More Differences

Children are given painkillers by suppository instead of liquid suspension. (This was unsuccessful when I tried it with Ethan!)

Plastic bags are used aplenty, with no "green" thoughts at all.

Powdered drink mixes come in flavors like mango, orange and peach, instead of grape and cherry. Same with juices, for that matter!

Prices are listed with thousandths instead of hundredths (i.e. 1.200 JD)

Men never wear shorts -- it's considered to be like wearing one's underwear in public.

Taxis are the norm instead of buses, and bikes are non-existent.

Tea is usually served with mint (and hot, no milk).

Pita is cheap to buy fresh from the bakery -- YUM!!

No floor is carpeted, though area rugs will be used in the winter.

Fruit and veg need to be sterilized.

Children are seen as a blessing, and are treated as such, even by strangers.

Rubbish is collected everyday. We put our bags out on the sidewalk, where a donkey & boy/man come get it within a day.

Our Amman House

1) Our living room looking towards the sunroom.
2) Our living/dining room looking from the sunroom
3) Our sunroom
4) Naomi's room, which is next to the sunroom at the front of the house
5) Master bedroom, with a shower bathroom in the far corner
6) Naomi inside our building, by our inner door. We're on the ground floor, which is actually a few steps up from the outside ground.
7) Our building from down the street. Notice the trees in the middle of the pavement!
8) The kids by our sunroom gate.
9) Ethan by our main front gate
10) Our street sign

Dead Sea

On Saturday 16 October, we hired a car and made a quick visit to the Dead Sea. I'd heard how you can float without any effort, but to actually watch my own feet bob up was just amazing! The kids didn't like it very much, so they were glad there were also pools by the sea. They had a great time swimming, splashing and floating!

One Month Update

We've been here for 5 weeks, and I've hardly blogged a word! Upon getting a letter from my sweet mom and being reminded that she "reads every word" I write, I feel I should add something tonight, though it be short and cryptic.
If I had to sum up our first month in a few words it would be...
Naomi and Josiah are finally reading novels. The pick of choice is Enid Blyton's Famous Five mysteries, though Little House on the Prairie comes a close second for Naomi.
Ethan is talking up a storm!! It's hard to believe that two months ago, he was still just barely putting two words together. Now he puts sentences together and asks in-depth questions. Still incomprehensible to most folks, but precious communication for us!
Steve is busy and happy learning Arabic. He feels adequately challenged by the material, and enjoys getting to know a few fellow classmates especially over study and lunch breaks.
I spend more time than ever schooling the kids, but I love this year's curriculum focus of world geography. I'm learning right along with Naomi and Josiah, re-memorizing geography that I first learned 20 years ago. We're just finishing up North America, and will do the Middle East next.
We're still uncertain how long we'll be living here.
We love getting to know our neighbors, both Jordanian and American. The 3 kids who live above us (also from Virginia!) are such good friends to our kids, and we truly treasure their friendship.

Some things that are different about Jordan…

Toilet paper does not go in the toilet – it goes in the bin (trash can).

Almost every bathroom (even public ones) has either a bidet or a spray nozzle.

Water shouldn’t be drunk from the tap.

A fig tree grows in my neighbour’s garden and hangs over into mine.

Every floor has a drain in it because floors are “mopped” by pouring water directly on the tiles and using a squeegee to push it along.

Our water is heated with diesel fuel so two rooms of my house have a constant diesel smell. Yuck!

Many mosquitoes, but at least our windows have screens!

Pita bread is typical.

Yogurt comes in big containers – great for all the smoothies we make!

Cars don’t have functioning seatbelts in the backseat.

Horns are used rather than turn signals.

Bathtubs are short.

Outside of Amman, a woman without her head covered is a very unusual sight.

The “sidewalks” seem more decorative than anything: they often have big plants or trees growing right in the middle of them.

Said sidewalks also don’t come to a ramp at the corner, and on a hill, this means that they end in about a 2-ft drop!

One Week Anniversary

We’ve been in Amman for one week now. Hard to believe. It all feels kind of surreal. Our new house is really really nice, the biggest place we’ve ever had and more than adequately furnished. We laugh because now that we’re in a large home with plenty of cupboards, closets and bookcases, we hardly have any stuff!! The building we’re in is actually a 5-story building, and we’re on the ground floor, though up a few steps from the actual outdoor ground. We have two entrances: one through a sun-room that’s just ours, and another through the main building entrance. When we first got here, the sun-room was an oven and I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to be in it. But I’m told that it will get quite cold in the winter and we’ll be glad for it then.

My kitchen is large, with an American-sized frig/freezer (again, hardly any food in it!!), a 5-burner stove and large oven, state-of-the-art washing machine, and nice amenities like microwave, blender and electric kettle. It also has plenty of cupboard space, including a floor-to-ceiling pantry.

The entire house is tiled, which again feels nice now, but will be cold come winter. Our neighbours upstairs (from Virginia) said that it feels especially cold in the winter because of the lack of insulation and the steep prices of heat (diesel or electric). They pretty much only heated one of their rooms and kept the door shut. I don’t know what we’ll do, but I’m trying not to worry about it quite yet!

Our building is sandwiched right in-between a very busy big street and a smaller one. Steve’s and my bedroom has windows on the busy street, we hear lots of traffic all night. During Ramadan, we’d also hear a drummer going up and down the street before dawn, waking people up to eat their breakfast. After the first few nights, I began sleeping through the 4:30 call to prayer, but last night it woke me up again.

We have two bathrooms (well, one only has a shower) and they both have a bidet in addition to a toilet! So far all of us have gotten used to the bidet except for Naomi. It’s very nice to have two toilets for our desperate times!

So far my most difficult adjustment has been shopping and cooking here. We have a little shop just next door to our house (and it’s open til 2 AM everyday!!), which has been great, but most things aren’t labelled with prices, so it makes it hard to make the most cost-effective purchases. At least Steve has taught me my Arabic numbers so that if there is a price tag, I can read it!

There are some foods I was really used to using, both in the States and England, like tinned tomatoes and oats, which are expensive here. Breakfasts are baffling me, as cereal and oats are both expensive, and the local shop doesn’t sell bread! I’m sure I’ll get the hang of everything eventually. I’m glad that I’ve been able to buy most of my basic spices, herbs and staples, and that my kitchen came with a few pots, pans, and dishes.

The kids are adjusting pretty well to not having a large garden. We do have some shared outdoor space, but it’s all tiled. My creative Naomi and Josiah have decided to use the porch swing as a jungle gym. They can climb on to it by opening our sun-room windows and getting out that way. It’s strange, though, to not have bikes anymore.

We finally met our upstairs neighbours a few days ago, and had dinner with them on Sunday. Their names are M and A and they have three kids: H (12), E (10), and N (8). They’re in their first of two years of Arabic language school, preparing for long-term work here in Jordan or elsewhere in the Arab world. The kids are going to a Jordanian school, though in an English-language track. I felt a bit sad and lonely at first because it took a few days to actually meet this family. But now that we’ve met up once and broken the ice, I think we’ll enjoy getting to know them better. The kids get along great. On Monday, their 3 came down to play with my 3, and it worked really nicely. I like having an older girl around for Naomi to spend time with, and it’s sweet that their E is happy to play with Josiah, too.

We went to Amman International Church on Saturday night (their normal service time) and it was nice to meet other westerners (strange though that most of them, including the pastor, were American!!) I met one homeschooling mom who’s already invited us over for dinner this Thursday. She’s got 5 kids and one on the way!! The church is a bit far from us, though, and not terribly easy for taxi drivers to find. So I’m not sure how many extra activities we’ll be doing with them. We missed the preaching that we’re used to at Magdalen Road, but on the whole, the service was good.

I’m feeling a bit “out-of-it” since I don’t fit into any of the normal boxes – I’m not here as a missionary or a military wife, and I’m not actively learning Arabic, as it seems many wives have or currently are. I know it doesn’t really matter, but I get a little tired of explaining our situation to new people, and being asked the same questions.

Ethan is feeling the lack of toys and books. I’m kicking myself now that I brought so many of Naomi’s and Josiah’s toys, and fewer of Ethan’s. He’s the one who needs to be occupied while I teach the older two. We’re also all missing the library. I only brought 5 picture books, and Steve and I are both tired of reading them to Ethan every night! I’ve been told that there’s a Christian library attached to JETS (Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary), and I’m hoping to check it out on Saturday when we’re already there for something else. The older two are occupied with some novels I brought to read aloud with them, as well as some Usborne young readers I brought for them.

We’ve done about 2 days of school so far, though our first day was spread out over two. Josiah is annoyed with the switch to less play time. But the curriculum is fun and interesting. I’ve just got to figure out balance with Ethan and housework, as always. Some things are the same, no matter what country I'm living in!

Traveling from Oxford to Amman

Our day of travel on September 7 began at 7:45 AM with two friends taking us and our luggage in two cars to St. Clement’s, where we said our goodbyes and caught the coach straight to Gatwick. Everything went smoothly at the airport and our boxes and suitcases were all exactly at the weight limit or up to two kilos shy. We’d forgotten that we had to pay per piece, even though they were in our basic allowance. We were glad that friends had given us £100 because that just covered the additional costs! Thank you, Lord! There were no seats in the area before security check so we sat right on the floor to eat our lunch.

The flight to Latvia was without incident. Ethan slept the whole way. The rest of us liked looking out the windows and seeing the coasts and countrysides of Denmark, Sweden, and finally Latvia. Riga seemed like such an interesting city – it was heartbreaking to not have enough time to leave the airport and see a true glimpse of Latvian life. But we did go through passport control, to get “Riga” stamped in our passports and to sit outside eating a picnic supper. I think the mosquitoes ate as much as we did!

We’d read that Latvia does not use the Euro, but then discovered that Euros can be used in the airport. We had some left over from our trip to Spain and used them getting a few ice-creams for everyone. I tried to buy a bottle of water for the flight, but by mistake bought carbonated water. None of the kids liked it much!

The second half of our journey was much longer. Not only was the flight an hour longer, but we sat in the airplane for an hour before ever taking off, waiting for a few late passengers. Hardly surprisingly, our kids did not fall asleep. They played on the plane’s floor, playing “spies,” and even used a plane blanket to make a little “tent.”

We finally arrived at the Queen Rania airport at 1:30 AM. The kids and I waited for Steve to get money out of an ATM to pay for our visas, which cost 10 JD (Jordanian Dinars) each. The whole process was painless and quick, and we were so happy to see a man holding a sign that said “Steve Gertz” as we exited the passport control area. Steve’s Arabic school, Qasid Institute, provides airport transportation for all their students. Steve went in one car with Josiah, while I travelled in another with Naomi and Ethan.

I’d forgotten that many countries, including Jordan, tend to not have working seatbelts in the backseat. I found myself praying fervently as we raced down the highway at 70 mph, in “interesting” Jordanian fashion. Qasid Institute also provided a free phone call "home" so I got to talk to Steve's mom and let her know we'd arrived safely.

We arrived at our new house at 2:30 AM and our sweet landlords were still up, cheerfully welcoming us and ready to show us around. Josiah had fallen asleep on the ride home, and wouldn’t stir even to eat a sandwich. The other kids were starving so we all ate something before heading to bed. 20 hours after it had begun, our day of travel was finally over. That is, until we were awakened an hour later by drumming and the call to prayer!!