Credits and Debits

What’s worse than trying to understand a company’s financial statements when credits are on the left and debits are on the right? Answer: Trying to understand said company’s financial statements in Arabic. Answer #2: Watching baseball or golf on T.V. Answer #3: Brownies with nuts. Answer #4: Probably a number of other painful things.

Segue (pronounced "segway". I actually didn't know that's how you spell it until the red squiggly lines appeared under my original spelling of the word) into potentially interesting story: Yesterday I visited one of the companies I’ll be working with. Loren, Jared (two of the leaders of this awesome operation), and I drove out to a concrete manufacturing and contracting company yesterday. We met with the president of the company, along with a few of his employees. After some small talk and getting to know a little bit about the company, Loren and Jared (aka the taskmasters) left to take care of some other tasks. I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the company’s financial statements, trying to understand Arabic accounting, and getting to know more about the company and the people who work there. And as mentioned before, accounting entries here are the opposite of what we do in the U.S. Just like their reading and writing. For those who didn’t study accounting in college, this probably means nothing to you. But for those who had “debits on the left and credits on the right” pounded into your head for three years, this event causes significant psychological trauma. But I’ll live.

 Just a small taste of Arabic accounting

Because more interns arrived in country yesterday, a bunch of us moved to a new apartment. It’s just up the street from our old place, and I’m a fan. It’s bigger, cleaner, and nicer. We’ll still have to ration our water here. Each apartment has a water tank that is only filled up once a week. As such, I took my first shower in Jordan this morning. The showerhead had no pressure, the water was cold, and the shower was wonderful. 

 

This is what my hair looks like after a lo flo shower

Today a bunch of us just wandered around town. Well, first I had pita bread and Nutella for breakfast, and then we wandered around town. We went to the downtown market, ate some delicious pita bread and hummus, and saw some cool Roman ruins. By the by, the hummus here is incredible. It’s smooth and magically delicious. I don’t know if I can ever go back to Costco hummus. But then again, there are more things to eat at home than hummus.

A cool Roman amphitheater. And me.

 We've been told "a Coke a day keeps the parasites away"

 

Our taxi driver who took us back to our apartment was hilarious. Although I couldn’t understand 99.7% of what he said, he started singing the Hawaii 5-0 theme song when my friend told him that he was from Hawaii. Also, our taxi driver into down was super nice. He was pointing out banks, parking garages, and basically every building that we passed by. He would make an exhausting tour guide.

Now I’m sitting in our apartment in Arjan (the part of Amman we’re living in) and talking with some of the other interns here. They are some fun peoples.