Sunday of Palms & Bureaucratic Psalms: from the ridiculous to the sublime

Our day in the park working with Petra’s Rangers was again cut-short by the need to travel 1-hour to Ma’an in the continuing saga of the visa extension. On our 4^th trip for same, we were finally able to obtain the required medical certificate that we’d been waiting for a week to retrieve (the one the guide books don’t mention). With echoes of the Commander’s voice telling s to “just get the health certificate and come on back… welcome” we presented our medical papers at the Police HQ in Wadi Musa, and the “5-minute very easy process” started. They fingerprinted Bruce and entered my data into their computer when the entire procedure came to an abrupt halt. Seems that since we’ve been waiting for our health certificates our visa expired and there is a small penalty to be paid of 1.5 Jordanian Dinar per day. Unfortunately, they can not accept the penalty payment locally. Guess where? So, tomorrow we’ll be making our 5^th trip to Ma’an in a week.  So much for my membership in the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

On the Petra Arch. Park (PAP) www.atlastours.net/jordan/petra_map.html  front, the horse program has been seeing vast improvements. More on that tomorrow (inshallah). Today I’m thinking about the Bedouin inhabitants of the area. They have been here… for a very long-time; many still work here. I don’t recall ever being around a more accepting and generous people. Several were born in the caves of Petra and are securely-tied through generations of life’s blood. In the early 80’s they were relocated from PAP, and the village/relocation-camp of Umm Sahyoun was founded as their new “home.” Donkey and camel drivers, along with coffee/tea shop owners and jewelry vendors make the trip off-the-hill each day in order to feed their families. Some do very well, others eek out an existence, and for others it is a daily struggle. They are a vital part of this place called Petra. I enjoy working with the tribes that make up this place. They make it worthwhile (regardless)… 

As an interesting aside: there are jobs that local Arabs and Bedouins don’t want to do- sounds like home. For these they use Egyptian workers: maybe long-time revenge for Ramses II’s invasions in 13^th Century B.C.E.?