Friends in High Places --- Lewis

Recently, the Jordan 5 had a visitor from back home. Mr. Register came all the way from Ohio to see how we were doing on our project. He met with a few important people and was kind enough to take us out to eat a couple of times. We did our best to show him a bit of the Jordan hospitality that we have learned. But that's not what this blog entry is about. We'll get into that in a bit.

We decided that we should show Mr. Register around at least some of Jordan in the time he had. We took him downtown and showed him around, but we found out he had already been there and seen that. We took him to the Citadel, but he had seen that too! He had been to Bethany and to a few other places, but where else could we take him that could be seen in a day (that was the limit of our traveling time)? He hadn't seen Petra before! But could that trip be done in only one day? Everyone says you need at least a week. When we had gone, we only spent one day in Petra. So in theory, if you could get there early, you could see at least most of the Rose Red City in just one day. If only we could get someone to take us down on such short notice and only charge us a small fee for each person...hmmm...Oh wait! Zach read somewhere about a bus that could take us there in the morning and that would take us back home the same day and that wouldn't cost very much! It was true! Petra could now be seen in just one day. We took that opportunity to take our guest adventuring for a day and to show him the amazing sites we had beheld with our own eyes. But that's still not what this blog entry is about.



This entry is about one of the best days ever! I'm not going to say that it was the best day of my life. I've had several of those that nothing else can really compare to in this life. I was baptized and even got married and both those events take the big cake for best days ever. So what does taking a second trip to Petra have to do with best days ever? Well, I'll tell you. For a long time now, I've thought it would be great to have a pet donkey (or at least a mule). Personally I think they are the cutest animals alive. I don't have much experience with donkeys or horses or mules so I don't actually know what I would do if I had one, and who knows when I'll ever be living in the right place or have the money or time for a donkey. But for one half hour in Petra I had a pet donkey of my very own! How cool is that?!

You see, the six of us decided we wanted to stop and have lunch while hiking around. We hadn't yet made the huge hike up to the Monastery and needed to make sure we fueled up before then. We had to find just the right spot. we hiked up a little onto the side of a hill behind Bedouin vendors trying to sell us necklaces and knives and sat down on a huge boulder overlooking the valley right next to a cave that contained a donkey too busy with a feedbag to even notice us. Luckily, a few minutes after settling down on the boulder, a lone donkey came over to us. No saddle, no bit or ropes. Not even a feedbag or a small child to lead her on. She was all by herself and seemed to be friendly and hungry. She had smelled our food and got curious. Of course, this being one of the best moments of my life and an opportunity that I couldn't miss, I pet the donkey and invited her over for lunch! How cool is that?!



Lena thought I should name the donkey (which at the time we assumed was a boy but I think she was a girl) and so I had to choose an Arabic name. I chose Sami. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, although not a particularly Arabic sounding name. Sami and I shared a peanut butter sandwich, some orange peels, a banana, and a few ear scratches. I was her new best friend and she was mine, at least until we were finished with our lunch and had to move on. I bet she would have followed us if she could have. As we walked off, Sami got stuck behind the pedestrian traffic and we moved on to the long and treacherous hike ahead of us past all the vendors and on up to the Monastery.

She was only my pet donkey for a half hour out of a whole lifetime, but I'll always remember her and think of the time we had lunch together. Thanks, Sami, for all the memories.