Back to the city with Mohammad

A few years ago Mohammad left the city of Amman for his beloved family's date farm in South Shuneh, Jordan.  It's a beautifully simple way of life here and it's pretty clear he has no regrets.  On the trip to drop off Christine at the airport, Mohammad took me on a wonderful journey to his past and gave me a chance to meet many of his relatives.  It all started with an hour long drive beginning at 3:30am to the airport in Amman.  We dropped off Christine before the sun came up.  There was a lot of time to kill before he and I could accomplish the things we needed to do while in the city.  We made 18 stops before returning home to the farm.  

Stop #1: It's still dark outside and we're at the central produce market in the city.  Here everything is sold in bulk to smaller food companies to be resold.  Our aim was to surprise Mohammad's brother who works at this stand but he wasn't there yet.  Instead we ate the most delicious sandwich rolls from the guy on the left in the background.  We also picked up a tray of these cactus fruits.

Stop #2: Breakfast is served here from 4am to 8am only in an area of an old refugee camp.  There are just 2 dishes and both are chickpea based.  When we arrived the place was packed and there were no tables so two young men offered us to sit with them and eat their food until ours arrived.  In the end they decided to pay our tab. This is just unheard of in the US.  All we could say was "Shukran!" (Thank you in Arabic).

  Stop #3: Because we hadn't slept, Mohammad's nephew who was with us for this trip but lives in the city, offered us a snooze on his couches.  Before that though, we picked some fresh figs from his garden.  Mohammad calls figs the fruit of heaven and it's clear why.  They are juicy and sweet with an extraordinary texture that is indescribable.  The sleep was equally as delicious.

Stop #4: We made a quick stop at Farah's house, a musician friend of Andreas and the reason we're in Jordan to begin with, because I had to pick up some equipment and my passport. 

Stop #5: Mohammad needed to get a visa photo and we eventually found a photo place after driving around in tons of traffic.

Stop #6: So this is where we went to kill some more time while the photos developed.  Mohammad has friends here and around this area where he used to have his comic writing business for many years.  There were still comics painted on his top floor office windows.  He also knew many of the artists whose work was in the museum including the man who designed the Jordan currency, the dinar.  The dinar is stronger than the dollar and euro.  1 dinar is worth 71 cents or 0.79 euros.

Stop #7: The visa office is located in a busy section of the city.  Mohammad parked his car illegally and assured me that he wouldn't get a ticket if I was in the car.  I got a quick lesson in how to say wait just 5 more minutes please in hand motions and facial expression.  I didn’t have to do it luckily.

 Stop #8: I got to meet Mohammad's older sisters and a few of his other nephews.  They fed us and Mohammad's sister who had lived in North Carolina most of her life told funny stories of when Mohammad, at 19, moved in with her.  She surprised him with some newspaper clippings she had been carrying around for over 40 years which included a story about his first business, Jerusalem Exports, that he opened in the US.  It was a very special experience to be so welcomed by his family.

Stop #9: Now it was my turn to run an errand.  We went to the hotel where my passport was last seen.  It wasn't there but we managed to get a copy of it at least.

Stop #10: Amman Police Department was next to report the passport missing.  I was so grateful that Mohammad was there to help explain the situation.  Unfortunately, the office for foreigners was closed.

Stop #11 was at real estate office who is working with Mohammad to market land in the valley.  The agency has a long history of working with Mohammad and the agent we met had followed in his father's footsteps.  It was fun to observe them speaking in Arabic and throwing in English words occasionally.  I even met a Jordanian woman there who spent most of her life in Virginia.

Stop #12&13: Mohammad made some paperwork errands and I sat in the illegally parked car again to help him avoid getting a ticket.

Stop #14 was to meet Mohammad's brilliant 28 year old daughter, Nada.

Stop #15 put us at another of Mohammad's sister's...he has 7 of them and 4 brothers.  Nada and I hung out in the car and chatted away about everything.  Then we dropped her off back at home.

Stop #16 was for buying veggies and fruits.  I stayed in the car in order to not trigger tourist prices.  Apparently that happens around here.

Stop #17: This was the stop for pita and falafel balls from Falafel Place.  10 pitas cost 0.25 dinar and 20 falafel balls are only 1.5 dinar.  Pita bread is heavily subsidized by the government in order to make food more affordable for the poor.  Big points for food justice!

Stop #18 was the last stop before getting home.  We went to the police department in Shun to get a police report that I could take to the embassy.  We were greeted by young policemen with machine guns strapped to their chest.  Then we were led to the main office occupied by only uniformed men.  Everyone was speaking over one another and it felt pretty chaotic.  The report was written on a blank white paper which surprised me because it seemed so unofficial.  It was a great cultural experience to go through.

Finally we made it home to Andreas who stayed at the farm and had a quiet, peaceful day unlike us.  It’s truly amazing how this man of 60 something years has so much energy even on just three hours of sleep.  He is sure that the high levels of oxygen here has something to with it.  Well, we ate the falafel together and had an early bed time.  Andreas and I found a new sleeping site where we could hang a mosquito net.  We slept like babies.

Our farm palace among the date palms.  You can see our mosquito net tent on the right.