Visitors!

After telling everyone who wants to come see us, or anyone who is simply passing through that they can stay with us, someone took us up on our offer: this past weekend, we hosted our first official guests!  After hoping the directions we gave them to our apartment were good enough, two young ladies from America (one on her way back from Australia) and one young man form Australia, arrived on the evening of Friday, October 22, just in time for dinner.  They were grateful to have beds to sleep in and a washing machine for their laundry, and we were grateful to see some new faces and hear native English-speakers.

The guy from Australia, Antoine, had to catch a flight first thing on Saturday morning, but the gals, Heather and Sophia, stayed. We spent a nice, relaxing Sabbath, where the girls increased our church attendance by 50%.  That evening, we were all invited to our neighbor’s apartment for a potluck and meet-and-greet for ABS faculty (and UYC volunteers).  It was fun, and we had some amazing lamb, among other things.  After that was over, the six of us (volunteers and guests) went back to our apartment and played a card game called Dutch Blitz.  It was pretty intense, and since we figured out that the two of us are terrible at it, we let the girls finish up without us.

We were really hoping to show our guests around a bit, so we talked to our boss, and she graciously let us have Sunday off work in order to spend the day doing just that.  First thing Sunday morning we rented a car!  It was our first car rental in Jordan, and Darren’s first time driving in a foreign country.  It was a great experience, if a little intimidating.   

We spent most of the day in Jerash, which is just a short drive away.  When we were done there, we had an amazing lunch just outside the park, and then started our drive toward the border with Israel, the girls’ next destination.  On the way to the border we drove past Ajlun castle, which was nice to see from a distance, and will surely be nicer close up when we go back to explore at some point.  The country drive was breathtaking – mountainous and tree-covered near Ajlun, turning into desert and canyons, then giving way to the low, fertile Jordan river valley.  We dropped the girls off at the King Hussain Bridge (or as close to it as we could get), so they could make their way into Jerusalem, and then we drove home.

Looking at Ajlun Castle

Also, we were not able to rent the car for only one day, but for two days minimum, so we drove to work on Monday, and to Madaba afterwards.  One of the staff members at the school lives there, so he showed us how to get there.  He also showed us his mosaic workshop, and then took us on a tour of Madaba, which we enjoyed very much.  It turns out that Madaba has a lot more to offer than we originally thought: lots of cool mosaics, an archaeological park, and a school for mosaic production and restoration.  Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so pictures will have to wait…