Summer Abroad Jordan, Sample Itinerary

This is a sample itinerary. No two Dragons courses are the same. Every itinerary considers the unique strengths of the instructor team and interests of the student group.
Week One Arrive in al-Irdun and travel to a Desert Camp in the stunning beauty of the Wadi Rum desert. After two days of team building, briefings and orientation to place and people, we’ll start our trek.
Journey across the Wadi Rum desert, the heart of Bedouin territory, will be led by Suleiman Sabbah Zalabiya and our guide Omar Ghazi, who will share with us Bedouin culture and Arabic language for our stay in the desert. In between trekking, our Arabic lessons will take place in the shade of the desert mountains, and by night we’ll sleep under the stars. Our final night will be spent living and learning with a nomadic Bedouin family who still calls the deserts of Wadi Rum home, where we’ll observe and learn customs and traditions that have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.
Week Two Leaving the Wadi Rum desert behind, our group will travel to Aqaba, a town on the Red Sea. Here, you’ll put your newfound language, cultural and teamwork skills to the test in a new context – urban exploration! Moving North to Amman, we explore the transformation of Arab society from tradition to modernity through homestays in the urban environment of Jordan’s capital city. In Amman we’ll deepen our knowledge of Arabic and dive into the diversity of Jordan. Observe and record urban life, investigate development issues, and do your own research for your Independent Study Projects (ISPs).
Week Three Saying goodbye to our homestay families in Amman, we head for the historical Christian town of Madaba, south of Amman. We explore Christian religious sites in Madaba to consider the historical social plurality of the region. A visit to the Dead Sea will allow us to consider the impact of water and environmental issues on development in Jordan.
Returing to the Wadi Rum desert, we travel to Zawydeh territory in Disi and Tweisi. Upon arrival, we will split our tribe into single gender groups as we prepare ourselves for our homestay in these traditional and welcoming villages of settled Bedouin. The boys will be met by Salah Radi Zawydeh in Disi and the girls by Khawla Attallah Zawydeh who will help us to learn about and participate in village life through homestays, Arabic language lessons, village ISPs based on traditional crafts and ways of life and guest speakers from the local community.
Students are paired with homestay families in the villages of Disi and Tweisi where they will experience the traditions and hospitality of the Bedouin, which date back over a thousand years to before the time of the Prophet Mohammad. We will compare experiences and traditions of living with nomadic and settled Bedouin and observe and record daily village life. During this time the boys and girls will have separate lessons in Disi and Tweisi, giving a unique insight into the gendered experience of Arab life, finally coming together for an all-group debrief to share learning about their village experiences.
Week Four At Dragons we call the final phase of our courses the ‘expedition’ phase. This is the period of the course where our student group works as a team to manage the execution of their own adventure—Petra! Students will manage travel and logistics, and prepare activities that address the history and contemporary life of this ancient city and modern tourist attraction.