Jordanians are a very welcoming folk. They like to open their door and their culture to foreigners. Rural tourism and accommodation in homestay have considerably developed in recent years and bring opportunity of interesting exchanges, which benefit the visitor as well as the host.
The impact of such exchanges goes beyond economical earnings that the local family could expect...
Traditional products recover a valuable status and locals are fostered to perpetuate their production.
Locals become aware about value and wealth of their natural environment and feel encouraged to protect it.
Some declining handicrafts are stimulated, while some others, upon disappearance, are brought back to revival.
The encounter of competences and knowledge between the visitors and the locals gives the opportunity for interesting exchanges of information.
Some marginal areas have a chance to get out of isolation and oblivion.
We encourage you to foresee enough days during your trip in order to spend time with the inhabitants and favor interactions.
In several places through Jordan you can learn the traditional cooking. Depending on the seasons you will be offered to harvest herbs and vegetable that you will learn to dress following local receipts. Through all those culinary activities you will understand how diversified are the cultural traditions of the modern Jordan.
You can also be taught how to make the Oriental sweets
No traditional meal without bread! learn how the local women make the bread following different techniques, in a taboun or on a saj.
You may even visit the workshop of a taboun maker...
an activity which will show you all what we can make with the oriental bread
Another domestic activity is the palm leaves weaving. This activity, called nahil (from the Arabic name of the palm tree) is threatened, but still practiced by some women, for example in Azraq where they can find the raw material in their immediate environment, as the palm trees easily grow in this ancient desert oasis. Revival experiences have been created in some other areas in North Jordan and you can visit one or the other following your itinerary. The objects made of palm leaves are mainly baskets and Kasals, a kind of large round tray on which we put food and bread.