A Week full of VIPs

(The left meeting is with HE Dr. Bassam Awadallah Director of His Majesties Royal Court and the second is of Colleen and I with Former Prime Minister Dr. Abdel Salam Al Majali at his home in Amman, Jordan)

It is interesting to think that I have now lived in Amman Jordan for over five weeks now. Longer then I spent in Dubai, who would have thought the Lord Defiently works in Mysterious ways. Yet at the same time Dubai still feels like my home in the Middle East, although it could never take the place of Texas to me!

We had another interesting week as you can imagine. We started off by meeting with Jordan insurance company which is the largest here in Jordan.

Later that day we meet with His Excellency Dr. Bassam Awadalah the head of the Royal Court (which he is His Majesty King Abdullah’s right hand man). It was very interesting going through the security checkpoint and having them look under the car. And then the pulled another car around and told us that we weren’t aloud to bring our car on the property. Military opened the doors for us and when we pulled up to this European villa looking build among the military guards was a butler looking guy that greeted us and escorted us into one of the waiting rooms, which looked like of the famous rooms in the White House with the double French doors and they started serving us coffee and juices. When a women was escorted into the room who we began chatting with, then His Excelency came in and said sorry that we had to wait that he first needed to speak with the Ambassador from Spain. So that was pretty interesting the women who was sitting in there was the ambassador. We ended up meeting with him a very kind and friendly guy but extremely busy and it was interesting see them drive away in the motorcade after our meeting.

The next day we also got interviewed by the local newspaper who is doing an article on us and our program here in Jordan. It was kind of an interesting feeling and where the tables are turned on me where I am usually the one doing the interviewing. The story should run this coming Thursday so that will be fun to see our pictures in the paper for the work that we are doing here.

Then we meet with Former Prime Minister Dr. Abdel Salam Al Majali who among other major accomplishments signed the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. It was very interesting being invited to come to a former prime ministers house to sit and listen to stories, goals and hopes for the future and see the different pictures and things that he had collected over the years. His schedule is still extremely busy representing Jordan to the rest of the world with trips in the next 6 months to India, Tokyo, Georgia, Hawaii and Rio de Janeiro (I wish that I could tag along on many of these).

The next day was airline day where the first cool meeting was with the CEO of Royal Jordanian Airlines which is known as one of the best here in the Middle East. He was a very nice man who is actually the son of the former prime minister. His office was amazing it took up the whole top floor of the RJ building which is one of the tallest in Jordan which sits on the top of one of the mountains here in Jordan so as you can imagine the view was amazing.

Later on that day we had a meeting with the Managing Director for the Middle East of Alpha Airports group which is one of the largest airport service providers in the world, right under LSG Sky Chefs that almost everyone had heard of. We waited for about thirty minutes getting through the different security procedures to get to the guys office. Which was on the other side of the run way so it was very interesting being one of those cars out driving around on the tarmac that seem so tiny when you are sitting up in the plane. It was a very fun meeting getting to learn and see all that goes on behind the scenes in airports from food production, running the restaurants and coffee shops in the airport, to cleaning of the linens for the airlines. Of course he had a buffet of Royal Jordanian Airlines first class food waiting on us in the board room with fresh squeezed juices so it made the meeting run a lot smoother and more enjoyable.

That evening we went out with our Italian friends who had a colleague in town from Rome who invited us to all come and stay at his place the next time we are in Rome. We ended going back to that Centro restaurant that was completely booked but we press passed it and sure enough there just happened to be a table available who would have thought? Dinner was excellent as usual then we made our way back to the Marriot and enjoyed the rest of the evening in the Cigar bar and restaurant there at the hotel.

We woke up late on Friday and made our way to the Turkish spa that is here in Jordan that had been recommended by our friends that works at the Le Meridien. It was great there are several different treatments rooms with different scented steams and then the massage was amazing. Really worked out all the tension from working so much from the week. We actually ended up getting memberships there that were drastically discounted for the next three weeks so we can go and enjoy once a week the facilities and get a massage so it will be a nice thing to look forward to in the future each week. Then we found out that same day that Sean was going to end up leaving to go back to the office to start on his own project. He has been with us training and in fact did all the prep work for this project for me since I was in Dubai. He ended up flying out at 3 am in the morning this morning to make his way back to the office. Of course they will not tell him where his project will be yet but he knows that it is in Europe.

Last night we ended up going to Romero’s Restaurant for dinner, and it was one of the coolest outdoor restaurants in a court yard with candles everywhere that I have been to. Each table had its own umbrella covering thing really hard to describe but it was one of the restaurants that is owned by the President of the Restaurant association that we had previously meet with.

Looking towards to the coming week we have several big meetings coming up among them the US Ambassador, and some large ICT companies. All for now, hope everyone is doing well back in Texas and everywhere else in the world and states that reads this.

Chad