Jordan A land of peaceful people!
When I visited Jordan, I was certainly overwhelmed by all of the beautiful sites and delicious food, but my eyes were really opened to the amount of peace among the Jordanian people.
INTRODUCTION
The land of Jordan lies along an ancient and well-used trade
route, making it geographically valuable. Many powers have ruled the land,
under many different names. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid,
almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million. The
modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was established on May 25, 1946. The current
King Hussein was barely twenty years old when he took the throne. Jordan is
classified as a country of "high human development" with an
"upper middle income" economy.
Language: Arabic
The official and most commonly spoken language of Jordan is
Arabic. Many Jordanians also speak English. "Hello" in Arabic is
Marhaba or Ahlan, to which one replies, Arabian or a lay. Other common words
are as-salam Alaykum means peace be with you, with the reply of walaykum
as-salam which means ‘and to your peace’. I also learned numbers one to ten in
Arabic: wahad, it in, talata, arba'a, khamsa, Sitta, saba'a, Tasmania, Lisa's,
and share.
Time with Local Jordanians
Anywhere I traveled in Jordan, whether I was doing a
homestay in Orjan Village in the northern part of the country, camping with a
Bedouin man in the Wadi Rum desert in the south, or simply catching a taxi cab
in Amman, I was frequently greeted with the word “salām.” In Arabic, “salām”
means “peace.” It also means salute - but not in a typical way!
Not only the phrase or the greeting, Jordanians were
hospitable, friendly and compassionate in their actions. Jordanians are warm
and pretty decent people. They shared their favorite food, more tea than I
could ever imagine and their life stories.
Lovely time: A Homestay in Jordan
A man named Faisal Ahmed opened his home to us, allowed us
to hang out with his kids and even showed us his future residence, which was
under construction at the time of our homestay. His wife, Elina Ahmed, cooked
wonderful meals for us and taught the women in our group several dishes
A Bedouin man named Abu Mohammad let us spend the night at
his family’s campsite and spent the evening discussing what his Islamic faith
means to him, and later sharing ghost stories with us. A taxi cab driver,
Yusef, laughed with my wife and I as we discussed the method for eating mansaf.
Book a trip to Jordan, but not just for the beautiful sites.
Visit Jordan because you’ll constantly be greeted with peace — both by the
saying of the word and through Jordanians inviting you to their lives.