In the streets of Madaba

I got to see and experience a little more of the culture today. I went out into the city by myself for the first time and managed to buy a few things that I needed. Luckily, the numbers are still the same in Arabic as they are in English, so even though I couldn’t say a word to the lady at the cash register, we worked it out.

I have started to enjoy the calls to prayer that come from the Mosque close by. They are long, melodic songs played in a minor key and it is loud enough to hear anywhere you may be in the city. Mark, one of the Australian teachers that has been here for about 6 months, said that if you go to the bell tower at the top of the Catholic church, you can hear all the calls to prayer from all the Mosques echoing together throughout the entire city. I definitely want to check that out, to listen to the music as well as see the city from above.

Speaking of which, there are so many churches everywhere. Every few blocks, there is another one. Most of them are very small, and there are a few different denominations, so I’m not sure which is which, beyond identifying it as a Catholic versus non-Catholic church.

All of the buildings, whether they be churches, stores or homes, are made of the same tan color cement. I still get lost incredibly quickly outside, because all the buildings look the same and there are so many tightly packed streets that form a complicated maze.

I went to dinner with a few of the teachers at this pizza restaurant that was quite nice. They were playing live music on this fat, distorted guitar-like instrument as we walked in and there were a few people smoking hookahs. I did not know what those were before arriving here, but they are quite common. And they have the weirdest variety of scents coming out from them. One of the teachers was smoking one last night and it smelled like tobacco, strawberries and coffee. She was very nice and offered to let me try it. I don’t mind the smell of cigarettes so much, but those things make me pretty nauseous.

At the restaurant we each ordered a dish and then we all shared everything. Hummus in the Middle East is quite different than American hummus. It is much more creamy and light here, and the flavor isn’t quite as strong. It wasn’t spicy at all, and the kind we got had big chunks of grilled beef in it and it was good. The best part of that dish was definitely the bread though. It was really thick pita bread, roasted with all these spices on it. Very soft on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. Delicious. The pizza we got was really good, again on pita-like bread, not as thick and the sauce and cheese were more Italian style than American. I ordered an Arabic milkshake. That was the flavor listed: Arabic, coming after vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. It turned out to be a very runny and thin vanilla shake with diced pistachios. The pistachios were very salty and I’m guessing had some oregano on them and so it was kind of weird to have with ice cream, but very good.

I also learned that all the honking in the evening isn’t necessarily for traffic. Apparently, this is one of the “wedding seasons”, or more accurately, one of the times of year where it isn’t forbidden to get married, and so if a couple was recently married, they have big processions through town and all the cars following them honk their horns the whole way through.

On the way back from dinner, we passed this joint where tons of men were smoking and playing cards. I commented that there weren’t any women there. Mark said that no woman would be allowed at any such place and also that none of the guys should go there either. He said there are two big gangs here in town that hate each other and that was the meeting place of one of them. He said that a few months ago fighting between the two gangs erupted and it was so bad that the local law enforcement came in and bombed the city with tear gas to stop the fighting. They had to put the school in lock down, locking all the students and teachers in. Crazy.