Since January Shadi and I have been trying our best to quicken our journey back to America. Our original plan was to return this summer, prepare for our wedding, marry, and then return to Jordan to continue my education. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men... In 2011 I found I lost my scholarship as my graduating GPA was merely .2 under the requirement for awarding due to my mere B- in my final math class. Mathematics has always found a way to screw me since the 5th grade. So we began looking for a job that would tide me over until summer 2012; all jobs offered me in Amman paid too little to be worth the public transportation cost or even the effort of the job at all. One job even offered me the position, then after a week trial denied me said position because I wasn't a "hijabi" (one who conforms to Allah's edict that Muslim women must cover their body and hair) We lived in a ramshackle apartment in Abu Nuseir, celebrating Xmas not with my family but with a fake tree via Safeway Jubaiha and homemade ornament-making while watching my favorite Xmas movies.
However, in mid January my mother and father-in law, concerned that our staying in Jordan in the condition we were in would not aid our plan to come home, they offered to pay our way back to the US and volunteered extra funds to live on while I found a job. We began visitor visa processes immediately, hoping to get home by March and attend family events, plan our wedding, make a little money, and return to Jordan after the wedding to begin Immigration work. In Feb we were denied due to Shadi's salary intake and my American citizenship being cause to illegally skip out on a visitor visa and illegally immigrate to the States. We tried again. Another denial. As of now it has been 3 weeks since we received our second denial and are now working towards Immigration processing. Unfortunately we cannot even begin until I have been a Jordan resident for a year, which doesn't occur until August 12, 2012. We kept all of this under the rug (with the exception of a few people since Shadi has a problem with inner monologue- he doesn't have it) because we didn't want to announce it and get the hopes up of all our relatives and friends. It was hard enough on the both of us.
Anyway, after the shock of a second denial we decided the very next day (after cooling our heels and our hearts in Midtown Amman, one of our favorite places) that we would leave the apartment we despised and start working on living and doing what we wanted while in Jordan, instead of trying to escape. My friend Jessica, another revert who married into Jordan, told me that I had to learn to love Jordan first before I was allowed to leave it. I've taken her advice to heart. Irbid, the town closest to Ramtha and one Shadi and I hold much affection for, is now our target living space. Its proximity to Shadi's family, the fact that it houses 3 of my American expat friends and is near to another, and our general liking for it all go into the choice to move there. We apartment hunt seriously starting next week, although we probably won't move in until May. I already have a job prospect teaching conversational English at the Institute of a family friend who helps Jordanians immigrate to Australia. I meet my first student inshallah next week as well, as our first attempt was squandered by the copious amounts of rain 2 days ago. Since we are not leaving anytime soon, we have also decided to keep our 3 cats Hawkeye, Thakia and Yasmeen until we are halfway through Immigration processing. Firdaus will stay in Ramtha with Momma Aicha as she is a favorite among the family there and enjoys and prefers being an only "child".
It was Firdaus's attack on Yasmeen, one of our 5 month old kittens, that led us to discover the baby's other illnesses last month. Firdaus is a jealous female cat who daily attacks our other animals, another reason our decision to leave her with her Grandma was such an easy one. In one attack, she cut the eye of Yasmeen, and after 3 days of no improvement we took her back to Dr. Ala'a who pronounced that her eye would have to be removed soon. :( Ontop of which she was affected by food poisoning as was her sister Thakia after taking a taste of my shisha tobacco, which turns out to be toxic for cats. The 3 days of stomach upset damaged her teeth and like her brother Hawkeye, gave her gingivitis so bad it needed 10 days of medication and 3 days of fasting. After several weeks, her condition is improved, but the gingivitis caused ANOTHER infection; the drainage from her teeth inflamed her lymph node to ginormous proportions, and 2 days ago it ruptured, freaking me the hell out. She is with the doctor until the weekend so that he may treat, clean, and observe her to make sure the infection ended there. As for Thakia, she rebounded days after her poisoning and is her usual nutty self.
Hawkeye we had originally given, along with his brother Trapper, to a nice cat-loving Circassian woman named Sally when we applied for the visa the first time. After 2 weeks we were informed he had escaped during her move and was lost in 7th Circle Amman in midwinter. The day we learned this we were visiting my expat friends group of Aubrey, Atheena, and Sherri at Sherri's place in Irbid. Atheena, a Californian woman married to a Jordanian with 2 young boys, brought with her a 2 week old gravely injured kitten she'd rescued in her house hours after birth when it was discovered the sickly mother was eating her 4 kittens. Amel, here meaning "hope" in Arabic, barely escaped but with deep and infected bites. We volunteered to take her with us to Amman to see the Vet and ascertain her chances of survival. After examination by Dr. Noor we went to 7th Circle Safeway and Cosmo to find replacement kitten milk when we realized we were near where Hawkeye had been lost. After a few minutes of calling his name, he came bounding up to us, dirty, starving, and bleeding. We took the babies home, quarantined Hawkeye in the kitchen with food and cleaning, and fed the kitten the new milk.
She would die a week later, hours after seeing the doctor for the second time after he declared her chances of survival to be the weakest. We buried her in our front yard. She would be the 2nd kitten I'd tried to save and lost; 3rd if you counted Manar who died of calicivirus. When Atheena had given Amel to us (shadi named her), we all believed it was destiny that we meet so that we might save her. After she passed, and some long thinking as it was hard to get back to sleep after her death, I determined that fate was still a player; Amel died in the wee hours of the morning, when Atheena and her family would be asleep. She would have died in pain and alone. If the boys had found her, either dying or dead, it might have been traumatic to them. Amel came to us so that she might have a safe and comfortable place, and to be comforted when she passed. I believe this; without this I might not have had the strength to continue my rescue efforts. Hawkeye it was discovered had a bad puncture wound on his chin, fungus on his ears, and gingivitis so extreme it tore his gums. After weeks of medicine and care, he is bigger, clean, and healthy once more although he still needs his pills for his teeth now and again.
MY teeth, however, are not in their best shape. A month ago I experienced a pain in my molars so deep I had to practice imagination techniques they teach people who donate bone marrow in hospitals (the extraction is so painful that patients need several ways of staying conscious). Every day since then has been a new adventure in pain, some only minutes, some lasting hours. The worst was 4 days ago in Amman, and after much evidence gathering I have come to conclude that A: my abscess has returned and my 25 year molar is impacting another tooth, and B:the elevation change from Ramtha to Abu Nuseir only makes the pain worse. Our pharmacist in Amman, who thought I was Russian, prescribed Lincodar (a Lincomycin product), and it has done nothing except cause a fainting reaction when I smoked argeelah merely 15 minutes. Inshallah I will see a dentist soon, although I am terrified due to that common American paranoia regarding visiting "3rd-World" country medical offices. I've heard horror stories; I pray Shadi takes me to the J.U.S.T hospital as their dentists are trained in Iowa and the U.K. (Is that ethnocentric? I think so)
We are nearly through moving back to Ramtha temporarily while we search in neighboring Irbid; only a few things remain I have painstakingly packed in newspaper, like this:
We do not own a car, so have been relying in "Service", cheap taxis between towns, to get us and our stuff to Ramtha. I must say I am a champion at fitting things into a suitcase that might not have fit without me :D Mom is scared to let me drive in Amman so she won't allow me to take the family car to retrieve the rest of our things; we wait on Cousin Hamoode this time although its cheering that she's allowing me to drive us to Huwwara tomorrow. I'll have her convinced that I'm the family driver soon, oh yes! Last week us and Aunt Turkia's family picnicked in Huwwara as they do every friday until summer. Tasty fried chicken, tea, snacks and fruit were on the menu. We prayed in the grass, made a fire, and wildflower hunted on my insistence. Jordan, in the spring, is AMAZING. Just as I found when I came here the first time, exactly 1 year ago. This is only some of what is saturating the landscape here:
With these and a few others, I made a stunning wildflower bouquet :D Huwwara is a vast expanse of field and farmland located on the Syrian border between Ramtha and Irbid Highway. The Alkhazaaleh land touches the very border fence, as does the land of every other tribe in Ramtha. This has been their land since before the split by the Allies, and they consider Duraa in neighboring Syria to be a brother town, full of relatives. To many arabs, there is no such thing as a Syrian or Jordanian when it comes to close quarters like this. Shadi attempted to take me to the border road where Syria begins to show me where the fence marks the beginning of landmines that still exist there, but Border Patrol waved us back. Not like I was interested in being too close, anywho. After returning to the fire for tea and snacks, the Border Patrol made us evacuate as firing had begun in Duraa, the town not 3 miles from the border. I mused that they must have long bullets if they were that worried about firing 3 miles away. Here the "Arab Spring" has 2 meanings.
Shadi told me that in summer the fields get barren and dry and cause wildfires. A relative had accidentally ignited one when ashes from his cigarette caught the brush and sent a wall of flame across the border, setting off the landmines. He was arrested and hilarity ensued when he had to convince them he had not meant to start an international incident :D Mom let me drive 1/8 of the way home; then I made her drive a few minutes. She really ought to learn. Half of the female population in Jordan still doesn't know how to drive.
That night my argeelah caused me to nearly faint due to its reaction to my antibiotics, which was not a warning on the instructions. I have shisha fasted 5 days now to avoid a recurrence. We had our first thunderstorm 2 days ago when I'd lost hope of ever seeing a real one in Jordan. Power outage, loud crashes and hail made me a very happy woman.
As you may have noticed, so far I have only discussed two things mentioned in this blog title. Here I relate to you the reason behind the first name. Since coming here I have noticed many things I consider to be out of place; garbage not in garbage cans all OVER the country, lavender paint on houses, random donkeys, building material nowhere near construction, a couch in the middle of a field, and lastly, toilets. Now granted I have only seen 4 so far, but even one is enough to make you wonder at the motives of people. In Amman, nearest to my former apartment, I counted 3; there is one in a ditch in Ramtha. Most of these toilets are not whole, and merely laying alone in plain sight. With the Arab obsession regarding bathroom etiquette and cleanliness, I wonder as to what they imagined a toilet, meant for said use, should be doing on the side of the road. Pictures to come. Other things we don't see much of unless its winter and we need it, is trashcan fires. All over Jordan I've seen large dumpsters belching smoke after someone tosses in their cigarette or something and the flame ignites the whole mess of it, spreading an odor I hope never to encounter again. My eyes still water at the thought of it.
To make posting shorter, I have started a board on Pinterest, the craze that is sweeping the nation of females, to highlight things I would otherwise spend countless posts on. Start an account, its easy, and check it out at my board: All About Jordan: A PhotoBlog
However, in mid January my mother and father-in law, concerned that our staying in Jordan in the condition we were in would not aid our plan to come home, they offered to pay our way back to the US and volunteered extra funds to live on while I found a job. We began visitor visa processes immediately, hoping to get home by March and attend family events, plan our wedding, make a little money, and return to Jordan after the wedding to begin Immigration work. In Feb we were denied due to Shadi's salary intake and my American citizenship being cause to illegally skip out on a visitor visa and illegally immigrate to the States. We tried again. Another denial. As of now it has been 3 weeks since we received our second denial and are now working towards Immigration processing. Unfortunately we cannot even begin until I have been a Jordan resident for a year, which doesn't occur until August 12, 2012. We kept all of this under the rug (with the exception of a few people since Shadi has a problem with inner monologue- he doesn't have it) because we didn't want to announce it and get the hopes up of all our relatives and friends. It was hard enough on the both of us.
Anyway, after the shock of a second denial we decided the very next day (after cooling our heels and our hearts in Midtown Amman, one of our favorite places) that we would leave the apartment we despised and start working on living and doing what we wanted while in Jordan, instead of trying to escape. My friend Jessica, another revert who married into Jordan, told me that I had to learn to love Jordan first before I was allowed to leave it. I've taken her advice to heart. Irbid, the town closest to Ramtha and one Shadi and I hold much affection for, is now our target living space. Its proximity to Shadi's family, the fact that it houses 3 of my American expat friends and is near to another, and our general liking for it all go into the choice to move there. We apartment hunt seriously starting next week, although we probably won't move in until May. I already have a job prospect teaching conversational English at the Institute of a family friend who helps Jordanians immigrate to Australia. I meet my first student inshallah next week as well, as our first attempt was squandered by the copious amounts of rain 2 days ago. Since we are not leaving anytime soon, we have also decided to keep our 3 cats Hawkeye, Thakia and Yasmeen until we are halfway through Immigration processing. Firdaus will stay in Ramtha with Momma Aicha as she is a favorite among the family there and enjoys and prefers being an only "child".
It was Firdaus's attack on Yasmeen, one of our 5 month old kittens, that led us to discover the baby's other illnesses last month. Firdaus is a jealous female cat who daily attacks our other animals, another reason our decision to leave her with her Grandma was such an easy one. In one attack, she cut the eye of Yasmeen, and after 3 days of no improvement we took her back to Dr. Ala'a who pronounced that her eye would have to be removed soon. :( Ontop of which she was affected by food poisoning as was her sister Thakia after taking a taste of my shisha tobacco, which turns out to be toxic for cats. The 3 days of stomach upset damaged her teeth and like her brother Hawkeye, gave her gingivitis so bad it needed 10 days of medication and 3 days of fasting. After several weeks, her condition is improved, but the gingivitis caused ANOTHER infection; the drainage from her teeth inflamed her lymph node to ginormous proportions, and 2 days ago it ruptured, freaking me the hell out. She is with the doctor until the weekend so that he may treat, clean, and observe her to make sure the infection ended there. As for Thakia, she rebounded days after her poisoning and is her usual nutty self.
Hawkeye we had originally given, along with his brother Trapper, to a nice cat-loving Circassian woman named Sally when we applied for the visa the first time. After 2 weeks we were informed he had escaped during her move and was lost in 7th Circle Amman in midwinter. The day we learned this we were visiting my expat friends group of Aubrey, Atheena, and Sherri at Sherri's place in Irbid. Atheena, a Californian woman married to a Jordanian with 2 young boys, brought with her a 2 week old gravely injured kitten she'd rescued in her house hours after birth when it was discovered the sickly mother was eating her 4 kittens. Amel, here meaning "hope" in Arabic, barely escaped but with deep and infected bites. We volunteered to take her with us to Amman to see the Vet and ascertain her chances of survival. After examination by Dr. Noor we went to 7th Circle Safeway and Cosmo to find replacement kitten milk when we realized we were near where Hawkeye had been lost. After a few minutes of calling his name, he came bounding up to us, dirty, starving, and bleeding. We took the babies home, quarantined Hawkeye in the kitchen with food and cleaning, and fed the kitten the new milk.
She would die a week later, hours after seeing the doctor for the second time after he declared her chances of survival to be the weakest. We buried her in our front yard. She would be the 2nd kitten I'd tried to save and lost; 3rd if you counted Manar who died of calicivirus. When Atheena had given Amel to us (shadi named her), we all believed it was destiny that we meet so that we might save her. After she passed, and some long thinking as it was hard to get back to sleep after her death, I determined that fate was still a player; Amel died in the wee hours of the morning, when Atheena and her family would be asleep. She would have died in pain and alone. If the boys had found her, either dying or dead, it might have been traumatic to them. Amel came to us so that she might have a safe and comfortable place, and to be comforted when she passed. I believe this; without this I might not have had the strength to continue my rescue efforts. Hawkeye it was discovered had a bad puncture wound on his chin, fungus on his ears, and gingivitis so extreme it tore his gums. After weeks of medicine and care, he is bigger, clean, and healthy once more although he still needs his pills for his teeth now and again.
MY teeth, however, are not in their best shape. A month ago I experienced a pain in my molars so deep I had to practice imagination techniques they teach people who donate bone marrow in hospitals (the extraction is so painful that patients need several ways of staying conscious). Every day since then has been a new adventure in pain, some only minutes, some lasting hours. The worst was 4 days ago in Amman, and after much evidence gathering I have come to conclude that A: my abscess has returned and my 25 year molar is impacting another tooth, and B:the elevation change from Ramtha to Abu Nuseir only makes the pain worse. Our pharmacist in Amman, who thought I was Russian, prescribed Lincodar (a Lincomycin product), and it has done nothing except cause a fainting reaction when I smoked argeelah merely 15 minutes. Inshallah I will see a dentist soon, although I am terrified due to that common American paranoia regarding visiting "3rd-World" country medical offices. I've heard horror stories; I pray Shadi takes me to the J.U.S.T hospital as their dentists are trained in Iowa and the U.K. (Is that ethnocentric? I think so)
We are nearly through moving back to Ramtha temporarily while we search in neighboring Irbid; only a few things remain I have painstakingly packed in newspaper, like this:
 | ||
| Only a lot neater as I am a packing perfectionist. |
We do not own a car, so have been relying in "Service", cheap taxis between towns, to get us and our stuff to Ramtha. I must say I am a champion at fitting things into a suitcase that might not have fit without me :D Mom is scared to let me drive in Amman so she won't allow me to take the family car to retrieve the rest of our things; we wait on Cousin Hamoode this time although its cheering that she's allowing me to drive us to Huwwara tomorrow. I'll have her convinced that I'm the family driver soon, oh yes! Last week us and Aunt Turkia's family picnicked in Huwwara as they do every friday until summer. Tasty fried chicken, tea, snacks and fruit were on the menu. We prayed in the grass, made a fire, and wildflower hunted on my insistence. Jordan, in the spring, is AMAZING. Just as I found when I came here the first time, exactly 1 year ago. This is only some of what is saturating the landscape here:
 | |||
With these and a few others, I made a stunning wildflower bouquet :D Huwwara is a vast expanse of field and farmland located on the Syrian border between Ramtha and Irbid Highway. The Alkhazaaleh land touches the very border fence, as does the land of every other tribe in Ramtha. This has been their land since before the split by the Allies, and they consider Duraa in neighboring Syria to be a brother town, full of relatives. To many arabs, there is no such thing as a Syrian or Jordanian when it comes to close quarters like this. Shadi attempted to take me to the border road where Syria begins to show me where the fence marks the beginning of landmines that still exist there, but Border Patrol waved us back. Not like I was interested in being too close, anywho. After returning to the fire for tea and snacks, the Border Patrol made us evacuate as firing had begun in Duraa, the town not 3 miles from the border. I mused that they must have long bullets if they were that worried about firing 3 miles away. Here the "Arab Spring" has 2 meanings.
Shadi told me that in summer the fields get barren and dry and cause wildfires. A relative had accidentally ignited one when ashes from his cigarette caught the brush and sent a wall of flame across the border, setting off the landmines. He was arrested and hilarity ensued when he had to convince them he had not meant to start an international incident :D Mom let me drive 1/8 of the way home; then I made her drive a few minutes. She really ought to learn. Half of the female population in Jordan still doesn't know how to drive.
That night my argeelah caused me to nearly faint due to its reaction to my antibiotics, which was not a warning on the instructions. I have shisha fasted 5 days now to avoid a recurrence. We had our first thunderstorm 2 days ago when I'd lost hope of ever seeing a real one in Jordan. Power outage, loud crashes and hail made me a very happy woman.
As you may have noticed, so far I have only discussed two things mentioned in this blog title. Here I relate to you the reason behind the first name. Since coming here I have noticed many things I consider to be out of place; garbage not in garbage cans all OVER the country, lavender paint on houses, random donkeys, building material nowhere near construction, a couch in the middle of a field, and lastly, toilets. Now granted I have only seen 4 so far, but even one is enough to make you wonder at the motives of people. In Amman, nearest to my former apartment, I counted 3; there is one in a ditch in Ramtha. Most of these toilets are not whole, and merely laying alone in plain sight. With the Arab obsession regarding bathroom etiquette and cleanliness, I wonder as to what they imagined a toilet, meant for said use, should be doing on the side of the road. Pictures to come. Other things we don't see much of unless its winter and we need it, is trashcan fires. All over Jordan I've seen large dumpsters belching smoke after someone tosses in their cigarette or something and the flame ignites the whole mess of it, spreading an odor I hope never to encounter again. My eyes still water at the thought of it.
To make posting shorter, I have started a board on Pinterest, the craze that is sweeping the nation of females, to highlight things I would otherwise spend countless posts on. Start an account, its easy, and check it out at my board: All About Jordan: A PhotoBlog
I lived in Amman for about 1 1/2 years (1999-2000). I didn't drive. I don't think I have the guts to drive in Amman. They drive crazy! Do they drive any better in smaller cities?
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