Week 1: Travel, Amman, and Safawi Field Station

The summer has begun! After a 20 hour journey from the Mid-West to the Middle East, I arrived at Queen Alia International Airport on Wednesday night, June 2, without complications. Immediately, I experienced a ridiculous level of hospitality from the Haddad family as they allowed me to spend my first weekend with them as I adjusted eight time zones before relocating to the Safawi Field Station. Noor, another CMCer, spent her weekend introducing me to her large group of friends and classmates, including Ameera, a junior at Wellesley and Sam, a junior at Middlebury. Sam, Ameera, Noor, Erica (yet another CMCer in Amman this summer) and I spent my first weekend in Salt at the Haddad family farm, at the sunglasses shaped pool belonging to Noor's grandmother, and traversing the streets of Amman.

On Sunday, I finally met Dr. Mostafa Shudeifat as well as my colleague for the summer Talal. First, we went to the Badia Centre for Ecological Education (BCEE), about one hour outside of Amman and about a kilometer from the Syrian border, and then on to Safawi, another 45 minutes away. So far, life in the Jordanian desert has been very, very interesting. The desert is composed of not only sand, but volcanic rocks that are the remnants of the now dormant volcanoes that can be found in the Badia. Also, the landscape is criss-crossed with the occasional remnants of walls from the Roman and Nabatean civilizations, and the BCEE is even housed in still standing Roman structures! Much different that I had expected, there is also fertile cropland in parts of the Badia, where water is derived from vast aquifers deep beneath the sand.

Now, a routine has set in. Curently, Talal and I are working to create educational materials for the BCEE website and tours. This coming weekend, I will return to Amman and possibly visit the Dead Sea with Noor, Sam and a troupe of my new found Jordanian friends.