Covert ops in the Palace Hotel

If you were hoping to hide your identity in Jordan, would you:

a) not make any mention of your background at all?
b) omit any references to going to Brandeis University?
c) say, in Hebrew, in the middle of a crowded hotel, "I am trying to keep the fact that I am Jewish a secret"?

Well, a fellow I met today chose option c. Arabic and Hebrew are pretty close. If you know one of them, you can recognize the other.

The brief round-up of the last few days is my dad is in town and it's cool, work absolutely blows, and I do not have the foggiest idea of what I am going to produce with my "research" here.

Regarding the dad: I was in charge of organizing his accomodations, and I was looking for a place that was within walking distance of my apartment. I chose the Palace Hotel for him (http://palacehotel.com.jo/) which is pretty much the kind of dumpy place I would stay in. But my dad is happy as long as there are no bed bugs, and at $25 a night, this cheap dive makes him feel just fine about blowing money on me. Plus he dug up a nice wholesome boy (the James Bond mentioned above) for me to hang out with in Amman, so he is feeling good about himself.

For some reason though, he really wanted to go to Mecca Mall, this four-story monstrosity for those who feel spiritual about shopping. Lots of shoes for sale, lots of decent clothes, Elvis coming through the speakers, a food court with Cinnabon (I had NO idea they came all the way out here) and a Starbucks and Mrs. Fields. With most store signs in English, it was a bit disorienting...but then the muezzin coming over the loudspeakers, and a few women in the full head-to-toe burkas, brought it back.

Subject 2: Work blows. Seriously. The big one. Before I start, I just want you to know that the environmental organization Friends of the Earth is located in one of the biggest industrial belts in Amman.

Yesterday afternoon, I wrangled a grant proposal assignment out of them. "Great!" I thought to myself. "Something to do that I am pretty good at."

But this proposal for funds to improve a park was pretty tough to write without any background info. I used the project summaries lying around to put together a draft, and then I sat in the office all day, trying to get a budget, or a work plan. It wasn't until 4 pm that Abed finally took the time to talk to me - and he sat there picking at the keyboard and adding in all these things to the proposal about the project, riddling it with typos. By the end of the session, I still didn't know much more about the project, the proposal wasn't finished, and I wanted to shoot A in the face.

He made a halfassed promise to talk out what I am doing tomorrow. I have no high hopes. For now, I am trying to figure out how I can be useful, but it just sucks because I don't have any major project to think of ideas for, or to take initiative for. In the meantime I am consoling myself with the major achievement of understanding the Amman public transportation system, which charges 25 cents Jordanian to go anywhere in the city. What a steal! And what a crowded, standing-room only, sweaty ride!

Subject 3: Research. Does anyone have any pointers for how to get started on researching the rise of Hamas and how it affects cooperation between Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians? No? Me neither...

Tomorrow morning I am going to the Israeli embassy because a group of Jordanian mayors and water experts is going to Israel and the West Bank later this month through Friends of the Earth (Mideast) for a conference on the Jordan River. Apparently the experience of waiting for the Israelis to process your visa application is really horrible, so I am going there along with the secretary of FoEME to make it suck less. It should be an interesting experience, and I am glad to be able to talk to some of the people who are involved in the different projects going on around Jordan.

By the way, the American embassy in Amman, one of the biggest US embassies in the Middle East, is guarded on all sides by soldiers looking like idiots in huge tanks aimed at the streets. Happy 4th of July. And the war in Iraq has brought thousands of refugees across the border and into Jordan, which has crowded the highways and driven the price of real estate way up.

Jordan seems to always get caught in the middle of events happening in its neighborhood - either in Iraq to the east or Israel/Palestine to the west. Amman is a sprawling mess with little sign of urban planning. New buildings eat up former farmland, and the zoning is a patchwork all around the city. Maybe I am being apologetic, but I think part of the reason for the disorganized sprawl is that Jordan keeps getting these huge waves of new people. In 1948 and 1967 it was the Palestinians, the first Gulf War brought in a bunch of people, and now the war in Iraq is adding more to the mix. The population explosions are so sudden that no one really has time to prepare for it.

And now...
I am going to go study some Arabic and pass out in the process.