We arrived at the
house at about 4pm. The father of the family met us on the street and
showed us the way up to their apartment. In Jordan, houses are often
difficult to keep warm in the winter and this house was freezing
cold. There was a gas heater, but the gas bottle was almost finished
and the windows were all open – presumably to allow some oxygen to
enter while using the gas heater. There are often cases in Jordan of
people dying of carbon monoxide poisoning while using gas heaters.
Fleeing the fighting
The family was
Syrian and they had fled to Jordan to escape the fighting, like many
other Syrians. In Syria, they were a middle-class family with good
jobs and a nice house but since coming to Jordan, they have been
reduced to a desperate state of poverty, forbidden from working and
relying on food vouchers from the UN which are only enough for the
bare essentials. Like many Syrians who have fled to Jordan, they are
just waiting and hoping for things to improve in Syria so that they
can return home.
Health problems
They have 5
children, one of whom has developed bladder retention problems as a
result of the trauma of what happened in Syria. Another has a problem
with a swollen knee which makes it difficult to walk and is taking a
long time to heal. We wondered if the lack of nutrition is
contributing towards the lengthy recovery process.
Amazing hospitality
We arrived at this
time so that they would not feel obliged to cook a meal for us but,
according to Syrian hospitality customs, they wanted to give us the
best meal they could make in order to make us feel welcomed as
friends. Giving food to guests is considered to be a very important
expression of hospitality in their culture, more than would be true
for most Jordanian families in Amman. They had explained to us that
it was very difficult to afford to buy meat, and yet they had put a
small amount of mince in the rice, along with a delicious selection
of other Syrian dishes.
Some things are worth a lot more than money or food
We wondered how much
of their monthly food allowance had been spent on this meal but on
the other hand, we could visibly see how much our visit lifted their
spirits as we tried to bring some love and joy into their household.
We were very proud of our kids who got on really well with their kids
and had lots of fun, playing with them. Their mum thanked us
profusely for coming and bringing joy into their family for the first
time in ages. We hope to repay their amazing hospitality by inviting
them to our house for a meal soon.
