House of Curiosity...

A tent in Jabal Al Natheef, blocking the street. A true display of selflessness and citizenship.

Our sense of belonging to our neighborhoods never ceases to surprise me. In this case, a grieved family blocked the street to grieve their loved one.
Mohammed, from Al natheef:
“I think it is normal, there is no venue here for funerals. [...]

The Egyptian community celebrated winning the African cup yesterday. In my neighborhood the Egyptian community made up of the guards and labor gathered together and marched the streets with so much pride. I found myself joining their march, congratulating them and enjoying their victory as if it was our own (when is Jordan going to [...]

“منشان الله اشتري مني” قال لي محمد، الشاب اللي بيبيع الجرايد عند اشارة بيتي. ” اشتري مني خليني اشتري غدا للولاد، والله لسا ما استفتحنا و انت شايفة هالفياضانات”
شو اللحظة اللي تحولوا بياعين الجرايد من اصحاب مهنه لشحادين؟ وقت غلاء الأسعار اللي ضرب الأردن ب2007 و 2008؟ ولا الأزمة المالية ب2009؟ ولا كانت الأممر دائما [...]

و انا واقفه بستنى سيارتي تتصلح في الصناعية، بلشت الأحظ اولاد و بنات صغار عم يتجمعوا. كان شكلهم مثل الأولاد اللي بيبيعوا علكه عند الإشارات. شكله كان في اجتماع صغير قبل ما بينطلقوا للعمل. كان الإجتماع بقيادة السيدة في الصورة التانية،
 الله يعين العالم.
  I was waiting for my car to be fixed, a few children started [...]

I think the safest way to start this post is by admitting that it is elitist! Even though I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to figure out a way to put my ideas, which did not seem elitist at the time, in the best possible non-elitist form.
Here we go:
After a few years of working in [...]

I was walking in swefieh… in the Che che, Starbucks and the new church area… I was dressed respectably (of that I am 100% sure) actually I was wearing sports outfit,  black pants and a big blue jacket… the outfit was not even sexy… it was comfortable and conveniently ugly!
… A guy drove by in a fancy [...]

Special thanks to Ruba O. who was generous in helping find information for this post
One of the most awaited traditions of Ramadan is the late night tents. During Ramadan Amman buzzes with unusual activity after Salat Al taraweeh… people meet to socialise, to watch the musalsalat while smoking shisha and having Arabic coffee, tea, qamar al [...]

Grizzly was entertaining me with some anecdotes, including incidents that took place during Salat Al Tarawee7.  As he was praying a few days ago, the man beside him did not take a breath between saying Al Salam Alaikum (an indication of the end of the prayer) and shouting at the kids who were playing, running around, [...]