First Day and Our Welcome

After spending a few days in Amman, Andreas and I set out to the Valley of Peace, a date farm at the border between Palestine and Jordan.  We arrived at King Hussein Bridge, the checkpoint between the two countries, and found ourselves in the middle of taxi cab chaos.  Like a sore thumb, we stood out and everyone wanted to offer us a ride to our final destination.  Without any words, since neither of us can speak Arabic, we managed to explain that the farm we wanted was only 500 meters away.  Surely we looked like fools as we set out by foot to find our final destination.  Buckets of sweat emptied from all our pores as we marched away along the black paved road.  An English speaking driver pulled up and shouted from his window, "Get in, it's free; a welcome gift from Jordan" as he offered to drive us to the Taxi Cafe that we described.  We couldn't refuse even though we were just steps away.  He drove us way too far and had to turn around but despite the confusion, we made it.  Up the dusty road to the second story building we were advised by a former workawayer whom I had contacted about directions to the farm.  We found the house and entered but there was no one in sight except three little sleeping kittens.  The photo of Mohammad, the owner of the farm, hung in plain view which offered us the reassurance we needed to know we landed safely.  Soon after another workaway volunteer, Christine, showed up with her hat filled with ripe dates.  She had been living at the farm for a month and was leaving in just two days.  She was super helpful and showed us the most important task at the farm, watering the precious date palms.  Finally, Mohammad arrived at the house.  He greeted us with a handshake and a big smile.  We felt welcomed and happy to be at the Vally of Peace as we sat under the sharing tree and listened to Mohammad's visions and missions for his land.  They were very inspiring to say the least.  Next was a baptismal like splash from the slightly salty well water at the shallow end of the moon shaped pool then sampling dates straight from the palms. Once you start, it's so hard to stop.  Then at last, the sun finally set and brought relief from the heat which lead to our first workaway task.


Mohammad shows us how it's done.



Andreas goes next.

Christine the workawayer goes next

then it was my turn.

Eating dates fresh from Mother Earth

Our task was to take Mohammad's close friends on a date picking tour of the many varieties of palms on his farm.  We learned about the 3 stages of ripening and discussed the differences in flavor, texture, and sweetness as each person declared his/her favorite type.   

A demonstration by Mohammad's friend on how to pick dates: 1. Untie the mesh bird proof bag. 2. Look for the ripened brown dates. 3. Pick and save or eat.

As the evening began to wind down, we gathered on the rooftop where Mohammad pointed out all the major cities of Israel and Palestine whose lights we could see along the valley.  The conversations were flowing seemlessly from Arabic to English.  Many of Mohammad's friends speak English because of their experiences of living in the US and England.  It's a shame that Andreas nor I speak Arabic because this would be the place to practice.  The night ended with a request for Andreas to play some flamenco guitar under the sharing tree and he received a warm applause from the happy crowd.   Finally it was time for bed.

Of the many sleeping arrangements you can have on the farm, Andreas and I chose the rooftop under the stars.  The choice had great potential but the mosquitoes, barking dogs, and burning sun at 6am made it less glorious than we had imagined.  Regardless, it was an experience of a lifetime.

The rooftop view