the adventures of my left ear

The last two weeks of life in Amman have been relatively quiet, with some small exciting moments but nothing outrageous or extreme.

Friday night we - being my Aussie and Belgian housemates and the Pakistani expat from downstairs - went to a concert for a local Jordanian band called Autostrad. Their music kinda sounds like John Butler trio meets Cat Empire meets something entirely else that it's hard to explain. The concert was held in this old cinema in downtown Amman, with carpet going up the walls and the egg-chairs being this retro orange colour that rocked back-and-forth. We somehow managed to score front row seats, however after the music started this advantage quickly became obsolete as the boys from behind us got to their feet and moshed forwards. As this is Jordan, and the concert was an underage gig, there was no alcohol, so whilst there was moshing and excessive consumption of Red Bull, there was this lovely calmness that comes when there are no stupidly drunken people which I absolutely loved. The music was so catchy and easy to dance to, and even though I understood nothing of what they were singing or saying, it was still a great night. Surprisingly the concert started precisely at 7.30pm, and finished before 9pm with no encore or anything... so we decided to just go home and chill - or so we thought...

Autostrad! So close! Took this with my Blackberry Q10 with no zoom

Last Sunday I had gotten my tragus pierced - it's something I had been wanting for a while and thought "why not" now that I am 30 I needed something to commemorate such a big occasion. I did my research and found this amazing salon (HuzzInk) which is fully accredited and has all the appropriate sterilisation equipment etc. The guy was super nice however the procedure was horrendous - I had read online that the procedure hurts but seriously I've never fainted before but I think I was pretty close too it. The guy did say that my cartilage was rather strong but also said that he was amazed I didn't faint. But if you're in Amman, Dubai or Cairo and want piercings or tattoos, these guys are the place to go.

My beautiful shiny tragus piercing

Fast-forward back to Friday night and at some stage during the concert I touched my ear and noticed that my piercing was no longer there. Earlier that morning I woke up after having slept on my new pierced ear and discovered that the earring had been pushed inside and the hole had started to close over - I disinfected my tweezers with ethanol and pulled it out and cleaned my piercing with iodine and thought nothing of it. So when I couldn't feel the piercing I thought that it had done the same thing again - gone under the skin - especially as the site was all swollen and there was a lump which felt like the earring.

After the concert I asked my Aussie housemate to try and pull it out with the tweezers, to which she did attempt but after deliberation with my Belgian housemate decided it was better to let the professionals deal with it and off we went to the Amman Medical Centre. The triage nurse laughed at me and said I had been playing with it too much, which is true, and sent us straight through. The Dr rostered on that night was wearing a t-shirt that read "trust me I am a Doctor" which I thought was ironically cool. We went to radiology for an x-ray; my housemates were looking on the screen even before the technician was - medically trained people must make annoying patients. Anyway, we went back to the Dr who decided to try and remove it in minor theatre with local anaesthetic - yeah he sucked at administering the local as it went through my piercing and into my ear canal, so when he was digging around I could feel everything. As we were only in minor theatre he was not willing to open up the area far, and so could not find it. He closed it up and said that if it had not expelled itself in two weeks then I was to go in for surgery...

say what?!

Me looking sad with my bandaged ear

Slightly freaked...

So I spoke with my Doctor friend who lives in the apartment underneath me, who spoke with his Doctor friend who is a maxillofacial surgeon. He offered to open it up further and remove the earring. Super nice fellow - he administered the local anaesthetic perfectly (my face is still numb as I type this) and looked around but alas, he did not find the piercing and stitched me back up. His conclusion is that the lump we felt is trauma-related and that the earring has fallen out at some stage, but that if by the slightest chance the earring is still in there the body will expel it. He said after the wound has healed I am free to put an earring back in but advises against a small plastic piece and suggests a solid metal earring, like the one in my upper right ear.

Post minor surgery this morning - stiches and all. Not so sad but feeling sheepish 

Yeah, lesson learnt - when I put my tragus back in I shall also put a bandage over it so I don't play with it so much. But now I have a cool x-ray of my head and my first (and hopefully last!) experience of surgery and stitches. 

that time I went to Mars

If any of you have seen any movies based in Mars, chances are you saw a movie whose landscape has actually been Wadi Rum.

The Martian (2015) source

Wadi Rum, in southern Jordan, is a vast valley cut from the sandstone hills and home to the Zalabian Bedouin, who were nice enough to take us around this breathtaking landscape. Along with our amazing guide, our gang consisted of myself, two other Aussie girls and a Swedish Doctor - poor guys probably had no idea what we were saying most of the time, as our accents took a sigh of relief and and went back to our normal aussie twang. Either way, we all had incredible fun over the two half days and one night spent in the desert.

Our first task after arriving at Wadi Rum was to climb to "The Arch"... and I mean literally climb. I was not warned about this, which in retrospect was probably for the best, but my poor knees and palms took a beating. In the end it was so worth it. 

Halfway up and already an incredible view

I made it to the Arch! 

In prepping for this trip I read a few basic photography blogs - I have decided to make a more concerted effort regarding taking photos which are more than just me doing a stupid pose and instead try to do the impossible and convey the spectacular which is before my eyes for those who are living vicariously through my travels. They said to consider the framing of the picture and place things in context, which I have tried to do in these next two photos. I also downloaded a trial version of Adobe Lightroom - I always find  my photograph colours are not rich enough (probably need to adjust my settings like the f-stop or something but one step at a time). These photos do no justice to the richness of the landscape, nor the immense silence and cool breeze which created the most beautiful atmosphere. 

framing the picture to give context

Capturing the sunlight

So after climbing back down from the Arch (which was a difficult task in itself), we drove around the desert before stopping to take in the sunset. I took about 50 photos but I have restrained myself chosen just one.

amazing

After sunset we headed to the campsite - the Bedouins have set up tented camps throughout the desert for tourists to stay, and I must say they're rather comfortable.Our camp serviced several guides and their groups - there was about ten tourists at our camp, including two American women who were travelling the Middle East whilst their husbands traveled Australia and two Chinese ladies who took photos of absolutely everything. The tents are made from this thick woolen fabric and they provide really thick blankets so you don't feel the cold. The food tent is chill with pillows around the outside and a big fire in the middle - the guides at night sit around and drink tea and play us music... super relaxing. 

Our amazing tour guide playing the guitar like instrument - he was a great singer too

After dinner we went out and viewed the stars and I attempted to take some star photographs... again, these photos do no justice to just how amazing and awestruck it all was, but they're not too bad for my first attempts. I definitely need to invest in a small lightweight tripod if I am going to take more as these pics were taken with a makeshift rock stand (haha).

The next day I was told we were going to walk up a mountain; again  I am glad I was not told the true extent of the climb as I am such a lazy butt but once I was up the top it was all worth it. We climbed the tallest mountain in Wadi Rum, which is on the southern border of Jordan - we all received messages welcoming us to Saudi Arabia! 

Tada!

My trusty Dunlop volleys overlooking Saudi Arabia

I think the worst part of the mountain climb was actually going back down - there were several times where I slid down and/or my knees gave way but thank goodness there was no injuries sustained and we ate well deserved chocolate bars once we reached the bottom. 

The drive back to the Wadi Rum township was amazing - endless red sand with huge slabs of rock in various shapes; some shaped to look like humans, others like a pyramid. 

So that was my weekend in Wadi Rum. Hope you enjoyed my trip, am planning to head to Petra next month inshallah. 

the big three-oh!

I know I've been quiet for a long time now, I've just been trying to get my bearings with all that has been happening and now that the dust has settled let me take you through the last few months...

Firstly, I finished up my internship with the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The last few weeks were an emotional rollercoaster, with databases crashing last minute and other projects not coming to fruition, but overall I think my time spent at Iguhu County Hospital was worth it and the Kakamega FSD team are fantastic (Thanks to Peter, Pollyne and Lucy!).

I then spent the next few weeks touring Kenya - I spent a week with Mama J and her relatives at Mombasa and enjoyed the beach and the shopping, followed by a week in Kakamega with Harry and his family where we celebrated Christmas and then we went and visited his siblings in Kisumu, Nairobi and Machakos.



New Years Eve was spent with Harry in Nairobi, which is when he "popped the question"! They say when you know you know, and I know that he is the one I want to spend my days with.



Unfortunately that bliss was short lived as I jumped on a plane back to Australia the next day.



My time back home was great - summer in Melbourne is always great. Thanks to their new unlimited internet bundles I binged watched season 1 of "Jane the Virgin" (I was so #teammichael) whilst finishing off my crochet blanket. I went swimming pretty much every day, and loved chopping the dead rose heads off in the front garden.

The best part about being home was getting to meet Baby Cat (aka Simba). Oh I love him so much.



But again, that bliss was short lived as I was incredibly blessed to get a job with Epicentre and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) as a Field Research Coordinator for a project researching the antibiotic resistance patterns and functional outcomes of chronic osteomyelitis patients at the MSF Amman Reconstructive Surgical Project in Amman, Jordan. So a quick jaunt to Sydney for orientation and Australia Day breakfast with the Bowmans and Ramirezes, and then off to Paris where I  discovered I am so scared to speak French despite knowing a little bit more than "bonjour" before flying across the Mediterranean to Amman, Jordan, which is where I write to you from.

Now you're probably wondering what the title is all about - WELL, Tuesday the 9th of February 2016 was my thirtieth birthday! *cue fireworks* HOORAY! My parents spoilt me rotten and gave me a beautiful Tiffany's necklace which is too much but I love it!

I was lucky enough to have a small shindig at my parents house whilst I was still back in Melbourne, to which I discovered the majority of those people who came to my party this year also came to my 21st - I am so blessed to have a great bunch of friends who have stuck around despite my not actually living in Melbourne full-time for a while now.



On my actual birthday I was given a beautiful hand-drawn birthday card and box of chocolates from my Aussie flatmate, and a handmade beaded necklace from one of the Dr's whose wife runs a charity for the mentally challenged in India, and many, many blessings from the rest of my colleagues.

So as you can see, my life has been a bit hectic and unsettled, thus the radio silence from my fingers to the keyboard. But now I'm here in Amman for the next four months getting this project off the ground, and (hopefully) that means I'll be writing here a little bit more as I explore the (safe) parts of this glorious region and discover what it means to be an NGO worker.