HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2005-07-27, Page 5( )�)ililt,tt
Riding bus in Irbid an adventure
It was 8 a.m. and we had
already answered one of Life's
Great Questions. Never again
will I have to ask myself "Why
did the chicken cross the road?"
Now I know the answer. The
chicken, like us that hot and
sunny morning, is going to
Umm Qais.
Before we got to Umm Qais we had our fair share of
adventures. We (Colin, Melissa, Rebekah and myself) had
travelled with the group as far as Ajlun, where we had been
dropped off in the bus station (I am this close to using
quotation marks), to catch the bus to Irbid.
With the help of some fairly creepy locals (who wanted to
drive us themselves), we found the right bus and boarded it. It
was the last time for the next 24 when someone talked to me
directly to my face.
Irbid is considerably north of Madaba and considerably
more conservative. Shopkeepers, bus drivers, taxi drivers,
even the hotel clerk, looked right though Melissa, Rebekah
and I and would only talk to Colin.
On the buses, Colin was told how much it cost for four
people, and he was expected to pay for us. It was incredibly
awkward and more than a little demeaning, but I suppose it is
only fair as we were the fish out of water and that is the way
their culture works.
What I didn't like was the way people leered at us (for all
intents and purposes, an American with three wives) and
made comments in a language I don't understand, but in a tone
that is unmistakeable.
There are three bus stations in Irbid. The Umm Qais bus
was fairly direct, and dropped us off right at the foot of the
Tell, where we then followed the chicken and the ticket
collector up the hill.
It cost us a dinar to get in to Umm Qais, which was a
Roman/Byzantine city. As such, it was highly organized,
made up of completely straight lines, and very well
constructed.
What the Romans hadn't counted on was the earthquake
which destroyed the site (and everything else in the
country...mostly) in 747CE. Still, the theatre, church, market,
bath house and decumanus (street) have been restored.
Of these, the church is my favourite because it is octagonal
and made of black basalt blocks, which is a nice change from
the limestone that takes up the rest of my life currently.
There was a Jordanian team excavating the old Forum, and
we wandered up to talk to them. They showed us all around
the site and then let us fiddle around with their pottery while
we drank coffee (such coffee!), but Roman/Byzantine isn't my
forte so I don't really know the sherds.
The director told us that the government wants to pour a lot
of money into Umm Qais, and make it a big site like Jerash.
We tried not to look too
jealous.
The bus stops in
this country seem to
operate by mutual consent.
You simply stand on the
roadside, and when the bus
comes, you stick out your
hand.
If there is a person 50 metres away from you who also
wants to catch the bus, the bus stops twice. Since the roads of
most towns are divided, the bus drives up and down a few
times before finally setting off to its main destination.
Pella was one of the hottest places I have ever been. We
started off walking, but a mini -bus picked us up and took us to
the rest house where we had lunch, tea and a two hour sit.
The lunch cost us more than the rest of the trip had (the
hostel was five dinar and the bus was usually somewhere
around 300 fils, which is about 60 cents Canadian), but the
view made it worth it. We could see the Jordan Valley, Syria,
the Sea of Gallilee, the Golan Heights, Gilead, Israel and The
West Bank.
After our ridiculously overpriced lunch, we walked down
(literally...it was quite the drop) to the actual site of Pella.
We meandered around for a while admiring the stratigraphy
(they had to dig down almost two metres before they hit the
wall tops, so some of the squares are four or five metres deep,
but the heat was overwhelming, so we decided to head back
down to the main road.
The next bus took us to Dayr Alla and was fairly
uneventful, but on the bus from Dayr Alla to Amman, one of
the men kept trying to buy Rebekah from Colin, using
cigarettes to sweeten the deal.
Melissa was safe because she and Colin were "married" (so
that they would be 'allowed to share a hotel room in Irbid to
save money), and he showed no interest in me`, but nothing
Colin could say would dissuade him.
We finally lost the man in Amman when we went looking
for the Madaba bus, but it was a very odd hour and a half up
from the valley.
Finally we made it home to Madaba, where the bus dropped
us off half a block from each other so that we could go to the
different hotels.
I was beyond tired. It had been a very hot, very long, very
smoky day, and I collapsed as soon as I got home.
It is an entirely different country up there, and we all
realized how very spoiled, and how very lucky, we are to live
in Madaba where, even if white tourists are accepted, they are
expected.
Still, I wouldn't have missed the trip to Umm Qais and Pella
for anything, and the experience on Jordanian minibuses was
an irreplaceable part of the trip.
News
Plans to relocate resource consultants
could take funds from local daycares
From Page 1
is not to close daycare
centres but to provide more
special needs services to
more children in Huron
County.
"Lots of special needs
children don't go into
daycare and it's our hope to
be able to service the
children at home as well,"
she said.
McDonagh said if daycare
centres were forced to close,
"this wouldn't be the only
reason." adding that
Tuckersmith Day Nursery
already has a large deficit.
"The daycares were told at
the start that these are stand-
alone programs," she said,
adding, "Not that anyone
would want to see a daycare
close. The county is looking
at a plan to support the
daycares in a transitional
period."
Huron East Clerk -
Administrator Jack
McLachlan said he sat down
with the Tuckersmith daycare
supervisor and went through
the plan in an attempt to
identify problems and is in
the process of preparing a
letter to the county.
He said there's no
accommodation in the plan
for administrative costs, such
as rent at *the proposed
location. As well, while the
supervisors of each
municipal daycare are paid
now to supervise the
consultants, the plan does not
outline who will supervise
them once they are
centralized.
"There would be more
mileage too because they go
to each area and branch out.
And, they won't be as visible
in the community if they're
not based in a daycare," said
McLachlan in a phone
interview.
McLachlan said the three
municipal daycare centres
will also be meeting about
the issue.
In other daycare news,
council agreed last Tuesday
to increase Tuckersmith's
fees in September by $1 per
space for the half and full day
rates.
Playhouse's Give My Regards a
musical marathon of Broadway tunes
By Ben Forrest
Expositor Staff
As we sat comfortably in the back of the balcony at Grand
Bend Country Playhouse on July 21, waiting for David
Rogers' creation and star vehicle Give My Regards to
Broadway to begin, my guest mused about our surroundings.
"it's amazing what you can do with an old barn," she said.
And it's true. That we would be sitting in a building that at
one point probably housed hay, grain or any number of
different animals, waiting to listen to a top-notch orchestra
play beneath a man who has played, among many other
things, the title character in The Phantom of the Opera, is
quite something.
Rogers. who has also landed roles in productions of
Oklahoma! and Cats, hit the stage at around 8 p.m., started
singing Broadway show tunes and didn't stop until at least 45
minutes later.
"Then he took a 15 minute break and sang for another 45. To
label the accomplishment as an extraordinary act of endurance
would he a gross understatement.
Even for a seasoned performer, a show like Give My
Regards has to he. as my guest pointed out. the musical
equivalent of a marathon.
My guest came away from the evening thoroughly
impressed, being among the first to rise to her feet and give
Rogers one of two standing ovations he received on the
evening. (Thc first came when we thought the show was over,
the second when it actually was.)
Many of the numbers Rogers sang that night were songs my
guest had grown up with, heard on the radio or even sung at
school. They were a part of her youth, and she could relate to
them
During the first act, Rogers pulled three seemingly
unsuspecting ladies out of the audience, placed goofy
headdresses on them and incorporated them into a segment
dotted with love songs.
During the same stretch, he extracted a man from the
audience. sent him back stage and then had him trotted back
out. using a humorous gag that i won't mention here since it's
probably a regular part of the show.
Rogers was clearly at his best during these spontaneous,
seemingly unpredictable sequences, filling them with antics
that left many in stitches.
To ask for such a lengthy show to be full of improvisations
would be a bit much, as would asking the star to belt out every
note as he did in one of the show's closing numbers (he's at
his best when he's singing his loudest).
Any fan of Broadway show tunes will thoroughly enjoy
themselves.
David Rogers, of Give My Regards to Broadway
THE HURON EXPOSITOR. July 27, 2005.5
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A Cagegate1 d the Parish of The Nely Spa
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Rev. John Gould
Come Home to the Country
INTERDEMOMINATIONAL
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527-0142
Weekend Masses: Sat 5:15 pm
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Until Sept. 4th
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CLOSED 31"
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Steve Hildebrand Lay Pastoral
Minister in Training
Doors Open, Sunday July 31"
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Rev. Henry Huberts
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