Chapter Six
Tafilah
After spending two lonely days in the office–Riyad, Nebras, and Ruby all being busy with various field assignments–on Tuesday morning, the C3 team, consisting of Ijazi, Ola and I, set out for the town of Tafilah, some 115 miles from Amman, in the southwest of the Kingdom.
An ancient city founded under the name of “Tofel” by the Edomites, modern Tafilah is known for its agriculture, hot springs, and nature reserves. The goal of the trip was to carry out a workshop and discussion with the municipal council of the governorate, concerning the topic of just how to successfully carry out public meetings in the municipality. We would stay overnight in Dana, a beautiful mountain village near Jordan’s western border situated on the edge of a Wadi bearing its name with a stunning view of an enormous canyon overlooking the Wadi Araba region. Dana is also the site of the Dana Biosphere Reserve, the largest nature reserve in the country.
After the lengthy drive—the entire duration of which I admittedly slept—we arrived at the main municipal office building of the city, meeting up with the head of Tafilah’s Municipal Local Development Unit for afternoon tea, and to prepare for tomorrow’s workshop, getting supplies and logistics sorted away.
Tafilah was quaint and abstemious, much more traditional than other cities I had visited in Jordan, and to me, I found it incredibly charming. Removed from the hustle and “modern” (read: westernized) trappings of my abode in West Amman, Tafilah was a breath of fresh air, modern in its own right, but with much of what makes Tafilah, Tafilah still intact. Being able to preserve the cultural aura of a city while moving it along with the times is no easy task—just ask the cities of the Persian Gulf—but Tafilah has managed, and done so gracefully.
Workshoppin'
The aim of our workshop in Tafilah was to help developing municipalities in the processes of sustainably and routinely conducting city hall meetings in their communities. Many communities across the country, such as Tafilah, are still working on the exact ins-and-outs of these meetings and how to best go about organizing them. Following a quick round of ice breakers (written by yours truly), we began with the presentation and discussion of how public meetings help to contribute to the mutual response between local community-related entities, the municipal/local council, and the larger citizenry, and how in the absence of public meetings, these prongs can drift apart, with dangerous results.
The knowledge of what to do before, during, and after an event seemed to have lit some new lights because though general knowledge of the logistical work, and technical, regulatory material was known to the attendees, more specific things were mentioned which helped them realize the wider set of resources they possessed in reaching a broader audience. For example, going live on Facebook and streaming a public meeting does a lot of good, where people whose circumstances might prevent them from attending can also take part and send comments while being informed in real time of the events taking place. Many representatives present were not aware they were allowed to do this, and it was nice that the team could answer all their questions on the topic, emphasizing the whole point being efficiency and sustainability after all.
Time and time again it was stressed that meetings and public gatherings being discussed in the workshop were crucial because they provide an opportunity for the diverse community to participate in the decision-making process at the local and municipal levels. They also provide the scope for decision-makers at these levels to discuss upcoming projects and developments in the community with these target groups, who otherwise may be excluded in the process despite being affected. Essentially, public meetings do a great deal of good, especially in a society like Jordan’s, for achieving a necessary and maintainable level of transparency and fostering healthy local partnerships to further stabilize the development of sustainable municipal institutions. Overall the workshop was a success, the discussions proving fruitful, and with every attendee leaving with a few new feathers in their caps.
Reminders in Dana
During our trip, we stayed overnight in the village of Dana. As I mentioned, Dana sits atop a mountain overlooking a vast network of the magnificent valleys that feature prominently in the area south of the Dead Sea basin. The team and I spent the afternoon hiking around the mountains, exploring the village, and admiring the flora and fauna the site had to offer. Under a centuries old olive tree, overlooking the sunset bathing the world in a conflagration of magnificent golden light, the sun itself the color of an unripened pink pomegranate dipping under the horizon beneath the mountaintops, emblazoning the trees in a brilliant emerald hue, we sat there taking in the sheer majesty of the scene. It felt like something out of a movie, for it seemed too perfect, too surreal, to be occurring in real life. The biblical landscape of the Levant never fails to always take my breath away. From the shores of Lebanon to the mountains and valleys of Jordan, it reminds of just how much beauty is all around us.
One of my all time favorite figures in literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, once said in his masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, that “Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we refuse to see it.” Through the ups-and-downs of everyday living, and through the trivial and not-so-trivial stresses which occupy our day-to-day thoughts and govern our actions, it is so easy to get caught up in a routine, in a grind which can leave one feeling both exasperated and unsatisfied. However, one must take time out to smell the roses, both figuratively and literally. Life is meant to be lived, to roll with the punches and being able to enjoy what you can, where you can. Because who knows? Despite all your worries, perhaps paradise surrounds you now, and you need only look.
Dana reminded me of that.