Mr. Hakel Watches the Sun Go Down

Blog 10 July 14, 2010
Different sort of day today with a spectacular ending.
The lion’s share of the day was spent at the Al Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan’s newest public university. Part of the reason for the trip turns out to be for something else other showing me really cool stuff. Turns out you can listen to some pretty cool stuff too.
We had three lectures about Jordan beginning with the President of the University and ending with a professor of English Literature discussing Jordanian literature.
The university was created only eleven years ago as the first royal decree from the then newly coronated King Abdullah II. The King honored his recently deceased father by naming the university after him. It sits like an island in a vast desert. It is several miles outside the city of Ma’an. I am not aware of the reason that it sits so alone, but it is a headscratcher. I’ll have to ask about that one. Everyone we’ve talked to here has been open to questions. While the university visit was interesting, it was not, repeat not the highlight of the day.
We left the university, stopped along the road at a viewpoint of the Wadi Rum area and changed clothes. We had dressed well for the university visit. Then we drove down and down and down into the wadi. This is true desert. After ten minutes more driving in the bus we pulled off the road where two battered pick-ups were waiting to whisk us off into the desert. This was an exhilarating ride. At times we were moving at a pretty good clip. We stopped at two separate locations to have a closer look and take pictures. Alas, we did not stop next to the camel skeleton laying in the sand beside our track. The first location was a massive natural bridge that several of us scrambled up the side of for photographs. Being the good Buckeye fan that I am, I found some willing accomplices and we spelled out O-H-I-O on top of the bridge. At least I hope we did, I have this nagging feeling that we spelled O-I-H-O. The second stop was below a large dune. Several of our group raced to the top. Having been to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes with my wife and friends recently, I knew far better than to join in. I am happy to report that Bruce, also known as Dr. Collett was by a considerable distance the winner. Score one for the old guys.
Now the day’s highlight. We arrived at our camp and were told to get our bags into our Bedouin style tents quickly as the sun was setting. We hurried up onto a large rock outcropping in a sea of sand. At the urging of Absalaam, we sat in silence, some of us until long after the sunset. Being 46 I have, in fact, seen quite a few spectacular sunsets, but sometimes the setting and the sunset itself merge to make a moving experience. Sitting on this rock with my newest friends was an emotional experience. We lingered on the rock for quite sometime after the big red ball disappeared behind the mountain before us. The colors dimmed, but then flared again as the sunset a second time behind the horizon. As I descended the rock outcropping I experienced a brief sensation of movement. The outcropping descended to the desert in a shape resembling the bow of a ship. The wind-shaped sand formed a bow wave around the prow of the “ship”. It looked for all the world like we were on a ship hurtling forward through the water. Cool stuff.
Health-wise our group is now in the best shape its been in since we arrived and that goes for me as well. I believe we are down to 4 out of the 14 who have not experienced symptoms of something.
Spirits are good and for those of you keeping score at home, I’m half-way home. (Yes, I am keeping score.)
Salaam,
Dad/Lane/Mr. Hakel