I can see Nas rolling his eyes!

I was at Queen Alia airport, coming from Egypt. As I picked up my bag and went out of the immigration door, I came across a huge zaffe, with the dancers and the drums and the horns… the whole nine yards really!… the party was waiting for an Egyptian couple moving to Amman.

While waiting for the couple to come out, I chatted with an Egyptian lady with the party. I was told that the groom had been living in Amman for a few years.   He went back home and brought his beautiful young bride with him. It was all delightfully romantic.

That happy look in her eyes caught my attention; she was thrilled by the promising possibilities of the future.

I remember thinking how excited she must have felt. She probably felt the world revolved around her that moment.  What a chic start, she was moving into a new country fully made up… wearing the white laced-dress, she probably had dreamt of wearing all her life… I wondered about the scene before boarding the plane in Cairo… were her parents with her? Was the scene emotional?

A twinge of pity hits me whenever I look into these pictures… I almost feel sorry for that young lady, coming into the unknown with so much optimism! Looking forward to being with her handsome groom, looking forward to having her cinderalla- like life… every time, I find myself hoping she is happy wherever she is, and praying that had kept her optimistic look and happy smile.

Whenever I see the picture, I think of another young Egyptian lady, who moved to Amman around the same time. Hiyam helps clean my sister’s house. She  is young and had so many illusions when she moved to Amman…

Someone would hardly believe the home she moved to in Amman.  It is in the garage of a very prosperous Deir- Ghbar building.  This automatically, means that Hiyam who grew up in some Egyptian village, has to live huddled together with her husband and her future children (they are two by now)  in an 8-sq meters room. This very room also includes the bathroom, the kitchen, dining room and is more cluttered up and unaired than any common rat hole. …ohh and they also get to breathe the cars fumes as bonus. One could safely say they are not living there; they are rather COOKING. 

The husband is a guard, who has to wake up at 3 AM to carry one of the tenant’s jackets. He is expected to 24/7 for 140 JDs. Hiyam  did not go back to Egypt since 2006, because her husband’s contract does not include a vacation… the month he is away, he needs to bring another guard to replace him, and thus no salary for one month.

Hiyam helps him by cleaning houses for living… she hates how west Ammany  madams lead frivolous, useless lives…how they are really not as classy as they try to convey to the world… this is manifested by their love to shout …but what she hates most is when they misplace their things and accuse her of stealing them…

Malgre tout, Hiyam is a cheerful human being… She thanks God that she has a roof above her head and a loving husband at her side!

U yalla ya shabab

Sunday midnight

 I spent most of the day looking for a calculator! No luck… I did not leave a drawer nor a closet without looking… no calculator what so ever in the house….

Monday

In a rare occasion these days, my sister H. and I were on a bonding trip. We decided to pick up our sister E. from the airport.

I suppose we were hoping for quite a bit, when we thought the trip to and from the airport would be uneventful.

 When we came out after picking up E. we noticed that some bus was parked across the street from us… ya3ni between us and this bus there was a street… kulloh tamam up until this point…..however Mr. bus was a tiny bit too big for that spot. And since we were surrounded by 3 big cars, the only way out was reverse…  which is how cars usually drive our of their spots in garages….I know that much…but I am trying to show that there was no other option besides reversing…… What is specific for this case was that there was not enough space for my beautiful Polo to reverse… we were stuck.

I tried to reverse a few times, but since my sisters are still doubtful about my driving skills….they did not believe me when I said we were stuck… so we decided to give H. a chance. She is agreeably the most skillful driver among us three… H. tried a few times before announcing … we were stuck….

We decide the best thing we can do is waiting for bus driver… bas bus driver apparently was having the night of his life at the airport…. He did not show up… we waited… and waited… and waited… nothing happened….

Security guy came to check why were not moving… he asked sweetly if we are waiting for the man who was supposedly bringing the baggage. And when he realized there was no man bringing the baggage… he asked if there was a problem… we explained….he smiled… he said let me try…. When we explained we already did… he smiled again….it just did not appear to be customary for girls to know how to reverse on their own… since we were getting desperate by then… we gave him the driver seat…. A few minutes later he got out declaring that we were stuck….

But no worries… Mr. Security man will save the day

He said… “the only way out of here is to carry the car out of the spot” when I gave him the hesitant “ok”… five men appeared out of nowhere … Mr. Security goes u yalla ya shabab!

They carried our car!!! And put us on the road!!!!

No calculator….

Wednesday

SNOW!!!!SNOW!!!!SNOW!!!!

Still no calculator…

Thursday

Day changes into night, night changes into day, then night comes and then day again … I float from one to the other with a feeling of anticipation… as if I am waiting for something to happen….only I don’t know what is it that I am waiting for…. and so I move… it seems that my life had fallen into a rhythm of constant movement… I start at 8:00 in the morning and keep at it till 1:00 am the next day.

I watched the Human Stain yesterday… and like most of Anthony Hopkins’ movies… I loved it… mostly because of my fascination with Philip Roth and all the mystery that surrounds the character Nathan Zuckerman a character in most of his books…. it is claimed Nathan Zukerman is his alter ego…. I am just fascinated with the concept of alter egos…. I wonder what kind of person is mine?

… anyway… in one scene of the human stain, Anthony Hopkins states that movement is the enemy of thinking… and it hits me that it is true… when you move…you don’t think anymore. And I wonder if I am moving in order not to think? The only thing I have done in the last four years of my life is to think …. I am so tired of thinking… I don’t want to think anymore.

I finally decided to get out of the house to buy a calculator on Thursday… ever since…. wherever I look I find a calculator… I have found 4 calculators so far!!!

Saturday

I have been writing this post for at least a week… There are a million things I want to grumble about, but it’s half-past two, and mom says I MUST go to bed….. I won’t complain… after all I have been acting like a rotten child last two days because of my cold.