan.  This was the first time I had the honor to sit with a Jordanian family and eat this rich dish consisting of flatbread, rice, lamb, chicken, pine nuts, almonds, and topped with a fermented dried yogurt-like sauce called jameed.  After a day of drinking tea and eating, this was a very heavy dish to eat, but it was absolutely delicious. Mansaf was not the end, though, because Haya's sister also baked a cake specially for Amanda and I.  We sat outside on the patio to eat the cake and drink my 10th cup of tea for the day and talked until it was time to catch the last bus back to Irbid.  I found myself not wanting to leave this beautiful village with its rolling mountains and valleys and of course the hospitality of Haya's family.

Before I end this post, I just want to expand a little on Arab hospitality.  I am still always pleasantly surprised by the generosity and friendliness the Jordanian people have displayed when meeting them.  Hospitality is fundamental in Arab culture and Arab people are judged by other Arabs on how well they treat their guests.  Arabs don't think anything of asking a person they have just met to come over to their home and eat dinner with them. In their mind, there is always enough food for guests. For example, my archaeology class and I were waiting in the lobby for our professor and a guy poked his head in, found out we were Americans and invited us to his house that night to have dinner with him and his family.  If this happened in the US, the guy would be thought of as weird or even creepy, but in Jordan it is the norm.  It can be a little overwhelming at first, but you start to realize that Jordanians and Arabs are just very friendly people who want to get to know you. Also, when you do have dinner at their home, they will continually offer more food to you and try to force you to eat more. They feel as if they have failed as a host if you do not eat more than what is comfortable.

Arab hospitality is second to none, and that is exactly what I experienced when I was with Haya and her family.  Being far away from home, it is nice to experience this kind of generosity and hospitality.