Little Petra and Mt. Nebo

So yesterday, I got a horrible case of that phenomenon which besets all travelers. It happened when we were in Petra – I had an explosive reaction, was so weak I thought I would pass out, and – well, you get the picture.  I think I posted about it yesterday.

It got worse during the night.  Much worse.  It was absolutely horrible, to be honest.  So this morning, Peter and Samer decide that I need some Immodium and some antibiotics.  Here you can get antibiotics without a prescription. So they took me to a pharmacy, got me some stuff, and I took it.  For a while it didn’t seem to work – within a couple of hours, my breakfast had passed through me, and I was alternately hot and cold and weak.

We went to Little Petra, and I walked part of the way with them, wondering to myself if you’d ever see black people going “hey, let’s go see what’s in here!”  or “Let’s go climb this mountain!”  I guess we do, I just wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t seeing the point of climbing a bunch of rocks from a prehistoric town. 

We went up the King’s Highway, which connected the Moabites with others, all the way to the Sea.  The Romans, of course, renamed it and constructed a second road to the east.  But we went up the King’s Highway.  That was cool.  Except for the fact that I was sick as a dog….  Along the way, we saw Juniper trees and 900 year old pistachio trees, though I could never see the pistachios on them. 

So the group went to Shoubak Castle. I went to the bathroom. 

I slept and was in agony for much of the day; the group went to Madaba (mentioned in the book of Numbers and in Isaiah 15).  I stayed in the bus.  Gilead, I think I heard them say, is to the north.

So we went to Mt. Nebo after that.  I really wanted to go to Mt. Nebo, but I remembered it as being a long walk.  It wasn’t so bad, and thank God I was able to go up and take pictures.  That was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

We came back to Amman.  We had a group meeting before dinner, but I wasn’t really present for it.  I’ve finally gotten some food in me (and some juice, because I didn’t eat anything and was really weak), and am about to go to bed.  We do Jerash tomorrow.  Not sure I’ll do the whole walk with them, but it’s supposed to be a great way to contextualize the world of Jesus and Paul.  OK.  I’ve seen that.  Not that I’ve seen all there is to see, but I’m in all kinds of pain and don’t know if I want to make the walk.

I should say that at some point during the day, Samer, our guide, brought me some yogurt with garlic. He said it would sterilize the stomach. I could only eat a couple of small teaspoons of it – I don’t really do raw garlic.  But it was kind of him to do it (he keeps telling me to say I’m healed in Jesus’ name), so I just tucked it in a bag.

We are now at the Larsa Hotel in Amman, where we see some of the same guys I saw two years ago. I remembered them, and they remembered me.  It’s all good.  I’m going to bed now.