لبنان

Every SINGLE day my entire host family gathers around the TV to watch this: the very bad, very popular Turkish soap opera The Fall of the Leaves. It is dubbed atrociously in Syrian Arabic. Attached is a particularly painful montage.

Sunset, Protest, Taxi, Pool, Car crash, Sand, etc.

I received quite a few heated comments regarding a recent post of mine about the legitimacy of the State of Israel. I will admit in retrospect that my words were impulsive and unspecific, therefore rendering them unproductive. The debate surrounding the official statehood of Palestine, however, is pressing and should not be ignored for sensitivities’ sake: brutality is a product of silence. Please keep in mind as you read this post and others that my opinions form commentary on the political and humanitarian, not theological, nature of this Arab/Israeli conflict.

Avaaz (which means “voice” in many languages) is an organization spreading information about current international humanitarian crises. Check out their info on petitioning and volunteering near the U.N. in the coming days before the Palestine Vote.

“Peace also takes courage.”

In the coming weeks Palestine will go before the member states of the U.N with a resolution proposal for “full membership”. As of now, the Palestinian Authority has “observer” status, akin to that of the Vatican, that grants them no vote or real membership status in the international organization. Tensions are high here in Jordan. Yesterday, a small riot took place before the Israeli Embassy, though the ambassador had already fled. Jordan has a longstanding peace treaty with Israel (the only Arab nation besides the ‘old’ Egypt to have positive political ties with the Jewish state), but Israel is very unpopular here among Jordanian citizens. Some Jordanians disagree with Palestinian President Abbas and advocate for a return to 1948 Palestinian boundaries, as opposed to the proposed 1967.

Attached is the Treaty made between Israel and my current place of residence, Jordan, so you can read up on the details for yourself to better understand this particular aspect of the conflict. If you so choose. Which I know you probably won’t. But whatever.

Jarra Cafe. Jebel (Hill) Amman. Isabel, Me. The Spot.

Been Jordin’ for nearly 10 days. No one understands my name here they call me Mel eetz ia. My host family, the Sawalha’s, are bomb. Mama, Baba, Aleen, Mariana, and Sandra (she has her own family and little girl Kinda). They are modern and Christian (in the 6% religious minority) and they party.

There is no water here (Jordan is the 4th water poorest country in the world). Showering opportunities are limited, which I like, because showering is a waste of time and makes my hair look bad. I’m waiting to drink the tap water by accident and get violently ill, but hasn’t happened yet. Besides the KFC I ate with my family on the first night, everything has been organic. The combination of fresh food and mandatory environmental consciousness makes me feel cleaner and more like a creature and less like American junk.


Some things you may find interesting:

1. Everyone smokes. Cigarettes are like 2$ a pack, and everyone does the hubblybubbly (a significantly more creative name for hookah).

2. Feet are taboo. If you want to offend someone quickly you stick your feet in their face. Upon entering a home you immediately wash your hands AND your feet.

3. A call to prayer echoes from minarets across the city 5 times a day, loud and clear. Sunrise to sunset. Every day. All muslims observe this call, and yesterday a cab driver stopped in the middle of our ride to pray on the cement outside his door.

4. Everyone digs bad 90s American movies, and dubbed Turkish soap operas, volume extra loud. Nothing to say about this, except for the fact that they’re bad and loud. Obviously.

5. Upwards of 90% of Jordanians consider America “the enemy”. 96% of Saudi Arabia considers the same. These are our two ‘official’ political Islamic allies in the Middle East, btw. When the news of Hurricane Irene hit Jordan, most citizens waited excitedly for the demise of America, one which we supposedly deserved for centuries of cruelty and adultery. This view is predominantly the fault of Fox news. Literally.

All for now friends. Ma’Salama.