June 17 (Fri) - Amman: JARA market with Lisa & Kristina

Highlights (in chronological order): TBW



Chronology: 10am Lisa woke me with a knock on the door; these roll-down wooden shades (like the ones we had in Vienna, but automated here) sure do keep the room pitch black :) Fridays in the Mowafi household are crepes-for-breakfast day (as Sundays are pancake day in Jim's family); sat at the dining room table (which the kids pointed out isn't where they normally have breakfast). Abduallah set the table and chopped the chocolate chips for the crepes (other condiments included Lyle's Golden Syrup, condensed milk, condensed milk with cocoa powder mixed in); Laila started with pineapple; Lisa ate the muesli she'd left to ferment for two day (it turned out very sour); Amer joined for a cup of coffee and ka'ak (aka Jordanian biscotti :); I had some of everything. Amer and Abdullah stacked the dish-washer afterwards, and Laila went off to study for exams she has coming up this week (she's in 8th grade, in an IB school). // Around noon, Amer and Abdullah left to go to his parents' place for lunch, and around 1pm Lisa and I left to go to JARA market. Laila wanted to come but Lisa insisted she study; and besides, Lisa had promised Kristina 'no kids' (Kristina has four of her own). Took the dark blue Mercedes 4x4 (that it's impossible to get parts for in Jordan despite Mercedes being ubiquitous here, since it was made in the US) and picked up Kristina at her home in Dabouk, not far away, the other side of the Palace Compound from Lisa's. Kristina's house is chunky, as though each room is a 'block', and looks like it is being doubled in size - half is complete and half is cinder block; Lisa says Kristina's husband Usama is planning to have a home office. Usama currently spends part of his time working in Seattle (where they met and lived before moving to Jordan), and part in Amman. Kristina related how a friend had commented, 'So: he's a visitor,' and how that kinda hit the mark. He has said it's her decision whether / when to move back to Seattle. He will continue working in both places, regardless of where they live. Their eldest just graduated with the IB a month ago and will be starting at the University of Michigan in the fall. Kristina and Usman met at the University of Michigan, and both went to work for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a division of NASA) // Drove down to Al-Rainbow Street in Jabal Amman to go to the weekly Friday JARA street market on Fawzi Malouf Street, which Lisa went to once when it opened 6 years ago but hasn't been back to since. JARA stands for the Jabal Amman Resident Association, and they have created "a unique urban experience that hasn't been seen in modern-day Amman before" . There are stalls on either side of the pedestrianized street, selling Jordanian handicrafts and jewelry, lots of soap, crafts out of recycled materials (plastic bags, newspapers) made by the economically disadvantaged and sponsored by NGOs. Stepped into the Jordan River Foundation shop & courtyard at the beginning of the street, and perused the gift shop. Once in the market, Kristina pointed out a t-shirt stall with quirky logos, belonging to designer Omar Tabbaa. Again, from www.360east.com: "Every now and again, one comes across something in Amman that expresses the creative spirit of Amman’s up and coming generation. Such creative glimpses are too few and far between in Amman. But Omar’s t-shirts must be the coolest design idea I’ve come across in Amman for a long while." The blogger also reflects: "Not only are Omar’s t-shirts funny, but they also carry some social/urban commentary. They are a good reminder that Amman is more than Abdoun [the Embassy district inn Amman]. The East Amman-West Amman rift is a depressing reality. While parts of western Amman are audaciously reflecting a globalized, glitzy and liberal image and attitude, the largest parts of city are the dusty, chaotic and poor reflection of our ‘developing world’ reality. The urban experience of many of western Amman’s residents almost never includes any ‘excursions’ into the eastern part of town, except perhaps when we take a plane from the Marka Airport to Aqaba." Guess I'd have to read Arabic to fully appreciate them, but they looked fun. I stopped to smell soap poured around lufa. We stopped at a stall selling pink hunks of rock salt from the Himalayas, and both Lisa and Kristina bought some of the ground stuff. The guy selling it was blond and blue-eyed, and his friend a super-sales man: "You cannot get this ANYWHERE else!" he proclaimed. "Not even the Himalayas?" I asked, and he hesitated a moment. At the end of the street there was a stall making and potato spirals (to eat): place the potato in the spiral-cutting machine, run a skewer through it and 'stretch' out the spiral, deep fry it, then shake a some flavored salt on it. Kinda like potato chips but not as crispy. A band was setting up in the empty lot off the street, but looked like they'd be a while still. // Down the stairs at the end of Fawzi Malouf Street is Wild Jordan, a division of the RSCN(Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature), in a building gifted by the American people (according to a plaque on the wall). Great views over the city, in particular Castle Hill and the ruins of the Citadel. It was getting onto 4pm and we were getting hungry, so headed back up the opposite side of the market street, perusing more jewelry (I bought a round silver pendant) and art (Lisa & I got some Palestine post-cards). Down Al-Rainbow Street a few blocks and on a side street to the right is Books@Cafe, where we stopped for lunch. Located in an old villa, there's a bookstore on the ground floor, and an extensive coffee-shop-bar-restaurant spanning several nook-y rooms and a terrace. Very trendy, without being intimidating (maybe it would be at night). According to a local , "the idea for the shop was born during the early 90's when cafés allowed access to "couples only". They wanted a place that was comfortable and unrestricted where one might drop in for a coffee, good food and music. With reasonably priced books and internet access, both of which were hard to find in those days, the shop became a refuge for students, musicians, artists, writers and, of course, lovers of good coffee." Laila said, "That's the gay place, isn't it?" Interesting between-the-lines commentary, no? The pizza was thin-crust and excellent. I also had a refreshing lemonade-with-crushed-mint-leaves. // We walked back to our car, parked outside the Ahliyyah School for Girls, among the top 5-6 schools in Amman (a graduate got into Harvard this year). Other top schools are: American Community School (the American school), International Community School (the British school), Amman Baccalaureate School (the IB school Lisa's kids attend), King's Academy (opened in 2007 and based on Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, which King Abdullah II attended in the 1970s), and the International Academy of Amman (sponsored by Queen Raina). Stopped by the DVD store to look for Soul Surfer and Beginnings, but they had neither. Note: it's a store, not a rental place, pirate DVDs here are so cheap (the equivalent of GBP 1.50 or so). // Dropped Kristina back home about 6pm, and got home to Laila studying and Amer & Abdullah playing soccer on the lawn. About 8pm Amer left for the airport (Lisa drove him) to return to Riyadh, where he is Chief Commercial Officer for ITC Saudi Arabia. (I took a nap for an hour in between). // His bio on the website informs us: "Joined ITC on 17th October 2010. Amer is a business executive with over 20 years of experience including 17 years in the Telecommunications industry. Prior to joining us, Amer was Chief Executive Officer of VTEL Jordan. Earlier, he held senior roles with Nextel Communications and Logical Information Systems in the U.S. Amer also provided consulting services for large U.S. Telecom operators such as Verizon, MCI, and Nextel. Amer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a Master’s Degree in Applied Computer Science from Illinois State University." Amer and Lisa met at ISU when Lisa was a Junior and Amer was in the 2nd year of his MA. He had a job in the computer lab, and the printer needed a new ink-ribbon. Lisa: "What does it take to get a new ribbon around here?"; Amer: "I'll replace the ribbon if you'll go out with me."; Lisa: "Ok, I will - if you pay." And the rest is history. Laila said, "There's a word for that in Arabic: [the word] - it's like a pack-rat, but with money." Too funny. // When Lisa got back, we watched "Scott Pilgrim vs the World," a quirky cartoon-ish love story with Michael Cera (the guy who was the lead 'man' in Juno) in the lead, bent on defeating his true love's seven evil exes. Had freshly popped pop-corn and some yummy coconut-chocolate-granola bars Lisa had made. // Copied all the Footloose Mandalay to Auckland photos to my new 1T external hard-drive, and deleted them from my netbook. Stayed up till 3am setting up a new blog: Footloose in the Levant, for this part of my journey, uploading and captioning two days of selected photos, and chronicling one day.