I can’t not start sharing my Jordan adventures with you, without introducing you to Khalid. Khalid drove me from the airport to my hotel and started our conversation with a quiz. “Amman used to be called something else. It is the same name as a city in the USA. I’m going to give you 60 seconds to guess this answer.”
My brain started scrambling for a US city with an Arabic sounding name. “Oh gosh I don’t think I can think of one.”
“Come on. Think. You still have 30 seconds left.” The pressure of it erasing all names of US cities from my head. “I really don’t know.”
“Come on. 10 seconds”
Then he lifts his finger presses the imaginary button on his dashboard with an ‘errrrrrt’ sound. I erupt into giggles.
“It’s Philadelphia. It’s a Roman word given during the Roman occupation. When the Muslim came they converted it to Amman.”
Realizing I was not a worthy contender for Jordan history quiz, he dropped the buzzer and instead started his history and culture lessons for the remainder of our 35-minute ride.
We talked about Jordanian food, lifestyle, geography and religion, politics - two topics they typically say not to talk about, but this was a judgement free conversation for learning and understanding. He brought Amman to life as we navigated through the wadis and up and down the hills – or mountains as Khalid calls them – there are now over 20 of them in a city that long ago was build on seven hills just like Rome. Sometimes all it takes is a warm encounter like this with a stranger to make you fall in love with a place. I’m sure I’ll encounter many magic moments over the next week, but I think the one I’ll probably remember the most is Khali pressing that imaginary buzzer on his dashboard bringing light and love to an interaction with a stranger visiting his home country. It makes me think about how I want to show up for others and bring light and love to their day. Caroline P.S. The warmth of the Jordanian people has continued since my journey with Khalid. | 