Another day at the Fulbright House with an announcement from our apartment-finding leader, Looma, that we had to make decisions on our apartments today and that we needed to select only approved apartments. Many of the younger students had gone off on their own and found apartments.
It is a tricky business and landlords can take advantage in a number of ways so the Fulbright commission requires that leases be approved and signed in the Fulbright House. They have a list of landowners who have been okayed and these have been the apartments that they have been showing.
However, some of the young Fulbrighters had been going off on their own, asking in neighborhoods, querying taxi drivers and shop keepers. Looma was very upset by some of the apartments, did not approve of landlords, even saying that one looked like a brothel! Anyway, Alain talked to the group and explained why it was safer for everyone to choose the apartments on the list. By the end of the day, most people had apartments approved by Looma and the Fulbright House.
It probably helped that our sessions today were on health and security. We learned about the risks of living in Amman. It was pretty sobering and the speakers were very good and not to be deterred by some of the questions posed by our idealistic young people. It was fun to see them sparring with the speaker from the embassy who talked about
We enjoy these young people and often go out with them for meals!
Anyway Kevin and Becky decided to take the apartment on the hill. James will try living with us for awhile and Looma will look for a single with him. So we will be moving tomorrow.
$ $ $
The problem is we need three months rent in cash—that in 1500 JD (1JD=$1.41). Now the way we get money is to take it out of ATM machines. Well, we went out today and could only get 400 JDs before the machines at two banks stopped giving it to us. Now we had upped our limit at our bank but the Amman banks are not letting us take it out so quickly. We will be going to banks for five days at this rate!
14 September
We bought tiny phones. Alain says we have to have them. Becky has a Siemans and Kevin’s is a Motorola but both are plans from Fast Link, a Jordanian company. We each paid 40 JD for the phone and the included12 JD calling card. Becky spent 6 JD calling Helen—it worked beautifully! (1 JD = $1.40)
Kevin, Becky, and James moved our belongings into the apartment. Hussein, the driver from Fulbright house, carried us and all our suitcases. On the way we stopped at a Safeway and loaded up on food basics. Samia, our landlady greeted us with delicious coconut cake and juice.
Becky cooked supper tonight—kafta burgers, eggplant, and salad. It was okay as the gas stove is wonky and won’t stay lit.
September 15-16—Working to figure things out
James is figuring out the bus lines for the city and for commuting to Irbid in the north of
Kevin and I walked down our steep hill (through rubble and down streets), first to ACOR, the American Center of Oriental Research. This nice air conditioned building has a wonderful library and computers. It also has living areas for visiting scholars. There are some Iraqis there now studying preservation. James has been attending lectures and talking with them. The director, a Frenchman, a friend of Alain’s, is friendly to Fulbrighters. So when we got there, we found about six of our young friends, reading and working on computers.
We left soon though and continued our walk down the hill and across the double-laned highway (now named for Queen Rania) that we have to cross to get to the University. There is an overpass and a tunnel. We crossed on the overpass and made our way to the university where we were able to find Becky’s office which looks like an old (small) computer storeroom. Kevin managed to get one computer working.
We trudged back, eating at a Kentucky Fried Chicken place. Along the bottom of the hill, almost in the crevices of the hill are fast food places and tiny bookshops for students. The bookshops are like those in Gaza. They sell mainly xeroxed packets made up by professors for students. No worries about copyright infringement in the middle east!
We trudged up the hill, as steep as Equinox! We will certainly get our exercise here!
Behind Kevin is Amman, a beautiful white city!
So after washing clothes in our little washing machine, we were off on foot to find a shopping center. We had to walk up and down hills for about ½ mile and there we found shops of all kinds. We did not see an ATM, however and ATMs are vital to our financial upkeep.
Later after lunch at home, we caught a cab and went to the Intercontinental Hotel which we had been told has free wireless connection and is a hangout for ex-pats—diplomats, UN workers, journalists, etc. We spent several very frustrating hours trying to get onto the Internet. It just never worked.
But we managed successfully to use an ATM machine there and to get home with a cab, helped by Murat, a Fulbrighter who was at the Hotel also! Kevin gave what he thought were 2 JDs to the cab driver. However, the cab driver gave one back, saying, “No, No.” Kevin couldn’t figure out why and then he looked closely and realized he had given the cab driver two 10 JD bills. We had supper—fried eggs and pita bread, a favorite from our days in Gaza, and watched an American film with Arabic subtitles on tv. That was comforting.
In the night a neighborhood dog barks a lot, and small mosquitoes are getting in through the screens to buzz Kevin (though not yet Becky). The plaintive ululation of the early call to prayer comes right on time from the nearby mosque atop our hill. Somewhat quieter prayer broadcasts follow that call, with periods of silence in between, until the service ends and we hope for a little more sleep. We need to learn not to hear it.
The views and opinions expressed in this page (http://saeu.sc.edu/faculty/lewisbw/) are strictly those of Becky Lewis.
The contents of the page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of South Carolina.
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