Jordan - Day 5

We successfully packed our last full day in Jordan with as much as possible. We began in Jerash, a city noted for its collection of Greek and Roman ruins, the largest outside of Rome itself. Once again, it was incredible to climb on and walk amongst these ancient ruins. Excavation estimates Jerash was built somewhere between 3200 and 1600 BC. The demolishment came from a few strong earthquakes.It was interesting to walk through this city and see that it actually had a structured layout with main gates on all four sides and two main roads running north-south and east-west with defined intersections. It proves simple city planning was evident that far back. There are a couple of temples, a grand amphitheater with stage for performances (Ethan and Erin did a humorously terrific rendition of The Can Can from Beethoven’s Wig), stores, baths, and the great hippodrome.
We were fortunate to be in Jerash on a day they had the RACE – Roman Army Chariot Experience. They performed a reenactment of Roman legion preparing for battle and some of their battle techniques. Following, the gladiators were brought in and also presented a reenactment of gladiator fighting. The kids were fascinated…well Abby was terrified. She naturally does not like any fighting and did not appreciate the gladiators. When one of the gladiators received the infamous thumbs down vote for life, his throat was slit (all mere pretense, of course) and fake blood spewed on his clothing. There were at least two pairs of eyes next to me that popped. Erin leaned over, now more concerned than entertained, with a very bothered look on her face, and asked, “Is that for real? Is he dead?” They obviously did a great job making it appear life-like. Finally, after the gladiators exited, all alive, the music began and out raced three chariots. They raced around the hippodrome several times before stopping in front of the crowd. We had our photographic moments, which Abby would have nothing to do with, except with the horses. It was just a really fantastic experience for which we were repeatedly thanked by the kids.
While in Jerash, we saw some people walking around with BYU Jerusalem bags. We stopped to talk to them and found out eighty-two of them had come down from Jerusalem to enjoy parts of Jordan. These Mormons are everywhere!

We ate at a wonderful restaurant just outside of Jerash which had the best flat bread. We watched them make several, rolling them out from balls, flattening, tossing, and them pushing them on wooden paddles into a brick oven. We had delicious hummus and meat. The kids and I, at Dano’s request, tried the lamb and were quite surprised to find it was somewhat tasty. It’s just hard to get that image of Mary’s little lamb out of your head.

We drove through Bethany and arrived at the Jordan River in time to walk around before the next tour. We saw this thorny bush and thought perhaps it is indigenous to all the land and imagined that from it came the thorns that made up the crown of thorns put on Jesus’ head. It made it a little more surreal for all of us as we looked at these monstrous thorns and talked about Christ’s suffering.
We went with a little group out to the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. Over the past thousands of years the river has slowly changed course and flows a short distance from where experts believe the actual site is. Our guide informed us that the Pope had visited the site last May and blessed it as the site of Christ’s baptism.
The water was murky green and Abby was fussy but the feeling there was serene. A short walk down a path we reached where the Jordan River now flows. A man was just concluding the baptism of a young teenage boy, apparently a common occurrence. The kids were able to dip their feet in the river. Remarkably, Israel is just on the other side of the twelve-foot wide river. There were armed guards on our Jordanian side and armed guards on the Israeli side, each waiting to “meet” wayward swimmers. What a marvelous way to conclude our Biblical experiences in Jordan.
We quickly drove to spend some time swimming in the Dead Sea. It was a little chilly for me and Abby, so we watched Dano and the other kids experience true weightlessness in the water. They were amazed to now have a personal affirmation of how easily one can float because of the density of saltwater. Fortunately none of them had any significant water intake, which can’t be said of two little boys swimming next to us. One of them looked at though he was going to die as his mouth frothed, probably more out of shock and disgust than anything else. This picture was taken as they were about twelve yards from shore, in at least twelve feet of water. They had no problem staying vertical in the deep water. It was amusing to watch people completely covered with mud walk down to the sea and “bathe.” The kids actually thought that was a pretty gross idea.
We spent the remainder of the early evening swimming at the Dead Sea Spa pools. The kids enjoyed the many slides, and Dano, well, he could not be left out of the fun.
We watched the sun set peacefully on the Dead Sea and on our very memorable Jordan vacation.