Our Middle East Travel Seminar has landed!

BY LINDA KURTZ

We had an uneventful flight from Dulles to Vienna — much appreciated, I think, by our contingent who drove up from Richmond and were waylaid by a flat tire less than an hour in. Upon our arrival in Vienna, we wound our way through seemingly endless corridors to find our next gate. 5/5 seminarians surveyed did not sleep well or at all on the flight over, giving us plenty of bleary eyes and blank stares to go around during our 2-ish hour layover. (It should be noted that one Professor Adams slept the entire flight.)

Eventually, it was time to board, so we piled onto a couple of buses that sped around the airport to our plane on the tarmac. I’m not sure if it was the lack of sleep that made this feel so absurd, but a few minutes after we arrived at the plane, the bus doors opened and passengers spilled out onto the tarmac. Immediately the stairs at the front door of the plane were full of people (see above photo). Then, unbelievably, the rear door opened and we were encouraged to board the plane using that entrance too. If you’ve ever been on a plane, you can imagine the chaos that ensued as people tried to squeeze past one another when their seat was inevitably closer to the door they didn’t use. I would be perfectly happy to never board a plane this way ever again.

Before I got on that plane, the Jordan and Israel/Palestine parts of our travels seemed very separate to me. I had compartmentalized them in my mind. But then I learned how misguided that was. When everyone had found their place on the plane, Joshua and I wound up chatting with the woman seated between us. I had seen her Jordanian passport, so was surprised when she was primarily interested in hearing about the Palestinian parts of our itinerary. And that’s when I learned that she is Palestinian, and Palestinians can only obtain Jordanian documentation. I was also reminded that you, as an American, simply cannot commiserate with a Palestinian about how long it takes to get from the east coast of the United States to the Middle East. This woman was visiting friends in New York city and flew from there to Vienna like we did. But because it is nearly impossible for her to get through security etc in the Tel Aviv airport, she flies to Amman and then gets on a bus to cross the border into Israel, a two-hour drive. She told us this process can take hours depending on the day, number of people present, and other impossible-to-predict factors. So while our journey was nearing its end for the day, hers is nowhere near over yet.

When we landed, we shuffled through the Amman airport where we were greeted by a gentleman whose express purpose, it seems, was to escort us through the airport safely to the outdoors.

Passport stamps in Jordan.

After handing him our passports and collecting our luggage, we waited a bit until our passports were returned with new stamps admitting us into the country. We then boarded our bus and headed towards city center to our hotel. Tonight we have nothing planned besides dinner, which gave us all a chance to rinse away the airplane from our bodies and put good (not airplane) food in our bellies.

So far, Amman looks like sprawling limestone with some palm trees sprinkled in. Our Jordanian travel planner (not our guide – we meet him tomorrow) told us that Amman has grown quite a lot in recent years. As he put it, it’s no longer the city of seven hills but of 15 hills! Most of the buildings are made with local limestone. Some have Mediterranean roofs and others are more flat. Mostly, right now it just feels like a city that we’ve been plunked in the middle of. Context and more learning await us tomorrow! But now… a good night’s sleep to kick this jet lag to the curb!

Linda Kurtz is a Master of Divinity / Master of Arts in Christian Education student at Union and Communications Specialist for NEXT Church.