Ramadan Continues

It is very interesting to observe the different views about Ramadan by those not practicing the traditions of Islam. While Jordan’s population is vastly Muslim, there is a decent sized Christian community, as well as those who don’t practice all traditions of Islam. One evening a friend, Houston, and I were being polite and rather diplomatic to a taxi driver, asking him how his Ramadan was going and wishing him all the best; he used rather colorful language expressing his vast dislike for the month. Many have mentioned how much of an inconvenience it was for those not fasting, since practically all restaurants are closed and it is illegal to eat and drink in public. To those who may be traveling here in the future during Ramadan: there is a Subway sandwich shop not far from the University that is open, and the other day I went to a nice restaurant/bakery in Abdoun called Crumbs which even had a license to serve alcohol. There is also an extremely popular restaurant/café/book store called Books@ Café in the downtown area that is usually open during Ramadan. Although, apparently the restaurant was recently shut down for the rest of Ramadan by the ‘intelligence police’ (the Mukhabarat, whose name is somewhat feared by many Jordanians). I heard someone mention it was because someone was dining and drinking alcohol on the outside patio, and was seen and then reported by a neighbor…others have speculated the reasons were out of dislike, since Books@ has a considerably ‘liberal vibe.’ Books@ is definitely a good place to meet other ex-pats, and seems to be a good place to make a few connections.

School began on Sunday. The language test placed me in level four! To no surprise to me I moved down to level three after the first day, since the expectations far exceeded my skill level. Many of the students I met during my first month Language Training had to move down at least one level, sometimes two. The Language Center’s placement test is definitely not too accurate at assessing student’s levels. Also, there aren’t enough levels to put students into. My class has over 30 students and so does the level four. The variation in skill level also has some students in between the existing levels, as the class they are in is too hard, but the class under them is too easy. I find myself somewhere in the middle of my class as far as skill, and hope as the semester goes on I will be able to move up a little more.

I went to an Iftar at an orphanage on Sunday with two others from the Rotaract Club of Amman-Petra. It was a good experience. There are a few more planned that I hope to attend. We delivered the food, helped set up/arrange things in their dining room, talked to some of the kids for a little bit, ate when the mosque sounded the Idaam (the call to end the fast), I took a few pictures with the kids and then we left. It was a little shorter than I anticipated, but was good to show a group of kids that others are out there thinking of them. Here are some pictures I took:

Last night I went to the annual Bingo night one of the Rotaract clubs hold and had a lot of fun. There was a magician who put on an entertaining show, as well as a small band that played for a little bit. Tonight I have a few parties/events that I’m invited to and am attempting to figure out how to divide up my time among them all. Tomorrow I’m going to the Dead Sea as well as a Desert Castle along the way with a friend, Alex. I’m pretty excited to finally see somewhere outside of Amman!