Zeitoon: Day 2

Here are some pictures from our second day of zeitoon picking:

The path from Abu Sohaib's house (where we live) to the farm

You can see the farm in the distance (it's the plot of land with all the green trees on the righthand side).

This is Nuah, Mos'ab's brother, picking some zeitoon. (Always a good occasion for a cigarette?)

Who's that guy? ;) If you ask someone in the village, they'd say, "That's Kamal!"

From left: Mos'ab, Kamal (me), Nuah, Mawia, and Hatim (Tom); all the Shakhanbeh brothers minus Sohaib and 'Brahim

We had a delicious lunch of rashoof, which is a traditional Jordanian meal. It has a base layer of a kind of soggy bread and is covered with many delicious vegetables and drenched in jameed (a yogurt-like sauce)--it's zaki (delicious)!

Tom and I polish off the rashoof.

Mos'ab, lookin' cool

Mawia was quite good with my camera and took this cool close-up of a dragonfly resting on one of the smaller zeitoon trees.

All in a day's work!

Abu Sohaib owes us some serious oil! Just kidding--I would volunteer to do this work every day. 

This week all the volunteers are taking trips to visit our future permanent sites, so I'll be in Tafila for a couple of days. Be on the lookout for pictures and stories at the end of next week!

Pickin' Zeitoon (Olives)

Today, one of the experiences I've been looking forward to was manifested--picking olives! Olives, or zeitoon, are a big crop here in Jordan, especially because they yield the almighty olive oil, a must for every meal (or, at least breakfast and dinner, but usually lunch, too). Abu Sohaib (our host's father) invited Tom and I to join him at his farm and pick some olives for the evening. It was awesome. Just being outside and doing some earthy work was really nice since most of PST has been studying, teaching, and sleeping. Also, we worked right until sunset, so we got to see the sun slip behind the horizon out on Abu Sohaib's beautiful land. Here are a few pictures from the day (no shots of the sunset, though...sorry!):

'Brahim with a bucket o' zeitoon! (Incidentally, he only worked with us for about 10 minutes before deciding that playing with the neighborhood kids was more fun).

Abu Sohaib, Tom, and Mowia (behind the tree) set up the tarp to collect the olives as we pick them off.

A view of the olive pile mid-picking

An aisle of olive trees

Lots of zeitoon! It was a good picking session!

The view was so jameel (beautiful)!

Well, that's all for now--we have to get up early tomorrow to hit the zeitoon again. I'm psyched! Also, Abu Sohaib said he might take us to the mosque tomorrow, so that would be another interesting experience. When all is said and done with the zeitoon (after we take them to the olive press, which inshallah I will get to see), Abu Sohaib wants Tom and I to take some olive oil for ourselves to send home. So fam, be on the lookout for some fresh Jordanian olive oil...in the mail? Can I even send it via mail? Hm...I'll look into it. In any case, I'll have some made from olives I picked--so cool!