I Was Visiting the Baptism Site of Jesus Christ in Jordan When the US Dropped Bombs on Syria

Recently I was on a three week trip in Egypt and Jordan. I was enroute to the UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Baptism site of Jesus Christ in Jordan. Along the way our guide asked us if everyone had heard the news that the US, Britain and France had dropped bombs on Syria the previous night.

The location for one of the bombing sites was about 155 miles/250 kms away in Syria from where we were.

How is it possible that I was riding around in an air conditioned vehicle, drinking fresh water and having a snack while right next door people were getting bombed?

It made no sense to me.

This is where borders become such an elusive concept to me. How are the people’s lives four hours north of us so drastically different?

Is the place of our birth and nationality a result of some arbitrary dice roll? Why are the average people of these communities suffering this fate while so many others throughout the world are not?

I don’t know the answers. I don’t have some grandiose summary filled with prolific words of wisdom or an explanation for all this. What I do know is the danger comes when we collectively view these situations as a terrible thing happening to ‘those other people over there.’ That is when we begin to lose sight of humanity. Because for no good or known reason, the dice roll could change and one day anyone of us could find ourselves being ‘those other people over there.’

End note: I still think about our trip traveling to the Middle East so much. I’ve met people there now. I wonder about their families and how they are doing. I have traveled alongside people who live their every day lives among these sorts news headlines. We got a chance to meet new friends who are dedicating their lives to working in non-profits with stations over there.

As I sit here thinking about this situation, it’s like thinking of my friends who have a cabin the distance of Newport, VT.  It’s as if they would have this situation in their back yard. It also made my swirl to think about our guide who works tirelessly welcoming people from all over the world into his country. He listens to all their stories of how they went backpacking in Asia or spent a few months in South America. He opened my eyes to realizing that even if a lot of Jordanians are well off and wealthy, they cannot get the visas to travel like so many of us can. 

This isn’t the normal type of post you usually get from us. The situations that involve the context of the words written here is what keeps replaying itself over in my mind. I think about the world at large. We travel to share our experiences and what we see in this world. We intentionally choose to travel to Egypt and Jordan, ie the Middle East, to see what it was like. I chose the picture of the two girls above because for this photo depicts what we experienced. 

I don’t understand why certain things happen in our world. But I am going to keep traveling so I can try to understand what I do not know.

***

If you would like a little more casual reading on Jordan, try browsing this post which showcases some of their amazing street art:

Why You Want to Gaze at the Amazing Street Art in Amman, Jordan

Here is also a post we have written on Egypt:

Look at the Beautiful Every Day Life in Cairo, Egypt

And if you have ever thought about going to Jordan – oh my gosh – GO! The country is so lovely and comfortable to visit. There are many options, but if you go to G Adventures website and search for “Egypt and Jordan Adventure” that is the exact trip we did. If you search for “Highlights of Jordan” that is the Jordan only portion. I can only hope you’d be luckily enough to get the same guide we did.