Monday, January 2, 2012

Okay, so I know I haven’t updated this blog in quite a few months; my last attempt was that disastrous videoblog upload that due to the internet speed here in Jordan had to be ghetto-posted and then YouTube removes the sound because of “copyright” laws. I’ve been preoccupied doing the part of living abroad that most people don’t like to read about, and I certainly didn’t enjoy the thought of writing about it. In the movies we are shown one of 2 scenarios for characters’ stories overseas: One, tragedy, hardship, dangers and etc, and the other being one of adventure and learning (trying new food, learning a new language, etc) Rarely do you see what its actually like. I have. However, since I have spent quite enough time in the experiencing of it, reliving the entire experience day by day through writing is just not on my list of to-do’s, so an abridged version will have to suffice. Tough. We moved into a small 2-bedroom apartment in Abu Nusayr a couple hundred feet from the Jubaiha Amusement Park in mid-October, nearly 2 weeks after our wedding in Irbid. We brought with us every wedding gift and second-hand kitchen utensil Shadi’s mother could spare, as well as 3 cats (2 of which had not been part of the original boarding party) I had seen the place a few days before in the worst state imaginable and did not start the first day with great hopes, even after Aunt Fatimah, Cousin Rusia and myself detail cleaned the place the day before. We arrived there already in a state of depression as the abandoned 3 week old kitten we’d been caring for had died during the night while relatives and neighbors had come to see us, Shadi’s brothers, and his mother off to our respective destinations (The boys to Russia, Mom to Medina, and us of course to Amman) Over the next few weeks we purchased groceries, discovered our “new” sheets from Ramtha were dyeing us both orange, found out with an emergency visit to the vet that Firdaus had caught a worm while being trapped at the neighbor’s house the same day Radar passed away, met our landlord and his family and learned we weren’t the only mixed-ethnicity married couple around, and many other things. The worst of it was the unexpected challenge that was thrown at us when Shadi’s law firm suffered the financial loss of a partner in the firm and his boss was either unable or unwilling to pay him his full monthly salary on time. We lived frequently on 20 dinar a week, subsisting on a soup and bread diet and whatever food our relatives sent home with us after weekend visits to Ramtha. Meanwhile we searched for a job for me, mostly teaching positions in Jordanian schools or nurseries. No such luck. The first job, found for me by a friend I’d made at masjid in the States, Haya Jaber, was offered to me until the Principle discovered I was a non-hijabi and that her 10 minute speech regarding my Islamic duty was not about to sway me into becoming one changed her mind. The next, one I was offered at a wonderful school in Swefieh (the richest neighborhood beside Abdoun) I had to turn down on my own because the offered salary, 300 dinar, was insufficient when monthly travel and meal expenses were calculated. The final interview I was given a mere 2 weeks ago, just before Xmas, and I await word from them. It’s a new school, only 2-years old, located not a mile and some odd from our apartment. A temporary position, it would pay just as scantily as the school in Swefieh, but with transportation and food expenses very low it would be worth having. We also took in 2 more cats, 2 month old kittens that had been born in 2 separate litters outside our apartment building to the location’s Queen cat Magdalene and her sister. Some weeks before one of Magdalene’s 4 kittens,Manal, had disappeared and was presumed dead around the time we discovered the existence of their cousins, 2 I named Yasmeen and Omar. Magdalene would adopt her neice and nephew as her mangy sister was unable due to her health to care for them. After returning from a weekend in Ramtha I noticed the healthiest kitten, Manar, looking weak and listless, so I captured 3 of the remaining 4 kittens and hurried to Dr. Alaa, the vet in downtown Amman. He diagnosed all 3 of the girls with a common kitten killer in Jordan, calicivirus, and Manar’s had reached her liver. He treated Yasmeen and Thakia with antibiotics and bid me leave Manar with him. She would die in the night and the vet tech would call me in the morning to tell me and also inform me they would bury her as well. With the weather gradually getting more and more cold, and the kittens afflicted, we couldn’t leave them outside to suffer Manar and Manal’s fate, so we took them in as well, raising our cat count to 5. We tried to capture little Omar several times as well, but after his viscious bites on us and our landlord we deemed it prudent that he stay with his adoptive mother awhile longer while I tried to socialize him. He too disappeared a few days before Xmas and we haven’t seen him since. This, sadly, is a common tale here in Jordan, as cats are one of the least looked after animals next to squirrels and turtles. I have seen more suffering cats and abuse of them than anything else here. Its very hard to see it and know you cannot do much more beyond what you are already trying. Magdalene’s older daughters, Amna and Kauthar, also live here and we take care of them as best we can. A stray dog we have named Pete also comes by some days and we feed him what we have. I have volunteered to help Dr. Alaa in his campaign to spay and neuter the feral cats of Amman in attempt to stem the number of suffering kittens and will begin my capture of both males and females when the weather warms up in February, right about mating season. It’s the least I can do. We’ve done very little else since the financial crisis hit us, and near to Xmas I was beginning to think it would pass me by uncelebrated and unnoticed. Thanksgiving had been saved by our American friend Sherri Odat who had invited us to share with her and her family that November 25th in Irbid. I met Sherri on an expatriate website called Expat-Blog.com, and Shadi and I had spent time with her and her family in October previously. We have since spent another day with them since Thanksgiving, but tragedy struck their family back in the States and she and her children have returned for the Xmas holiday to Pennsylvania until the health of her mother improves. We hope to see them again soon. We would have gladly spent Xmas with them, but after their departure, and one more payday passed unrealized, I began to feel like it would be the Year Without A Christmas for me. But 3 days before the 24th Shadi came home from work having been given the rest of his salary for November and surprised me by announcing we would take a taxi to the local Safeway that night and purchase a tree and accuturements for a modest Xmas celebration. Finding decorations was somewhat difficult, as was the tree as ours turned out to be the last in the store and the store display. No box. By my American sense of proper service I managed to guilt the staff into locating a proper box and setting us on our way to search out décor. Cheap lights from China and material to make decorations were procured from an “Everything” store and we spent the night creating a modest tree, fishing the kittens out of it, and serving Shadi his first cup of hot chocolate. We got stuck timewise in Ramtha Xmas eve, so we spent the night talking to my mother and father back in Missouri and watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1966). I insisted for us to return home Xmas day to spend time alone, and we said our goodbyes to his Mom and brother once again as they were headed to Medina a second time to spend the vacation with my father- in law. Christmas day was cleaning the house of the mess the cats had made in our absence, procuring them food, fixing the damaged tree, and watching another Christmas favorite, Muppet Christmas Carol (1995) with Michael Cane. New Year’s weekend and eve was spent again in Ramtha with Khalty Fatimah, some fabulous kebsa, visiting cousin Iman and her newborn son Ali, as well as having New Year’s eve dinner with Khalt (Uncle) Ahmed and his family. That night Shadi and I argued about the possible “haramness” (yes that arablish) of the celebration of the New Year and its traditions like the toast and the kiss. In the end I got my way of course, and we toasted with a citrus flavored Mirinda and a kiss while watching last year’s ball drop in NY on YouTube. We returned home New Year’s day to find the cats out of food and being fed magloobeh and mortadilla (baloney meat) by our landlord, not to mention a litterbox warzone and upset stomaches. After an emergency litter and food purchase and clean up we headed back down to Midtown, our favorite place in Amman, to visit the Roman Ampitheater and castle near Jabbal Amman. As usual a camera crisis occurred and we were left with 4 photos to take there. We had our first sugar cane juice (disgusting) and dinner at the famed Hashem restaurant. After some wandering we returned home to finish cleaning, watch an incompletely downloaded The Santa Claus and Muppet Treasure Island and munch on treats from Ramtha. Today we finally got our package from Customs (held due to the 2 containers of Ibuprofen inside for nearly 2 weeks) that Mom had sent us some weeks previously. We got everything we had asked for, as well as some Twizzlers Mom included for unknown reasons we immediately devoured. Thanks Mom  The past 5 months has been at times confusing, difficult, testing and occasionally wonderful. I have been sick every other week since arriving in August, which has only exacerbated our condition. Visiting the emergency room 2 weeks before Christmas was an eye-opener as I discovered the state of a “government-sponsored” clinic. Shadi had to hold me in place as a male tech gave me a shot in the a$$. Not cool. The extreme cold in our apartment due to lack of central heating has left myself, Shadi and the cats exposed to illness and easy injury. The space heater, called here a “Soba”, is fueled by a propane tank we now replace every 2-3 weeks and can only be run while we are awake or present in the home. We have to switch the tank between the soba and the oven (“foren”) , which makes for annoying nights in cooking and freezing, or not cooking and sitting in front of the heater. With the lack of certain food items and tools, and the availability of certain others, I have expanded my recipe list and cooking knowledge. When I return to the US I bring with me a few more dishes to prepare. Funny how adversity can pave the way for unexpected learning. What’s that phrase? “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Since the troubles have started my cooking has improved, I have been forced to become even more creative, and my OCD has gotten worse in some areas and easier in others. While living in Abu Nusayr we have befriended quite a few people. We didn’t expect to make any new friends, especially being past the age most people do so. The youngest son and caretaker of our landlord, Mohammad, is one of our closest. We eagerly anticipate the arrival of his wife and daughter from Brazil. He cares for our pets while we are away and does so gladly as he is a great cat lover. He has more than once provided us food, had his sister take us to the ER, and done above what an American landlord would consider his job. His situation is as bad as ours, but I think together we all 3 deal with it more tolerably than we would alone. We enjoy the company of Shadi’s cousin Eyad, Uncle Ahmed’s eldest son, and his wife Hanadi and daughter Yasmeen who behaves like an old arab woman and once asked me if my spare tire of 10lbs was my baby. The owner of the local general store, Abu Bilal, has befriended us and I spend many hours there with his wife, daughter, son and grandchildren. I have experienced new food with his wife’s cooking. We will be sad to be leaving them all behind in Jordan. Some people we have met however we will not lament being rid of. The Saudi tenants of this building, for one. Recently some male students from Aqaba have taken the apartment that was once ours, and brought with them two beautiful and well cared for cats. Upon arrival they put them outside and have not taken them in since. A beautiful female that resembles Firdaus might become mine fairly shortly as she suffers outside in the cold, eating out of trash bins. The cabbies I mostly cannot stand as they up-charge me every time I ride alone (white people are common targets for that) and some even dare to hit on me. Right now we sit at a net cafe, filling out important apps and talking to Mom. Thanks for the candy, Ma!!
How often do you get 2 twin eggs?
Right hand corner of the ampitheater
Lots of foreign tourists. Check the Japanese fellow
Fun climb
Like nosebleed seats at the football game
This would be a painful fall
Shadi falls for a Roman statue ;)
Little Ali, only 1 month old, born to Eman, our cousin.

1 comment:

  1. Enjoyed reading your blog! I really wish your financial situation improves ASAP and you'll be able to come back to the US soon! Here you both will be able to find decent jobs and survive :)
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year guys, all the best wishes and may God bless you!!

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