Robert & Joy's Excellent Adventure Day 1: hospitality Jordanian style #Robert&Joy2019

We made it! Daddy & Joy have been reunited in Amman, Jordan! We begin our tour of the Holy Land in Tel Aviv officially on Sunday night, but we arrived safely to our hotel this evening two nights early for some down time before we meet our fellow travelers on Sunday at dinner.

But this was only the second highlight of my day!

To get on the same flight to Tel Aviv from Amman with Daddy, I had to catch the 5:35 flight out of Abu Dhabi and arrive in Jordan at 9 a.m. An 8-hour layover. Blech. But wait!

It just so happens that I have a friend in Abu Dhabi from Amman that has college-age children whom I've recently met (we'll call them D and A). About 2 months ago they came to visit and we hit it off. So I messaged them earlier this week to tell them I'd be in town. 

D immediately invited me to her house during my layover. Her dad arranged for another son, G, to collect me from the airport. We all exchanged numbers and off I went. When I landed, I texted G nervously as I waited in line for my visa (in Jordan you have to purchase tourist visa for 40 Jordanian Dinar to leave the airport). I felt guilty about him waiting for me and wished I had told him to be there an hour after I landed. But he kept texting me "in your comfort" and "no problem". 

Oh, yeah, did I mention that few of these people speak fluent English? They are native Arabic speakers and we communicated through hand signals, onomatopoeia and Google Translate. G speaks hardly any. 

Back to the events of the day: G was waiting for me when I emerged from customs. We had exchanged photos for identification so he spotted me quickly. After "hello" we had few words in common but I just kept repeating "Shukran, Shukran, Shukran" [thank you, thank you, thank you]. He just smiled and said, "afwan, afwan, afwan."

He called his dad, my friend in Abu Dhabi. He put me on the phone. His dad told me to make myself at home, that I am their guest for the afternoon, you are very welcome, do not worry about anything, yes, they will get me back to the airport by 3. I am feeling super grateful to this 20-something kid for driving me around, even though we've never met, and don't speak the same language.

But this is only the beginning of the the hospitality. 

Abdoun Bridge

G offers me a water. He points to my phone and says, "wifi", then creates a hotspot so my phone will work. He asks me, via Google Translate, if this is my first trip to Jordan. This sparks a conversation of sorts wherein each of us type into our phone, hand it to the other, then wait as the answer gets typed in, translated and handed over. After a little while he asks (via GT), "Do you need food?" I always need food. "McDonald's?" he says. "Yes!" I say. We didn't need Google Translate for that.
We stop and I get fries and a hot tea, assuming that the hot beverage I will be offered at their home is Turkish coffee, which is not one of my favorites.

About an hour after being collected, we arrive at the first house for visit #1. There are four people, all of whom I have never met before!!!! G's mother, aunt and uncle. They offer me Turkish coffee when I finish my tea. I explain that I have not really liked any that I've had, but they convince me theirs might be better. It was! G's aunt and uncle both speak English well and we talk and talk and talk. 

It is an Arab thing, so I'm told, that if you compliment something of an Arab woman (I don't know if it's true for men or not) they will often gift it to you right there. I forgot about this and commented on G's mom's fuzzy purple sweater. About 30 minutes later her daughter comes out and gifts me a gift bag with the same sweater in white! Later, she gave me a lovely bracelet of Jordanian colors. Their generosity seems to know no bounds. Another time I comment on G's aunt's right and she tried to give it to me off her finger!  Luckily I convinced her otherwise and stopped complimenting the women!

Suddenly, everyone was dressing to leave (it is "cold" here....about 60° F) so we took pictures and exchanged phone numbers and got into cars. About 10 minutes away we unloaded at the house for visit #2. This is where the kids live that I have met (D and A). D and A are taking English classes but are not fluent, and the other 3 people spoke almost no English. There was extensive use of Google Translate, but tons of laughter as we made fun of each other in our respective languages. Again I was asked if I was hungry. Someone put a small container of jello in my hand. And then bananas and an orange appeared. Then the banana was in my hand. Then I was being told to eat the orange.

About an hour after my arrival, everyone stood up and told me, "jolla!" [pronounced YA-la. It means "let's go"] and pushed me into another room where a humungous platter of homemade mandi with chicken awaited us. It is a delicious rice dish with veggies and a meat.

D's mother had awaken early to cook for me, a stranger her daughter and son met once. We ate and laughed and spoke in broken English and Arabic and kept eating. They took care of me. For example, a huge piece of white meat appeared on my plate but when I looked for dark meat someone reached over to my plate and took the white meat off. Suddenly I was offered legs. Someone else took bones off my plate to help me along. They made sure I had the "salad", which was like pico-de-gallo and D-licious. I felt like part of the family.

You can't see how bit this platter is!!

My portion, but people kept putting food on it!

And then G was tapping his watch, using the universal sign for "it's time to go" followed by hugging and kissing and "thank you"'s and hand shakes and pictures and more hugging and kissing. 

Now remember, most of these people I have never met before, and we are parting ways as if old friends!

We drove back to the airport, saying back the sites we had recited on our way into the city. McDonald's. Bridge. Abdoun. Starbucks. Taj. Crown. Airport. Matar. We said our goodbyes. G drove away and I went into Queen Alia International Airport to find my dad.

One of my new friends told me that hospitality in Jordan (perhaps an Arab thing, I'm not sure) is a huge deal. He said if he had a guest coming on a Monday, we would tell his boss he needed off because he had a guest and there would be no problem. Normally, the would make me dinner or lunch and take me to the countryside, but I had so little time we just sat and talked.  

So my experience was the "light" version of hospitality!!!