Work and Play

The projects at the Valley of Peace are pretty much never-ending especially if you sit with Mohammad under the 'sharing tree' and imagine all the possibilities together.  For Andreas and me, setting up the kitchen was our next mission accomplished.  We cleaned and set up shelves to create an organized and aesthetically pleasing place for us to work our cooking magic.  It wasn't too far from a scene of a silly household makeover reality TV shows we thought.  Next project was to haul many bunches of dates to the farm stand outside of the Taxi Cafe.  Mohammad mans the selling station and it's our job to cut down the bunches for sale.  Each are individually cut and hauled out of the palm grooves by hand and foot.  Dates are incredibly heavy and one must try to cut them carefully to avoid letting them smash to the ground.  One trick is to straddle them on a palm leave and allow them to slide down for a more delicate landing.  After cutting down over 20 bunches, Andreas and Christine returned completely drenched in sweat and red in the face.  By the afternoon, the valley was scorching hot which paralyzed all work activity until sunset.  The people here must be adapted to this heat because it seems only the foreigners are sweating all day long.  I felt bad that I skipped out on this project but offered my veggie curry as consolation.

 

For the evening, we all went to the Dead Sea for a mud bath and to honor Christine's month long dedication to the Valley of Peace.  The Dead Sea is a natural wonder of the world.  The water is packed with dissolved minerals that makes it incredibly dense.  As a result, it's impossible for a person to sink in these waters.  It's also impossible for life to flourish in it hence the name.  Mohammad drove us there in the night for a dip.  There aren't words to completely paint the picture but imagine entering a very warm bath with slippery mud under your feet.  If you step in some places, your foot and leg is swallowed whole.  Eventually as you wade out you can no longer touch the bottom but you're still standing upright!  I decided to put my head in to swim which was a terrible mistake.  The water singed the delicate tissues of my nose and dried out my lips instantly.  Luckily I was wearing goggles.  The taste of the water can only be compared to eating salt and vinegar chips but multiply the intensity by 100.  The best part is the mud which makes your skin silky smooth.  All around Jordan you can see Dead Sea products including mud face masks for sale.  We got ours for free and for Mohammad, it's his fountain of youth. 

Because Christine had to leave the valley at 3am, everyone pulled an allnighter.  There was some guitar playing under the sharing tree and a bonfire using the dead weeds that tumble and tangle themselves into piles along the farm.  For the last hours of the night before driving Christine to the airport in Amman, Andreas and Mohammad were dreaming up a summer musical project.  More to come on that.