Spring is missing

The high today and yesterday was in the 90’s. We had been told by so many people how beautiful spring in Jordan is – little did we know that Spring is also fleeting. Talking to Jordanians – they absolutely HATE the cold (cold being 50s) and much prefer 90s. It is indeed pretty out – hillsides that are brown most of the year are now green, there are some blossoming fruit trees and the geraniums in our yard have perked up some.

This weekend, we went up to Damascus and stayed with a friend who works in the Embassy there. As before, we loved Damascus’s French-influenced food and ate quiche and crepes for breakfast. Unlike before, however, our main goal on this trip was shopping and indeed we left with three beautiful rugs and placed an order for a damascene chest. Damascene furniture is very distinctive with varying amounts of inlaid mother-of-pearl and lots of carving. Pictures of all to come…

After the busy-ness of last week’s visit, I am now getting caught up on the other half of my job which is researching and writing about Jordan’s economy. I had a very fun meeting with the guy, Mr, Marwan, who is in charge of Amman’s street numbering and naming commission. He was enthusiastic about his work, which now is focused on making sure streets have one name and all buildings on the street have a single, unique number. He said when the project started the main street in Amman Zahran Street, literally had 50 buildings that were “#2 Zahran Street” because of some crazy numbering system developed by a Polish consultant in the 70s. His office has been busy installing big blue numbers on buildings and just this week they started installing green street signs on poles (they look JUST like the Sesame Street logo – except they are bi-lingual). The signs will replace the street signs that look like this that are too often on low walls behind bushes.

He said the opted for “Arabic” numbers (the kind Americans use) rather than “Hindi” numbers the kind Jordanians have historically used to help tourists out. He said they considered having both but it doubled the cost. It re-affirms my belief that in 10 years, Jordan will have entirely dropped its use of Hindi numbers – since now many businesses already use just Arabic number.

Mr Marwan admitted however that the biggest barrier to his project is the fact that NO ONE actually uses their street address and no one knows the names (and definitely not the numbers) of places that they go. I think we have mentioned before that while we have an address “7 Bor Saed,” whenever we have a party we send out a map full of landmarks (the Sheraton, a bank, a mosque) with no street names on it (we are part of the problem). We also have never had a cab ride where we could use our address instead it is always “Go to this circle. Turn right. Turn left at the bank. Turn right. Stop.”