A Good Friday… and Peace be with you ALL…

With the stars aligned for Earth Day and Good Friday (“God’s Friday”) it is indeed auspicious.  Watching CNN-Middle East I heard that Friday is a “traditional day of protest.” Seems that several months has become their definition of tradition- I can hear it being sung from the roof-tops now: “Tradition…”  24-7-365 news cycles is being lead by schmucks (but you already knew this). Friday in Muslim countries is a day of reflection and prayer, so I thought a visual revisit to The Monastery area might be in order: “it was a kick-ass day with all the donkeys on the trail to The Monastery” (just couldn’t sit-on-that-one any longer):

Plus from our Dead Sea odyssey: proof positive that fat floats.

The secret to walking on water might be The Dead Sea (and faith). Some of you may have been wondering about the recipe or “Bedouin Whisky” (aka tea). This recipe is from his Honor Akmed (the non-camel one), “The Mayor of Petra”: boil water in a pot; add some Two Gazelle (Al-Ghazaleen) Black Tea from Sri Lanka; let simmer- add 4-handfuls of sugar (or 4-5 teaspoons per cup). As the saying goes: “a spoonful of sugar helps the sucrose go down…”  Today we went to another guy’s- only wedding reception at the Nawafleh family hall in… Nawafleh section of Wadi Musa. Tribal traditions tenaciously transcend modern mobility’s. Hmmm, more goats gave their all, and “Hey! Keep that left hand out out of the community dish of mensaf (even after 4 times I still find it best to keep my left hand in a pocket).  I’ve learned that this Sunday is a holiday here for Christians (most people will work, go-to-school, etc.); the following Sunday is a holiday to: May 1 (May Day). So, with the holidays, upcoming workshop, and comp days earned I should have… hmmm, I should’ve gone home some time ago. Meme will be arriving at Amman Int’l Tuesday evening (after the workshop): I’ll have her ride ready- working here has changed me some, I wonder if she’ll recognize me…

And other friends…

Working with Park Rangers, and their field supervisors, today I see we have many common experiences and concerns. This sometimes transcends simple processes, like property management. We brought six field kits that included First Aid, flashlight, digital camera and binoculars; these were turned over to Petra’s Chief of Operations 8-days ago. So far, the property people haven’t released the equipment. At least it hasn’t made it to the field yet. We hope that secure lock-boxes are being procured in order to provide Park Ranger access. We’ll see…

One of the other commonalities is that sometimes Park Rangers are asked to solve problems and remedy issues beyond their authority or scope-of-work. Sound familiar? Remember the saying: “One riot, one Ranger”? Here the Rangers (and for that matter the Tourist Police) have very limited authority to act, and are often relegated to reporting the names of miscreants to someone, somewhere. PAP Management asked our team to help with donkey control issues many weeks ago; we’ve been analyzing and helping. We composed an Issue Analysis for the PAP Director, and can’t talk about that yet; along with donkeys potentially coming up Wadi Araba from that un-named country west of here (that was given to me today as justification as to why the Ranger needed those binoculars). Petra has a plethora of commercial operators with donkeys all over the primary resources (as in non-renewable archaeological resources & deposits).  Resources are being trashed, and from a sheer safety stand-point “Safety Dude” says action is needed: worldwide annually more people are killed by donkeys than by airplane crashes.

www.guy-sports.com/humor/pictures/picture_dont_feed_animals.htm#Did_you_know

Now for some estimates of some Petra animals: 1,000 cats (14 in one place); 350 donkeys (in from Umm Sayhoun ); 250 horses (from Wadi Mousa); 100 dogs; 25-30 camels (also from Umm Sayun). You’ll notice that folks in this region aren’t hung-up on spelling and prefer to go with phonetics. I’ve seen at least three spellings on highway signs for Wadi Musa and Umm Sayhoon. Since donkeys an cats share he trash bins of Umm Sayhun, I have a new appreciation for camels.

BTW- the registration for our "Best Practices" Workshop in Amman next Tuesday is up to 85 (incredible considering invites didn't go out until this week).

Here Kitty, kitty, kitty: the Cats of Petra…

We had our weekly meeting today with Dr. Emad Hijazzen, the Commissioner of Petra Archaeological Park & Cultural Heritage, and his able staff. I’d noticed a healthy feline population here at Petra and during our adventures around this Hashemite Kingdom. I asked one of the staff, per their resource inventory: “How many cats to you have at Petra?” He looked at me slyly and quietly said: “Plenty, plenty of cats…” He went on to explain that they’d like to do something about it, but they are beloved and they help keep the place have less unhealthy things. I read into that vectors like rodents, and trash too.  Every time I take the garbage to the topless dumpster outside our place in Wadi Mousa I notice many a pair of cat’s eyes following my progress: it is enough to take me back to memories of “playing keeps” at Washington Elementary School (on Lincoln St.).  Usually within minutes you can see the sleek-footed predators turned scavengers entering to se what tonight’s faire might be. It is enough to make one think about the Nabataeans and what they had that filled the niche of the contemporaries.  It has long been supposed that ancestral cats followed the rodents that followed the grain from the fields as humans were evolving towards crop-production and storage. As I was “raised in a kennel”(and a Terrier kennel at that) I like to point out that was several millennia after the symbiotic relationship between Canis that allowed modern-human to become just that (just ask the archaeologist Martin McAllister and he will love to expound). Anyway, cats were around long before Nabataeans (very pre-N), and had you traveled here 2,000 years ago with your gold, ivory, slaves, spices, smartphones or other valuables you would have seen that they were here at Petra.

One theory recently set forth by an academic (Dr. Steve Simms, Utah State Univ.) re: Bedouin food storage techniques is that they cache food in areas that can only be retrieved exposing oneself to severe physical trauma or death is a kind of prestige factor. A form of “quien es mas macho”? I have a different theory: they’re trying to make it just a little more difficult for the cats to raid their stores: make ‘em work for it.

One of the best photos I’ve seen of cats at Petra is available at: www.flickr.com/photos/angelion_li/5362559015/ 

more about the archaeology of our furry Felis silvestris catus friends: http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/cat.htm  

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief_cats.html

In yesterday's post, in addition to the rababa I forgot to include another instrument from this region:

Um-do-Allah: Praise God!

Petra at Night

Last night we experienced an on-going special event that occurs in the Park on Monday, Wednesday & Thursday nights from 8:30-10:30: “Petra at Night.” The walkway from the entrance and through the Siq to The Treasury (about 1.5 miles) is illuminated by candlelight in sanded paper-bags (farolitos back home). As one travels back through time, you are trodding an ancient path, thinking of the many steps that have been this way before to this city of caravans.  When you arrive at The Treasury it glows up from the sands. One notices a couple of felines walking between shadows and wondering how long their lineage dates back. Serenaded by rababa (the mother of all string instruments) and poet I thought of Ulysses and how long a one-stringed instrument has been synonymous with singing sagas and stories of the human condition. A bit later a flute’s melody floats from the shadows, bringing joy and eventually coming into the light. After a glass of tea, one can venture back up the Siq and visit the moonlight. www.octm-folk.gov.om/meng/instrument_mel02.asp 

Yea! What a day…

Between the continuing saga of the visa extension quest and the development of the Best Practices Workshop next week we’ve had little time for our primary and core mission: working with the Rangers, Tourist Police and other people (and animals) of Petra. Our prayers (or other exaltations) have been heard during this “Holy Week,” and we got our visa extension today! It only took one more trip to Ma’an and then back to Wadi Mousa for fingerprinting, interrogation about who we’re spying for (need to make sure it isn’t for that “un-named land to the west”), and… just kidding… but, we did get our extension.

Today’s real triumph was observing the veterinary efforts with the horses here by The Brooke Animal Clinic. For years Petra has been receiving complaints about the condition and care of the animals here (primarily the horses, but donkeys and camels too). Our ol’ amigo “Cowboy Fred” helped bring the husbandry program along, and it is much improved over prior years. However, just days after Fred’s return to the USA the Director of PAP met with the interim Director of The Brooke here at Petra and daily inspections by veterinary staff is now underway. Thanks also goes to Princess Alia for her patronage with the clinic. Many of the horses have a fungal infection in their hooves, but efforts are underway to offer preventative education on proper care (clean-those-hoofs) and stabling. Other procedures are also being proposed so visitors will encounter healthy and well cared for stock. Well done! The Brooke Hospital for Animals:  www.addictedtotravel.com/travel-guides/responsible-travel-projects/the-brooke-hospital-for-animals   

On a sadder note, I received note a few weeks ago about the passing of an acquaintance from high school. I was a shy guy at Burbank High, but occasionally wondered: “what ever happened to…”  I read recently that she had a “steadfast love and appreciation for all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small and her belief in the essential equality of all people.”  http://bhsclass67.blogspot.com/2011/03/maureen-shapiro-thompson-bhs-66-passed.html  I think we could use more people like that, and condolences to her family for their loss (sounds like we all lost)…

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.?

“Always look at the bright side of life...”

Phil’s blog-blurbs took to road Thursday via a trip to Ma’an to pick-up the medical certificate for the visa extension. Since the Medical Center (MMC) staff said to return at 12:30 on Thursday, we did… and “inshallah” - word was that King Abdullah II was coming to Ma’an and we needed a special escort to get to the MMC, as it is in “the safe zone” for kingly visits. Thanks to a your Lt. from the Royal Jordanian Air Force we got there, but we were quickly informed it was closed and wouldn’t re-open until Saturday. So, off to Madaba (“The City of Mosaics”) we went.

Madaba is on “The King’s Highway” that has been used for about 5,000-years to transport goods and ideas throughout the area. It has a sizeable Christian majority (as much as 95%) in the downtown area. St. George’s Orthodox is known for its mosaic map of the “Holy Land.” It is also only about 10Km up to Mt. Nebo where legend has it that Moses said “viaje con Dios amigos.” I found myself asking: why was this area so significant for trade and prophet? I noted the region around Madaba appeared to be a fertile land of plenty, and commented that it looked “a little like Ireland… except for the many parts that don’t…” and then we started descending towards the Dead Sea. I can see where the prosperous kings of the uplands ostracized “the others” to.

In preparation for our workshop on Best Practices in Protected Area Management we visited the baptism site. That is: THE BAPTISM SITE (www.baptismsite.com) made famous by John (“voice crying in the wilderness”) the Baptist, and Jesus of Nazareth (aka: The Messiah). The site has been agreed to by Biblical scholars, and visited by at least the last two Popes. This answered a question I’d been pondering: since Meme’s family (Medici) provided more Popes than any other family in history, would they allow her in the country? Since they allowed John Paul and Benedict in I’m thinking it’ll be clear sailing for her.

We also visited the Mujib Nature Reserve and checked out one of their nice chalets on the Dead Sea: www.rscn.org.jo/RSCN/HelpingNature/ProtectedAreas/MujibNatureReserve/tabid/94/Default.aspx While venturing up the Siq (as get wet water adventure) I met and befriended a poor lost sole – I figured this was the place for after all. He is pictured below-right:

Today (Saturday) we ventured south on the King’s Highway (more lush-lands for awhile) and visited the Krusader Kastel at Al-Karak. Then it was onto Ma’an and the MMC (which of course was closed). So, today’s lesson re: the “inshallah factor” is: maybe I’ll get a visa extension, inshallah…