Groupies

The rest of the company team arrived on Sunday and it has been a busy two days with orientation type stuff. The team, now consists of Tim and I, Gene and Jessie, and three college girls from the states. The girls are from an ethic group that is a small tribal community near China. They are from different parts of the US, but all happen to be from the same ethnic background and it has been awesome getting to hear about their history. One of the huge aspects of orientation was learning the Jordanian culture. As I have written before, hospitality is huge and is one of the seven virtues of the country. The girls really took this on tonight as they had us all over for a common meal shared their tribe. It was a pretty standard Asian meal, but was a nice change of pace from the Arab food I have been devouring the past few days.

After dinner, we sat around a fire in the backyard of the guest house. We basically drove around the city and found extra wood sitting around construction sites for the fire. It was a strange experience at first as we were sitting around a fire, in 80 degree weather at night, being lullabied by prayer from the local mosque. You see, the five prayer times are projected across the city from loudspeakers from the mosques, so we get the chance to hear it five times daily. It was such a reminder of what is really going on around us, making the bonfire just that much more special. We sang, roasted (Smors that is), danced, and let loose with some classic lyrical improve. It is cool to see the team clicking after this short time, and in a culture that is oppressive it is all the more important for unity.

Today we took a driving tour of the city and saw the dichotomy between the traditional Arab nation and that which is heavily influenced by affluent nations. Less then 10 minutes from my posh pad, are brick huts and tents of the bedouin people. This is a place where goats and camels are common, and very little women were seen outside the home. Just minutes from this area was a new development called Soria. Large influx of capital from The Ameratis, and western countries have given nearly $26 Billion in invested capital to build a ridiculously exclusive 5 star housing and hotel complexes. Right now Jordan is considered a free economic zone and many of the typical economic regulations including taxes and policies on earnings have been minimized to spur growth. As you can imagine, this new push for growth has huge possibilities for the Jordan country and I am excited to see how I could possibly get involved. It is such a stark contrast to the traditional Arab society that exists just minutes away.

Tomorrow we start language tutoring, were we will be having Arabic lessons for the day. We will do this for 1.5 hours every week to fully immerse ourselves in the culture. I miss you all and look forward to hearing of your adventures upon my arrival.