The President Likes Me!

On September 20, the President nominated me (oh and 44 other people) "for appointment as Consular Officers and Secretaries in the Diplomatic Service of the United States of America." It still has to get through Senate approval but fortunately this will not require my sitting in front of a Senate panel answering difficult questions about my personal finances and/or campaign contributions.

My official diplomatic title is Second Secretary, which if you didn't look at the chart you might think "oh Condi is probably the first Secretary and I am a close second." In fact, there are many, many second secretaries - our embassy alone may have a dozen. I also like the chart on the left because it includes things under Second Secretary - in our embassy we don't actually have any Third Secretaries or Attaches that are below them - or at least I don't think we do - maybe they are just in bad offices that I never visit.

I just got more information on our Iraq dinner tonight - apparently Iraqi restaurants cater to one region or another. Tonight's will be an Anbari restaurant and we were told even Jordanians would stand out. I don't know what this means - but I stand out at every restaurant that we go to that isn't on the embassy compound.

"...lots of praying and no breakfast"

It’s Ramadan in Jordan – or to be precise it is Ramadan everywhere but it is impacting us here. Ramadan is the holy month of fasting – observant Muslims do not eat or drink (or apparently most difficult) do not smoke from before sunrise at 4:49am to 6:37 pm. Nearly all restaurants are closed until 6:30pm but the more days we are into the month the more we hear about exceptions – the Starbucks drive through is open starting at 9:00 am and we heard about two cafes that are open for lunch. You need to hear about these exceptions because the cafes while they have gotten legal permits to be open – have to appear closed and so the drapes are drawn and you can’t sit on the terrace or near any windows.

Surprisingly, most Jordanians gain weight during Ramadan because at 6:37 pm (today’s time) families celebrate with large meals. It is a bit like Thanksgiving 30 days in a row. And certainly the crowd at the grocery store every day at about 3pm looks like a pre-Thanksgiving rush. I have been to several Embassy-sponsored dinners (called iftars) and tonight Dan is going to the home of a colleague and on Wednesday night we are both going out to an Iraqi restaurant with Iraqi friends of friends for iftar.

We are not fasting (unless you consider the fact that we can’t stop at Starbucks on the way to work fasting). Dan’s office is 2/3 Jordanian and so he is refraining from having coffee at his desk. My office does not have any Jordanians so I have a diet coke on my desk right now. In addition, our restaurant in the compound is still up and running – yesterday we had enchiladas for lunch.

We’ve been told that in Saudi Arabia and in Kuwait absolutely no work gets done during Ramadan – offices are open for an hour or so – maybe. Jordan isn’t wealthy enough to stop working for a month but most government offices and businesses close here at 2pm. Our own Jordanian employees are working a 6 hour day and my day while not shorter is definitely slower – fewer calls, fewer meetings.

p.s. before we knew we were Jordan bound – we fell in love with America’s statistically least favorite song which includes the refrain sung by children “Ramadan, Ramadan – lots of praying and no breakfast!” Order yours today.

DC Representation

If anyone happens to read this entry this morning (Tuesday), please consider dropping a note to your favorite Senator about DC representation. Yes, DC is majority Democrat. So for half of you, you should desperately want DC reprensentation. For the other half, DC is not void of Republicans (10%!) and the way the bill is structured Utah would also get an additional representative which will surely be a Republican. The proposed bill should be party-neutral.

DC Vote has a helpful website if you'd like to use their tool to send an email about
DC House Voting Rights Act (S. 1257). Click on the Act Now link. The motion coming up on the Senate floor TODAY would merely clear the way for lawmakers to consider the bill.

Meat Parties ...mmmmm meat

As Auric Goldfinger said “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Three times in three weeks Dan and I have been invited to meat parties. Party number one: colleague serves sausage and smoked meats smuggled back from Paris. Party number two: a different colleague serves pork and smoked meats smuggled back from Prague. Party number three (last night): a third colleague grills us fabulous American steaks bought dearly on the one day that American meat was available at the grocery store.

We’ve been asked many times if there is anything that we miss in Jordan that kind friends and family could send to us. In fact, most things are available here (for a price). The exception however is decent meat and so when someone has some they tend to use it as an excuse to throw a dinner party. Jordan’s domestic meat supply is limited to chickens and some so-so lamb. I’ve also seen goats around the country but have not seen it offered in stores – they may just be used for cheese and yoghurt. We have been told NOT to buy the Chinese meat available in the grocery store. You’d think this would mean that we would become vegetarians but in fact it has mostly meant we don’t cook much – instead living on falafel, spaghetti and dinner parties.


Homer: Look kids! I just got my party invitations back from the printers.

Lisa: [Reading the invitation.] "Come to Homer's BBQ … Dad! Can't you have some other type of party, one where you don't serve meat?

Homer: All normal people love meat. If I went to a barbeque and there was no meat, I would say 'Yo Goober! Where's the meat!?'. I'm trying to impress people here Lisa. You don't win friends with salad.

Less Talk, More Photos

Marcus Aurelius' Temple of Hercules at the Citadel, Amman (built 170 AD)

Sitting at the base of the temple's pillar, overlooking downtown Amman

Bobbing in the buoyant Dead Sea

The deck outside outside our apartment

Bowling for Allies

One of my favorite movie lines is in the Adams Family when a Girl Scout meets Wednesday with Girl Scout cookies and Wednesday asks “Are they made with real Girl Scouts?” Similarly, I have been to a fair number of princess birthday parties. It is quite possible that Lizzie alone has had 2 or 3. But now I can say that I have been to a princess birthday party with a real princess. Contrary to what the birthday party industrial complex, which has tiaras, wands and pink gift bags to sell, wants you to believe, princesses go bowling for their birthdays. The princesses eat bowling ball shaped cookies and their boy guests run around wildly having battles with pool cues while Philippine nannies stand in the distance murmuring “habibi” (“sweetheart”).

I discovered the princess bowling tie because last night Dan and I went to the nearly as surreal “bowling with diplomats” evening. Just like my sorority would invite a fraternity over for a “mixer.” Last night, the US embassy invited the other embassies to go bowling at a local hotel. Only we couldn’t bowl because the princess’s party was running very, very late and there was no way the hotel was going to shoo them away. So the diplomats stayed near the bar eyeing the air hockey covetously until they left. On the plus side we met some very nice Omani, Swedish and Austrian diplomats, none of whom could bowl particularly well. American world hegemony clearly extends all the way to the bowling alley.

Dinner at Legendary Restaurant

Last night we went to dinner with 4 colleagues in an old downtown restaurant - Hashems. The king and queen have also eaten here and we've been told it's popular with gangsters. Not that we know what a Jordanian gangster would look like .

Restaurant is probably a nice way of describing it. By restaurant, I mean there is a kitchen and plastic tables and chairs on the sidewalk/alley next to the kitchen. Dinner for six - $13. The woman who picked the restaurant insisted on picking up the whole tab – especially since the rest of us were mostly carrying much larger bills. $13 buys you a table full of pita bread, hummus, beans, a sort of spicy bean – hummus combination and two kinds of falafel plus bottled water, tea and fresh mint. Starbucks here pretty much costs the same as in DC.

Below sea level, Above expectations

Jordan is a small kingdom. We went “away” for the weekend to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is maybe 40 miles away from Amman but splashing in the super salty sea and playing in the pools (good alliteration, huh) made it feel like a vacation.

We started our weekend by visiting the possible site of Jesus’ baptism. Of course, there is no way archaeologists can prove precisely where two men stepped into a river 2000 years ago. The Jordan has definitely moved west, taking away land from the Israelites and giving it to the Sodomites and the Moabs and whoever else lived east of the Promised Land. What archaeologists can find is places where there have been churches in the area before and they can assume that people would put churches in historically important places.

Here’s Duffy at the River Jordan.

Yes, that is Israel on the other side. Israel has its own tourist infrastructure related to the Baptism Site (the river has two banks) but the archaeology placing the site is in Jordan is stronger.

Here we are in front of an excavation of a church that might have been located at the Baptism Site.

We spent a lot of time marveling at how close we were to Israel but then reminded ourselves there are 200,000 landmines along the border. So there probably aren’t so many illegal crossings. We wondered if get-tough-on-illegal-immigration presidential hopefuls like Tom Tancredo will propose this solution for US borders. No kidding, the Baptism Site was not open to the public until extensive de-mining was completed following the Jordan-Israel Peace Accords. On that happy note we headed to the Dead Sea (5-star resorts and landmine-free!).

We stayed at the very lovely, almost completed Kempinski Hotel. We've borrowed their corporate slogan for this entry's title. Witness Dan here savoring his morning coffee beside the horizonless pool as the temperature soars above 100 F. It was only a holiday weekend for Americans, so several of our fellow guests were familiar faces from the office. Other colleagues headed to Tel Aviv, Damascus and Aqaba.

Senators shot at - but not MY fault

I spent Wednesday through Friday as the Department of State buddy for three Senators and a representative who were in Amman coming and going from Baghdad. I did NOT accompany them to Baghdad. On their return flight, they were shot at (see below). Fortunately, they were all safe and the incident was not my fault. I was successful in my role of making sure they got safely from the airport to the hotel and that there were snacks at the hotel.

I recuperated from my time with the Senators by going with Dan to the Dead Sea - we'll post pictures this evening.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. military plane with three U.S. senators and a U.S. House member onboard came under rocket fire while leaving Baghdad, Iraq, for Amman, Jordan, Thursday night and had to take evasive maneuvers.

"I was looking out the window, a little small window, and I saw a shell or something," said Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama in a phone interview from Amman, where the plane landed safely. "And then I see a flare. Our plane started maneuvering and changing directions and shaking all around."

The rockets were "near misses," he told CNN affiliate WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama.
The flares were part of the missile avoidance system onboard the C-130 aircraft carrying the Congress members. The flares' heat are used as a countermeasure to attract rockets that have heat-seeking guidance systems.

Onboard with Shelby were Rep. Bud Cramer, an Alabama Democrat; Sens. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican; and James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma.