By amberherrle
The travel warning issued by the US Department of State last December has severely limited my travels in Jordan and my program had to cut our educational excursion to the Badia.
This was a huge disappointment, the homestay in the Badia was one of the big reasons I had chosen this program. The Badia region is where the Bedouin population in Jordan are from, this area is much more rural than the rest of Jordan. There are three regions of the Badia: the northern, southern and eastern Badia. Okay, so anyways - life in the Badia is very different than in Amman. There is a much larger emphasis on tribal connections, families are larger and even the Arabic there differs greatly from that of Amman!
My research in Jordan relies on qualitative interviews conducted in the northern Badia in Jordan. This meant a lot of coordination with my program to find interviews and spend time in the northern Badia. So with their help, I managed to get up to the Badia "capitol", Mafraq for interviews with youth and mothers in the Badia about masculinity in their community.
I was surprised by what a short trip it was to get to the Badia. Only an hour away from Amman, it really feels like a different world. I am always surprised to realize how small Jordan really is, there are so many things to see and they are all really close to each other (all the more reason to visit Jordan!).
Mafraq is also the place in Jordan that hosts Zatari camp. Zatari is the largest refugee camp in the world, hosting 80,000 refugees. The camp has 12 districts that each have their own functioning government, hospitals, schools, etc. This is not said to mitigate the intense issues that exist inside the gates of this camp, it is only to show the innovative ways that the world is reacting to the Syrian refugee crisis. For some perspective of just how large Zatari is, it takes about 5 minutes to drive past the eastern edge of the camp.
The people in the community I conducted my research in were extremely hospitable and welcoming to me. The moment you step into a Jordanian's home, you are instantly offered 3 cups of coffee and cake, and tea and then coffee after the tea and then shisha if you smoke or some more cake, followed by another kind of tea. So I had some idea of what I was getting into when I traveled to this community, which Jordanians refer to as "the most hospitable community in Jordan".
Meeting with families and talking over coffee and tea and mansaf and more rice was perfect. I am extremely grateful for the hospitality I experienced and all the conversations I had with people in the community. It is my hope that I will have the opportunity to return to this community and spend more time with the kind families that welcomed me into their homes this week!
Jordan is absolutely amazing! And for all of those who are looking at studying abroad in Jordan, please know that you are more than welcome to reach out to me!