Cassette tapes are back

I know that my avid blog follower(s) have been waiting on pins and needles for my next post.  Sorry to keep you waiting, mom.

Life continues to roll on here in Amman. Basically all the interns who are working with Zaytoon are now here and acclimated. At least somewhat. Some of them are still taking naps in the name of jetlag. I’m so beyond that. Yesterday we split up into teams to tackle the 5 main projects that our organization will be working on. It’s exciting to hear about all the work we’ll be involved with. Like I mentioned before, I’ll be working with a concrete business over here that is doing quite well. Steve Kenny (my Irish comrade), a guy named Teren, and I will be spearheading this project. The people at this company are fantastic, and we’re excited to help them achieve their goals. Among the other projects that Zaytoon is involved with are: improving an organic farm’s products and branding, evaluating a microfinance program, and assisting with a community development project. If any of that sounds vague to you, it’s okay. I’ve spent most of my time trying to just understand the business I’m working with so that we can actually give them advice that may be useful. It’s been humbling and exciting to be thrown into an environment with little knowledge of the business/industry and no knowledge of the language and try to piece things together.

 The shops just by our apartment. It is here I buy my pita bread and hummus. I know this photo has nothing to do with the paragraph above, but I wanted to put it in somewhere.

Guess what? I met another Ahmad yesterday. As cool as my two previous friends named Ahmad are, this guy blows them out of the water. He must be 60+ years old, has as much energy as my little brother Michael, looks like a mix of Mahatma (aka Mohandas) Gandhi and Albert Einstein, and is hilarious. He is in charge of the organic farm that a few interns are working with, and loves to hang out with us. Last night, we went to a Yemeni restaurant with him. He ordered the food for us (which was way too much), and cracked jokes the whole night. I ate half a chicken and lots of rice. After dinner, four of us got a ride back to our apartment with him. He decided to take a little detour on the way back. Ahmad popped a cassette tape in (remember those?), and started speeding down the road. We listened to tons of songs I’ve never heard before. The best way to describe them are 90s techno remixes that never made it to any audience beyond his car. We were all laughing our heads off. Ahmad was singing and dancing along to these songs while swerving down the road. Lanes don’t really exist on the roads here, so he was just weaving his way through traffic. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

 That half chicken is now in my stomach. Along with some of the rice.

We went to church today and it was awesome. Because Friday is the day of worship in Islam, we follow suit. We went to the English branch here, which is composed of lots of interns and U.S. military and government employees. One of them is named Steve Young. That same person was not a quarterback in the NFL. After, a few of us decided to stay for the sacrament meeting of the Arabic branch. It was fun to hear the services in a completely foreign language. I tried to sing along to the hymns in Arabic, but failed miserably. I resorted to humming, and eventually just singing in English.

A few of us Zaytoonies just after we finished church.

Remember how we have ice cream trucks in the U.S.? Here they have natural gas trucks. And fruit trucks. The gas trucks play this intriguing yet creepy music that will haunt my dreams for months. The fruit trucks just shout at people as they drive down the street. I don’t think I’ll ever need natural gas here, but maybe someday I’ll buy fruit from those angry trucks. I’ve heard it’s crazy delicious.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Tis time to eat more hummus. Until next time. Ma'a Salama.