Olive tree factory

Today we went to the Olive tree factory, owned by Americans who employ Jordanians who have a hard time finding work elsewhere, like a few of the men there are deaf. In Jordan most of the work is separate for men and women. The olive wood is purchased from Olive farmers whose trees stop producing or something, and the cool thing is they cut off the tree and leave about meter of the stump there, and it grows another tree! That produces fruit and everything! After being cut off! Crazy and cool. We took a tour of the shop, downstairs where the men are they do the basic carving of the figures (mostly nativity figurines and the like). Then another level of men do the detailed carving, and then the top level the women do the sanding and finishing details. It was so cool to see the process. As one of the men was demonstrating for us how he makes/carves/cuts a Noah's ark scene, I asked him to hold it so i could take a picture of him with it, and at the end he told the owner who was giving the tour, in Arabic that he wanted me to have it...cute! I got to keep it :) Lucky me. We went into the gift shop, the best part. I spent a pretty penny getting beautiful things made of Olive wood. Cool. I would post pics of what I bought, BUT some of my readers will be recipients of the things I purchased...

Some of the women doing the detail work

Amelia went right to this woman who was so sweet and played with her with the camel she was working on, so cute

In the store/gift shop. It's mostly online so the store is small

Finished nativity full set

Some women making Damascus silk bags and table runners

The rough carving stages

one of the men carvers, he's been working with olive wood fro 50+ years

More carvers

This is the piece the guy gave me. cool.

And as promised, here's the update form my arrival:
Hey guys I made it here. I'm not quite sure what day it is, or what time it is, but I am here! My flight was LOOOOOONG! The flight from SLC to JFK-New York wasn't too bad, I slept a little, and watched Get-Smart which I hadn't seen yet, very funny flick. We got in early so I had more time than I had expected to find my connecting flight gate....luckily it was really close to my arrival gate. SO I decided to peruse the gift shops and news stands, and stretch my legs. I also went to the loo...while sitting on the toilet I hear "All Amman passengers should now be boarded, last call for all passengers to Amman report to gate 6" Freak I'm in the middle of taking care of business!!! So I HURRY and finish, wash my hands, no time to dry and super amazing speed walk down to my gate, which was a lot farther away than I had thought, I guess I had wandered farther that I anticipated. I was the second to last one on the plane. I guess for International flights you have to board quite a bit earlier than domestic flights so you can go through an additional security scan/check. I made it though. Phew. On the plane I had requested a gluten free meal...gluten free it was, delicious it was not. bummer because I was hungry! I did watch Swing Vote, and Prince Caspian though, did some word puzzles and read up on my Oprah magazine. IT WAS LONG. I tried hard to sleep, I even wore those cute face masks they give you for long flights so I could sleep. I slept for maybe an hour...WHAT??? Amy and Nate and testify to this, I have NO trouble sleeping, any time of day, anywhere, I am the queen of nap time. SO it was a bummer that I couldn't sleep. But I read some great articles about Breast Cancer in Oprah. Anyway, I arrived in Jordan and Debbie was waiting at the gate after visa check and customs. What a welcome sight her face was. It was about 2 am SLC time, and I was surprisingly wide awake.
First impressions of Jordan...I looked out the window of the plane and all I could think was, sheesh this place is BROWN! There are some palm trees, but other than that, dirt and white limestone buildings. Outside the airport things were much greener, olive trees and some kind of conifer, etc. I was relieved to find that there are many signs and things English-friendly. When pulled up to the house, which is really cool I'll take pics soon, there was an armed guard standing in front of the place. Debbie says he's their house guard. Beats a guard dog right? She said they are there 24/7 and that we are advised to just ignore them. Interesting. The house inside is clean and posh. The kitchen is HUGE, all marble counters etc...in fact the entire house is either marble floors or tile. very beautiful. There's a nice blue pool out back but its freezing. Too bad. Also they have a maid that does all of the cleaning, laundry, and I don't know what else. Debbie also said they have a gardener who takes care of the yard and washes their cars a few times a week. Cool. All the buildings here are made of white limestone, and there are a lot of CRAZY beautiful homes that look like hotels. Debbie says the newer ones are built by very wealthy Iraqi refugees.
Also, a few blocks away from the house is a Mosque and five times a day we can hear their chanting/prayers/song. It's actually pretty cool to listen too...it could get old but for now it adds to the feeling of being in a foreign country. (of you're interested in seeing what it sounds like, look up "Muslim call to prayer with English subtitles", you'll find a pretty accurate video of what I hear out the window 5 times a day.)
By the way...the toilets here are rectangle instead of oval...weird. And every bathroom in the house has a beday (that's not how you spell it, but its a butt freshener up er...Debbie said the boys thought it was a foot washer. Funny. I'm determined to try it, so I'll keep you posted.
Anyway, Love you lots, let me know what's going on, and I will do likewise. All my Love
Court