Adventurous trips in week two

Going out
Saturday proved ideal to get to know the international community in Amman. InterNations is a hyperactive expat club that flood us daily with mails about upcoming activities. If you want, you could live for 4 months in a Western cocoon, surround yourself with Westerners and do not exchange a single word with the local population. Something I obviously do not pursue, on the contrary, but they do organize some nice things.
The Grand Hyatt was the setting of the InterNations dance night. Saskia and Misha and I were on the guest list and pretty soon I was walking around with my name tag with a Dutch flag on my chest. Rather geeky. Fortunately, those name plates fell on the ground during the evening, entirely 'unintentionally' of course. Especially when the Arab house songs kicked in the necessary drops of sweat were produced on the dance floor. What a great place to be!
The ladies met just a little more men than they had planned ;-) But we also met interesting people from places like Beirut in Lebanon. That will come in handy when we go out there soon! 

A Hell of a Hike
We made our first foot steps outside of Amman on Saturday. Henk a Dutch photographer in Amman goes out on weekends to capture the impressive nature of Jordan. Anyone is free to join him on such hikes. Full of energy Misha and I jump in his jeep towards the first Wadee (valley) near the dead sea. Little did we know that this adventure would not have a happy end.Upon arrival at the first valley we prepare our gear and Misha finds out that digital cameras perform much better when you do not leave your memory card in the apartment. The heavy responsibility for capturing the sights on our trip today lies on my shoulders now. Below are some results (click on it to enlarge):

Wet Feet
The first Wadee is over and we really enjoyed it. Then we were asked to join a second one. Its not far away and apparently very worthwhile. We do not hesitate and jump back in the jeep. Two people leave the group and we are now left with a Danish man in his sixties, a young guy in training to become a Jordanian guide (our mountain goat) and Henk himself of course. The second valley goes well until we are on our way back. Hans, the man from Denmark, slips on a rock over which water trickles. He makes a nasty smack on his back, then his leg and falls into the stream. This is the moment we all hoped would not happen, but it did.Hans cannot walk and paramedics try to relax his damaged leg by massaging the muscles. Misha is asked to look the other way. That's really the least of Hans' worries. The massage is not working and he is in great pain. A stretcher and 6 men from the local fire department are necessary to carry Hans over the rocks. No easy task:

On our way to the 'Hospital'
Misha and I sit next to Hans in the ambulance. He suffers from hyperventilation and looks very pale. Private hospitals in Jordan are among the top in the world and are unaffordable for the common man. There is even some form of medical tourism, including from Libya. However, these paramedics drive to the nearest hospital which does not necessarily have to be the best, as we would find out. It is a building that falls apart from pure misery. The treatment rooms are 6 stretchers collected in a hall divided by shower curtains for privacy.Three ladies fully covered in Niqabb enter the Emergency Room and I wonder how they'll get treatment in this hospital when I only see male physicians. Everywhere we see relatives, friends and I think just neighbours of the patients hanging out in the main hall. It is a kind of ER / community centre idea. When we bring in Hans, he gets surrounded by all folks present and he is carefully observed. The wait must have bored them out and Hans seems a nice distraction.

We wait outside as the doctor starts his treatment. While we were waiting at the entrance of the hospital, a group of curious boys watches us. They stacked up on sweets at a local food stall and we Westerners are clearly the next adventure for them. I see a great opportunity to shoot some portraits:

Hans appears to have nothing broken, but his thigh muscles are considerably strained. Five hours later than planned we come home exhausted.

Our first field visit
Tuesday morning we head off to visit the oldest town in Jordan, called Salt. We have been looking forward to this trip as we now get to meet the boys and girls for which Misha and I are here in Jordan. The project in Salt aims to map the living conditions of youngsters in that area. This will then be used to develop projects aimed at improving those conditions. The approach used is questionnaires. Someone from Save the Children leads the youngsters through each of the questions. Salt holds a community centre for boys, where about 20 boys have gathered on their day off.

They sit in a circle and Misha and I take place somewhere in the back to not draw any attention. This proves harder than expected. The boys look our way every 2 minutes:

The questions focus on safety, handling money, resolving conflicts, plans for the future etc.. Some of the answers are shocking. When asked "How often have you beaten someone up last year?", the boys asked why they could only select up to 5 times. They encounter much violence in their daily lives. This happens at home, which is actually seen as normal. But at school the boys get physically abused as well, especially by the teachers when they failed to finish their homework.We are told all residents of Salt belong to either one of the large rivalling families that utterly hate each other. This situation often culminates in serious fights with occasionally even fatal shootings as a result. Young people witness all of this and they fight this same battle amongst each other, on the streets and at school .After the official part is over, the boys loosen us. Misha and I are really jumped upon. Everyone wants to be photographed or wants to exercise small words of English on us.
The girls
The following location is a village not far away from Salt, where a community center lies just for girls. As expected, the girls are a lot more serious, but no less curious.In the interview with the girls we hear that the violence here is limited to wild dogs on the streets and strict teachers. It is not surprising because this village is a lot richer and the girls often go to private schools. The questions on HIV AIDS and condom use are dismissed as "something we are way too young for". This while there were plenty of 18 year old girls amongst them. The subject is just too sensitive.

The marital status is also sensitive. The "Living together but not married" option was removed from the list at the last moment. When asked what they would change in their lives if they had the chance, the reply is "people who lie". With that beautiful wish in mind we say goodbye to a group of cute and very wise girls.