Arrival in Amman

  Amman, Jordan
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The United Youth Corps Summer Project in Jordan and Israel has begun, and for 8 volunteers and my family, a 7-week trip through those two countries.
 
Our trip started Tuesday June 17. David Evans from the UCG Home Office drove my family to the Cincinnati airport for our 4:40 pm Delta flight that took us to JFK in New York in about 90 minutes. After changing terminals and after a four hour layover, we caught a 7-hour Air France flight to Paris. Several things conspired to prevent us from sleeping well.  First, since the French stay more trim than many other peoples, Air France has the least seat space of the major air carriers, an inch or two less both in width and length. That doesn't sound like much, but it does make the seating situation noticeably more crowded on a full flight. Secondly and more importantly, none of us got much sleep on the flight because of a child in our row, who screamed and cried most of the night. The mother was a French-African woman who sat right next to Tatiana and Fiona (Marjolaine and I were on the other side of the isle from them).
 
I have observed that different cultures have different mores about raising children and what to do when they cry. Many African mothers believe in just letting them cry themselves out. That would make sense in a culture with large families, in areas where most people live in what for us would be very crowded conditions.  In sub-Saharan Africa very young children are turned over to the care of slightly older children just about as soon as they're no longer nursing. Since moms have so much to do, they often turn their 2-3 year-olds over to 7-8 year-olds. All that is to explain that the 2 year old cried all night - he never did seem to cry himself out - and kept us from sleeping very much.
 
We only had 90 minutes to change planes in Paris, and that can be too short between some terminals, but happily, the flights came in to and went out from the new terminal 2E, so we had enough time. 2E was the terminal that, shortly after completion, had a section of roof fall in and kill several passengers. I recall about two years ago taxiing by it and seeing a huge tarp and repair gear over a large section of roof. Now it is very sharp and modern-looking and quite efficient.

Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 2E

 
As we boarded the flight to Amman, Marjolaine and I were happy to see that we'd been given a complimentary upgrade to Business Class. That sometimes happens for frequent fliers on long flights, but it's been several years since it happened to me, and it's always welcome. Our daughters sat back in coach class, but were content to have the feeling of a bit more independence....  The business class seats were no larger than normal on the A320, but the center seat of the 3 on both sides of the isle was covered with a tray arrangement, so that only two people sat on either side of each row, allowing more space per person. The main perk was the excellent meal service. Eating is an art in France; Air France serves above average food, and in business class excellent meals. We particularly appreciated the three cheeses (including one of our favorite goat cheeses) that came after the main course; they were accompanied by an excellent glass of Médoc from the Bordeaux region. The time passed quickly on this flight!
 
The flight to Amman from Paris lasted about 4 ˝ hours, but left late, so we didn't arrive in Amman until nearly 8:00 pm.  On arrival we stood in line to get our visas: 10 Jordanian Dinars per person (about $15) and quickly done. We reclaimed out luggage - and were happy to see that each of our four suitcases arrived without incident - and cleared customs. Our good friend and Project Co-director David Baker met us as we exited the airport formalities. We pushed our luggage carts through the crowd of Jordanians in a wide variety of dress: the ladies all fairly covered, long sleeves in general some in headscarves; the men, some in western dress, some in long white robes with Arab headdress. We moved out onto the sidewalk into a pleasantly cool evening breeze, trying unsuccessfully to prevent luggage handlers from touching our carts or rearranging our luggage on the carts. That was too avoid the obligation of tipping them for services we didn't desire, but it soon became apparent that would be a loosing battle. As we waited for the mini-bus that would take us to the hotel, 3 luggage handlers stood next to us tenaciously and expectantly. They had each managed to either lift a suitcase or push or touch a cart, and that meant money!
 
The bus pulled up after 5 minutes and we let the 3 men load the bags into the bus, Dave gave them a 2JD tip (about a dollar each, for very little work). They immediately protested in heavily-accented English that it should be 3 JD: one per person. We smiled in a friendly way but with blank incomprehension about their dissatisfaction and off we drove to let them work out the math. During the drive into Amman, we caught up on the news of everyone's arrival. The Youth Corps volunteers had all arrived safely the day before, though two were still missing suitcases. They had spent the day visiting old Amman, called in several places in the Old Testament Rabbah of the Ammonites. The "citadel" of Amman is the vestige of the old fortified city, with parts dating to the period of the Judges and Kings. David fought against and took it during his reign. In fact it was during the siege of Rabbah, modern Amman, that Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba was left exposed to die on the orders of David.
 
We arrived at the Larsa Hotel a little before 9:00 and dropped our luggage in our room, then headed down for a late dinner with the volunteers. We greeted everyone, including Matthew and Mary-Ann Bates, who have been working at the Amman Baccalaureate School on behalf of the Youth Corps, for the last year. They are about to finish the school year and head back to the States, and have been instrumental in making many of the arrangements for the Jordanian part of this 6-week project.
 
Dinner included a first course of hummus, baba ganoush and other mezza (traditional appetizers), which our family really enjoys. The main course was the traditional and delicious mixed grill of lamb and goat. None of us had room for dessert.
 
We agreed to meet at 8:00 to depart on the touring planned for Thursday, and decided, after over 24 hours of traveling and very little sleep, it was time to try to catch up.