Jordan

King Abdullah Mosque

Gulf of Aqaba

Hello again. 

I have two pictures up on the top of this page.  One picture is from my hotel at Aqaba looking out into the vast salt water sea that connects to the Red sea.  The other picture is a beautiful building. It is the most famous mosque in Amman-the King Abdullah Mosque.  I took this picture from right out side my house in Amman. The topic of this blog is going to be about the country of Jordan (specifically the city of Amman) in reality.  Last Thursday night I went to Rainbow street and the Friday and Saturday after I went down to the southern border of Jordan where Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia meet--Aqaba on the Gulf of Aqaba. It really made me think about the country that I am living in and the tourists that come here.  Rainbow street and Aqaba are what I am going to call fake Jordan. 

      First I am going to give a little background on the country of Jordan.  Jordan is officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  The part that should stick out most to you is "Kingdom", Jordan is ruled by a King form the Hashemite family-King Abdullah the Second.  Abdullah the First found the country of Jordan in 1949.  Unlike a few other Monarchies in the world today, Jordan is actually mostly ruled by the King.  The King holds almost all the power in the government of Jordan. There are approximately 6 million people living in Jordan with 3 million living in the city of Amman.  The country is mostly made up of Palestinians that came over when Israel became a state. There are also about 1 million Iraqis living in Jordan.  Jordan is made up of about 90% Muslims and 8% Christians.  This country that I am living in is bordered by Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria.  The country is in the center of the Middle East. There is a slight bit of background info.

        So let me get back to Rainbow street and Aqaba.  Rainbow street is around the downtown area of Amman.  I refer to Rainbow street as the westernized area of Amman.  It would be a normal street in America or England (except for the Shawarma shops).  But it is not normal at all for the country of Jordan. The street is full of Crepe shops, bars, and cafes.  The only normal part of the street are the Shawarma and cafes.  Although the cafes are not like the normal ones in Amman.  The ones on Rainbow street are more "expensive and western". Unlike other streets in Amman, Rainbow street actually has a night life.  The street is busy sometimes up till 1:00 AM.  To me the craziest aspect of the street are the cars that are on it.  80% of all the vehicles on Rainbow street are either Mercedes Benz, BMWs, Porches, Audis, or some other $60,000+ vehicle. The other crazy part about Rainbow street is the fact that men are wearing shorts and women are wearing skirts. The first week we got here and I walked on Rainbow street I did not think anything of it but 3 nights ago I thought to myself "This is fake, this isn't real".  This weekend I went to Aqaba.  Aqaba is on the beach so I had the sense that this country was not really a desert until I looked behind me and saw the brown mountains and the sea of sand.  Aqaba was just great.  There was a beach with a gulf to swim in and look at beautiful fish in the water.  Or you could be like me and get stabbed by a sea urchin.  It was a very touristy place. 

So what occurred to me was that when people travel to Jordan, the places that they visit for the short time that they are there is Aqaba and Rainbow street, the two places that do not represent "real Jordan".   So all the Americans and Europeans that come to Jordan think that it has a great nightlife and all the citizens just chill on the beach of Aqaba. They do not get a real feel of the culture. Im sorry I could not really explain further on the issue of those places not correctly representing Jordan but it really is one of those things that you have to experience. 

      Jordan is a Muslim country.  It is one of the more liberal Arab-Muslim countries, but compared to Western countries it is still very strict. 

     Before I write anymore I want go get something out in the open.  I love living here in Amman.  It is great. So far all my experiences have been good and nothing really bad has happened.  I have learned so much already about Arab culture and the Arabic language.  I am having a great experience. 

     Now I will write some interesting things about living in Jordan.  The first thing that I noticed are the crazy amount of mosques.  I thought there a lot of churches in Southern US towns.  It does not compare to the mosques here in Jordan.  Something else that makes them stick out are the Minarets(towers like church steeples) sticking up from each mosque.  The minarets lit by green lights and are very obvious in the night.  Green is the color of Islam. The next part is in relation to the mosques.  5 times a day the call to prayer is announced over the mosque's speakers and the first one normally wakes me up in the morning.  Something neat to see is how the Muslims just stop whatever they are doing and pray.  I have been riding with a taxi driver and he pulled over the car for 5 minutes and put his prayer mat on the sidewalk.  He than did his prayer consisting of him bowing down on his mat and standing up repeatedly.  Also, I go to the souk every Thursday and Friday. The Souk is a huge outdoor market that is only open on Thursdays and Fridays that takes up about 6 blocks of space.  It is absolutely huge. I just go there to look at the crazy amounts of clothes and shoes and food stands. But on Friday during the Noon call to Prayer, a lot of the Muslims go to the sidewalk and pray together.  It is a neat experience to see. 

     Another interesting and different part about Jordan are the clothes.  Of course the first thing that is noticeable are that most of the women here wear the hijab.  Also a good majority of older men wear a red and white checkered scarf around their head. It is the thing i had on my head at Wadi Rum and Petra.  90% of all the young men wear leather jackets and do not wear shorts out in public unless they are playing some type of sport.  This part is hard for me to get used to because I always wear shorts back in the States and cannot here.  It is worse for the girls in our program though because they cannot wear any "revealing" clothes what so ever. If you do not follow the dress code there is a good chance you will be harassed. 

      The part of Jordan that was the most surprising to me is how friendly the Jordanians are to me when I tell them I am American.  In America the media, tv shows, and movies portray all Arabs as not liking Americans.  In Jordan that is simply not true. Every time, and I mean every time I have told a Jordanian that I am from America I get a warm response and they start asking me questions about it.  One day at the Souk I told one of the fruit guys that I was an American and he gave me two free oranges because of it.  You would not believe how friendly these people are. Naturally though there are some that are not so pleasant. 

         The last part I will write about is the water issue.  Jordan is the 3rd poorest country in water in the world.  Try to imagine this. Every residence in Amman gets a weekly allowance of water.  The houses and apartments here have water tanks on the roof that are refilled every thursday.  So every family does certain things to make the water last the whole week. 95% of the toilets in Jordan do not have enough water pressure to flush toilet paper so all the bathrooms have little wastebaskets in them to put the used TP in.  When taking showers, we are supposed to keep them less than 4 minutes.  You never leave the water running when brushing your teeth or something like that. Houses don't have dish washers because they waste to much water. There are many more example of the water situation.  It really is a big deal.  In America, we don't realize how important our vast amounts of water are. 

There is a lot more to cover, but I am exhausted today from the weekend trip in Aqaba and a lot of homework I did tonight so I am gonna finish here. 

See you next week....

Until next time

- John Michael Middleton