Author's note: This is the first post on my blog after a very long absence. This absence was caused by a number of things, though primarily due to me losing my laptop compter and many other personal valuables, experiencing a whirlwind of activity in Yemen in my last few months there, traveling extensively during the summer, and a re-evaluating of life and my priorities over the last part of 2011 that necessitated an absence from online activity. This post is the start of a renewed season of writing and will be likely followed in the near future by continued posts. Enjoy!!
It is truly amazing how much one’s perspective can change in relatively short periods of time. For me, the last year and half has completely altered my life’s outlook and understanding of the world in ways that are irreversible. Just eighteen months ago (August 2010), I touched down at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan for a four hour layover during my move to Sana’a, Yemen. At that time, I knew very little about Jordan or Yemen or the Middle East in general, and spoke almost zero Arabic. To borrow the title of Robert Heinlein’s famous science fiction novel, I felt like a “Stranger in a Strange Land”, and not as comfortable as I typically find myself.
After living and being in Yemen for eleven continuous months, I then reentered Jordan for the second time, only this time staying for eight days. This second visit was during June 2011, immediately after I had been evacuated from Yemen and at the start of my summer break from teaching. At that time I felt much more comfortable and at ease in the Arabic world, and by all accounts had fallen in love with the Middle East and everything about it, including the culture, language, food, weather, and people. I knew then that I wanted to return to the Middle East to live and work, but had no leads on specific jobs. Despite feeling at ease and relaxed in Jordan, however, I could not have predicted that just over six months later, at the present time, that I would be returning to Amman, Jordan to live and work.
And yet, this is precisely the situation which I find myself currently in. I now live and work in a country which I was just a tourist in only half a year ago. How interesting it is to view Amman from my current perspective, which is one of more permanency, compared to when I was here for only a matter of days. Following my stay in Amman I spent two weeks touring around Tanzania and Kenya before I returned to the States, where I spent the first couple months visiting family and friends in South and North Dakota, and then five months living in Oregon with my twin brother. During my time in Oregon, most of my time was focused on finding new employment in the Middle East and returning myself to a more healthier state of being, two missions I am fortunate to say were accomplished. In addition to this, I also spent considerable time finding enough work in Oregon to pay the bills and just get by, something not easy to achieve in that state’s economy. The various work experiences I had there will have to be the focus of an entirely separate blog post, which, inshallah, I will get to at some point in the future
Since arriving in Amman, I have spent the majority of my time getting situated in my new apartment, which is lavishly furnished courteous of my new employer, The International Academy - Amman; getting myself familiar with my new neighborhood; taking care of various odds and ends like acquiring a phone, internet, setting up a bank account, etc.; and working on beating jet lag. As I have gone about these tasks, which are essential when settling into any new living situation, it has been interesting to see in myself how much differently I am approaching them compared to a year and a half ago in Sana’a. At that time I was so overcome by the newness of my surroundings and the countless cultural differences that I had a difficult time finding any real focus to go about my life. These feelings did not truly go away for several months and made it rather challenging to maintain focus on my work and on other things in life that are not ‘just fun.’ After less than two full days here in Amman, however, I am already feeling a sense of focus and steadfastness to the tasks at hand that I found much more difficult to achieve during my entire time in Yemen.
This change in attitude does not mean I am not without my typical adventures and happenings, as the trip here in itself had some interesting experiences worth noting. For starters, while checking in at the airport in Portland, I met a woman from Oregon who was flying to North Dakota with a final destination of New Town on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, which I called home for two years. I then had a surprise layover/connecting flight in Denver, before going to Detroit for my next connection. While in Detroit I found myself waiting nearly the entire time in the company of Arabic people, something I first experienced when I boarded my flight at Chicago O’Hare Airport on my initial flight to Yemen. At that time, I found the experience to be much different and felt much more out of place. In Detroit, however, I found myself feeling not just comfortable and relaxed, but delighted and reaffirmed that, yes, I was in fact making my return to the Middle East! In the end of the terminal I found myself waiting, I heard far more Arabic spoken than any other language, and also saw the familiar dress of the Arabic people. From the bits and pieces of Arabic being spoken, I was also able to ascertain that a number of the people I was in the company of were of Yemeni descent, something I could tell from a few nuances in the dialects being spoken. How delighted I was to be in the company of these people!!
There are two other interesting experiences I would like to share before closing this present post, both centering on people I met. The first was an employee from Lufthansa Airlines whom I approached with a question about the availability of postal services in Detroit’s airport. Despite telling me that there were no such services, he kindly offered to drop them in the mail when he left work that day, an offer I gladly accepted. As I was handing him the letters he asked me where I was headed, so I then explained to him I was moving to Amman, Jordan. His response was immediately enthusiastic, and for good reason too, as he then went on to tell me that he had lived only forty km from Amman in Palestine for several years. He went on to tell me how great he found that part of the world and suggested several sights he thought were worth seeing in the area. After visiting some more and trading travel/life experiences, he told me he was originally of Swiss descent, but that it did not really matter anymore. From what he told me, I gather that he has lived in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and now North America. Before leaving, I told him that I hoped to be like him when I reached his age, meaning that I do not want my original place of origin to define me and that I intend to continue to live internationally and in a variety of places. We parted by him giving me his business card and me promising to write upon my arrival in Amman. My completion and subsequent posting of this blog entry will complete that promise.
The last thing I would like to share is about the person I ended up sitting next to on my trans-Atlantic flight. Upon taking off from Detroit, the plane I was on first made a short one hour flight to Montreal, where the airplane both picked up some additional passengers and also refueled. During this short flight, I was not sitting next to anyone and had been looking forward to the possible extra room to stretch out for on the long haul over the Atlantic. This would not be the case, however, as I suddenly found myself sitting next to someone who had originally boarded in Detroit but who had been sitting next to his family for the first leg of the journey. After starting up some general conversation, I soon learned that my new seat-mate’s name was Mohsen and that he was traveling to Sana’a, Yemen with his father and brothers to see their mother and other family members. When I first asked Mo where he was from, he told me that he was from Detroit and the US, but he soon realized I meant where he was originally from, so he went on to explain how he was of Yemeni nationality and originally born in Yemen, but had spent most of his life in the US, some in California and some now in Detroit. He also told me that he had not seen his mother in two years and that after their two week stay in Sana’a she would be returning with he and his other family to the US to live. I also shared with Mo my recent travel experiences and explained to him the nature of my being in Yemen for a year, which included during the start and first several months of the Arab Spring there and elsewhere. It was so fascinating for he and I to share our experiences and perspectives on the world, which despite being different in many ways are actually quite similar. Perhaps the biggest differences are that Mo is a Yemeni-American currently living in the US and for all intents planning to stay there indefinitely, and that I am an American currently living in the Middle East and for all intents planning to stay here indefinitely. It is as if he and I have traded places of origin and swapped home regions to live in. It is difficult for me to communicate exactly what an experience like this feels like solely through words, but I hope that I have done it some justice in the dialogue I just provided.
As with all things in this life’s existence, this post must come to a close. I have found that in my writing that I can almost always keep going and often have difficulty knowing when to stop. However, this current post is just a beginning for a new and hopefully long string of writing from me in this corner of the world and elsewhere that I find myself in the coming months, years, and decades. I give my best to all who read this in the new year and wish you prosperity and health in 2012!! Take care and cheers!!
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