Accidents Happen / Jordanian Picnics / Faces of Jordan

Sunday February 2--From Tom:

CRUNCH--"WELCOME TO JORDAN"-It was bound to happen. I've driven 54 years without an accident. But the odds are against you on the streets of Jordan. We were driving on our shortcut around Madaba Wednesday night on our way to Amman. It's the only continuous street in the whole Middle East and it's a hodgepodge of apartments, commercial and homes behind walls. No intersections are controlled with stop signs or yields so it's a crapshoot. And intersections allow parking anywhere so your vision is cut off. I know you think I drive fast but I've slowed down here since there are too many insanely fast drivers.

Going into the blind intersection, all of a sudden a flash of a yellow taxi came out of the dark, screaming through from the right. We hit the brakes and horn but --- screech---crunch!! Everyone was ok but fenders were bent in. The crowd gathered and I thought there would be a lynching. Someone asked, "where you from??" I said I was from America. They all laughed and said, "welcome to Jordan!! No problem mister" I called Malek, Osama's brother, who rents the car to me and he came right over. I had to hand the phone to the taxi driver to describe where we were since there are no street signs. When Malek got there he said " No problem Dr. Tom. Everything OK" Then he said that the taxi driver and the passenger were both his "cousins" Did I expect that? So he took Ronna and I home and went to the police station to settle. So they kept us out of it and it's all covered by insurance of some kind or another. Mostly it hurt my pride. ( There are no photos )

PICNICS IN JORDAN: There are no parks in Jordan--at least we haven't seen any. Kids plays soccer on dirt patches with rocks as markers. Now that the weather is getting into the 60's we are seeing a new phenomenon. Families drive out along the highway where there are some nice trees and lay out a blanket with a spread of food and maybe a hooka pipe. Kids run in the pastures or throw rocks at the passing cars. It's all good fun. Parks would require water, which they don't have and it would require maintenance, which they don't do. So this works. We take our beautiful parks for granted back home.

Just another Picnic in Jordan---in January

People gather along the highways for picnics, because there are no parks. 
Notice the fields starting to have green shoots coming up--in the end of January.

FACES OF JORDAN:  In a typical day I will be with people from all over the world, mostly places that we wouldn't encounter in Utah. I have students from Malaysia, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Bethlehem in the West Bank and of course Jordanians, some of whom were born in the US. At church we have people from the Philippines, India, Cambodia, Germany, and US Embassy workers whose previous assignments were Finland, Camaroon, Mozambique, Tailand and the US. 

My Faculty members come from Syria, Egypt, Italy, Russia, England, Lebanon. One of my good friends left yesterday to visit his wife and children in Damascus. He needs to fly from Amman to Beirut, Lebanon and hire a car to drive him across, through the checkpoints to Damascus. He said they are still safe, "Insa Allah" or "God willing".  A student in Ronna's Comm II class, Wes'sam went home to Syria over Christmas. He took a bus across the southern sector, one of the worst areas. I asked him about it and he said it was very bad and didn't want to talk more. He will in the near future. 

Meet Lani--a domestic worker  for our landlady. She is from Sri Lanka and one of the happiest people I have ever met. She is always laughing and works very hard but they treat her well.

I will show more in the future.