Day 2: May 24, 2014

I've been to mass in various Catholic cathedrals but never to mass with the Pope! Today was the visit to Amman to see the Pope at a massive mass service. It was held in a stadium in the city, set to start in the afternoon. However, our group (including most visitors) had to arrive hours before to get decent seating. We arrived around 12 and waited until about 3:45 until the Pope came. The heat was relentless that day. I became very restless waiting for the event to start especially because we couldn’t get up walk around the city or walk around somewhere, in fear that we would lose seating or lose the group. However, it was worth the wait! It was amazing to see people from all around the world come to Jordan to see the pope. I particularly noticed a good amount of visitors from the Philippines. I also got great shots of the pope, and the pope blessing children.

Day 1 : May 23

The plan for the first day in Madaba was a tour of the town. However, not being accustomed to the time zone threw off my sleeping schedule, so I overslept. Though I missed the tour, I enjoyed taking pictures from what I could see from my windows and outside of the hotel. Later on in the afternoon I got the chance to go into town with some friends, people who have been to Madaba before. I first encountered Yousef's shop. It's a shop where one can buy items such as bags, hand stitched scarfs, keffiyehs, mosaics, jewelry and other souvenirs. The most interesting detail about this shop is that it is very friendly and homelike. The shopkeepers (Yousef and his son) continously remind the customers that this is “your shop, not mine”. There is something about these words that comfort any visitor or even local. These words gave me an instant sense of trust, respect, and graciousness towards Yousef and his son. After our purchases, we got a chance to sit with Yousef's son as he poured us tea, refilling it until we were done drinking. We sat drinking tea, talking to him about the area, his life, and other conversational topics; Half an hour must have passed by before we said thank you and our goodbyes. Yousef's shop will definitely be a place where I will visit again before I leave. Before the day was over, we watched the sun set from the view on top of Mt. Nebo. I learned that this was where Jesus buried Moses, and also how close other biblical cities are to Madaba.