AT LAST!!!

I have been to the Dead Sea 4 times. The first time was in January 2009 when we came to check out Jordan. I went with Aida and we had lunch and enjoyed the view. The day was beautiful! The second time was with Mark and his team for a training. It rainned and rainned and was cold! The third time was with Mark on another trainning and it was cold and overcast and rainny and the sea was a little rough. The forth time was yesterday. A group of ladies decided they wanted to go to the Dead Sea to relax at one of the hotels pools and swim in the Dead Sea. At this point I'm thinking, mmmmm "everytime Mark and I go someplace to visit it rains, is it going to rain today?"

I decided I would go with them to the Holiday Inn. It only takes about an hour to get to the Dead Sea from Amman.

We got good seats by the pool and headed down to the Dead Sea! Remember this is the lowest place on Earth, so everything is built UP from the Sea. This is a view of the Dead Sea from the pool area.

For some reason, I was a little hesitant to get in, but not too hesitant. The water was warm and a little thicker than regular salt water. As you walk in, your body bounces to the surface! It's like someone put a life perserver under your body and your body just floats to the surface! To be in a standing position takes effort (good pilates workout). I should have had the ladies take a picture of me, but when my daughters come, I will have them get a photo!

When you get out of the Dead Sea, your skin feels like someone put baby oil on it. I would have thought it would have been salty and drying but it wasn't. Even floating in the water you could see a swirling of the water like there was oil in it. I don't understand how that works.

We went back to the pool and just lounged around chatting, soaking up the sun, drinking mint lemonade and enjoying each others company. It was simply a lovely day!!

The Ladies enjoying the pool

This is Karin, She is originally from Germany.

Jude and Helen

Gills and Sabeena - ladies from the UK

FYI - From Wikipedia.....

The Dead Sea also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Israel and the West Bank to the west, and Jordan to the east. Its surface and shores are 422 meters (1,385 ft) below sea level,[2] the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is 378 m (1,240 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7% salinity. Only Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica (such as Don Juan Pond) have a higher salinity. It is 8.6 times more salty than the ocean.[3] This salinity makes for a harsh environment where animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.
The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. Biblically, it was a place of refuge for King David. It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets.
The sea has a density of 1.24kg/L, making swimming difficult

So Many Things!!

Truth is, much has happened since I last wrote.
I was at Monday morning coffee and speaking with a lady from Canada who said she writes a journal and sends it out to people every couple of weeks. She says it's about 50 pages each time she sends it out. She says she writes all sorts of things about culture, occurances, and just life in Jordan. I thought, mmmmm, I'd hate to read that much from one person every few weeks! BUT, I just write little snip-its and I haven't done that in a long time.

Cara and Jesse's Wedding--

Plans are coming along. We told them we would give them their wedding gift early and it will be a nice hunk of change to help with their wedding plans. I am heading to the USA in 10 days and I will give them a check then. Cara said that Jesse has already started a wedding account - he's very good at planning. They will be having the wedding/reception at a golf course in Sterling. Sounds like a nice place.

I wish I were there to help and yet I'm glad I'm not so I can keep my nose out of things. I did make one request and that was that they have a professional photographer. The cake may be good or bad, the food may be good or bad, the flowers may be the wrong color, but pictures will last forever. So, I think they will go ahead and get a professional.

Anna turns 80--

Mom turns 80 on May 26th. A few months ago, Auntie Irene sent me a email and asked what I was planning for her birthday. Interesting, I thought. I'm thousands of miles away and my brother is close, why is she asking ME this? I'm the daughter!! So, I made arrangements to go home May 20th and stay for about 5 weeks. I spoke with Robbie and he will have a BBQ at his house on May 30th. I just sent out invitations to a load of people - more people than mom will want there, but that's the way it goes! It took me 3 tries to get the invites out! Sometimes things are just frustrating!

So, my plans are to fly to VA on May 20th. Stay there for the weekend and shop for a wedding dress for Cara and some clothes for me. Then, head to NY for about 7-10 days driving Mark's car. Then head back to VA for mammo, dentist and hospital visits as well as seeing my friends and of course spending time with my daughters. I miss them all so very much but I find that the closer it gets to going home the more I'm missing Megan. I guess it's because I know I won't see her until Oct.

Mark should be coming home about 2 week in June and he will participate in a conference in DC the last week in June. Then we will head back to Amman.

Melissa--

Melissa accepted a position at the American International School teaching 3rd grade in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She accepted that position as she was waiting to hear if she was accepted to GMU's PhD program.....and she was accepted. She had to turn it down as her contract with the school is for 2 years. She will have to reapply to GMU when she gets back in 2012. She is going to experience a true move overseas and all that goes with it. She will have movers coming to her place and pack her up and send her stuff air freight and sea freight. She doesn't have a lot, but she has to sort through it all. In the meantime, she is taking a class at GMU, teaching, and planning to spend time with me when I come home. She always likes to keep herself nice and stressed out.

Megan--

Meggie left Hefei and got a job at another school in Shanghai teaching English. She's making better money, but she is working illegally. Her work visa was with Hefei and this school makes her hide in a closet if immigration comes around! She sure knows how to make her mama nervous.

Arabic--

Who came up with this language??????

I had decided before I left VA that I would not make the effort to learn Arabic. I'm getting old and my memory sucks so what's the point! However, the more I thought about it the more I heard myself telling my patients that didn't speak English, "If you live in the United States where they speak English, you should learn English!" I didn't want to be a hypocrite! So, I started Arabic lessons. There are 3 of us in the class and Ekke is our teacher. She has been teaching for many years and teaches at a phenomenal rate!! I was able to put together simple sentences by the second class. Now I can say things like, "The mother has a cup of tea and she's standing next to the door!" How is that for useful information!! HA HA HA!! Makes me laugh!

I just completed my 6th class and we have learned more than just that. It amazes me how things are said. AND how they are pronounced. When you conjugate a verb, you can add an "a" or an "i" inbetween consonants if you feel like it and it will be right. She'll say, "doesn't "this" sound better than "that"? And the truth is NONE of it sounds right to me! It explains why you can have sign's that say the same thing but are all spelled differently.

After class we go for lunch but we should be going out for drinks!!

Umm Qais--

A few weekends ago, Mark, Bob, Glen and I went to Umm Qais. ("Umm" means mother. I don't know who "Qais" is, but it must be his mother!) Umm Qais is also known as Gadara. This has ruins of another ancient city. From Umm Qais, you can see Syria and Israel and specifically the Sea of Galilee!



It was a cloudy rainny day (of course- it's because Mark and I wanted to see something!) The left picture shows the Sea of Galilee, but it's hard to see. The right picture looks out to Syria.

Matthew 8: 28-32 talks about 2 demons that met Jesus and he cast them into a herd of swine and the swine were sent down a steep bank and into the sea. This is apparently where this occured. I love knowing that I have been where Jesus had been. I look out on to the Sea of Galilee and wonder about the storm, Peter fishing, and Jesus walking on the water -- it happened here! Isn't that tooooo cooool!?!



There were some nice people that took a picture of Mark and Me. We have had to change the way we interact with each other since we've been here. You will see men kissing men and holding hands when they walk, but you will NEVER see a man and a woman doing that! It's a disgrace to both the man and the woman. Mark won't let me kiss him in public anymore because it will show the Jordanians that he has no control over his woman and it makes him less credible! I hate that thought, but I won't do anything to diminish his ability to do his work.



There is a lot of beautiful flowers in Jordan.....here are just a few......

I'm sure there is more, but that's all for now......