Ethan's pirate party

Three years ago, we told ourselves ‘Never again!’ after lots of Isaiah’s school friends came to our house for a birthday party. They were so crazy that we gave up trying to give them any instructions for the party games because none of them possessed the ability to sit and listen.

Why don't we listen to ourselves?

We seemed to have forgotten our own advice as we invited seven of Ethan’s Jordanian school friends to our house for his birthday party. Ethan requested a pirate theme for his party, so as the children arrived we got them to make pirate hats and eyepatches. Then we did ‘pin the eye patch on the pirate’.

Other games included pop-up pirate, pass the parcel and freeze dance. We were giving sweets as prizes, which probably contributed towards them getting more and more loud and crazy as the party went on. One of them kept bursting into tears if he didn’t win every game, even if the game hadn’t finished yet! By the time we got to the obstacle course, none of them would stop and listen to the instructions, so we had to use our own kids to demonstrate what to do.

Crowd control

Kate made an amazing pirate ship cake which, along with other sweet party food and drinks, made the kids even more crazy. In the end, we resorted to crowd control as they were chasing each other around our house and we were grateful that we got to the end without anyone getting injured or breaking anything in the house!

If we do this again, we must remember to only feed them savoury food!

A Baby Party

When I arrived at my friend's house there were lots of balloons and decorations in the guest room in preparation for the baby party. A few women were already there but after about 15 minutes they turned the music up very loud and opened the windows to signal to neighbours nearby that the party was about to start and to hurry up and come! It was a good strategy to let people know that it was time for the party as soon more women and children started arriving.

The party was for my friend's 5th child, a boy, who was born 2 weeks earlier. Traditionally they hold a party on the 8th day after birth but my friend was waiting for relatives to arrive from a neighbouring country before having the party. As each woman entered the house, she gave a gift or tucked money into the baby's blanket.

They had actually had a baby party 2 days earlier for relatives and I was invited to that party, but it was on the same day as Ethan's birthday party at our house. So I had apologised that I couldn't attend because I'd already invited Ethan's friends to come to his party. In typical Jordanian last minute style, my friend asked if I could rearrange Ethan's party so that I could go to her baby party! Although I couldn't change my plans at the last minute, it was an indication of how much she wanted me to be there. She even suggested that she might be able to make her baby party later so that I could attend. However since I didn't hear any news back about this I presumed that the timing hadn't changed. Often here people don't want to tell you if they can't do something, they feel that it is more polite not to tell you anything rather than say "no" or give unfavourable news!

At the baby party for the neighbours, we chatted and danced. Coffee and dates were offered round and then there was more dancing. A traditional cinnamon drink with desiccated coconut and walnuts was given to everyone since they believe this helps contract the womb after a woman has given birth.

Then there was an Egyptian tradition which I'd never seen before! They put a basket in the middle of a table and lit a dozen candles. Those holding candles walked around the table singing (they made sure that I had a candle and joined in!) with the mum holding the baby joining in too and a woman tapping a metal cup to beat a rhythm. Then they put the baby in the basket and rocked the baby side to side. Amazingly he slept through the whole procedure! I asked about the meaning behind this tradition but the only explanation was that it was from Egypt and that it was meant to protect the baby. The basket reminded me of the Prophet Moses who was saved because his mother hid him in a basket, and a I wondered if there was any connection to that story.

 

After more dancing (these women love to dance!) they handed round little gifts of chocolates, perfume and small toiletries. This was followed by more coffee and dates which was the signal that guests could start to leave. Although I needed to collect the children from school, I didn't want to be the first one to leave. So after a few women left, I also said good bye even though the party still seemed in full swing!

Empowering the village

After dropping Kate and Jenson at the house of Kate’s friend, nearby, I reached the school at 9am. I expected to be the first to arrive but was amazed to find everyone waiting for me – a sign of their eagerness to learn English, but also an indication of the difficulty of communicating a plan in this part of the world. 

Qastal village

Qastal village has a population of about 3000 and the people there are very poor. It is famous for having one of the world's oldest minarets, built in about 720AD. We have had some involvement in this village before, with playgroup and English lessons, but it came to an end a couple of years ago after the village library, which we were using, closed down.

Two weeks before, Kate had met the headmistress, who was asking her if I could come and teach English to the children in this small village school. I suggested that, in order to help the village better, I could teach some adults how to teach English to the children. Kate’s friend’s daughter offered to find some volunteers.

My plan was to teach the volunteers a simple English lesson and they could teach exactly the same thing to the children immediately afterwards. The teachers of the school also wanted help with their English conversation skills, so I offered to teach them for an hour, after teaching the volunteers, while the volunteers taught the children.

16 volunteers and 146 children

When I arrived, I was surprised to find all the children waiting for their lesson at 9am, when I had told them to come at 10am. 146 children were waiting but there were also 16 volunteers, which was also more than I expected. Some of the volunteers had no English ability themselves, so I taught them a very basic lesson that they would easily be able to teach to the children, most of whom were also absolute beginners. There were not enough classrooms in the school for each volunteer to have their own class, so they decided to teach them in pairs.

10 teachers and 3 mothers

I then started a lesson with ten of the teachers and three random mothers who decided to join in. They enjoyed the conversation class and then, when I had finished, I went over to see the end of the volunteers' classes with the children, who all seemed to be doing really well and the children were very well behaved.

Breakfast with the family

After the class, I went to join Kate at her friend’s house and I met her friend’s husband for the first time. We ate a nice breakfast meal with them and heard a confusing story about his friend’s legal problems in Saudi Arabia, which they wanted my help with. I have no idea how to help them, but I promised to look into it (Does anyone know anyone who is an expert in Saudi corporate law?). After eating a delicious Jordanian breakfast with them, we returned home.

Dealing with Scammers

I was waiting again in the tourism company office with my Syrian friend and my children. My friend had filled in a questionnaire with the promise of entry into a free prize draw. She was thrilled when they said she had won and went to the office to collect her prize. However the company tried to sell her a time-share programme in order to collect her prize of 2 free nights at one of their resorts. In the end she paid £100 (which was money she really couldn't afford to spend!) for a third night at the resort to go with the two free nights.

Fake booking

However it soon became apparent that the whole scheme was a scam and she tried to get her money back from the company when there was no booking at the hotel for her and her family.

We had been to the office two days earlier to demand that they return the £100 and the secretary and a co-worker were very rude and in the end told us to make an appointment and return when the manager "Aiman" was in the office for him to return the money.



Where's Aiman?

So we were waiting for Aiman to arrive for the appointment at 1pm. The secretary assured us that he would be there by 2pm although it seemed that Aiman had not actually been contacted about our appointment. Our local Jordanian friend also phoned the office and pressured the secretary to return the money to my friend.

Another Aiman

A number of phone calls and discussion later, the secretary handed me one of her phones saying it was Aiman. I talked with him and he assured me he would be there by 2:05pm. It seemed promising since there was the sound of traffic in the background of the phone call. However by 2:15pm Aiman still hadn't arrived and when I called the phone number that I had for "Aiman" a different person answered the phone, again assuring me he would be there in 10 minutes and that he was just driving past a nearby hospital, however there was no sound of traffic in the background of the phone call.

Is Aiman real?

When I challenged the secretary about the two "Aimans" she got cross with me and finally showed me on her phone the number that I had for Aiman, and yet there was also about a dozen other phone numbers for Aiman!! I think that the manager "Aiman" doesn't exist and is just an excuse to say that they cannot return money unless the manager is in the office.

By 2:30pm the children were bored and fed up and our youngest was running around squealing, so I told the secretary that we would leave and come back at 5pm for the appointment that she had originally arranged for us to meet Aiman. She told us to wait just 5 more minutes. We spoke with our Jordanian friend again and he insisted that the secretary should give us the money and threatened to phone the police if the money wasn't returned.

Key in Bra

Finally at 2:45pm the other co-worker (not Aiman!) arrived and had the £100 in her hand. I was astounded by her tenacity when, at the last minute, she insisted we give her not only the receipt but also the cards for 3 free nights. My friend had never had 3 cards for 3 free nights, only 2 cards for 2 free nights and the £100 was paid for the 3rd night! The co-worker refused to return the money until the 3rd free night card was returned - an impossibility. She also snatched the receipt and 2 cards out of my hand, locked them in a drawer and dropped the key down her bra! At this point I thought that all was lost since we didn't have the cards, receipt or returned money. I quickly phoned our Jordanian friend again and after heated arguments and further phone calls the co-worker gave the secretary the £100 and she finally gave it to my friend. We dashed out the office before they had time to change their minds!
 
Targeting Syrians

Subsequently I've talked with local friends about the incident and it seems that this sort of scam is widespread. With the enticement of a free gift people end up signing contracts for time-shares that they don't really want and then they have to pay a fee to be released from the contract. Or people have to pay an administrative fee to receive their "free" gift which is then worthless anyway. Syrians seem to be targeted currently because if a Jordanian person complains about a Syrian person to the police then the Syrian person will be sent back to Syria. The secretary even threatened my friend with this! So customers are fearful to complain against the company. It is heart-breaking to hear about so many people being taken advantage of.

Returning Travellers

My friend telephoned and merrily greeted me “Al hamdallah, ala as salama” (Praise God for peace/safety) which is the standard greeting when someone returns from travelling. And I replied with the standard reply “Allah yusalamik” (God give you peace/safety). My friend then asked when I had returned to Jordan and why hadn’t I told her earlier that I was back! She had found out from her husband’s brother’s wife that I had visited her the day before for breakfast, and so was berating me for not letting her also know of my safe return.

After suitable apologies and explaining that I had been busy with guests visiting and also saying goodbye to friends who were traveling, my friend was keen to invite me to visit her. It is customary for friends to visit those who have returned from traveling or invite them to visit. In summer it is rather hot in the daytime, so she suggested that I come about 6pm so that we could sit outside in the cooler evening air.

Uninvited guest

Another custom with visiting people here is that it is acceptable (and even expected) that you will bring along a friend or family member with you, often without asking the host. So I also invited my friend Hannah to come with me.

We spent a lovely time sitting outside under the shade of a vine, chatting with my friend and her 3 daughters and being brought various refreshments. The mother caught the eye of her eldest daughter and whispered instructions of when to bring things and clear things away. We drank juice and then we were given plates of fruit, followed by coffee and chocolates. Being served coffee is usually a signal to leave, but they implored us to stay and drink tea and eat cake too. Topics of conversation ranged from the health of family members, studying language, climate change, breakdown in traditional family relationships and the challenges of social media. We also talked about neighbours and the meaning of “neighbour” with the story of the good Samaritan.

Jealousy management

I plan to invite my friend to visit, with women from her extended family, for lunch at my house soon. There does seem to be an element of jealousy if I spend more time with one or other member of the family, so hopefully extending the invitation to all will reduce this, even if it will be a lot of work cooking for everyone!

Lunch in Salt by Kira Miles

At 2pm, Isaiah and I were picked up from school by Mum & Dad, after they picked up Ethan from his school. Then, we drove to Salt (a town near Amman) , which was a long car ride because there was a lot of traffic. We arrived at about 3.15pm at the house of a family which had invited us to come for lunch.

While we were waiting for lunch to be ready, I was reading a book and the adults were talking. One of the adults asked me a question but I was too shy to answer in Arabic, so I just shrugged my shoulders.

Then we ate lunch, which was really yummy - Diwali (rice wrapped in grape leaves), stuffed courgettes and chicken. They were always keeping our plates full and trying to get us to eat more, even though we said that we had had enough.

After lunch we went into the garden and one of the girls (about 12 years old) asked me if I wanted to come with her to explore around the house, so we went walking on the road in the local village. While we were walking, she told me all about the weather in Salt (in Arabic) and then she asked me what the weather was like in England. So I told her that it was cold and rainy most of the year.

Then her twin sister joined us and we chatted about school before going to the shop together to get some ice cream and crisps. When we got back, we played piggy-in-the-middle but they call it 'birdie' because pigs are forbidden in Islam. Lots of different relatives came to say hello while we sat in the garden. One of them did a magic trick which Ethan really enjoyed (see video)

When we were leaving, the 2 twins asked me to come back soon. That day was the most Arabic I've spoken in my life because I'm usually shy to speak Arabic even though I know a lot.

Teaching at the women's military academy

It was the first day of my new course at the Jordan military training school for women. Along with 3 other teachers and one of my managers from the British Council teaching centre, we traveled from Amman to the Army base in a city called Zarqa. It has about 1 million people and is about an hour away.

 Paul's class

Blind leading the blind

We left early so that we would not arrive late on the first day, but after a while we realised that our driver was heading for the wrong location on his phone and we were on the wrong side of the city. After obtaining the correct placemark from our office, we ended up arriving 15 minutes late, but no one seemed too concerned.

When we arrived, our first task was to divide up the students into 4 classes. I had been there the previous month to do English level tests, so we knew which classes to put them into. There are 67 women in the course which will last for the next 2 months.

In our first lesson, the main aim was to get to know one another to check that everyone is in the right level by doing lots of different writing and speaking activities. I found out all about their army training programmes and about how some of them manage to fit it around being mothers of small children.

Chasing a cat with a parrot in its mouth

One of my ice-breaker questions was, 'Tell a funny story from your childhood' and the funniest story was, 'When I was a little girl, we had a pet cat and a pet parrot. One day the cat caught the parrot in its mouth and ran out of the house. We all ran after it and the neighbours were all laughing, watching us chase a cat, carrying a parrot, down the road.'

The lesson was two hours and forty five minutes, which is quite a long time for a lesson, but it passed by quickly and we had a lot of fun.

This course was paid for by the Canadian government, as part of its 'Empowering Women' aid programme. It's a really great opportunity for these women, who don't normally get a chance to receive good quality English language education in Jordan.

Lunch in the village

We set off at 11am and headed north out of Amman for about an hour and a half. We were visiting the family of one of our Jordanian friends, up near the Syrian border. We had been there once before so we did not need to use the map, because Kate (AKA - the human GPS) was telling me the way.

In the middle of nowhere, is a sign to 'CyberCity' which Kate remembered was the place to turn off the main road. Driving past it, it did not look much like a cyber city, but appearances can be deceiving. The road deteriorated significantly, and the last few kilometres were slow going as we negotiated our way around the massive potholes.

Average size family

The family live in a small village and, since our friend's mother had 16 children, almost everyone in the village seems to be a relative of some sort. This is quite a normal size for village families in Jordan and many old people have lost count of how many grandchildren they have.

Upside down lunch

For lunch we had a delicious Jordanian dish of rice, nuts, chicken and various spices, known as Maghlouba. This literally translates as 'upside down' because the food is served onto a massive central plate by turning the pan upside down. It was delicious and Isaiah, in particular, had eyes bigger than his stomach and struggled to move after eating so much.

Unusual foreigners

After lunch, they took us to their uncle's farm, which has sheep and horses. They were in the process of building a new house with stables for the horses on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs. We sat with them on cushions on the roof to chat, drink tea and eat dates. We overheard his cousin saying to the others,

'These are not like normal foreigners. They are like one of us - relaxed and not proud.'

At about 5pm, we said goodbye and headed back home. It seemed a shame to leave so soon because we had such a nice time with them and felt so welcome.

Visiting a Local Hospital

Escape from a warzone

Our Yemeni friend has just arrived in Jordan with her sister who is 36 weeks pregnant. They were so glad to manage to get out of their city, where bombs are frequently falling in random residential areas. One of the first priorities was to find a doctor and hospital for the upcoming birth. Also she had a previous c-section when her son was born and so was planning for a c-section again.

Chaotic hospital

Our friend had a doctor contact at Al Basheer Hospital, which is a large government hospital, and so we turned up as arranged at 8am. We called the doctor but he didn't answer. The maternity unit was crowded and had a confusing system with women lining up in different queues. Since we couldn't contact the doctor, I (Kate) stood in one of the queues to start saving a place in case we needed it.

Skipping the queue

Finally after 20 minutes the doctor answered our calls and came to the maternity unit. He told us that we didn't need to queue and took us through an area that was "guarded" by strict ladies who prevented the general public going into that area. After visiting various offices, our pregnant friend was taken for an ultrasound whilst we waited in a reception area.

A quick scan

Eventually she returned and said that after a quick scan she was told the baby was fine and head was down. It seems that they didn't do a very thorough scan and didn't take any measurements of the baby. After more waiting the doctor gave us a paper and told us to go to the outpatients department to get a stamp then take the paperwork to the Yemeni Embassy and they would authorise free treatment.

Wasta

The only problem was that the doctor left and we needed to go back the way we came through the area with the strict ladies! So I took the lead and told the women guarding the door that we needed to go through. Since I was a foreigner they let me (with my friends) through! Sometimes it can be beneficial to be a foreigner as people treat them with more respect.

We went to the outpatients clinic which was even more crowded than the maternity unit! After pushing our way through to the reception we asked for the correct office for the paperwork. We found our way to the office of the head of the department and again being a foreigner, I took the paperwork and walked straight in and got it stamped! My Yemeni friend said "You're our 'wasta' mediator". Wasta is an important concept here which is when you have people who have connections or the respect of others so that they are able to help you get things done.

We finally left the hospital and went to the Yemeni Embassy only to be told that they couldn't offer any free health-care. My friend was very disappointed but I talked to some of my old work colleagues from the University and they recommended paying for the c-section at a private hospital as it would be better and cheaper than the busy Al Basheer Hospital.

Everything worked out in the end

Thankfully a few days later we had a very different experience at the clinic of one of the University doctors who was very caring and helpful and has arranged to do the c-section on 3rd March at a cheap private hospital.

Contextualised Christmas Dinner

Our friends arrived at 4.30pm, which is still lunch time in Jordanian culture, so we told them that is was Christmas lunch, not dinner. This year we decided to do a full Christmas meal for our local friends, since we are trying to grow more in sharing food and hospitality with people.

There were 14 people, including our family, so we had brought the breakfast room table into the main area of the house to join with the dining table. This was the third Christmas meal we had cooked for our local friends, and the third turkey we had roasted in our oven.

In Jordan, lunch is not lunch unless there is rice. Food without rice is considered snack food, no matter how much of any other staple food is eaten. Therefore, we decided to cook some Jordanian style rice instead of roast potatoes. We cooked a Jordanian rice dish called 'Maglooba', which means 'upside down'. This is because the rice and vegetables are cooked together in a big pan and then turned upside down onto the serving plate. Turning such a big pan over is not easy, and needs 2 people to do it.

They thought the bread sauce and cranberry sauce were a bit strange but enjoyed the turkey meat and the mince pies and Chocolate log roll for dessert.

After the meal we served mint tea and espresso coffee, which always goes down well with Jordanians who normally drink small cups of very strong coffee, rather than large cups of coffee like most people in the UK.

We had a discussion about the Christmas traditions which relate to faith and the ones which are just secular. They saw the guitar in the corner of the room and asked if Paul could play something, so we sang a couple of Arabic songs that we know before they left.

1001 inventions by Isaiah

We went to the 1001 inventions exhibition in the Jordan museum. It about lots of inventions that were discovered in the Middle East in ‘The Golden Age.’, which were the Dark Ages in Europe.

This is Ibn Haytham, he worked out how the eye works and did lots of experiments with lenses and mirrors hundreds of years before any other scientists did similar things.

Abbas ibn Firnas was the world’s first pilot. He found out how birds fly and tried to become a bird himself by attaching feathers to his body and two wings that he could flap. Then he jumped off a tower and succeeded in gliding to the ground. On this simulator we had to flap our arms as fast and as long as we could to see how far we could go.

Many rock formation on the moon are named after Golden Age inventors and scientists.

Surgery was invented in the Middle East

This section was to show that many inventions and discoveries from the Golden Age are still used today, such as drinking coffee, studying at university, algebra, the toothbrush, the crank and hospitals.

A Different Village Playgroup

It wasn't a great start to the morning as the local lady who had invited us to do playgroup in the new village wasn't answering her phone. Ten minutes away from where we were meant to meet her, she finally called me back. It seemed like she had forgotten that we had planned to do playgroup that day but in an honour / shame culture then it would be shameful to admit that she had forgotten and shameful for us to suggest that she had forgotten! So we all continued with the plan anyway but we weren't sure quite what was going to happen. We were expecting her to bring along some young women volunteers but there were none, neither was there any sign of the tea and coffee that she said they would provide.

We drove out into the countryside and finally arrived at a building in a small village with a number of scattered houses around. The manageress of the “women's centre” came out to greet us and glowing introductions were made. It is common to speak very highly of someone when introducing them as a sign of honour.

Word Got Out

We were not expecting to enter a room full of women and children! There must have been about 30 mums and over 40 children crammed in together. The manageress was very apologetic and said she'd told only 2 mums (maybe only half an hour ago!) but word spreads very quickly in a village and soon all the mums knew that something was happening and had turned up to find out.

One Big Family

The facilities were very good, so we set up toys in a smaller room for younger children, a craft on 2 tables in another room and the mums stayed in the bigger room. After another round of formal introductions, my friend did a “thought for the day” about each of us being valuable and some gentle exercise for the mums. I meanwhile helped with older children make “binoculars” for the craft and we were blessed with 3 volunteers from the village who helped us. The children were some of the most well behaved children that we have worked with which might have been a reflection of the strength of community in this village and how most people living in the village were part of the same extended family.

Encouraged to Encourage

We had been asked to give parenting advice so I did a slot encouraging the mums to not just give attention to the negative things that their children do but to notice and praise their children when they do well. It seems that people here rarely praise or tell their children “well done”, maybe because they don't want their children to become proud, or fear of envy, the so called “evil eye”.

We finished with drinks and snacks and even though we hadn't expected so many people to be there, thankfully there was enough to go round. One mum asked, “How often are you going to come? Everyday?”. Unfortunately we can't go everyday but we hope to return twice a month.

Buying an electric car

I left home at 7.40am in a Careem Taxi, the local version of Uber, which is much more convenient than walking all the way to the main road to flag down a yellow cab, especially in rush hour. I arrived at the car dealer at about 8 o’clock to buy our new car. After handing over payment in cash and signing a contract of sale, we headed off to the vehicle licensing department to register the vehicle in my name.

A vastly improved process

The last time I bought a car in Jordan, the process took most of the day, but as a result I had made friends with the previous owner of the car, who is still a very good friend. The dealer had assured me that I’d be able to get to work before my 11.30am start time. We got to there at 9am and I was immediately amazed at how much they’d improved the system since the last time I did this. Everything was very well signposted, so you don’t need to go around asking people which office to go to next. Everything is now computerised and efficient and we were finished by 9.30. We went back to the dealer, sorted out the insurance. I took our new car from there to my work and got there by 11am. 

Buying second hand cars in Jordan

It’s a Nissan Leaf electric car. Normally, cars in Jordan are double the price of the UK because of very high import taxes, but the government here recently decided to encourage greener vehicles by announcing that electric vehicles are exempt from import tax, sales tax and registration fees, which probably halves the cost of the vehicle. Finding a good second hand car in Jordan can be tricky because of the erratic driving, high number of crashes and poor vehicle maintenance of many Jordanian drivers, but this dealer imports second hand vehicles straight from America, so that they have not been driven before by any Jordanians.

Kanafa time

The following day, we bought some Kanafa for our neighbours, which is the tradition here when you get a new car or a new house. It is a dessert made from cheese & butter with sugar and pistachio nuts on top, baked in an oven. We found out that this is supposed to protect you from the ‘evil eye’ which the local people believe can bring bad luck if people look at your new car or house jealously. Our neighbours really appreciated that we embraced this tradition of their culture, and they know us well enough to know that we don’t believe in or have any fear of the ‘evil eye’

Slow queue for the fast charge

There are a few charging points in Jordan, and it only takes half an hour to charge but we heard that you have to queue for about 2 hours to use one. Later on, an electrician arrived to install a charging point for our car on our driveway. With the mileage that we do, we should only need to charge it once or twice a week.

Barbecue in the woods

It was the day before the start of Ramadan and it was also a national holiday, so we decided to invite our friends for a barbecue in the woods. They are very poor and don’t have a car, so it was the first time they had been out of the city to visit anywhere beautiful like this.

Our plan was to pick them up at 1pm, but they called to delay this until 2pm to give them time to finish preparing some stuffed aubergines and courgettes for the barbecue.

Cultural difference

Two members of the family have slight injuries which make it difficult for them to walk far, so we went to a forest where it is easy to set up a barbecue next to where you can park your vehicle. There were several other groups having barbecues in the same area but this did not bother our friends because, in their culture, people like to go to places which are full of other people rather than seeking peace and quiet, as we would be inclined to do.

Arab negotiating skills

As soon as we got out of the car, they spotted someone who was offering horse rides to people and immediately called him over. He said that it would cost £1 per person but our friends demonstrated their amazing negotiating skills and got him down to 25p per person. They had also brought a rope and a blanket with them, which they strung up between two trees to make a swing for the kids.

Too much food

The meat that we cooked, combined with all the other food that had been brought was far too much to eat but they really appreciated having some meat to eat because they normally can’t afford to buy meat very often. 

We had a great time with them, sitting and talking, while our kids had fun, playing in the woods with their kids and we left at about 6pm. It was a great experience for our friends, who had never been to a place like this outside of the city before, and it was also special for us to be able to bless them and to share in their joy.

Wadi Zarqa Ma’in

The previous evening, we had decided to take a trip to a wadi (valley) near the Dead Sea called Wadi Zarqa Ma’in. The kids had the day off school because of ‘labour day’ which is usually on 1^st May, but the government decided to change it to Sunday 30^th April at the last minute, to give people a three day weekend. The school decided to give them the day off on Saturday 29^th April, since Sunday is a day off anyway at Christian-based schools. It is a frequent occurrence here for the government or the school to change things at the last minute.

It took just over an hour to arrive at the wadi and then we started walking. We had not visited this wadi before and straight away, we noticed that there was a lot of water flowing down this wadi, compared to other wadis we have visited. We had to carry Jenson through a lot of it, and hold Ethan's hand to make sure that he wasn’t washed downstream in some places. 

Along the way, there were small pools we could swim in and the kids had so much fun. The water was very warm because it originates from the Ma’in Hot Springs. Lots of local people were also there, enjoying the warm water, but most of them stayed in the lower pools or trekked further up the wadi than we could manage with our kids.

We got back home mid-afternoon and, in the evening, I (Paul) went to visit a friend. My friend is having difficulties in his marriage and is now under pressure from his clan sheikh to marry a lady who is available for marriage so that he can bring her to clan events, where it is expected that he should bring his wife. There are about 10,000 people in the clan and my friend is the official ‘clan advisor’ which is like being deputy sheikh. It is a difficult situation and marriage problems can be common here.

Visiting a Syrian fanily

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.

10 amazing things we saw in the Jordan Museum, by Kira & Isaiah

1) The oldest human statues in the world were found in Jordan, from 7500BC. Apparently, some people in those days had two heads!

2) A 17,000 year old skeleton was found in Petra, buried face down with its hands and feet tied together. This was a common thing to do in those days.

3) The Bedouin girls have been making rag-dolls like this one for thousands of years.

4) They found some mysterious writing from 1200BC and no one knows what it means or what language it is.

5) The lands of Ammon, Moab and Edom, which are mentioned in the Bible, are in present-day Jordan.

6) In 2 Kings 3, it is recorded that Israel, Judah and Edom joined forces to attack Moab, but the attack was not successful. The tablet below is an account of the same story written by the Moabites.

7) This clay camel water fountain was made in 1000BC. It also shows us how camels used to carry lots of water.

 8) These coins are from Petra in the first century AD. Petra was the capital of 'Arabia' which the Apostle Paul visited for 3 years (Gal 1:17-18), so he probably used these coins!

9) These are the kind of toys which Nabatean children used to make thousands of years ago.

10) These are some of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls', which were written in the first century AD and were found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1948. They contain the oldest surviving Biblical manuscripts in the world. Above is a fragment from the book of Isaiah: "A voice cries out: Prepare a way in the wilderness for the Lord. Clear the way in the desert for our God." The scrolls below are made of copper.