It’s been only a few weeks since my friend Simon and I boarded a plane to Jordan with an open mind, five rolls of film and a lot of enthusiasm to make a road trip through this country. Before a good friend of mine moved to Amman, I never even thought about visiting Jordan, but I was curious to find out what made him pack his bags and move to a country that’s so different from our Western world. Of course I already knew about Greening the Camps, the non-profit organization he founded in Amman with two friends. (They design, develop, build and maintain rooftop gardens in Palestinian refugee camps. While the Palestinian people have a thousand year history as farmers, the refugee camps leave little to no place for agriculture. By building rooftop gardens, Greening the Camps wants to reconnect local communities with their cultural heritage of farming while growing their own food. You can have a look at their website for more info or to support them.)
Even though I’d already seen images of Jordan’s beautiful landscapes, I wasn’t prepared for how they’d just keep coming, one after the other and how breathtaking they’d be in real life. It took us only three days to realize that five rolls of film was a grave underestimation of how enthusiastically we’d be snapping away at all those mesmerizing sights. Apparently smartphones are all the rage while shooting film is considered very old fashioned in Jordan, so unfortunately we weren’t able to buy more. Otherwise, this post would have been at least twice as long…