How quickly things change during this job. As of Wednesday we thought that we would be attending three meetings as usual on our last day of the week Thursday. When late that night we got a call from the royal court (His Majesties office) asking us to attend a forum the next day at the new convention center at the Dead Sea (http://www.dscc.jo/about_us.shtm).
The security was unbelievable guards and jeeps with huge machine guns everywhere. The was a little trouble at first at the main gate getting in because it looked as if we had not been but on the list on attendees. Then the head of security told us to go ahead and that we would be greeted at the door by one of his majesties secret service agents. Where he guided us done to the room where the press release would be later that day. And then we headed back up to the main ballroom where his majesty would later speak. The room was huge with several table set up across the room covered with students from the different universities. The forum was titled “we are All Jordan” which is one of His Majesties new initiatives to get Jordan to unite more and bring a greater sense of national unity. We were seated at a table with the director of His Majesties media and a few other royal court employees. Then all of the sudden we heard borage of airplanes landing or so it sounded. And the media guy quickly got up and left the table. When he returned he apologized but said that it was His Majesties helicopter landing and he had to go greet him.
Shortly an entourage of people came in the main doors at the front. Headed up by His Excellency Dr. Bassam Awadalah who is head of His Majesties Royal Court who we had meet with just a few weeks earlier who all say at a table not far from where we were sitting. Then after the announcer said something in Arabic and several guards very ornately dressed came in and opened the tower doors and His Majesty walked in the door, when everyone stood and clapped. Then a random guy in the crowd started to chant something, then the rest of the crowd chanted back. And they translated it for us, as basically saying long live the king.
His Majesties gave a speech about the need for unity and the growing need for them to step up and be leaders in the business community and bring a positive image to Jordan in light of the regional instability. They did the same big production when His Majesties was finished and walked out. It was pretty cool hearing the helicopter start up and hear him fly away. Definitely a really cool experience but this day wasn’t over. We headed down to the press conference where we were able to get third row seats. And shortly after walks in the door Jordan’s Minister of Foreign affairs and Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan. If the day wasn’t cool enough sitting so close to His Majesties we are now in the presents of Kofi Annan. They spoke about the need for Israel to stop the blockade and to remove the troops from Lebanon. Also for the support of a peace deal titled 1701 which was needed to be passed by the United Nations general Assembly. As well as Mr. Annans conversations with His Majesties.
Defiantly quit a day not knowing that in less then 12 hours I would be in the same room as two very noteworthy people. Then it was time to start the weekend. Yesterday we made our way up to Umm Case which is an old Roman City on top of the mountain in Irbid at the most northern part of Jordan. From the top of the mountain you could see the Golden Heights, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. One of the coolest thing was you could see the Sea of Gallie with boats out on the water. Again the experience of thinking how close we were getting to experience the rich culture of where Jesus walked amazing. We had lunch at our friends restaurant on top of the mountain http://www.romero-jordan.com/about_umm_qeis%20.htm is the website. It was amazing sitting enjoying lunch and then being able to look out at the amazing site of all of the countries joining together at one point. The manager came over and introduced himself and took extremely good care of us. He compt our drinks and gave us a rather large discount. Saying that he always likes to take really good care of Mr. Ziad’s friends who is the owner that we know). The manager then introduced us to the Chief of Tourism Police who asked us if we would like him to give us a VIP tour of the city and the historical nature of the area. It was quit interesting seeing all that was there and hearing about the different people who he had meet there. Of course with traditional Jordanian culture he invited us into his office to have tea, which you can’t refuse or it would be extremely insulting. In the courtyard to his office we several pomegranate trees and even a lime tree. It was very interesting because I hadn’t seen either of the two fruits in forever, which reminded me of my time in Canton where we had a pomegranate tree in our backyard.
After words we got into the car and drove down to the border next to Syria and saw the Jordan Valley which is actually very water rich and green compared to the rest of the country which is so brown and dry. This is the area where all of the rich important people that we have meet in Amman have vacation homes at. It was a lot of fun making the drive through the valley and seeing the border along the way where we drove all the way from the northern most part of Jordan down the west border to Amman. Driving through all of the little villages who it was priceless to see the look on some of the people’s faces who saw us. I am sure they had never seen any Americans in their life before so it was fun to smile and wave.
Of course once we got back into Jordan I made my way to the spa to get my weekly massage, but it was the last week of my membership so we will have to decide if we want to extend our contract or go to a different one next week. Then we had a great dinner at the Intercontinental hotel in Amman which is one of the best hotels here, definitely better then most intercontinental I have ever seen. We ate at the Indian restaurant Indu http://www.amman.intercontinental.com/ammha/dining.html which was amazing I have only been able to find 2 other Indian restaurants both of which weren’t very good. But this one was amazing, they had brought in two chiefs from India which really did a great job. They finished off the meal with three types of home made complimentary ice cream which was definitely a nice touch.
I guess that’s all for now I hope that everyone is doing well! And I will try to post again soon.
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