Inauguration Day in Jordan

Dan watched the inauguration in the Embassy's cafeteria while playing darts. Duffy and a colleague gave a talk at the American Language Center on what happens on Inauguration Day. The most interesting comment from the audience was one guy who asked "this is the first time there has been a big event for the inauguration right?" I said "No" and that every four years it is the same ceremony and party and parade, etc. He and the guys sitting next to him said "really - it never made the news here before." Just as Jordan was fascinated by the election - they were also interested in the inauguration. I gave a short talk (see photos of me and the audience) and then we watched the inauguration together. Jordanians love poetry but I think they too struggled to understand the point of the poet who inenviably followed President Obama.

Today's headline in Jordan: President Obama Calls King.

Book Recommendation

I loved "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" which arrived with other Christmas goodies. It is an American re-telling of Hamlet (like West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet) - with the main character a mute boy living in northern Wisconsin with his family who raises dogs. Just like Hamlet there is an evil uncle who insuates himself into the family and a lot of people die at the end. It is a great, beautifully written book. Caution: it is a slow read.

Protests in Amman

Since the start of the attacks in Gaza there have been 600 protests in Jordan - outside the Prime Ministry, outside the Israeli Embassy, and anywhere where it is easy to fit a lot of people. Friends live on the outskirts of town next to a yet undeveloped valley that was the site of one protest probably because it could fit a lot of people.

Protestors have called for the boycott of Israeli and American products (the U.S.'s long-term support of Israeli is seen as complicity). There aren't many Israeli products actually available here but I have heard that American restaurants like McDonalds have taken a sales hit. One of the protests was actually against Starbucks and multiple Starbucks sit-ins occured simultaneously. Several coffeeshops in our posh neighborhood now have their Canadian flags (their parent companies are Canadian) prominently displayed.

Pictures from Dubai

I feel a little bad writing about Dubai when there are attacks going on in Gaza - but we did go there for Christmas and I know you want to see us skiing in the weirdness that is Dubai.

Dubai struck as a lot like Las Vegas without the gambling but with the same sense of everything is new and everything is on a big scale - big offices, big hotels, and lots of fancy cars at the mall. There are a lot of malls but some of that is because it is so hot there in the summer you couldn't possibly spend anytime outside so all entertainment needs to be inside.

Our photos:

#1 - Dan at Ski Dubai. We also have some movies but I can't figure out how to get them into here. The movies are all of Duffy skiing a. because she spent more time going downhill than Dan did and b. because he hogged the camera. The place was really big (we stayed on the small hills) and was as cold as a meat freezer - you really needed a hat and gloves. It was also the only place where we have heard piped in christmas music all season.
















#2 Dubai Museum - a lot of Middle Eastern museums are old houses with mannequins in local costumes. Dubai's museum was much better than average since their mannequins seem to have been built to be in a museum rather than being a department store mannequin wearing a kefiyeh (tangent: the newspaper reports that kefiyeh (checked head scarf) sales are skyrocketing in fashion support of the Palestinians)
















#3 Bastikiyah - Dubai has one historic neighborhood of homes from the 1890s (newer than our house) that were owned by Iranian pearl merchants (Emiratis were the poor pearl divers who lived in Palm frond houses that didn't survive). No one today lives in the historic neighborhood so it is eerily quiet. Here Duffy is in the doorway to an art gallery.




















#4 Fulla - Fulla is the Arabic Barbie. She has "indoor fashions" aka regular clothes and "outdoor fashions" which are very modest abayas. Here is Duffy in a mall toy store wearing an indoor fashion with Fulla in an outdoor fashion.




















#5 Dubai is a port city with a "creek" dividing it. Here is the public transportation which crosses the creek for $.25. We had lunch at a resort where rooms cost $800 a night that had romanticized these boats and used them as transportation to the rooms.















#6 Here is Dan with Dubai's iconic Burj Dubai hotel. We didn't go in because you have to pay $20 for a tour or have a $75 lunch.

Gaza is in bad shape - we are fine

We first want to assure people that we are fine here in Jordan. The Gaza situation has impacted us in only very small ways. A large percentage (somewhere between 40% to 80% depending on whom you ask) of Jordanians are of Palestinian descent and so this is a country paying close attention to the attacks in Gaza.

This weekend, Dan helped evacuate some Americans who had been in Gaza. Across Amman there have been a large number of peaceful demonstrations that we have stayed clear of. Most New Years Eve celebrations were cancelled in Amman as they were in many Arab cities.

The State Department is hiring...

A long article in the New York Times.

Day trip to Madaba with Peace Corps Volunteers

Over the Eid holiday we hosted two friends of our friend Rob. (We offer our hospitality to friends of friends, or else we'd have no houseguests at all). Rob's friends had just finished up their 27 months in Morocco. We hoped that a few days with us, as fellow Americans in the Arab world, would help their transition back to the States - but we have our doubts. We had a dinner in their honor, and invited a few of the many former Peace Corps volunteers who now work for the State Dept. I don't think our dinner table discussion (rug shopping in Syria and the discovery of a new spa) compared with their tales of washing clothes in a plastic bucket. Or as one of our guests put it - when he was in the Peace Corp he met many State Department officers and found them all to be "neo-colonialist [jerks]" I fear we left the same impression on our guests. We were, however, able to provide hot water, a down comforter and Internet access - so maybe they can be bought.

They took a day trip to Petra and the next day we showed them the Baptism site and Madaba (site of a mosaic map and our favorite restaurant in Jordan). They suggested we all go somewhere we hadn't been before but we had to admit that Jordan is a small country and their really aren't that many places we haven't seen. We are thinking about organizing an outing to Mafraq because we heard there is a sheikh there with a herd of really pretty white camels but it didn't seem like a good destination for people who are only in Jordan for two days. In the Madaba church, which is known for the mosaic map, we noticed a different (less ancient) mosaic which we thought looked a lot like Joseph with his baby Jesus hand puppet.