Day 2 in Amman and things are going very well. Today we went and visited RSCN, the Royal Society for Conservation of Nature. They were a really neat NGO who realized that nature can not be saved solely for the sake of nature, that in order to bring about real change you have to stimulate economic development as well. The man we met with, Chris Johnson, was from Britain and worked with the World Bank. He had been sent here to Jordan to help start up ecotourism sites throughout the country. After our talk with RSCN, we drove to a nearby mall and then back to the hotel where Sean, Eric and I decided to head off into the city. We caught a 20 minute taxi (only $2) and got off in another shopping district, this one for the middle class and walked through some of the street-side shops. We managed to stumble across a local bakery and were immediately drawn to the fresh bread coming out of the oven. After staring at the wall of dough in front of us, Sean trying to read the Arabic and Eric and I trying to pretend that we knew Arabic, we picked up a few loafs. We paid for the bread and moved onto the next stop. As we walked from store to store, we found ourselves in the middle of two soccer matches taking place on the side of the street. Although tempted to play, I was distracted by attempting to film the scene as it happened around us. Continuing on, we then came across quite a comical site. Now we are quickly realizing that smoking is a huge deal in developing countries. I think around 75% of the country smokes, including the three men dressed in teddy bear costumes selling balloons to the little kids on the side of the road. On three separate occasions, we ran across men dressed up in bear costumes, with the head of the bear off and against their back, all trying to light a cigarette. It made all of us laugh, they really didn't look like they wanted to be there. Afterwards, we came back to the hotel where we met our group for dinner. Food was great, as normal, and soon after we were back in the hotel. We decided to end the night on a good old game of Dutch Blitz, and then called it a night. As we all scattered off to our rooms, Eric and I proceeded to the top floor where we were hoping to find Sean, because he had wandered off earlier in the night. Well, we opened the door, and were greeted by magazine-spread Sean lying asleep on the bed. This of course lends itself to some fun. Now, Sean has been very worried about losing his passport all trip, and therefore is very protective over it. Well as expected, Sean was lying asleep with his passport zipped away in a money belt around his waist. The only thing left for Eric and I to do, was attempt to steal the very thing he had been so watchful over. Naturally, we succeeded. Currently Sean is fast asleep and his passport is lying in the drawer beside my bed. Below is an action shot of the ordeal, it looks slightly wrong but was well worth it!

So that was the day in a nutshell, but there were a few things from the day that got me thinking.
First was that my image of Jordanian fashion prior to the trip was completely different that what it actually is. Walking throughout the mall, nearly every person (ok, maybe every person) was dressed better than me. Jordan is a free country and therefore women are not required to wear head dressings. Even some who do, don't seem to wear them strictly out of religious customs. Looking back at history, the head scarf was a cultural thing before it was a religious thing. It's just like different parts of the US have different clothes they are comfortable with wearing, Jordanian women appear to be comfortable wearing the head scarf. Then again, I'm not a Jordanian woman, so I can't speak for them, only observe.
The other thing that I started thinking about was the image of the Arabic language. For me, Arabic was similar to German, they both sounded harsh and very different than what I was used to. In high school I took German, and after learning the language and becoming familiar with the sounds, it no longer sounded harsh. The same has been happening with Arabic. For most of the regions that Eric, Sean and I traveled to today, there was absolutely no English written anywhere. And because Sean likes speaking with the locals in Arabic (which is awesome), we don't hear much English. So by eliminating those two variables, I began focusing on the people's body language. Simply making that switch has changed my impression of Arabic as a harsh-sounding language to a welcoming one. However, that doesn't change the fact that Arabic is a difficult language to pick up. I've got a few words down, but I think I'll let Sean handle the talking for most of the trip.
And the other thing I started thinking about today was where I was finding God's work in this new place. As with any trip, nature is always the part that I find myself most in awe over. From the Serengetti and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru in Australia, God's signature always seems so clear and impressive in places like those. And going into this trip, I knew that we would be seeing our fair share of natural gems. For the past few days though we have been in Amman, and although part of me is itching to see the desert and dead sea, the other part is slowly trying to soak in the city of Amman. Where is God's signature in a city? The first signature hit me when we were visiting with RSCN and overlooking most of Amman. Standing from their overlook, we were able to clearly see miles of white cube-like homes scattering the hillsides. Ancient Roman columns stood atop the hill to my left and a Jordanian flag flew alongside them. The cookie-cutter homes slowly faded into one as they distanced themselves from me. The border of the roofs and the thin film of dust in the skies created a cloudy horizon. It appeared as if someone had photoshopped the city and had layered a slight sepia tone over the entire view. As I searched the horizon, I came across a mosque standing tall and straight into the sky. A neon light glowed at it's peak, and soon a voice echoed a prayer throughout the hillside. The prayer bounced back and forth between the tightly stacked buildings, creating a choir of voices. A city was speaking. The whole experience was an awesome reminder of God's presence, of his ability to see over our lives. There was something calming about the whole scene; between the prayer and all white buildings.
For me, cities always seem to be in hurry (which is how I tend to be though) and I can't fully take the time to soak in the sights (or perhaps the sights don't seem as evident to me). One of the lessons that I am learning from the prayer call is to stop the busyness that I am currently dealing with and to take time and appreciate the sights that God has surrounded me with (even if at times they are harder to recognize). The sights such as Petra and the Dead Sea will be the ones that God has placed smack dab in front of me, I would hope I don't miss those. But it's the sights that are surrounding me within Amman that take more effort, that are less obvious. Those are always the ones that teach you more however, and are the ones that many of us miss.

Oh and if you want to check out more photos from the trip, Eric will be posting pics to the following website: www.freewebs.com/jordansoils