Kindness of Strangers

Thursday, September 4, 2008

“Who are you staying with?”

This is the typical reaction when I explain that I am staying with my cousin’s neighbor’s daughter and son-in-law in Amman, Jordan. When we planned this trip, we tried to choose locations where we knew people, in the hopes that we could get a little help along the way. We knew no one in Jordan. We knew nothing about Jordan. But we added it to our itinerary on a whim, since Amman is a major hub for the airline partners we are flying.

When Kristi and Jonathan offered for us to stay with them in Jordan, we were floored. Not only did we never expect a Jordan contact in a million years, but we were total strangers. We eagerly accepted the invitation, excited to have the opportunity to spend time with a local couple and experience life in a given place, all while having the luxury of speaking English.

After having spent so much time in Istanbul, whose skyline is bulging with buildings as far as the eye can see, Amman’s cityscape was a shock. As our plane made its descent, I saw nothing but desert and clusters of low-lying, sandy-colored buildings. “The joke in Amman is to say ‘I live in the sandstone building next to the mosque,’” Kristi said.

Jonathan and Kristi met us at the airport, a welcome sight after all the difficulties in getting out of Istanbul.  As we drove home, the streets were largely empty. We noticed a small roadblock in the other direction, where a policeman was checking documents, and saw a young man herding goats near the side of the road. When we turned down their street, Jonathan explained that the street used to go through until a neighbor decided to build a carport for his house in the middle of the road. We weren’t in Istanbul anymore.

Kristi and Jonathan have worked for an international school in Amman the past four years, and were eager to share information about Jordan. They’ve also traveled extensively throughout the world, and we were charmed by the little welcome “basket” they left us in our room. We made our way up to the patio at the top of their house, where we spent hours chatting and learning more about Jordan. It’s a small country that’s experienced relative peace and stability in recent history. “The former king used to say that Jordan was caught between I-raq and a hard place,” said Kristi.

Jordan is, indeed, an oasis in the desert. Unlike many of its neighbors, it’s major industry isn’t oil but medical tourism. I spent the day reading JO magazine, a monthly publication discussing all things Jordan, trying to get a pulse for this place that I know very little about. Barack Obama was in Amman in July, delivering a speech about relations in the Middle East. The JO article closes by saying, “Jordan was also briefly mentioned in the speech – but whatever Mr. Obama had in mind for the visit, it seems that learning about the parts of the Muslim world not plagued by war and violence was definitely not it.”

Jordan is modernizing at a rapid pace. When we went to the grocery store, Kristi remarked that, when they moved here four years ago, a cheap tent cost five times that of an REI tent, and that cereal was prohibitively expensive. Now, Western products are becoming easier to buy, which is reflected in the cost. I noticed two articles in JO that addressed this issue of Westernizing Jordan. One discussed the Bedouin culture, Jordan’s traditionally nomadic people, whose culture is changing in modern times. The other article was concerned with malls, which are extremely popular in Amman. Jonathan explained that malls are packed on Friday’s nights, the equivalent of a US Saturday night, but most people aren’t buying things: Jordanians use malls as a place to windowshop. It’s an outlet to socialize outside the home.

We’ll only be in Jordan a short time. We plan on taking a trip to Petra, an ancient city carved into a sheer rockface, and then to Wadi Rum to stay under the stars at a Bedouin camp in the desert. Sightseeing aside, we’re also delighted to have entire, complex conversations in our native language and eat Corn Flakes for breakfast. It’s a place I never dreamed I’d ever visit, but I’m glad we did.