Frenji Jordan Blog

Cursing out other drivers, in Ethiopia, Jordan, and DC

When I lived and drove in Ethiopia, the worst thing to call another driver was "woosha" or "dog." This seemed odd because Ethiopians in general at least regarded dogs with a benign neglect. After moving back to DC I used this epithet to great effect while bicycle commuting, to curse out the 99% of the cab-driving workforce that was from Ethiopia, when they inevitably cut me off or tried with malice aforethought to kill me.

Here in Jordan, when another driver does something especially egregious (and it's got to be borderline-murderous to even get noticed) you call them a "himmar" or "donkey." Given how Jordanians feel about dogs, you would think they would shout "kelp!" (dog) at each other in order to cause insult. Bit it's not so.

In the US we don't seem to call each other animal names in traffic. At least in the places I've lived, people call each other human body parts.

Where junk food is cool

One of the things we first noticed when we moved here is the preponderance of nasty American junk food: McDonald's, Burger King, Popeye's, KFC, you name it. (There's a funny Palestinian comic who does a bit about fast food in Amman, you can see it here.) Wendy's is oddly missing. (Are they still in business?) Our construction engineer at work, a single guy about 30 years old, loves them all, but Hardy's the best. I was dumbfounded to learn that people pay very high prices for this junk, especially compared to the relatively tasty and healthy local food. A combo meal at McDonald's is about $10 (7JD) while you can get a falafel sandwich, hummus, and huge piece of Iraqi bread for less than a dollar. In talking with people here, I learned that American fast food brands don't carry the same low-class stigma as in the US. On the contrary, being able to afford a meal with a foreign caché brands one with a certain social cosmopolitan air.  

There are more photos on the Flickr site, here.

Welcome home, Hajji

There are five pillars, or duties, in Islam. One of them is making a pilgrimage to Mecca, or making the "Hajj." People who are too poor or infirm are excused from the trip, but it is strongly encouraged for all other Muslims. People typically only do this once in their lives and it's a pretty big deal. A person who has been on the Hajj is often called "Hajji." The time of the Hajj was very recently. Just near the end of the Hajj period, we started noticing these banners, lights, and palm fronds appearing in the doorways of houses and apartments in our neighborhood.

They're meant to congratulate and welcome home the family's Hajji for that year. It's a lovely sentiment and it makes me smile when I see them.

On a completely separate note, if you're as old as I am, you remember a cartoon show called Jonny Quest, about a boy and his adventurous father, his father's sidekick, Race Bannon, and the Jonny's sidekick, named Hadji. The first time I heard someone called "Hajji" in our offices in Ethiopia, I immediately thought of Jonny quest. But now, looking at Hadji from the show, he clearly looks Indian, and probably Sikh, by the look of the turban. What do we make of this?

Learning from my students

By Mari

While Marco goes to the same office every day, I have several occupations here in Amman. One such activity is teaching business English to a couple of groups twice a week at a languag school. Most of my students are from the banking sector, while others are from international NGOs and students at University. 

The teaching methodology in our school requires a lot of participation by students, with many practice exercises being thrown at them during class. The exercises are aimed at getting students to practice their new vocabulary or business expressions. This can range from using terms found in the Wall Street Journal, to travel expressions. I am often challenged by students: some don’t think it's necessary to use a phrase as proposed by the curriculum, others want to know all of the details of a word, and still others want examples. But when simulation time comes, the assertiveness and pushiness goes to pot and students revert to simple words and familiar phrases that are akin to a comfy old robe. Most popular: "gonna" and "yanni" ("you know" in Arabic). It’s a human moment for me and I file it away in my brain during the many moments of questioning and resistance. 

A few weeks ago, we had to practice making controversial statements, arguing for or against a point of view and respectfully disagreeing with others. One of the foreign students delivered their controversial statement: “People should be fined for littering in Jordan.” It’s the same student who formed the sentence, “People should not litter” when we were practicing the use of auxiliary verbs. But the group pointed out that its not a controversial statement because there is a fine for people who litter. “Really?” The student and I just stared at each other in disbelief. So I asked, “then why do so many people litter?” The response: "we don’t know."

Immigrants not stealing Jordanian jobs

Unemployment in Jordan is about 13%, and climbing. Especially among young adults, unemployment is growing quickly. The number would be even higher if the 85% of women who do not work outside the home were counted in this number. Given what happend in Egypt, Tunisia, and other Arab-Spring countries, it's no wonder that King Abdullah says the youth bulge and its probable associated unemployment and unrest are what keeps him up at night.

On a related note, there are lots of lots of legal guest workers in the kingdom. The three most-represented countries of origin are female domestic workers from the Phillipines and Sri Lanka, and male laborers from Egypt. More than one acquaintance has compared Egyptians in Jordan with Latinos working in the construction industry in the U.S.

Given the rhetoric in the US about immigrants stealing American jobs (ignorant of the crops rotting in the fields when Alabama got tough on immigration), I wondered about that sentiment here and there was none of it. People seem very matter of fact: "no, Jordanians will never do those jobs. For them and their families it is better to stay at home in their father's house than to take a low-status job."

Eid approaching

In only a couple of weeks, the Muslim world, including Jordan, will celebrate Eid al Adha, aka "big Eid" or "slaughter Eid." The holiday is a celebration of when God talked Abraham into sacrificing his son and then stepped in at the last second and substituted a sheep. So now Muslims the world over take about four days off, and slaughter a sheep. This used to work as it does in Ethiopia: you buy a live sheep and bring it home and the man of the house slaughters it in the front yard. This kind of family entertainment is, it appears, going out of style here. In my informal poll, about 1/2 of the people I interact with now have the hard work done at the butcher shop.

A bright point in this whole business is that it is traditional to share with the poor. The sign above offers a service by which you can pay some money and a sheep will be donated to a family in Palestine. And I have no idea why the sheep in the sign is smiling, given his place in the whole business. It reminds me of the three smiling and dancing pigs on the sign for the Little Pigs Barbecue Pit back in the states.

The only inexpensive thing in Amman

New expats in Amman, especially those who have lived in developing countries, are often startled by the cost of living here. We found the prices here to be at least as expensive as DC, and in many cases even more. But one thing is super-cheap here: taxis. I would estimate taxis cost about 1/10 of what they do in DC. There are three colors/kinds of taxis: yellow, silver, and white.

Yellow taxis are the most common and all look pretty much like this one, although many are more beat-up:

They drive around and you put your hand in the air to signal them. If they see you walking and they're empty they'll beep the horn to attract your attention. They work on a meter system that charges by mileage and not time. (Now think for a minute what kind of driving that engenders...) The meter starts at .25 JD. It usually costs me about 1.25JD to get home from work, which is about 5 km. None of the drivers speak English so three of the first words I learned to say in Arabic were "dooberie" (straight), "shmall" (left), and "eeyameen" (right). Most of the drivers smoke, which is a bother, but what to do, it's their car.

The silver taxis charge double the yellow-taxi rate, are nicer cars, and you can call them to come and get you at your house. The white taxis take groups of people along pre-determined routes kind of like busses, but I don't really understand the system. All the taxi drivers have nerves of absolute steel and drive like madmen. I spend most of my time not looking forward or with my eyes closed.

Watch out!

By Mari

Watch out! School buses are back on the road.

Jordan is a family- and child-friendly environment. People simply love and cherish their children. Parents work hard to provide their kids a good education, food, and other important determinants for success in adulthood.  Most mornings we see our neighbor from the fourth floor waiting for the bus with his two nattily dressed boys; they are clearly his pride and joy.  The school bus comes and they are whisked off to one of the many private schools here. 

Except, when kids get on these busses they must struggle to keep their food down. Bus drivers are notoriously terrible! I’ve been cut off or practically plowed down in my car and have feared for the lives of myself and Toby the dog when we are on walks after school.  These bus drivers are notorious and fearless. I just can’t explain it. When my friend visited from Montreal this year her comment was, “Mari, there are children inside!” when she saw a bus that appeared to behave like a full speed train without an engineer.  

So why? Is there a false sense of security when one is in a bus? A couple of weeks ago I asked someone at the Embassy who has a young daughter. His explaination was that many parents tip drivers so that their child is dropped off at their desired time.  My guess is that some drivers may have several children to attend to at a time and needs to speed through as quickly as possible.  Of course, Amman traffic does not help.  We often see the lack of education on safety and car accident prevention (as demonstrated recently when a young child was standing in the car exposing herself through the sunroof as her dad drove a quite high speeds) and I’m guessing that this is not on the radar for many. 

As for payments, when I lived in Bangladesh, we sometimes described “bakshish” or bribing as “speed money.” In Jordan, it is literally true. 

 

Urban farming, Amman style

When I lived in Ohio we used to make fun of the subdivisions that sprang up, seemingly overnight, in former cornfields. It wasn't uncommon to see field corn growing in yards (gardens).

So how do we explain this one corn plant I saw on my morning dogwalk this a.m.? People here like to eat canned corn as a snack, some even coming packaged with a little spoon. But would a canned corn kernel grow? If not, who would plant one corn plant beside the shrub in their sidewalk. And don't you need two plants for germination or something?

The amazing cement pumps in Amman

I worked in the construction industry between school years at the end of high school and the beginning of college. I was a carpenter but I was often on the job site when they poured concrete. Especially in the Michigan winter (snow) and spring (mud) it was tough to get the cement trucks to a palce where they could pour the cement down the short ramp. Remembering this, I've been fascinated to watch the cement pumps that carry wet cement over a hundred meters and up onto the upper floors of buildings in construction. I don't know whether we have these now in the US, but they sure would have made our constructive jobs quicker back in '77.