Those who arrive at Thekla can see little of the city, beyond the plank fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures, the wooden catwlks hanging from ropes or supported by sawhorses, the ladders, the trestles. If you ask "Why is Thekla's construction taking such a long time?" the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long bruses up and down, as they answer "So that it's destruction cannot begin." And if asked whether they fear that, once the scaffoldings are removed, the city may begin to crumble and fall to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, "Not only the city."
If, dissatisfied with the answers, someone puts his eye to a crack in a fence, he sees cranes pulling up other cranes, scaffoldings that embrace other scaffoldings, beams that prop up other beams. "What meaning does your construction have?" he asks. "What is the aim of a city under construction unless it is a city? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint?"
"We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over; we cannot interrupt our work now," they answer.
Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say.
The seniors at BTA read this novel and most hate it, so maybe it's an acquired taste, but I love the way that Calvino describes these "cities" - the way they appear is affected by the way that they are built which is affected by the lives and dreams of the people inside.
All of that is an introduction to this - I spent the past 3 days traveling from Amman to Aqaba, a Jordanian city on the Red Sea, by way of a 24 hour ultra marathon relay race called the Dead2Red. (If you want a beautiful description of the race, check this out... it's the blog of Julia, a runner on Margie's team who is also a very talented writer.) The the race began at the Dead Sea and followed a highway along the Jordanian-Israeli border 150 miles to the Red Sea. The slow pace (approx 10 K/hour) allowed me to see much of Jordan's landscape.
Jordan is small and sparsely populated - approximately 6.4 million people live within the 35.6 thousand square mile area (in comparison, NYC has 8.4 million people living within a 468.9 square mile area). South of Amman (and the route of the race) lies expansive desert with sparse cities and Bedouin villages. The landscape is really beautiful, and although riding in a van for 24 hours to get to Aqaba would not be my first choice of transportation in the future, the experience was a good one and at least the surroundings were impressive! Plus, I really enjoyed getting to know the girls on the team a bit and learning more about life for 20-somethings women living in Jordan.
The Dead Sea
Sunset over the Dead Sea (and Israel on the other side)
Sunrise in the desert
A Bedouin goatherd and his flock
The team
The race brought us to Aqaba, the Red Sea, and the Movenpick - a fancy resort with the most comfortable beds, fluffiest pillows, best food, and prettiest beach a girl could hope for. Plus, we spent some time wandering the street markets, getting pedicures, and walking along the seaside boardwalk before taking a 4 hour bus ride back to Amman.
Today (Sunday), Margie is back to work (weekends are Friday-Saturday in the Arab world) and I am taking a day to study up on Jordan and what I want to do while I'm here. Plus, it's nice to have a lazy day after a packed week of travel and adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment