A rough start

Well, I made it back to Jordan safe and mostly sound. The flight back (12 hours) was packed, and it was my luck to have a group of handicapped children sitting behind me who really didn’t understand why you are not supposed to beat on the back of the seat in front of you…oh well, no one likes to sleep on airplanes anyway. At least I had my new mp3 player (it’s a Sandisk knock off of an Ipod model, but less expensive and NOT Apple). Eventually the kids went to sleep and I was able to nod off for a couple hours. I was pretty tired since we spent the whole day walking around New York, or taking buses, subways, and ferries. I thought the transport system in New York was great: cheap, quick, and easy to use…maybe it’s improved since last year J.
When I arrived to Amman my friend picked me up and we had dinner together then went to see my apartment. This is where the fun really began…The apartment was supposed to be finished and everything ready, or so I had been informed. Now, anyone who has any experience in the Middle East is a fool to think that everything will ever go according to plan (no matter how simple that plan is). I was expecting some problems, but I had called and double checked before coming to make sure things were in order. Nevertheless, when we arrived at the apartment (about 10 pm) I discovered that the apartment was far from ready. It did not even have electricity or water hooked up, and the resident guard (a guy who watches over the building during the nights) said it probably won’t be done til end of Ramadan, which translates into ‘not until at least a month after Ramadan’. It was 10:30 at night, but that didn’t stop us from going around the neighborhood looking for apartments. Arabs are night people, especially during Ramadan. Everything was high priced and I was too tired to make a clear minded decision. My friend graciously offered (actually ordered) to let me stay at his place that night. He has internet at his place and so I tried getting in contact with my old roommate (who is in the states now) to see if the old apartment was open. Since I couldn’t sleep more than about three hours I ended up catching him on MSN around 4:30 am. Come to find out the old apartment was vacant, but the key is with his uncle (who lives in Amman). He said I could stay there until things work out. So the solution was easy enough: try to get some sleep, get up, contact his uncle, and go and get the key. Problem solved right? Nope. When morning rolled around (with no sleep thanks to jet lag) I couldn’t get a hold of the uncle, so I went with my friend to his work and then walked around Amman until 2pm when he got off work. Normally I like going into downtown Amman, however this time was not so fun. The temperature was around 100 degrees, I had almost no sleep for two days, I was catching the standard nasty cold that always comes when I change climate zones, and the worst part was I couldn’t eat or drink anything in public (which in Amman is everywhere). Needless to say, I’d had better days. Nevertheless, my spirits were high, and I tried to just embrace the hardship (with a fair amount of success). That afternoon we still had not got a hold of the uncle, but we found out where he lived, so after a short rest, my friend took me over the place. My roommate was supposed to have called him and let him know the situation, so everything would go smoothly…smoothly if anyone was home. As it turns out the uncle and all his family were away in Saudi Arabia and no one could get a hold of them.
Our options were running low at this point. Luckily, in the middle east families are well tied together, so I called my roommate and he got in contact with all the relatives he could to find out if they knew anything about the apartment key. I guess at this juncture the Lord figured the trial was sufficient and that my patience was sufficiently increased, because my roommate called me back and said that a cousin of his had a spare key and I could come pick it up that evening. So, after dinner with my friend we grabbed my stuff from his place and went to the apartment. I am so glad that I had my friend there to help me, the whole situation would have been much more difficult without him. He was incredibly helpful and hospitable. A real friend.
So anyway, that is my story about my first two days back in Amman. Had I not been tired and sick it probably would have been an average experience in Jordan. Nevertheless, I am thankful the experience, and the gracious watchfulness of the Shepherd in leading me through every challenge. It is truly comforting to know that God never stops looking out for His sheep.

Well, I better wrap this up. I start work tomorrow by the way. We'll see if things work out in that arena...

Here is a picture from the trip to New York

P.S. can someone email Brian's email address, I seem to have misplaced it...

There it is, the Big Apple...its a strange place, people: 14 times the population of Alaska in 1/2,000 the space

See how wierd it is...they won't even let you stand in this city. This is brother Shorter breaking the law haha.