Mystery of the Ominous Usra

Mystery of the Ominous Usra- 28 January 2010

By the way, “Usra” means family. Today was the day I met my host family. The build up to this moment had a lot of ups and downs. Ups, because I was excited talking to every Jordanian I met and finding out how nice everyone has been! Downs, because of hearing horror stories about controlling families and wondering if I would become one of those stories. I had an interview at our organization’s office essentially going over all the info about my host family. Because this is actually a very public blog (more so than I thought), I won’t give away too much here. It is a Palestinian family, the main family I live with is a 70ish ear old father named Andre (Baba, as they say in Arabic). The mother is in her 60’s, we call her Um Zaki, or Mama. There is a daughter who lives in the house named Rasha. (40’s) She is really nice and took me on a guided tour of her neighborhood! They live in a very old, very famous neighborhood in Amman. There is a son who is married and lives nearby named Zaki. I met his wife and son today. They are all very nice. The son is 1 yr 4 mnths old and he is very outgoing! My first impression is that I really lucked out with my host family!! J They don’t smoke, they don’t drink, the only catch is that the cab ride to campus is a little longer than most other students, but I can manage. Colin, as you very well know soccer is very big here and my host dad really loves it! He is actually watching the Egypt-Algeria soccer game right now! Also, I have my own, very nice room, and there is internet! So when I can connect, I will be sure to keep the blogs coming!

I also took my first successful cab ride today! For a majority of orientation, they bussed us around in these large tour busses. However, today we got our travel stipend and were essentially told we’re on our own. Smart, because we have to know how to use cabs to get to campus. We were given a big lecture on how/where to sit in the cab, how to make sure its licensed, how to make sure the meter is running, and when to be able to tell that the cabbie is trying to rip you off. I was very happy how successful it went! One down, many, many more to go!

On a weirder note, I did have a good conversation with a man in a campus computer lab near campus who wanted to practice his English. He was a very nice guy and we were told that simply asking someone how they were could lead to hearing their life story and being invited to dinner! Well guess what! That’s exactly what happened! The only thing that was odd about it was that he kept asking for my email, phone #, US college, etc. I am sure he was just trying to keep in touch, but nevertheless I just “wasn’t ready for a relationship” yet.

FUN FACT: We were told the other day that the Muhabarat monitor a majority, if not all of the blogs. The intelligence system here is one of the best in the region. A girls blogged about being scared to death by one of the Prince’s bodyguards. The next day she got a phone call on her personal cell phone asking her to meet the Prince for a formal apology and photo. So on that note, good evening Muhabarat!

Bish-ta-ghal Al-Adad min fadlek: Turn on the Meter Please

Oh by the way, they don’t flush toilet paper here…..so yeah……