Amman December 26-January 11

Back in Amman, I stayed at the American Center of Oriental Research once again. I worked on my various projects, especially the revisions to Nadia Sukhtian’s translation of volume 1 of Gustaf Dalman’s study of Palestinian customs; on Sunday January 9 Nadia and I met with Dr. Bakhit at the University of Jordan to discuss options about the Dalman translation project.

Among other academic activities I finished corrections to my article about Christian Identifications of Muslim Buildings in Medieval Jerusalem and finished my long overdue article about Muslim pilgrims to Jerusalem in the Ottoman period. I also wrote a letter of recommendation for a former student of mine from HMI who wants to enroll in a Ph.D. program at McGill University, only to be caught off guard, when they rejected the letter because at the moment I am without an academic affiliation.

I also did some investigating on the internet about the Dutch East India company in India, as I thought through the options for my little project next December. My two colleagues from Bamberg, Anja and Ilse who were with me in Humayma in 2009, expressed an interest in joining my Bhimunipatnam project. As it happens they will be in India anyway at the time.

On Monday December 27 I was surprised when a first cousin of mine, Gretchen Morgenson, walked into the front door of ACOR. She knew that I have been around in Jordan over the years, but she did not get in contact with me before her vacation trip to Jordan with her husband and son. Gretchen is the daughter of my mother’s sister and works as a financial reporter for the New York Times; she won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002. I have no clear memory when we last met, perhaps it was in the late 1960s. That evening we went out to dinner and the next day I went with them to Mount Nebo and then Madaba, and I showed them around the Madaba Archaeological Park. After lunch in Madaba, I returned to Amman, while they headed on to Petra.

Gretchen and me at the Madaba Archaeological Park

On Tuesday January 2 I had other visitors: Florina and Ashok from India. Florina had been the associate director for praxis at the Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad during my last year there; both she and her husband have doctorates in conflict resolution from Eastern Mennonite University. They had been at a conflict resolution workshop in Israel and had a day to spend in Jordan before their return to Chennai. I met them at the airport and took them to Madaba to see the Madaba Archaeological Park and other sites. We arrived at ACOR in time for lunch; we had a lively conversation with a number of business students from the Thunderbird School of Management who are staying at ACOR for a three-week January internship. After lunch a friend of theirs, Raghda who is also involved in peace work, came by and we chatted further until it was time for them to go to the airport for their flight.

Florina, Ashok and me in the Church of the Apostles in Madaba

ACOR was filled to capacity with the Thunderbird students and other residents, so I decided to schedule a trip to Israel for a few days. That trip required me to go to the US Embassy to get extra pages for my passport, for which the embassy now charges 85 dollars; up to just a few months ago that service was free.