ontology: science of pure being; the nature of things

I just wanted to share a few ologies I find interesting:
-pterylology: study of distribution of feathers on birds (I would one day like to be at least a mild expert in this field)
-orthopterology: study of cockroaches
-cryptozoology: study of animals for whose existence there is no conclusive proof (I am sure you are with me in desiring an example of one such animal)
-ciselure: the art of chasing metal (a common activity in the Middle East)
-arctophily: study of teddy bears (strangely, this proves to be a science mastered only by four year old females)
-nostology: study of senility
-philately: study of postage stamps (a field of study Erin finds quite helpful in her postal service endeavors)
-psalligraphy: the art of paper-cutting to make pictures

Well, its pack day, but a fairly stress free one. My grandmother and her aide made a goodbye meal for us… baked bread with onions and a lot of sumac seasoning, and sumac seasoned boiled chicken. My dad and tata/grandma knows I love sumac so they thought it was a good surprise meal. It was pretty darn good, even though I don’t like onions.

The past week has been pretty busy. We went to old downtown Amman where everything is extremely cheap and somewhat slummy. We got some small things to bring back home (including Erin finding a flaming red colander for half a dinar!) The fruit/veggie market there was great. It involved hundreds of tables of fruit stacked higher than my eye level at times and men yelling auction-style Arabic ramblings about their fruit and unbeatable prices. It seemed on every corner stood a young boy slicing open cactus buds and plopping the juicy insides into small plastic baggies. We tried the unusual fruit once, as my tata AND her aide really love them… but each little ball has probably 300 or more BB bullet seeds that you are to simply swallow. Kind of gross. Anyway, upon leaving the food area of the market, there was a veggie stand with a box of carrots for sale. My dad, quickly walking past the table, grabbed a carrot out of the box and held it up to the merchant, who nodded with understanding as my dad enjoyed his unwashed vegetable. It is moments like that when I really appreciate this culture. Everybody is just another cousin in some way or another, and people are full of mercy and hospitality, often even after trust is broken. In America, it seems like trust must be earned before sacrificial kindness is given, but it seems that often times here people desire to give of themselves whether the receiver is worthy or not, and keep giving unless something drastic happens to destroy the relationship.

We have also spent some more time at the clinic and with the Al-Tabe family (Amira’s children). We took Sumar (the oldest girl, 13 years) to a bookstore, just her and us, to talk and give her undivided attention, and especially to get her out of the house without being responsible for her siblings for a short time. We just read in the corner together, and on her own Sumar picked up an English book and an Arabic-English dictionary and began reading. Her initiative and drive is really neat to see, especially in a young girl. We then had to say good by to the whole family and it was difficult, …just having gotten to know them and spent a lot of time with them, and then realizing we will probably never see them again. I had just been wondering the last few times we saw Sumar if she really liked us at all, because she is 13 and…yeah that explains it. Hormones and moodiness and “nothing is wrong with me” whilst pouting, etc. But we hugged her goodbye and she began to cry. I’d never seen her express that much emotion. She is extremely discreet and never opened up to me at all, and opened up only a little bit with Erin. It was encouraging to know she cared, but that much more depressing… realizing how drastic the whole thing probably was. Two girls come in, who are actually show some sincere interest, want to listen, get to know you, are older and cooler than your many little siblings…. Then they leave a few weeks later, for good. Something I am very thankful for, however, is that this family has a lot of Jesus followers in their life. I trust Jesus that our time with Sumar and the rest of the kids have been more seeds sown in their hearts opening their eyes to truth in the Kingdom of God. At some point you must let go, and trust ☺ In this case, we are forced to… but I’d rather feel the pain of depart and the ignorance of the family’s whereabouts from here on out than never have given and received friendship and Jesus with them. On another sad note, however, we found out that Sumar may not be able to go to school next year because her dad doesn't think he can afford to pay for her books. For Egyptians, textbooks must be bought (and I'm sure some other nationalities as well). She is very smart and wants to be a nurse or a doctor, ...it was really sad for us to hear that. We also suspect that her mom may want to keep her home to help her around the house and with the kids, which is really a shame. The cycle of poverty is fueled when there is no education...

My Tata really wanted to take Erin and I to Jerash, a city with a lot of Roman ruins from when the Roman Empire was in full force. There are two colloseums there, which are pretty neat. When somebody stands at the bottom and speaks, even very softly, the acoustics are so perfect that you can hear the person from the very top row of seats. Very fascinating. So, we saw Petra and we saw Jerash... now the Jordanians cant keep yelling at us for not doing any tourist things after we've come all the way to Jordan. I don't know how many times my family members have yelled at me for not seeing things... It just hasn't been on the top of Erin priority list or mine. But there were both cool to see. Even though Erin's ticket cost astronomically more in her "foreigners" fee, than the rest of us under Jordanian fees. I don't know how my dad convinced these people that I am a Jordanian, but it took the cost of my ticket from $24 JD to $2 JD (that's about US$34 to US$3) at Petra, and from $8 JD to $1/2 JD at Jerash.

Cassie with us at Jerash

This could be a tricky find- I almost blend in better than Waldo...

I made a small wooden plaque thing with a picture of my tata and I on it, and another one for my tata’s aide, Cassie, with a picture of her and tata on it, for her to take with her when she moves back to Indonesia, where she is originally from. Well, I had them made I mean. And it was a big ordeal… This might give you an idea of something I don’t appreciate about this culture. I ordered it about a week ago, at which point the guy in the store told me it would take two hours. You would think coming back in two days would be sufficient, wouldn’t you? Well, two days later I returned. The guy recognized me and began stepping his way through the maze of a video store (maze due to the crap all over the floor)… and got to the photo desk area. He began looking for the plaques for about 15 minutes, helping other customers, returning to look, etc… Finally he told me that the guy who made them was in the hospital and they would just deliver them to my house. So I told him how to get to the house (which, by the way, must be done with only landmarks, as street names and numbers are never, ever used). That didn’t work out, as I assumed, so I finally had to go back again to pick them up. Basically, a lot of promises are made here that can never be fulfilled. As one of the nurses at the clinic explained, she said the people here would rather make a promise that they know they could not fulfill, than feel the shame of saying no. I’m confused as how that is more shameful than promising something and not following through, but apparently it is… That line of thinking summarizes our trip here. A lot of unrealistic promises, and nobody is ever straight with us about what will or will not happen.

Incidentally, the same exact day as the day of the lost plaques, my second cousin Aliaa went to take her bathing suit to some store to get repaired. She came back when they told her to, and started looking for the bathing suit for…oh… about 15 minutes. Finally the woman found her suit and said “oh! It’s not done yet. Walk around the mall for 15 minutes and come back, it will be done. I hope you’re not mad!” Disorganized and unrealistically optimistic. I wonder if this is why I often lose things and have a hard time saying no to people, two things Erin has scolded me for often since being here.

Across the street from my dad's house

Something kind of humorous. We had a crazy taxi driver the other day. We got into the taxi and told him to go to Amman Academy (the closest known landmark by my dad’s house). He yelled out the window to a nearby taxi driver and asked him where that is. Neither of them knew. After we finally communicated where we live, he told us it would cost 2 jordanian dinars to take us home. We knew the rate was ridiculous for the short distance and he was probably trying to take advantage of foreigners, so we started arguing with him in very broken Arabic. He said he wanted to charge 2 JD because he had been waiting 20 minutes for a ride. Funny how that costs us, right? We told him several times to stop the taxi so we could get out…but on he went. Erin was yelling “floos kteer! 2 dinar floos kteer!” (meaning a lot of money), and he began to laugh with a large, deep, horrifying laugh. I though he was laughing at her accent, but then he started yelling, “OK! ½ dinar!” I said “okay!” Then he said “1/4 dinar! NO DINAR!! Har har har har!!!” I wish I knew how to say creepy in Arabic… Creepy kteer! “2 dinar floos kteer??? This is TAXI!!” Then Erin goes on yelling “QUF!! QUF!” (stop! stop!). I asked him if we could just use the meter for our fare, as he starts taking an extremely long way home. He asked where we were from, to which I quickly replied “Canada”. I don’t really know why, other than… I figured being Canadian meant I wasn’t as stupid as being American, you know? Or maybe I just thought if he knew what country I was from, that just narrowed down his search for me in the future when he decides its time to murder the girl that didn’t want to be ripped off. Either way, he told me about his French friends living in Canada, and I said some stuff about how I don’t live in a French speaking providence. Erin was prepared to say “par le vous francias” (however you spell that) if he asked her anything, completely disregarding my weird story. Anyway, we finally got home and Tata was sitting on the porch waiting for us. She saw us having a hard time with him when we were paying him, so she said “whats wrong!” I said “he was a crazy taxi, Tata!” She immediately blurted “kill him!” It was a great moment. It might only be so amusing to people who have met her, but she is very funny and her jokes just sound so strange in English, so they are even funnier.

I especially like when somebody does something for Tata, and she responds “thank”. She probably heard somebody say “thanks” at some point, and figured if she only wanted to give 1 thank you, then a singular thank would be sufficient.

Celebrating dad's birthday last week. The package on those flames simply said "birthday candles." Normal regular old birthday candles...

Last night Erin and I watched the movie Kite Runner. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want me to ruin the story, don’t read the next three paragraphs.

It is hard to imagine that the author did not know Jesus, because much of the story, to me, was simply the gospel. It was a great movie, about two boys who grew up in Afghanistan, one the son of the homeowner (named Amir) and the other the “slave” (but treated extremely well, like family). They are pretty much the same age and best friends. The slave boy, named Hassan, was the character representing Jesus, as far as I can see. There are a few parts to the movie that remain ingrained in my memory. Amir won a kite flying tournament, where he cut down 14 kites or something, and the last kite he cut down, Hassan promises to run and find it for him, kind of like a prize/reward for Amir from winning the tournament. Because of his ethnic background, Hassan gets picked on by some boys on his way back home with the kite. The boys said they’d let him go if he gave them the kite. Hassan said no, he would rather be beat up then give up the kite that he promised to get for Amir. So they beat him up and raped him, and he limped home. All the meanwhile... Amir was hiding behind some stairs and saw the whole thing, but was too afraid to intervene. Hassan finally is freed and never tells Amir a word, just giving him the kite and walking home with him. So much Jesus there. Hassan’s love for Amir was greater than the cost of that love. And even more, Hassan never even told Amir anything of that cost. Jesus gives us a glimpse of the cost of our sin, but we cannot and I don’t think ever will fathom the cost of the cross. Carrying the spiritual burden of all of the sin of all of mankind is simply unfathomable. Furthermore, Jesus bore the entire wrath of God, ALL of mankind’s sin, even though not all of men would come to the truth of the saving grace of Jesus. Incredible...

So, Amir felt a lot of shame after that, and their friendship pretty much fell through. But one of their last times talking, Amir threw a bunch of tomatoes at Hassan and yelled at him to hit him back. Hassan kept standing there, just taking it, being shamed by the person he loved most, by the friend he would do anything for. Amir yelled that he was a coward. Hassan then picks up a tomato and smashes it on his own face, then walks away. Is there any greater picture of love, really? If you are disliking Amir a lot right now, realize that is you! It is me. It is not, like so many people here in Jordan like to say, the Jews that killed Jesus. It is me and you.. it is our sin that lifted his body to the cross and brought his body and spirit to death. And he stood there and took it, loving his abusers so deeply that he would only allow himself to suffer the cost of sin. Hassan loved Amir so deeply that he would only allow himself to suffer...

I cried a lot after the movie. I won’t ruin the whole thing, but please see it if you can. Watching Hassan in that movie has caused me to fall more in love with the person of Jesus Christ. I found myself loving the character of the little slave boy so much, and then I realized why I loved the character so deeply. Cause he never did anything wrong, so purely innocent (symbolically), and loved so deeply and suffered so much for his love for Amir. I loved his character because it is so much like my savior Jesus.

Well, tomorrow we are going to spend the day with my Tata and have a little birthday celebration. I may never see my Tata again, so it will be a really special but also very sad birthday. We will also be finishing up with Amira's family-- not actually seeing them but trying to set up a way to make sure Sumar's textbooks are paid for next year so she doesn't stop going to school, but without actually handing any cash to the family themself. We leave for the airport around 10 pm, fly overnight and land in Detroit at 8am their time, on the 24th. Laura and Katie and Cheryl, we’d like to see you the 24th (after we sleep) or the 25th, so leave time for us. We’ll leave for Ohio on the 25th to make it for Tara and Wade’s wedding on the 26th, drive back to Detroit the 27th, and then Erin is off to DC the 28th. It is so strange thinking about the fact that I’ll be in a wedding in Ohio this Saturday. The divider of distance feels much greater than the divider of time, so it seems impossible that I could be in that entire other world in only a few days. In fact, after tonight, the next time I sleep in a bed will be all day long in Michigan! I am most excited to see my brothers. Very soon I’ll get to hear Jordan playing his painfully distorted electric guitar and snuggle with my Jake (unless he’s matured too much since I last saw him). Oh, and to hang out with the new puppy.

Another unrelated comment... we redyed Erin's hair dark again tonight and whoops! A little dark.

I don’t know if people still read this anymore, but Erin and I both appreciate, so much, your prayers and interest to know what is going on. It means a lot to know that people care back home while we are in an entirely separate universe. I’ll do my best to convince Erin to write a post-Jordan reflection, so you can check back a few more times, but I really can’t promise anything with her. I know Arabs like to make unrealistic promises, but that’s one cultural trait I’m gonna leave behind!