Off to the Badia

These next few days will be quite an adventure. We're going to the Badia which is a more rural area in Jordan. As I understand it, the Badia can be towns or more mobile societies. But "Badia" means the start of settlements or the population that began the settlements. So most of the older families living in Badia towns were nomadic and have settled down in one location. Most Bedouin tribes were nomadic and in the 1960's there was a government push for the tribes to settle down in one place...resulting in the Badia.
We're not going as a group...I will be by myself in the village of Um Alquteen in the northern Badia. All the students are assigned to their own village. I'll be with another host family named Falf al Adaamat. All I know is that the father is a school teacher. The first part of the adventure will entail getting to Um Alquteen. I know I can get myself to the Amman bus station (Raghadan) and then I find the bus for Mafraq which is a town in northern Amman. Then from Mafraq, I give the bus driver my written directions to Um Alquteen and my family's house. According to our teachers, our bus drivers should know where exactly our houses are and should drop us off there or point us in the write direction. Hopefully I'll get there. Inshallah (God willing)
I'm not quite sure what to expect in the Badia. Secretly I'm hoping to be living in a tent in the desert, riding camels, herding sheep and drinking tea by a fire while the town elders tell of their nomadic adventures. More realistically I'll be in a lower income area, sitting around a space heater listening to mothers, sisters and aunts gossiping about who's marrying who. Because of gender roles girls don't usually go sheep herding, so most likely I will be spending 5 days inside. I'm praying and thinking about how to get the most out of this time even though it may not be my first choice. No doubt though that God will take care of things and I'll have a meaningful, memorable experience.