Long overdue thoughts from Jordan (early April)

My supermarket isn’t there anymore – it has been flattened.

Where there once were holes now stand buildings, and where there once were buildings now stand holes.

I walk downtown and take a serveece to my own neighborhood – I had forgotten that they are now at the top of the hill. I take it up to near the 2nd circle. My Internet café is closed. The chicken&fries guy is now a snazzy snack shop. The pizza place is joined with the burger place, with a sweet shop in the middle. There’s a new bakery – how can this neighborhood support 3? I really hope Diamond Bakery didn’t shut down, too. After a couple of weeks they got used to me buying $0.25 worth of bread at a time ~ 10 pieces of pita. I don’t have the patience to look for my fruit and vegetable stores – I used to oscillate between 3 or 4 different ones, and I want Reem. The stand is the same – that’s a relief. The last time I was here they had already institute the numbering system, so it wasn’t too confusing, except that my numbers was either an 8 or a 7 (I couldn’t tell if it was v or ^), but it all worked out in the end.
Walking down Zahran Street, it’s amazing to see street signs, English, and numbers on buildings. My apartment building is still there, with a sign that there is a flat available to rent. I am tempted to see how much cheaper it is than my current place in Jerusalem.
I walk down the newly cobbled rainbow street. The Egyptian camp that sprang up last summer for the workers has been disbanded. There are little rock parks and look out points and benches. Al Quds Cafeteria has totally been redone – it’s still a tiny store with falafel on toasted rolls, but the outside rock façade make it look fancy, as does the giant photo of the royal family. Meandering down to Books@café, it is mostly same, same. In general all these foreigners look the same – I just don’t recognize them anymore. I can’t believe that I lived here for a year, and how much has changed since then. Hopefully I have changed and grown up, too.

The trip was filled with near- misses, but it was fabulous:
I almost had to pay for the whole taxi to take me from the Damascus gate to Allenby, but at the final moment, as I was putting my things in the car, some Swedes showed up and we all shared the normal price.

I almost had to take a taxi back to Amman on my own, but then some Australians were confused and overwhelmed, so we shared.

D almost didn’t show to meet me for dinner and argilah, even though I went to the other side of town to find her.

I almost didn’t call DS. Luckily I got to his house just in time, right before the parade of houseguests, in town for an environmental conference. The guests from Lebanon had just met many members of my Arava family – what a small world.

I almost said no to the party invitation, but had no other plans at 11:30 on a Thursday night. So we piled into a couple of cars and drover out on the airport road, towards the fancy country club where the elite Ammanis go swimming and horseback riding.

We almost got into the party – but didn’t. Everyone was there. Music was blasting. People were drinking and bopping in their cars, and touching up makeup while waiting to get into the parking lot of the fairground. They thought they had the right wasta, but somehow it just didn’t work out. Instead I sat in the back seat, on the side of the road, people watching and listening to a Celine Dion CD and a conversation about relationships bil Arabi.

We almost had some car issues, after swerving around tiny country roads after letting the car run for 1.5 hours, but it was a false alarm. They guys checked under the hood and everything was normal. But when we got to Amman there was smoke. And we didn’t have any water and it was 2am and everything was home, so they sent me home in a taxi instead of dropping me back downtown. The taxi had to do a U-ey at a stop light, and as we were about to proceed through the intersection, the two cars ahead of us smashed into each other, but luckily my driver was not involved, and I made it back safe and sound, $2.50 later.

The next morning I almost overslept, but in the end made it to the bus station just 1 our after the expected departure time. Friday morning and most everything was closed, but luckily I got some water on the way through town. There was no direct route to the Dead Sea by public transport, so I expected to take a bus to a bus, or bus to a taxi. I was tired and not paying attention and didn’t mention where I was going – I was the only white girl on the bus. I thought they would tell me when we got to the stop closest to the Dead Sea, that they would realize it was not my intention to go visit an agricultural village in the Jordan Valley. But I was silent until the last stop, and then the drive was all ‘why didn’t you TELL me? Over by those taxis there may be a bus’, but there was no bus. Just a bunch of taxis. So I asked the taxi drivers who were busy smoking cigarettes and eating ice cream how I might get to the Dead Sea, feeling ready to negotiate down from 50 JD to 10, just in case. They laughed and said there was no bus, but that I could come with them. But how much? For free! They were off duty and having a family day at the beach. So they readjusted a little in the back seat – a ten year old girl shoved up against the window, then 18 year old woman holding a baby, then me, then a guy (brother? Husband?) Then the driver and another man in the front. I tried to give them money but they wouldn’t hear of it. As we drove down to the Dead Sea, we saw runners participating in the Dead Sea marathon (the reason I was there!) I tried to get them to cheer in English, but all they did was whistle and bang on the side of the car and scream ‘yallah, yallah!’ I was a little nervous about the police checkpoint since there was an excessive amount of people, but we got waved through. They couldn’t turn into the street with the hotels because all of the runners and police, so they dropped me on the main street and I walked down. I suppose 5-star hotels are not used to walk-ups – everyone comes in a car. They wanted to charge me 25JD to go swimming for the JD, but I sweetly explained that I was just there to visit my friend who had been running, and then I would go back to Amman in the night. They finally let me in after I promised I wouldn’t go swimming. In the lobby I tried calling S a couple of times, but she wasn’t in her room. I started to write a note for he to come find me, when she showed up. What a happy reunion! I swam (without paying) and ate and drank and was merry (and felt quite sick for a while) and had a fabulous time. And then made it back to Amman for a few more days of fun and adventures…