The Real Day 25

I went out to do a little shopping today.  All the men over here hold hands and shit, snuggle up with each other.  I giggle to myself, because in the US, they would be classified as gay.  I am not giggling because I'm homophobic, it just is funny because would not be "manly" for me to hold hands with my friends.

I bought a DVD player that has surround sound speakers.  I get it all hooked up, speaker wires ran, popped some popcorn, fired up a DVD, and before the intro credits were done, the unit popped and started smoking.  I cannot even explain how pissed I was.  So I had to box all that shit back up to return it to the store.  It said 1 year warranty on the tag, so I hope I can return it.  I will be taking an Arabic speaking person (Shadi) with me in case I have any troubles.  This guy is slick, he will argue and raise hell until he gets what he wants.  Plus, it was his DVD that I was watching when the unit blew up.  Thank God the movies he has are bootlegs for 1 JD.  The bootleggers just scan the DVD case, copy the DVD, and resell the burned DVD for 1 JD.  Neat little system, and it is all legal.  I can get a lot of bootlegged software like AutoCAD 2010, Adobe CS4 Package, etc. all for 1 JD.

Yesterday we went to Jerash.  They have ruins of an old Roman City recently dug out of the sand.  I have posted the photos up on my Facebook page for your viewing pleasure.

 The Romans were great architects.  These pillars above served two purposes.  I found out that in the joints of the round columns, they added sheets of lead.  This would prevent them from falling over during an earthquake.  Not only that, the blocks on top of the columns are hollow.  So when they start to shake, it sounds like church bells ringing, to notify the city people to stay away from tall structures.  I am sorry, but the Romans did some cool ass shit back in the 2nd Century AD.

Day 24...I miscounted the days for Day 25.

The Muslims are on holiday week. They celebrate the sacrifice of Abraham's son Ishmael to please the God.  It has been interpreted by Judaism, Christians, and Muslims differently.  The holiday is called Eid, in which wealthy people sacrifice sheep and give the meat to the less fortunate.  It is very interesting.

I had the opportunity to visit the Dead Sea today.  My friend and coworker Shadi went to the Marriott - Dead Sea and took some photos and had a few beverages.  The Dead Sea is 1100 ft below sea level and is extremely salty.  One could read a newspaper or a book while floating in the water.  With the high salt concentration, the ability to sink is gone.  I was rinsing my hands in the water, and it left a slick type of film on my skin.  When I washed it off with fresh water, it was amazing how soft my hands were.  Dead Sea salt is a natural exfoliate.  I will be bringing some Dead Sea Mud and Salt back to the States with me.  While at the Marriott, I had a glass jar with sand artwork made for 5 JD.  (about $7.00 bucks)

 

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Jerash.  There are many Roman Castles and ruins near there.  They have a reenactment of chariot races and gladiator fights.  That should be cool, I am looking forward to it.

My friend Shadi family is from Lebanon.  He is a great guy and speaks English very well.  He is one of the few Christians that live in Jordan.  He invited me to his house to have lunch and it was really bizarre seeing his home and a hand stitched picture of the Last Supper done by his aunts.  His two aunts prepared the lunch for us.  We had an array of Lebanese food and I don't remember the names of some of this food, but it was outstanding.  They served us mini pickled eggplants stuff with red chili peppers and the others with garlic.  There was also a dish of beef that was breaded and served with yogurt, and another dish that looked like beef stew that he called meatballs.  These dishes were served with rice and pita bread.  To top it all off, there were also homemade green olives.  They start with fresh olives, press them to break open the skins.  The add salt, vinegar, and lemon wedges, and I swear they taste just like olives at home, but more fresh.

Another coworker showed me a pork store.  I think it is the only pork store in Jordan.  As you may know, Muslims DO NOT eat pork.  I guess it is for the small Christian population.  You can get bacon, German Sausage, pork chops, hot dogs, and various other pork products.  I will be taking full advantage of this store.

Day 25

Some of the things that go on here in Amman never cease to amaze me.  There are these trucks that drive around and deliver propane tanks.  They play music over a loudspeaker like an ice cream truck.  You hear this peppy music coming down the street and it is not ice cream, it is a fucking gas truck. 
The locals have asked me what I put in my mouth.  I explained to them simply as possible that it is "Smokeless Tobacco", like cigarette tobacco that doesn't burn because it is moist.  They have never seen smokeless tobacco before.  They call my dip chewing gum.  I had a chuckle about that.
There is a McDonald's near my apartment, along with a Burger King, Popeye's, KFC, Hardees, Applebees, Fridays, Fuddruckers, and Chili Way (Same as Gold Star).  The Gold Star Chili Recipe was copied by for Jordanian brothers from Skyline, Dixie Chili, and Empress Chili back in 1964, 1965.  Two guys came back to Jordan with the recipe for the chili.  They had an altercation, and went two ways.  One guy runs Chili Way, and the other runs Chili Express.  I was talking to the guy that owns Chili Way near my apartment, and he was surprised to hear that I was from the Cincinnati area.  He told me that he spent 15 years in Cincy and the guys that run the Gold Stars in Cincy are his cousins. 
We had lunch for the first time at McDonald's.  I was asking my driver what the medium sized black bags were for.  The driver told me that they were delivery bags.  They were swapping them out on some sort of charger, I guess to keep your Big Mac Combo warm as it is being delivered on a bike.  I have never been to NYC, but I imagine it being like Chinese Delivery.  The receipt has a McDelivery number on the top.  How about that shit?  You can get super sized without leaving your house!  I bet the liquor stores would deliver beer for a JD or two.

Since I have been moved into the apartment, I am back to the old school way of drying my clothes.  Since the air is so dry and windy in this area, the clothes dry in about an hour.  I stick them on a clothes rack with clothes pins.  I set those wet bitches on the balcony, and they are dry an hour later.  It is kinda nice having your clothes dry in fresh air. 

It is Olive Season here in Jordan.  The farmers put plastic down around the bottom of the trees, then they whack the tree and pick up the olives that fall out.  It is really quite entertaining to watch this procedure.  Just because you are not whacking, doesn't mean that olives are not still falling.  A couple of engineers in the office have olive groves.  I can get fresh pressed olive oil from the office folks, I just need to ask for a small can, or I will get a 5 gallon can.

Amman Jordan Days 12 - 16

I apologize about the days missed from blogging, but I knew it was going to come to a point where I was going to run out of material.  I have been scribbling some notes as the days pass and have decided to sum them up in one blog. 

Bob Miller, the Regional Manager for the Midwest, was here to meet with the clients and develop a business strategy for the future of ADS in the Middle East.  In short, ADS needs to open an office that has a person there at all times.  Not just an office for a contract, not like we have now, but an office similar to the Erlanger Office, Indy Office, St. Louis Office, etc.  One of the clients views this as a commitment of ADS in the Middle East.  He is here until Thursday and he returns home.

ADS in Huntsville had an international Blackberry shipped to me.  It was not available when I came to Amman.  It arrived in Amman on October 30^th, but was on Clearance Hold in Customs.  After some phone calls “In Arabic” and some possible threats, it was determined that I could go and pick it up at FedEx on November 8^th.   I went to FedEx that was near the office, and received paperwork.  I signed for paperwork, not the phone.  Wait for it, it gets better.

1)       I was instructed to take the paper that I received from FedEx to Customs at the airport.

2)      We drove 20 minutes to the airport and needed to get a stamp and signature from the security booth in order to get to Customs.

3)      My translator cannot get past the security checkpoint, only I can go.  Once in the Customs area, I needed another stamp and signature to get into the FedEx cage.

4)      Once in the FedEx cage, one of the guys working for FedEx riffles through about 150 boxes and finds the box that contains my phone.  This had to be the most unorganized fucking mess I have ever seen.  Not even the drivers could find shit that they needed to deliver.

5)      He hands the phone over to a Customs Official who opens the box, inspects the Blackberry and the charger.  He then stamps and signs my paperwork from FedEx.

6)      Then I wait, and wait, and wait some more.  About an hour passes and I start getting inquisitive.  I ask the FedEx guy what the problem was, and he told me that I needed to have security sign and stamp my fucking paperwork AGAIN to release the phone.  I ask “How long?” and he replied two minutes.

7)      Another 30 minutes passes and still no security representative.  The FedEx guy takes my paperwork and I assume he hand delivers it to security.  Finally, 10 minutes later, I leave with the damn phone.

8)      To put a cap on this story, the password to unlock the phone, phone number, voice mail code is on a sticker on the back of the phone.  I tried the password on the sticker 6 different ways, one shy of locking me out for good and deleting the Blackberry OS.  The person that used it last changed the fucking password, so I was locked out of it until yesterday when Huntsville emailed me the password.

This was just for a phone.  Can you imagine what it is like getting 4 crates of equipment out of Customs duty and tax free because it is a government project?

I have a story about the equipment in Customs also.  The ADS partner, El Concorde, a local construction company, has a procurement guy whose job is to deal with getting shit out of Customs.  FedEx and their genius worldwide logistics shipped the crates to two different countries before sending it to Amman.  3 crates went to London, England and the other crate went to Turkey.  Obviously, the crates arrived at different times.  Jordanian Customs thinks that we were trying to “smuggle” illegal goods into the country.  This is most likely going to push the release date for the equipment back a couple of days.  If you ask me, I think that it is fucking hilarious.

I got moved into the apartment.  We drove all over creation looking for an oscillating fan for my bedroom.  You would think that this area being in the desert would have plenty of fans.  All of the stores were selling portable heaters!  WTF!  Evidently it gets cold here; I have not seen it yet.  It has been 85 and sunny since I have been here with the exception of one day. 

I also bought new bed sheets, bath towels, and groceries.  I finally have a washing machine, so I don’t need to send everything to the dry cleaners.

Tuesday was Election Day here, so it was a national holiday so nobody worked.  I got a chance to visit the Roman Citadel to take some photos.  The citadel was closed, but I paid the security guy a couple of JD (Jordanian Dinars) to let me in.  That did not get me the Full Monte, so I need to go back to get better photos.  I will post photos of the ruins, amphitheater, and fountain on Facebook.

This country being as poor as it is, almost everyone is on the take.  This is one reason why people get away with illegal water connections.  The company that issues the bills is responsible for enforcing illegal water connections found by ADS.  They get a bonus for the ones they find.  For some reason, the same violators keep getting turned in, and their bonus stays the same.  This is because the people with illegal connections are related to or are paying off the Water Company.

Day 10

Amman has zero "buy it all here" stores.  The city is made up of specialty shops.  No Lowes, WalMart, etc.  There is no one stop shopping.  But they did just open an ACE Hardware in a local mall about three months ago.  I still needed to buy certain things that I could not pack in my checked baggage, 5 gal buckets, cord spool, big lights, etc.  Since this ACE just opened, the service was very slow, and many customers waiting in line just left.  One American lady was in line behind me and she told me that this was the 5th time she had been in the store and left because it took to long.  Where is your fucking patience?  She was basically implying that the people here were incompetent.  I quieted her by responding, "It is an American chain that just opened in an international country, and I am sure they have kinks they need to work out."  I was very disturbed by this woman from America, and her remarks.  I then followed up by stating that it is not easy to start a new business internationally. 

The people here are very respectful.  It seems as if they lack some western manners.  They are not raised to understand that cutting in line, or cutting you off while driving is considered extremely rude. 

The engineer that I will working with is a great guy and his English is good.  His name is Shaudi, kind of like Saudi.  It is pronounced just like it is spelled.   His family is Lebanese, he is a Christian, had spent some time in the US in Manhattan.  He has a US Passport and a Jordanian Passport.  We had a political conversation about the Iraq war.  He is one of those guys that likes Michael Moore Documentaries.  So I have no idea what his thoughts or opinions are about the invasion.  He did tell me that Saddam Hussein was good to the scientists in Iraq, that he heavily supported graduate education.  I didn't really say much, because my thoughts might be skewed by US media.

We went out with the client for drinks on Tuesday night.  There were two Americans and five people form the UK.  One "chap" from the UK was telling me some war stories of his youth.  Telling me about how they would go out drinking, and fights that would break out at the pubs in England.  He told me that the jock type people would drink Stella.  He said that they must put some chemical in that beer that makes people violent.  He refers to Stella as "Wife Beater" beer.  LOL.  He says when he goes to the pubs, he asks for a "Wife Beater".  After I stopped laughing, he said, "No, I am serious, if lads have four or five pints, they go home and beat their wives."  So if you drink Stella, be careful to not go home and beat your wife and dog.  The sad part, is Ken (also from UK) agreed.

One of the five English channels here is showing Napolean Dynamite, with Arabic subtitles.  They quality is not very good, almost like the satellite company is using bootlegs from old Amman for 1 JD.  All of the telecommunications are run by Israel.  That includes the Internet, TV, and cell phones.  So whenever they want to shut it off or slow in down, they can.  No wonder many people here hate the Israel.

I will be traveling south within the next two weeks to Petra, and Ma'an.  I may not have internet, so blogs will not be available.  This are is well known for its history and geology, so I am excited about going.  Ken was telling me of an ancient Roman reservoir that also contains a sanitary collection system with small stones as mini manhole covers near Jeresh.  I will be taking many photos!

Day 9

I had a very interesting couple of days.  Like I said before, I was moved into another room at the hotel, and nothing worked when I got into the new room.  I have all of that worked out now. 

We ventured out to look at some sewer manholes within the city.  They are really not much different than in the US.  One of the manholes we were looking at was near a School for Boys.  We drew an audience for that.  They were crowding around the manhole like we were about to uncover millions in gold. 
There were about 20 more behind me.
 

One manhole we were looking at had some cockroaches.  One of the engineers I was with told me that in the Muslim religion "If a cockroach touches a human, that the cockroach must wash itself."  WTF?  I thought he told me that backward at first. 

I have an International Blackberry on the way to Jordan.  It was not available when I left the US, so the folks in Huntsville decide to ship it to me.  It has been on Clearance Hold in customs since October 30th.  If you have been reading my blog, you know what dealing with customs is like.  I have no idea what I am going to need to get that out.

It is amazing here how people are very kind, but appear to have zero manners.  I think it is similar to the whole spatial awareness with cars.  They Jordanians have no respect for personal space.  They don't realize how rude and disrespectful it is to cut in line.  They will jump right in front of you while in a car, or standing in line.  I guess they were raised that this is acceptable, but most cultures, it is not. 

We finally have "The Letter" that we needed to get our equipment out of customs.  Should take a couple of days for the stuff to get released.  So it looks like I may start some real work soon.

Day 7

My day started again with mint tea.  It is quite entertaining working in the El Concorde office.  There is an engineer who left his job a few months back.  His mom called the boss at El Concorde and asked if he could have his job back.  His fucking mom!  Keep in mind, this is a college educated, degreed engineer and his mom is asking if he can come back to work.  There is an extreme lack of maturity with the young men over here.  They act like 2 year olds fighting over a lollipop and going to their parents (Ken) to tattle tale on each other.  I am pretty sure it has do with prearranged marriages.  The typical age for the men to get married is around 26 to 27.  So they basically live at home until they are married to someone that their dad picks out.  They typically marry within the tribe to keep money within the tribe.  I am assuming wealth is important to tribal status. 

In the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan water is extremely scarce.  The water system is pressureized certain days a week to ration water use.  The water is stored in sealed tanks on the roof tops.  It is the Arabic culture that they keep the sidewalks in front of their houses clean.  So I have seen, even though water is scarce, them hosing down their sidewalks.  I have a photo of a new pipeline that will bring in water from the aquifer wells in the montains.  This is a million dollar step in bring more water into Amman.

The US government and Germany have given Jordan 2.75 Million MORE dollars to improve infrastructure and fully pressurized water system.  The US and other European nations have an interest in keeping this country clean and safe. 

Back to the cheap labor thing in a previous post.  El Concorde hired me a driver, who acts as a translator, and mediator with the locals.  I am not used to people waiting on me, in fact, I don't even go get my own lunches.  It is nice, but I kinda feel like I am missing out on the cultural experience.

I stopped by the Duty Free store here in Amman today to get some liquor and some smokes for my driver.  The store had no fucking bourbon.  Is it too much to ask to get a bottle of Jimmy Beam?  I had to settle for Jack Daniels.  They have Jim Beam at the hotel, but it is about $17.00 a drink.  Not a bottle, for a drink.  I got stung on that one the first night here.  See Day 1.  American liquor is taxed heavily.  I acually paid $26.00 for a 750 mL of Jack, at least I can get more than two drinks from the bottle.

An engineer at the office can get me handmade Jordanian daggers for 25 JD.  I think I will get one.  I have seen some pictures of them and they are really nice.  The only problem is, this is the same guy that put in his resignation yesterday.  I may not see my 25 JD if decides to not come back to work.  This is a guy that is a constant distraction to the other Jordanian office personel.  He is always talking about his expoits in the US about getting a masters degree at some BS college in San Fran.  I think the school's name is South Eastern San Fransisco State Bay Area Institute of Technology.  Joking, but it is something like that.  He is one of those condescending, know it all types, that has to argue and question people above him when intructed to do a task.

I am being kicked out of my room tomorrow because the are doing maintenace on the whole 17th floor.  WTF?  I am going to be relocated somewhere else in the hotel.  It is just a pain in the ass to pack up my shit and move.  Front desk said I can get the bellhop to help me move.