Well, I can assume from the title that you must realize I have had a very, very, very interesting last few days here in Jordan. But before I get into the story of the last few days I have a bit of a social commentary that I feel I need to get out there.
Over the last three weeks here I have noticed a very negative attitude from the Jordanians and I know that may sound odd since they are really known for how nice they are. Though the key is that it is not me that the negative feelings are being aimed at, it's other Arabs. In particular, or at least in my experience, it is aimed at the Egyptians living here in Jordan. And yes I know some people might read that and ask, “How can they even tell them apart?” It is very simple. It’s that the Egyptians speak a different dialect and have a very different accent. But if you ask some Jordanians they will tell you they just “know who is different.”
I have been pondering this for a while now and I was finally given an answer that has satisfied me. It’s a superiority thing. All Arabs think that they are better than Arabs from other places. It is by no means a racist thing. I mean, it real can't be, they all consider themselves to be Arab. The best way I can describe it is kind of the way Americans think they are better than Canadians. I mean we Americans have no reason to think we are better, we just do. And in the same way as any American will listen to Céline Dion sing and enjoy it and not care that she’s Canadian, Jordanians do the same. I mean most of the media is Egyptian and the top rated soap opera in Amman in an Egyptian one. So I found that it is not hatred or dislikes of Egyptians, Jordanians just think that they are better; it’s a cultural thing. I hope that that makes sense. I don’t want to come off as Jordanians are unkind people. They are amazing. It’s just part of Arabic culture.
So now to get on to my adventures over the last few days. You see, I put my social commentary first so you would have to read it to get to the story and I knew the title would hook you in. After one of my Arabic classes Kirby, Laura, and I went to our favorite restaurant to get something to eat before class. It’s this really good Yemeni place that mainly serves Arabic bread and things to eat with said bread; it is amazing and you really need to try it sometime. So as we sat there and at our table with our food, a man at the table near us started talking to us. We could catch a few words of what he was saying and what we believed he asked us was, “Do you like fish?” We responded with “naam,” which means yes. Well, he then proceeded to give us his fish. Now, I am not talking about like a fillet of fish from Outback or Red Lobster I mean a whole fish... head and all. As you could guess we were quite surprised by this but very appreciative. It was just one more sign of how amazing the place and culture is here.
Now to the part I am sure you really want to hear about... the peed on part of the title. Not my favorite story at the moment, but it could have been worse. So at noon I woke up, which is extremely early here on Friday, and Saif, Kirby, Jeremy, Peter, and I went swimming. And to remind those of you who don’t know Saif, Saif is my roommate from Iraq, Jeremy is a teacher at CGE and Peter is from the UK here studying Arabic at a different school. Also, Peter's Arabic is really good because he spent two years at Edinburgh and spent the last year in Syria studying. So the pool, or as it is now here the water park, was really interesting to say the least. We all had to pay 6JD, which is a little less than 9USD, to get in and when we walked in everyone was getting out of the pool. Now this was not a big pool maybe twice the size of a normal home swimming pool, but there were, well, A LOT of people in there but all getting out. Why? Well, the pool had to close for at least a half hour for the call to pray which is tough to miss because it is right next to a mosque and the loudspeakers. So when we finally got in the pool we learned very quickly the water was very cold, not like kind of cold, I mean ice cold. But soon I was swimming around and I found out nearly as fast as I learned how cold the water was that they don’t get many foreigners at this pool. I met a whole lot of people who wanted to talk to me in both Arabic and broken English, so that was a really neat thing.
But after about an hour in the pool I made my way to the side to talk to Saif and there it happened. I saw a small stream coming in to the pool and I looked up and there looking right at me a tiny little boy, maybe 3 years old peeing on me… while I was in the pool… not a great moment. So I quickly swam away as soon as I realized what was going on and of course everybody got a huge laugh out if other than me, but now think about it, it must have been pretty darn funny to see. But I guess the kid couldn’t have now better because he was so little and the word for bathroom and pool are the same word, “Hammom.” I could see how a child could get confused. I just wish he would not have gotten confused with me in his “line of fire.”
Now for the cool part, as Kirby, Saif and I walked back from Jeremy’s back to our apartment we noticed a big commotion right up the street from our house so we went to see what it was. It turned out to be a graduation party and it was really neat to see everybody dancing in some kind of line dance where they all hold hands and go around in a circle and there some feet movements and what not. I was cool to watch, but then they noticed us and a few of them ran over and grabbed me and Kirby by the arms, Saif declined to go with them, and took us to the dancing line. So of course all of the Arabs got a kick out of watching us try to dance, but in that moment I realized that this is one of "those things." That is why I am here: to experience things like this. I cannot put in to words how awesome of a thing this was for me and I can promise I will never forget it. It was just another day here in Amman, Jordan.
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