On Jordan's stormy banks I stand ...

Two weeks ago we welcomed little Ava into the world with lots of pink and frills.  Glenn and I are looking forward to watching her grow up as she wraps her parents, Scott and Jo Ellen, around her little pinkies.  Particularly Scott!

She is so precious!  We got to visit her at Telki Hospital when she was 1 1/2 days old.  I'll get to see her  again on Wednesday evening.  :-)

Shortly before we left town, we received a Flat Stanley in the mail and a friend of ours also had a Flat Susie from the U.S., so we joined forces and took Stanley and Susie into town to take pictures of their adventures.

Stanley loves the Parliament building too!

We were actually in town two different days that week and stayed over until the evening and got some great photos of the Parliament building at night.  Don't you think so?

These two pictures were taken about 20 seconds apart from the other, and nothing changed except the setting on the camera.   They turned out pretty neat, didn't they?

On Feb. 17th, we flew to Amman, Jordan by way of Istanbul, Turkey for a training on debriefing someone (or a group of people) from a traumatic event.  (It's called CID:  Critical Incident Debriefing)  Originally, we were supposed to stay and visit with one of our Member Care couples who live in Amman while attending the training.  However, the couple isn't back yet from their stateside assignment.  (Something held them up for a couple of months but they should be back soon.)

All the buildings in Amman are modern-looking, built from limestone and are light colored.  Overall, they look very clean and crisp, but there are still pockets of poverty in places.  In the foreground is an unfinished building where squatters have taken over.  This, however, is a rare sight.

This was our third trip to Jordan, and I always enjoy coming here.  I have never felt "unsafe".  I know it is a male-dominated culture, so I am careful about what I wear and I don't make eye contact with men.    Culturally, I should probably walk 3 steps behind Glenn, but I walk too fast for that!

Even though Arabic is the official language, English is very prevalent there.  Almost all signs are in English and Arabic, and we met very few people who didn't speak at least some English. 

I should collect STOP signs from various countries because I find them very interesting.  I have one from Russia where the word STOP is written solely in cyrillic letters.    Here it is written in Arabic and English.  I learned that Arabic is read right to left, but numbers are written left to right.  Cool!

There are two malls, Mecca Mall and City Mall, fairly close to where we were staying so we caught a ride with someone or caught a taxi to both of them.  Very modern and clean.  We found several stores that we have in the U.S., such as GAP, Timberland and Columbia, but LOTS of familiar food places:  Popeyes, Pizza Hut, Burger King, McD's, KFC, Chili's, Applebees, Sbarro's, TGI Fridays, Subway, and Fuddruckers.  (And probably more that I am not remembering.)

I loved the long coats and long dresses in this store front, designed for every occasion.  Very different from what we would find in America, but this isn't America!  Most Jordanian women wear at least a hijab (headscarf) that covers their whole head (not a bit of hair can show), and covers their neck completely, even if they are wearing wear western clothing from the neck down.  Of course, the more devout Muslim women will wear the long dresses with long sleeves.  Got to have those shoulders and arms covered.  Since it was winter on this trip, it was no problem dressing culturally appropriately!

Before our training started, we had meetings with our boss and the 3 "Leads" in Eurasia.  (Lead Medical Consultant, Lead Education Consultant, and Lead Member Care Consultant)  Some of these meetings were over a meal, and one was at a Starbucks in the mall.  :-)

Glenn and I were staying in a neighborhood called Al Rabia and most days we enjoyed the 10 minute walk down to the "city"center of Al Rabia to get something to eat, to shop for groceries, or just to explore.  There was a Starbucks in the neighborhood so on several evenings, we strolled into town for a cup of coffee.  Do you see the black curly cues with the dots underneath on the white paper cup?  That's my name, Mary, written in Arabic!

Recognize this logo?  Did the chili pepper give it away?  

There are several Chili's in Amman, and one was in Al Rabia, so on our last day there, we ate lunch at Chili's.

As often as possible, Glenn and I chose to eat hummus and bread!  We ate at one place in Al Rabia 3 times during the week because it was sooooooo good, and our last meal there, we ordered a rotisserie chicken "to go" so that we could eat it back at our apartment.   (Notice the puffy bread?  It is light and airy;  there's nothing in the middle.  It's hollow!)

We had developed quite a relationship with the owner during our visits that he filled our "to-go" box full, and gave us an extra serving of hummus and bread while we were waiting!  Now, I have no way of knowing whether we were special to him or not, but he sure made us feel like we were!

Hummus is not exactly a diet food.  In fact, it is quite full of calories, especially when you eat as much as Glenn and I did, and the bread has calories too!  After eating hummus and pita bread at least once a day, I could feel my pants getting snug, so I loved this sign that says "Size Matters".  :-)

The apartment where we stayed is around the corner from the Amman Baptist School.  In the early1960's, a Jordanian Baptist leader had a dream of opening a Christian school of excellence for the children of Amman, but it wasn't until at least 10 years later, with the encouragement and help of American Southern Baptists, it opened its' doors and the first school bell rang on Sept. 2, 1974 to welcome the children into class.  The school serves both Christians and Muslims, kindergarten through high school.

And, across the street from Amman Baptist School is the West Amman Baptist Church.  I don't know the history of the church, and although they have a web site, there is very little information on it.  Even though Glenn and I were here in Amman on Sunday, we didn't know anything about the church to know when it started, whether it even met on Sundays, and what was appropriate to wear.  Next time we come, we'll do our research ahead of time and check it out.  So, on Sunday for worship, Glenn and I had our own quiet times with the Lord, and then together we listened to Dr. Ken Williams, pastor of West Cobb Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.  He's one of our favorites!

We returned to Budapest on Sunday night.  Well, really it was Monday morning!  The taxi came for us at 1:30 am for our 4:30 am flight to Istanbul, Turkey where we had a 2 1/2 hour lay-over.  Fortunately, the cup of coffee at the Starbucks kiosk in the Istanbul airport was an "eye opener", if you get my meaning and we were able to stay awake to catch our flight to Budapest.  We arrived at our house at 11:30 am, with no sleep, but all our bags.  We managed to stay awake all day Monday, but finally crept into the bed at 9 pm.  I understand the expression "bone tired and weary eyed"!

Glenn's taxi comes in the morning (Wednesday) at 4:30 am so that he can catch a 6:30 am flight to Atlanta.  He's going to help his mother move from his brother's house in Marietta, GA to his sister's house in North Augusta, SC but I'm staying in Budapest, holding down the fort.