New experience, people trapped and friends in Jordan

The last two weeks were really full of excitement and new experiences. I start first with a sad thing as my work colleague's dad passed. My dad passed not too long time ago so I can immagine how he felt. But having seen how they deal with the same situation back home and here, that was quite different. I arrived at work and was immediately informed about the passing. As he was Muslim he had to be burried the same day. Almost all colleagues from the office went to the Mosque and some followed the car corso to the cemetery. From then on the mourning family open their house. That means that whoever knew the person who passed and/or the family passed by to show respect. You go, sit down and coffee with kardamon and dates are served. Copies of the Qur'an are on the table. So people go there and talk, show respect and that they are there to share the pain and to show that there is somebody who cares. It really shows a sense of community and it was, although a very sad reason, a very impressive and touching experience. Women and men are separated. We were staying in the living room as we went there the same day. Later, the next day they ordered a tent that was set up right next to their house where they received all male persons who came to show respect. I went back to my friend the third day around noon time as I wanted to see him. As it was Thursday I was afraid that if I went there after work there'd be heavy traffic and a lot of people as some postpone and postpone and show up at the last moment. So as I wanted to talk to my friend I decided to go earlier. I asked another colleague if he wanted to join as I was driving anyway. He was happy to join me and off we were. Now here I have to stop and switch to another story...

We had a dripping toilet for some weeks. I called the landlord to come and fix it. He dropped by with his "little helper", the Egyptian who tries to fix everything and always tells you that all is good ("Maa mushkele!") but of course it still does not work and if we are lucky he didn't make it worse... anyway, he shows up and tries to fix the problem that the water is constantly running in to the big bowl. It was just a bit and sometime it made a dripping noise but at night it sounded like a torture they show in war movies! Immagine that we have a sophisticated in wall flushing system where you have to push and while keeping pushed you have to unscrew two screws to only remove the frame. After having removed the first one there is a second frane which covers a complicated system of interconnected pins in a push/pull system... so what I am trying to bring accross is, that is is not only a chain to flush... the Egyptian tried it anyway, almost destroyed the frame and the problem was, oh wonder, still there. That's way now we started to call the professionals by ourself and send the landlord the invoice. So I asked in my company about a good plumber. They called him and he was busy and told us that we'd come Saturday, Sunday...and it was Thursday. After having been tortured for some three weeks by dripping water I coudln't wait anymore. The assisstant (she is a very nice person and helped us so many times...! She's great!) called the guy again and complained that it was urgent and yadda yadda. It worked and the guy promised to show up the same day! But he wouldn't know the time. I was OK with that. So back to the story of my colleague who's dad passed we wanted to go visit. I was about to leave the office to go and see him when the plumber called that he was on the way. Hmmm... now I had to wait for him and go with him to my place as he doesn't know where I live. I asked the colleague who'd accompany me if it was OK for him to wait for the plumber and to come first to my place drop off the plumber and then go to the other friend. He was OK and after some 15 minutes the plumber called that he was waiting in front of the building. So we went down a drove together to our place. Once arrived we showed him the toilet. He opens the frame (really professionaly!) I was surprised how professional and with what great care he opened it. He opens the second frame, looks at it and without touching anything says (with a very heavy Arabic accent): "I know the problem. No problem." My colleague wanted to wait in the car but I convinced himto come upstairs also because I was not sure if the plumber spoke English. Lucky enough I had my colleague with me as the language skills of the gentleman were limited. So he just told me that he identified the problem without touching anything... but he then asked:" It is worse in the evening, right?" I said yes and the plumber explained to me that due to the pump that pumps the water up, an over pressure builds up and one seal does leak a bit. He took the screwdriver and adjustet two screws. Done. He closed everything and says: "Khallas!" ("Done!") The completet thing lasted 10 minutes! And I was tortured during 3 weeks!! If I knew before... We had a dripping faucet and he fixed it in 5 minutes... he left after some 20 minutes and everything was fixed!! Great guy...need to keep his number on speed dial!

After the intermezzo at our place we drove to our friend and his mourning family. We arrived and sat down on a chair in the tent. We spoke to him for some 15/20 minutes. By that time it was around 1300. We wanted to leave but he told us that they'd deliver lunch in some half hour or so and we had to stay. In such an occasion you have to stay. It does not matter whatever you have to do elsewhere but it would be extremely rude to leave. Of course we accepted the invitation and after a while (took of course more than 30 minutes ;-) the delivered "Mansaf". Mansaf (Arabic: منسف‎) is a Jordanian dish made of lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt and served with rice or groats. It is the national dish of Jordan.


At around 1330 people started to arrive and the food was delivered. I'd say they had some 50 + people in the tent but food for some 200... Mansaf comes covered with a thin layer of bread to keep it moist. After taking it away they pour the sauce on it and traditionally they eat it with their hands without silverware. It was an experience... They roll the wet rice with their right hand to a ball and "pop" it into their mouth. After Mansaf traditionally Kanaffa is serverd (see previous blog for what it is). All food is offered during the three days of mourning. Family and friends offer to help. They provide the mourning family with food any anything they need. This is really nice and shows a real sense of community and that there are people who care. I was deeply impressed and have a great respect towards the society which cares and helps each other out.

Last week I was sitting in a meeting and my phone rings. It was in the middle of the morning and my wife was calling. I was about putting her on silent and return her call later when I thought that she never calls at such time and decided to take the call. This is absolutely no problem in the Arab world. Everybody answers the call when and wherever they want ;-) Anyway, I pick up the phone in the middle of the meeting and the voice on the phone says (with a strong Asian accent): "Alloooo, Mister? Madam is closed in the toilet and cannot come out!" What the heck?! I asked her what happened but she just said that I should come home. I left the office immediately (also this is possible without any problem as when it comes to family emergencies everything can wait) and drove home. Our cleaning lady was in the appartment and told me that my wife was trapped in her toilet... I spoke to Katja what the issue was and she told me that the door handle broke! You need to know that the handles are made of a very cheap brass like metal. On top of it the wooden door expand due to heatage and start to jam so you have to pull really hard and slam the door to close it. (We need a carpenter...). So the door knob broke and the cleaning lady did not dare to push the door from the outside as she was afraid that she'd break the other one too... so I pushed the door slightly with my shoulder and pushed down the handle and voilà the magic door opened. Lesson learned: Never close the door (...unless the cleaning lady is in the appartment ;-), take always the cell phone with you or we go and buy some jackhammers and leave them in every toilet to escape from the trap ;-) I mean it sounds funny now but immagine I wouldn't have been in the office or travelling and the cleaning lady not at home... poor Katja, she would have had to wait until the evening or worse! (Although she wouldn't have closed the door...) Whatever...everything turned out fine.

Last week he had quite a storm. Snow was announced (but did not arrive to Amman). As Katja bought some nice plants but had to leave them downstairs on the parking lot, we decided to go and check if the plants where not much exposed to the wind. We went downstaris and just pushed them a bit closer to the wall. We went back to the staircase and all the sudden the alarm in the landlord's appartment went off!! As we do not have a key we called the landlord. Her daughter was at home and he was out of town. She had to wake up the helper as only he knows how it works. They live some 30 minutes away and they were at our place in 15 minutes! In the meantime the alarm was off... the helper was kind of pissed as he had the impression that we called him for nothing... the daughter thanked us at least 10'000 times as she was scared as she didn't know what it was. Lucky enough there was nothing and it was a false alarm. No water, no fire, no burglar... maybe the wind just made that the alarm jump. All in all, big panic for nothing...
The weather is getting nicer and nicer and this week good friends from back home arrived. They arrived two days ago at night and yesterday we did a tour through downtown Amman, had a Shawarma Shawarma (Arabic: شاورما‎), is a sandwich-like wrap of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef, or a mixture thereof. The meat is placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shawarma is a fast-food staple across the Arab world, Europe and the Caucasus.
Katja went to the hairdresser I hung out with Katja's cousine's boyfriend while she was hanging out with Katja at the hairdresser. In the evening we had dinner at a traditional resturant enjoying a variety of Mezze

Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served in the Mediterranean and Middle East as dinner or lunch, with or without drinks.^[1] In Levantine cuisines and in the Caucasus region, meze is served at the beginning of all large-scale meals.^[2]

and mixed grill. After a beer at "The Lodge" we called it a day and we are looking forward to a great week with our friends!

Please let me add something here at the end. I have a friend who lives in Tokyo and luckily I heard him and he is OK (under the given circumstances of course). Our thoughts are with the people in Japan... This goes out to you. Take good care Fred.

Please take good care wherever you are in this world. A big hug from Amman!