I awoke yesterday morning (afternoon?) to an overcast sky. In Jordan? Beautiful day. After a lazy wake-up and a berry-peach-nectarine-banana smoothie (oh, the local produce!), I called Mary Ellen, and we walked downtown. To our disappointment and accurate prediction, most of the shops were closed due to the Eid ul-Fitr (the holiday of breaking fast after the holy month of Ramadan). Hameuda DVD was open, though, and we made a killing of an assortment of DVDs including a Rosetta Stone disc, a season of the Gilmore Girls and Amelie. We then walked to the produce market where the restless shop-keepers were almost bursting with excitement to see customers. And two western women at that. They kept offering us pomegranates and pistachios to taste until Mary Ellen purchased a pomegranate and some oranges and I picked some beans, onions, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a pomegranate, all for 4 JD. I know that I've mentioned that I had the best pomegranate of my life about a week ago, but that was epically shattered by the pomegranate I bought yesterday. Pretty soon, I'm fairly certain my taste buds are going to reject any American produce upon my return home. As we were leaving the market, one of the men asked us to take a picture. We awkwardly agreed, until we figured out that they were hoping that we would provide the camera for this picture. Sorry, boys.
When we arrived back home, it started to rain. The sky actually opened for a five-minute window and had a miniature catharsis. And we stood outside in it with our arms outstretched and our faces turned upward tasting the raindrops. Smelling the salty, sweet perfume. I think if anyone could have seen us they would have thought we were crazy. Later that night after Mass, one of the women was commenting on how she doesn't understand why the winter is coming so early. If this is winter, I'll take it!
I've been tired enough recently that I've started to sleep completely through the night. Even through the Mosque prayers that echo through the hills at 4:30 in the morning. Prayers happen 5 times a day and are impossible to miss regardless of your location in Amman. I find them really calming and a fantastic way of marking time throughout the day. I wish there were a way of capturing it, but I don't think any kind of recorded sound could effectively showcase this sound spread.
My Arabic is still terrible but showing improvement. Insha'Allah.
No comments:
Post a Comment