Each day when the sun goes down during Ramadan family and friends gather for an almighty feast called
Iftar. On Sunday night our landlord, Isahn, invited us to his house for Iftar. He also invited another couple and a single lady who we later found out are also tenants who rent his apartments. He seems to be somewhat of a real estate mogul in cahoots with his father-in-law.
This was a very interesting evening as the guy who was there, David, is a design engineer and has been employed by the
King of Jordan to design armoured vehicles and tanks. He works out in the desert near the Iraqi border where he blows a lot of stuff up as part of his regular work day. His wife is from Jakarta and they share their time between Jakarta, Jordan, and England, where David is from.
The lady who was there, Margo, is the Deputy Commissioner for the
UNRWA and spends her time traveling from Jordan to Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and the West Bank to work with Palestinian refugees. She had some fascinating stories, and she even offered to take us on a tour of the Palestinian refugee camp here in Amman. I hope we get the opportunity to take her up on this issue. In the short time we have been in Jordan I have become very much aware of the plight of the Palestinian and Iraqi refugees and I am really enjoying talking to the locals (many of whom are Palestinian and Iraqi) and raising my understanding of where these people have come from and why it is so important that we do what we can to help them.
I am really looking forward to the end of Ramadan and life returning to normal, but I am also very thankful that our kids got to experience Ramadan in the Middle East and that we all got to experience the generosity and hospitality of the Jordanian people through this Iftar.
