Yet I've found there's more to the world than what the media endlessly cycles...go figure! When I was in Bethlehem a couple weeks ago our Palestinian host told us that the majority of his people want peace. He says the media comes in and seeks out the zealot and presents him as representative of the feelings of all. It sounded strangely familiar.

Familiar too the sound of the Jordanian guide talking about their illegal immigration problem with Egypt. Floods of workers coming in and taking jobs away from Jordanians. At first they only took the low-paying jobs no Jordanians wanted to do; then the business owners would give other jobs to them as well because they'd work for less money, no benefits, etc. Sound familiar? Nowadays unemployment in Jordan is quite a problem.

The seed of this post was that I saw two young men playing smashball earlier today when I went out. It's a game played with two wooden paddles and a small rubber ball and my best friend and I passed many happy hours playing it in the past. For some reason it was kind of a shock to see it being played here. I also saw a young man pop a precarious wheely on a rickety old scooter while zooming by two eligible single gals. He quickly flipped a U to see what they thought of his handiwork but I didn't see their reaction because I was walking to find a grand taxi to take me to a petite taxi <so reminds me of Korea and taking the sit-down bus to the stand-up bus but that's another story!>.

I used to have a theory that every high school student should have to spend a year abroad so that they'd quit whining so much and appreciate what we have in America. ;) But maybe it'd be useful on another level as well. Maybe we wouldn't have so many international arguments if more of us had met each other face to face.