1st Impressions
Heat, History and Hospitality
Heat. History. Hospitality. As we end our first full week in Amman, Jordan, those three words sum up our first impressions. If we kept the alliteration and aimed for four – we would probably go with ‘Hills’ – but we can talk geography another day. And for transparency’s sake, there’s a vote for ‘Hummus’ too.
Firstly, the heat. There are hotter places on earth. And we are grateful that we are not in any of them. James has done multiple days of 45-47C in Vijayawada (India), Kerryn has lived through the summer heat of Cairo, and we’ve both experienced soaring temps in the Australian Outback – even good old Melbourne, Australia, our home city knows how to turn up the heat. But these days, we call Tassie home – where summer sometimes seems only to last a week or two, where the mercury gets a headache bumping up into 30C (summer in Tasmania is one of Australia’s best-kept secrets, we think).
The truth is we left Tasmania in the middle of winter and copped a heatwave through Europe (especially Italy) before settling into the middle of summer. It’s vacation – so many ex-pats flee the heat and head home – and just as many Arabs arrive in Amman to cool down (we’ve been having fun spotting different number plates – Kuwait is winning!). But the heat has made such an impression because of the observable ways it has impacted and shaped life and culture here.
Our view from the rooftop of our apartment
For a start, people are sensible – unlike us, who walked more than 175 km (110 miles for our stateside friends) in the heat of summer during our holiday in Europe. People seem to rise here early and go to bed late to take advantage of the cooler hours. We don’t know if there is any sleeping during the day – we suspect not – maybe back in the day – now it seems people sleep less. Breakfast is late, lunch is later, and dinner is after bedtime. We’ve adopted the practice of an after-dinner walk- where we bump into people doing the same (though we now realise it’s likely their pre-dinner walk). Last Friday night, a family was enjoying a very intense game of soccer (football) on the rooftop of their apartment – the children were really into it, and it was after midnight. Speaking of apartments – learning to live in ours is about paying attention to airflow and the sun's position. All in the name of trying to keep it cool. When to open and close the blinds. Which direction to point the fan? When and how long to have on the a/c for the rooms that have it (and no, it’s not 24/7. We’ve adapted to the practice of going to bed later – the kids think it’s incredible, after a lifetime of 7:30-8 pm, that they’re now up at 9:30- 10 pm. But we haven’t picked up on the ‘getting up early.’ You won’t see us before 8 am – we’re pretty wiped, though I’m sure that will gradually change.
Secondly, history. It’s thrilling and overwhelming at the same time. It’s hard to know what to even write about. Whether it’s the story of Islam or Christianity, the rise and fall of tribes or Empires – you can tangibly interact with a history that stretches back thousands of years – and not just one or two but five or six (or more) thousand years. (Aside: we know that the history of human activity in Tasmania stretches back at least 40,000 years, but sadly, much of this has been lost in tragic circumstances – so it’s very difficult to engage with it physically). We visited the Citadel – one of Amman’s most important historical sites – a place where, like so many in Jordan, the stories of Rome, Christianity and Islam intersect – or at least sit alongside. It’s a little strange watching people clamber over ruins thousands of years old – often, there are no fences, and when there are, they are often treated as suggestive.
The Ain Ghazal statues - believed to be between 8000 and 9000 years old
We walked through the Jordan Archaeological Museum located at the Citadel and found ourselves constantly crunching the numbers in our head, “You mean to say that the time between the making of this statue and Abraham is greater than the time between Abraham and 2023?” “Yes, that’s correct.” We also had a lot of fun walking down from the Citadel to explore the Roman theatre – a week earlier, we were in Rome – touring the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla – which was just as engaging. There will be much more to share on this in the weeks ahead – but we have had a taste and are looking forward to more.
This brings us to our third ‘H’, hospitality! This has been by far the thing that has left the biggest impression on us. From our very first night, where one person waited patiently at the airport through all the delays, whilst another opened the apartment to try and cool it, ordering us dinner, to the next night, where we were taken out for dinner by a church family to Kababji (Ana Laura’s current favourite) and another wonderful family took us out the following Saturday. People have welcomed us beautifully. And we know it’s costly. One of the pains of living in the ex-pat community here is how transient it is – no sooner than you get to know and love someone than it is time for them to go. And so to be welcomed and loved as a family, even though we are here such a short time, is a blessing from God.
We were so touched that Mal and Charissa (whose apartment we are now staying in) – during their last days of packing up to return home – generously gave us so much time to answer questions, a thorough handover for church, teach us about some of the quirks of the apartment, took us grocery shopping and just spent time getting to know us and helping us settle over shared meals. We loved spending time with them and will continue to pray for them as they touch down back in Australia. We have been blessed by people we are yet to meet. We spent five nights in another family’s apartment whilst they were away – it was such a wonderful, comfortable space. We look forward to continuing to get to know people and offering hospitality ourselves. It’s a beautiful part of the culture and of our experience thus far. People are friendly and willing to help, though, as someone said, “people will give you the shirt of their backs but run you over in their cars” – traffic is a different story.
Dinner out with new friends!
So, there are a few insights from our first week. We are adjusting – fighting less as a family (one of the girls wrote to her prayer partner while we were on our holiday asking that them to pray that we might fight less – prayer answered!), enjoying the newness and the challenge of the experience.
We had our first formal Saturday church service. The girls were shocked to see James in a collar – but it was a good service and beginning.
One final note – we got to have our first language lesson with our teacher, Ahmad. I’m sure there will be an entire blog post dedicated to Ahmad in the future – but we heard about him online, then had a Zoom meeting with him whilst we were in Australia before checking references, and finally, we got to meet. Though we are here for such a short time – part of our commitment to experience Jordan is to learn what we can of the language. We didn’t want to just study in a classroom but rather to meet at different places of cultural interest and learn as we go. Our first lesson took place at Hashem’s – arguably Amman’s most famous culinary institution – where, amid badly pronouncing Arabic words and testing Ahmad’s patience, we could try amazing falafel and hummus, amongst other things. Because it’s the Hornby’s, it’s quite possible that many of our future lessons will centre around food – our next lesson will be at Al-Quds – which numerous local taxi drivers swear produces some of the best mansaf you can try – mansaf is considered Jordan’s national dish. So that’s something to look forward to. Ahmad is a gifted teacher, but more than that, a warm and caring person, and we are very grateful to have connected with him.
James and Ahmad smiling because, after an hour of trying James pronounced something correctly
So, there you have it – our first-week wrap – next up will be Kerryn sharing some of her/our (mis)-adventures shopping.
The Hornby’s