Jordan...

Travelling from Beirut via Damascus to Amman brought us back into a more conservative society, again totally different from the neighbouring countries. We stayed in Amman, which doesn't have much to offer culturally - what makes it a very laidback city for tourists :-). Somehow I liked it.
We realized that we needed to take some effort to be again open for a new situation and to be willing to get to know a new city in a new culture, without just being in some standby modus... We slowed down our rhythm, had more time to pray, just walked around, spent a day at the university watching students and another day in the internet cafe - reading mails and blogs of friends...

On a daytrip we went to Mount Nebo, the place where Moses was told to go and die after God showed him the land. The site is beautiful, very quiet (in between two busloads of tourists) and we stayed for a while, watching the land.
It doesn't seem very attractive to me. I wonder if I would get excited about being shown some desertlike mountains when asking to see "my promised land" (and that is what we are looking for on this journey)...
But I guess it's like a friend put it some weeks ago. When Ahsa, the daughter of Caleb got her share of land (which was only desert) she asked her father to give her another piece of land with some springs of water as well and was granted that wish. (story told somewhere in the old testament :-)

In the evening of the same day we found a really nice oasis in one of the richer parts of Amman. The motto of the Blue Fig Cafe is printed on the napkins "against the ruin of the world there is only one defense... the creative act". We could name several people who would have instantly liked the place... It's altogether very much emerging :-). On Sunday evenings they have livemusic "turning the Old into New" - electric guitar and the traditional oud mixed together - could be easily turned into some alt worship session I guess.
On our way out one of the managers (?) cooled our enthusiasm a bit by telling us that most jordanians only come to "watch boys or girls" and don't really care for the concept and program of the place... At least WE had a nice evening*