A Red and White Kufiyya: Kul 'am wa inta bikheer!!! (Happy Birthday!!) to me!

Hello everyone!!!!

There is so much for me to tell about and so many fascinating things. Please if you have any comments or questions please post them as I often feel like I write about things that someone would not write about if it were their first time visiting Jordan. I am no in that “enchanted” mode although I do love the people here and am trying hard to develop that appreciation and care for them each day. I am merely trying to say that I may not mention obvious culture differences all the time as these are subconsciously “normal” for someone like me who is in Jordan for their second time and treating more complex issues or simply different ones from a tourist who is in “Arabia” for the first time. So if you feel that anything rather intriguing is omitted please post as I write off of some basic assumptions sometimes.

(I will now explain my work and explain the culture here concerning dialogue at work and BIRTHDAYS!!)

Anyway, I am TRANSLATING into ARABIC for Jordan’s Ministry of Social Development (MoSD). I work also in the National Aid Fund and translate documents into English. The latter is preferred for me and others as English is my native language (albeit some might say that Spanish is my native language, but that’s a topic for another day). Anyway, my understanding of Arabic grammar is allowing me to translate some important international documents sent to Jordan’s MoSD and are thereby, needed in Arabic as not all employees speak/read English at such a high register as the EU documents are often written in. (yes, that’s right I referred to translating things produced by the European Union!)

(A selfie on my first day of work!! [thanks fam for the chic work shirts!])

Anyway, I will normally go running or go to the gym after I get up at 6:30am or 7am or around then. I bring lunch or I just buy Humus and bread or a Falafel sandwich from a nearby place. I walk to work and am there (depending on the workload) from 9:30am until 2pm or 3:30pm. I love working with Arabs in general and they often speak loud to each other. You would think that they were mad at each other (coming from an American background where yelling at a white-collar desk-based job just isn’t appropriate and unorthodox). I look around to see if they actually are mad at each other but they’re just very animated in expressing their opinions at work. I love conversing with Arabs too. They like to practice a little English to when I’m taking my break. So, after work I head home and will either go to my institute for my formal Arabic class or I will go to my speaking partner’s pharmacy to talk with him about my research. In the night time I sometimes go out with my friends from BYU who are also working as interns for the MoSD. It’s so much fun. I am basically working, fulfilling work for an Arabic class, preparing/conducting research, going and preparing to go to church and hanging out with my Arab or American friends.

I guess I explained the Culture part of my blog in the last paragraph so I will now talk about a STORY.

Oh yeah!! My birthday in the MIDDLE EAST!!! My birthday was last Sunday June 9^th and it was PHENOMENAL (thanks to all my Arab and American friends and family [both Peruvian and American].

So pretty much I had the LONGEST BIRTHDAY EVERRRRRRRRR!!! It started with my physical location in Amman, Jordan and then proceed to the West from Chile, Peru, and North America. Friends from three different continents celebrating my birthday and wishing me a wonderful birthday!! It was the longest birthday as it lasted over several time zones and it was such a joy to see messages in Spanish, English, and Arabic. I tried to respond to each one personally.

For my birthday I went with my two roommates to renew our residency/visa and then I went to work. The Arabs there wished me happy birthday but Birthdays are not that celebrated here and it was also the work place so I didn’t really do anything that exciting at work. Also the night before (Saturday) I went to a place called Sahab and it was like an hour away to eat with a local and his family. We got back from Sahab on my birthday and it was very fun!! A great preview/entry into my birthday. It included singing an American song “hurricane” in the taxi we were riding in back home. Anyway, back to Sunday, after work I went and took a nap and we went to Waffle House for Dinner. It’s a pretty American restaurant near the first circle on Rainbow Street. (a very western, popular, little more expensive street). There were about 12/13 of us there and my local friend Johnny came along too. We mostly got American breakfast food like Waffles, Pancakes, and French Toast. We did karaoke while we waited. The management heard it was my birthday and that I didn’t have a birthday cake so they brought one out on the house after we were eating. It had a big tall sparking candle and it was a cake made out of chocolate waffles I believe. Pretty delicious.

(Logan beautifully singing Cry from "A Walk to Remember")

(My wonderful friend Johnny who lives in Amman)

(Matthew Bird singing "Fly me to the moon" by Frank Sinatra because a lot of Arabs like older/classic American music like that)

Then we went back to my apartment and they had me be last/distracted so that all my friends could be inside my apartment to surprise me with a cake that THEY had actually gotten for me, covered with strawberries and two candles in the shapes of the numbers “24.” They sang to me and we all enjoyed each other’s company. After that I was pretty wiped but I had to see my friend Muhammad at the supermarket near our house because he said he wanted to see me on my birthday. So by myself and a little late, I slowly walked up to his store and I greeted him and he said he had had something ready to give me at the store since 11am that day! I looked as he grabbed something from behind the cash register/counter and it was a pretty gift bag with 2 nicely wrapped presents inside!!! I only talk to this young man about every other day and not very long at that but he still got me 2 gifts in a nice bag!! I didn’t think I deserved them!! I wasn’t expecting a gift. He works so much and he’s not from Jordan but working and leaving outside of his home country Egypt. I greatly appreciated his gift and told him if he needed anything that I was there to help him. I said goodbye, thanked him and started to walk home astounded. At home I showed my two roommates that Muhammad had given me presents!!! Keep in mind that here in the Middle East, birthdays are not that widely celebrated or if they are they are very simple. Here I was, not even a part of this guy’s immediate family and he had given me not just one but TWO presents! I opened them in front of my roommates and I became even more amazed and almost emotional as I unwrapped a silver pen/calculator set and a nice shiny big black wrist watch. They were too nice. I went back and thanked him (the usual one kiss on the right cheek and 3-5 air kisses on his left cheek) and expressed my profound gratitude. I in turn gave him some of my birthday cake with strawberries on it. I brought some for him and all his co-workers. They are very friendly. Muhammad said that the gifts were simply/little but they were not at all!! He was just trying to show how our friendship was not a burden on him at all. They were small and not a trouble for him to get but a pleasure. He is one of the friendliest, kindest, and most charitable people I know (and not just here in Jordan or the Middle East for that matter but that’s where he lives).

Longest birthday EVER!! And surely unforgettable. J