July 18, 2003
Petra, Jordan

Traveling by myself is really cool because people seem like they are extra friendly and helpful. I guess they feel sorry for a poor girl traveling by herself and want to make sure I have a good time. I've gotten so much stuff for free and in return I have been drawing people's portraits for them. They love it ! I sure don't feel sorry for myself !

The only thing that has seriously annoyed me while in Jordan was an encounter I had with an American archaelogist in Petra. I was hiking around by myself and met a Bedouin guy who has a job that I guess would be the equivilent of a park ranger. I talked to him for a long time and he told me there was a team from Brown University doing some excavation work. I showed him some of my drawings and he told me the woman in charge of the work was looking to hire an artist to draw some of the artifacts. *got way too excited* I told him I was supposed to leave Petra the next day and go back to Cairo but I'd stay longer if she wanted to hire me. He got really excited and talked about her a lot and talked about how he'd introduce us and then I could come back to the village where they were staying and meet everyone. He talked to her on her cell phone and told me we had to hurry down the mountain to go meet her so we did and I met her, showed her some of my drawings and she pretty much said she was too busy to talk to me right now but I should come back to talk to her at 6am the next day. (She knew I was supposed to leave the next day) In most situations I would have just taken this to be a "no" but it's not often that an opportunity to do drawings for an archaelogical dig in my favorite place in the world comes up so I went back there at 6am the next day and found her. I said hi, she said hi back and then went about her work for the next 45 minutes without saying anything to me. I understand that she's a very busy woman but she didn't even say something like "I'm a little busy now, I'll come talk to you in half an hour or something." I would have been fine with that but the whole situation reminded me of the ego crushing process of trying to hunt for a job at home. No one has time for you, no one gives a shit about you, no one really shows any respect for you. After waiting around for 45 minutes she basically told me that I couldn't work there because I didn't have a permit and it takes 3 months to do the paperwork to get a permit. I was so annoyed. Why couldn't she have just told me that yesterday ? I think my nice Bedouin ranger friend was a little dissapointed an perplexed by her behavior. This is a very typical American attitude I think and I have only really noticed it by being around Arabs. In my experience they don't blow you off like this.

Well worse things can happen than staying an extra day in Petra. My ranger friend took me on an incredible hike off the trails to some really beautiful country and then invited my back to the camp site he sometimes stays at. He's a tiny man, looks to be about 65 years old and was scrambling over the rocks leaving me in the dust ! These people stay the night wherever they want.. Sometimes alone, sometimes at the tent of a relative, sometimes in the village. It is an enviable lifestyle for me.

I got my period at the camp and had no supplies on me. I always wondered what nomad women did when they got their periods. I had to explain to one of the girls who barely spoke English what my problem was. She helped me solve the problem by using ancient technology.