“People are people” or “we are all human”

As stated by the Bedouin man I met on my drive out to a camp I stayed in for a night near Wadi Rum, every person we meet makes us more human (paraphrase).

Traveling solo in Jordan provided me with so many opportunities to meet and share stories with new people. I hope that all of their experiences of humanness will enrich my own. Here are few stories of people I met:

• The Lebanese woman I met in the Beirut airport who was also traveling alone and encouraged me that Jordan was as safe a place as any to be alone and female (she was traveling in full burka).
• Jade, the healthy food shop clerk from Britain who had only every traveled in Spain before. She felt led to come to the Jordan River, bought a plane ticket, and two weeks later I met her on our shared tour to Mt. Nebo, the Dead Sea, and Bethany (the site of Jesus’ baptism on the Jordan side of the Jordan). “The world is mad… the universe is love.”
• The Save the Children employee who shared stories of humanitarian work in conflict zones (Yemen and Syria) as we rode the bus through the Jordan dessert south towards Petra. She was spontaneously going on over night horse ride into Wadi Rum.
• Cynthia, the Hawaiian surgeon who was on her way home from 2 months working at a hospital on the Jordan/Syria border that treats survivors of Russian, American, and sometimes even Canadian air raids. We sat on the view above the Monastery in Petra for an hour, and then walked slowly back through the ruined city to see the sunset from the Royal Tombs and got back to the entrance gate in the dark.
• The Bedouin teenager who lead me over rock scrambles and cliffs I tried not to be too terrified of falling off on what they call the “Indiana Jones Trail.” In her flats she jumped and balanced on the valleys and mountains she grew up with as a back yard – Petra is still home to about 20 Bedouin families, though most families were removed after the Indaina Jones movie drastically increased Petra’s tourist numbers. We ended our hike on the ridge across from the Treasury and I got to look down on the façade that made Petra famous.
• The older English woman on a 77 day cruise that went all the way around the African continent. She and I walked back through the Siq together on my second day in Petra. “If we were gonna do it (the cruise) we might as go all the way.”
• The Albertan tourist who stopped by South East Asia on his way to Tel Aviv. We discussed the beauty of the stars as we sat out in the dark at the Seven Wonders Bedouin camp hostel.
• The Indian scientist who had got a grant to study in Tel Aviv, and left home for a year and a half only 6 months into her marriage. She was heading home to be with her new husband and had a coin collection from all the countries she had visited.
• The Bedouin tour guide who joined me for tea on my rest day at the camp. He spoke to me “as if we know each other a long time” about the challenges for Bedouins adapting to a new way of life. He has no formal education, but his children are going to college.
• The German Arabic student and Australian paramedic who brightened up the long day of border crossing at the King Hussein Bridge.