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!

Visiting Irbid

Alright, so here's another crappy blog post because I have neither the free time nor the free gigabytes of internet usage to do anything more extensive...haha. Anyway, here are some pictures from my recent trip to Irbid with my LCF Rami:

Rami (Tom and my Language/Culture Facilitator) and Tom (my PCV roommate in Madaba) in Rami's room in his house in Irbid.

Rami's cat, T.M. (stands for Trouble Maker--yep, he has an English name!) and the argila (AKA hubbly-bubbly, AKA hookah in America). T.M. is a purring love machine! Makes me miss Calvin...

Rami took us to Omm Qays (spelling? I'm not good at transliteration yet), which is one of the ancient cities of the Roman decapolis, I think. So beautiful! Note: Rami and Tom are acting out an ancient condemning to death trial below.

Some stone walls and columns in Omm Qays...I love stone!

A view of Lake Tiberius from Omm Qays--we were so close to Israel/Palestine!

This picture should come chronologically after the other ruins shots. These are some sheep (kharoof in Arabic) outside the Omm Qays ruins.

More columns in Omm Qays

Most of a cool old mosaic (fussayfussah in Arabic--a great word to know, especially in Madaba where mosaics are so famous) found at Omm Qays

Rami and I  inside an old building in Omm Qays

All about the columns...haha.

After the ruins, Rami took us to University Street in Irbid, which is pretty hoppin' and fairly liberal/more westernized. Case in point, they have a Dunks knock-off! I got a blueberry, peanut butter, and manager's special donut. In retrospect, I should have tried the flavor called "Enrobed," but it freaked me out too much. (This shot is especially for you, Thom (Horton, to clarify), given your love of Dunks).

Finally, a view of Amman, the capital of Jordan from the bridge by mujema as-shamal (North Station) where the bus stops on our way from Madaba-Irbid and back.

I'm really sorry that time and gig limits do not allow for more fun pictures or exciting stories. I promise to be a more dedicated blogger post-PST, when I have more free time.