Travels in the Levant

Yesterday morning I woke up early and went down the street to the 24-hour internet cafe. After that Jessica and I took a cab to C Town, a huge western-style grocery store, to buy gifts for the various people and families we were going to visit. We got Salam chocolate covered pistachios, and we got various sweet desserts for Lina and Yasmin’s families. After that, Salam and her friend Islam picked up Jessica and I for our ‘homestay’ and we went to Salam’s apartment. Islam was born and raised in Saudi Arabia but has Jordanian citizenship and is of Palestinian heritage. Salam’s apartment, which her family stays in when they come back from the Emirates, was beautiful and spascious a few of the rooms even had air conditioning. Salam and Islam removed their hejab and outer shirts/abayyas to reveal beautiful hair and western-style clothes. Islam has long black, wavy hair and Salam has a cute pixie cut (which we went with her to go get a few days ago.) They taught us how to do Arabic dancing and then we ate lunch, which was something wonderful that I can’t remember the name of. Later, Shahad, Salam’s friend who goes to school in Canada and is of Palestinian origin but holds Jordanian citizenship and was raised in the Emirates, came to visit and all five us decided to go to Lebnani Snack in Abdoun, the swanky neighborhood of Amman. They had awsome ‘cocktails’ there, kind of like fruit smoothies but made with lots of milk with junks of whole fruit inside. By that time it was pretty late and so Shahad caught a cab home and we dropped Islam off at her dorm on the UJ campus (which has 10 oclock curfew on weekends.) Jessica and Salam and I went back to Salam’s appartment and heated up grape leaves and chicken for dinner which we ate while watching a blurry version of Miss Congeniality 2. Here’s a picture of us in Abdoun, from left to right, Salam, Jessica, me and Shahad.

This is picture of Salam’s car, which she shares with her older sister.

The next day we woke up late and Salam dropped us off the Amera to take quick showers before we met up with Lina and Yasmin. Those two girls met us outfront and we got on a minibus, for 20 cents, and headed for Ain Albashaa, where they live with their families. The town was about 15 minutes from Amman and is right across the street from Al-Baqa’a Refugee Camp, which we visited a few weeks ago on a class field trip. The Camp is home to about 120,000 refugees on less than 2km square of land and is packed with people, animals, shops, and dilapidated houses and shacks. First we went to Lina’s house, which had a beautiful fenced garden, where we met some of her numerous sisters and brothers (I think she has 6 siblings but I’m not sure). We learned more free-form Arabic dancing, with lots of hip and sholder shaking, before we sat down on cushions on the floor to eat a wonderful lunch that Lina’s mother had prepared. We had deliscious stuffed grape leaves and zuccini stuffed with rice and spices (my new favorite food) along with some kind of stewed okra, rice, pitas, sheep’s yogurt, and mango juice. We ate until we were stuffed and then did more Arabic dancing. Lina’s father let me try on one of the family’s traditional palestinian dresses, and here is a picture of her father and I.

We ate some wonderful dessert that Yasmin’s father had made and then drank sweet, turkish coffee flavored with cardamom. We dropped by Yasmin’s house and met her mother where she fed us dessert, this time watermellon, before we went back to Lina’s house (they live just across the street from eachother.) Someone suggested that we go to the suq in al Baqa’a and then someone else suggested that Jessica and I try on hejab before we went. They also gave us the thigh-length shirts that are popular here for both their modesty and their style. Here’s Jessica and I in the fenced garden.

Here’s Noor, Yasmin’s youngest sister, and I in the garden.

We drove a few minutes the the Camp and parked the car and the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) camp headquarters, which is the body that is in charge of running the camp. This camp was formed after many Palestinians were expelled in the 1967 War. Here’s a picture of me under the headquarter’s sign.

Somehow wearing hejab created this amazing change all around where people no longer stared at us and yelled things in English and Arabic. I could easily have passed for a Circassian or other fair-skinned person and so, as long as I didn’t open my mouth, I was inconspicuous for once. I got a pot for making Arabic coffee and some wonderful Arabic coffee, all for around $2.50. I also bought a hejab, similar to the one I’m wearing in the picture but pink, at the suq (market) for around 75 cents. Lina’s father was with us in the suq and he told me if I didn’t speak English we could get local prices instead of foreign prices and so he negotiated everything for me. Both Lina’s mother and her father are school teachers in two of the refugee camp schools (funded by Chinese, Japanese, and American dollars.) It was truly an incredible experience to blend in like we did in a setting where we would otherwise be so conspicuous. The hejab, however, was quite warm in the over 90 degree weather, I have no idea how so many women stand the heat when there is no shade. All of the people I met in Ain al-Basha where incredibly hospitable and I really got a different view of Jordanian life. Also, all of these people are Palestinians (as they call themselves) although many of the younger generation has never seen Palestine.

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