Election Day!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! It is finally starting to feel like fall here, which means for the first time in months, I turned off the AC at night and turned on the heat instead. I do miss the turning of the leaves though, J has been watching football games on the weekends and it makes us homesick to see the colorful campuses. We are still hoping to leave around Dec. 2 but things are at a standstill now (funding issues) so it looks like this is going to be one last minute move. Inshallah as they say here! We can expect nothing less in this chosen career where “go with the flow” is the mantra- whether we like it or not!

In the meantime, we are enjoying life in Amman and feeling sad about leaving our new friends and laidback routine behind. After years of J’s long hours, it’s been great to have him home in the afternoons. I’m sure we’ll look back on this past year for the rest of our lives and think man, those were the days! We’ve had such an education this year, in so many ways; I just hope we don’t forget it all.

Last week I finally got to see my first members of the royal family! No, not the queen darn it, but the King’s mother and sister. We were shopping at a charity bazaar that they sponsored and literally got pushed out of the way by their security forces. It was kind of funny at the time. The Princesses looked pretty normal to us so without their security guards we would not have recognized them as VIPs. If it were me, I’d wear my crown everywhere!

Well, my month of domestic bliss has come to and end. Jane will go back to part-time now and I’ll have to start weaning myself off her. We found her a new family to sponsor her when we leave here so she’ll start working for them this month. We are very excited that she will get home for a month after we leave since it has been 2 years for her. One of the things that upsets me the most about Jordan (other than the huge problems with domestic violence, frequent honour killings and insane traffic) is the abuse of domestic workers. This is such a huge, out of control problem here. The Philippine embassy actually had to ban new workers from coming here for a few months because so many workers were hiding out in their embassy trying to escape abuse with nowhere else to go. I could write pages on this topic but I won’t, instead I’ll just tell you two quick stories that will certainly be etched in my mind the next time I read or hear something about human trafficking.

The first is about what I call the prisoner across the hall. There is a Filipino woman who works for a Jordanian family across the hall from us that we have known about for some time, but rarely see. She is not allowed to speak to Jane but sometimes when Jane is leaving our home, they are able to sneak in a few words. A few weeks ago, this woman was able to get Jane’s phone number and snuck a call to her at midnight. She said that the family she works for have not paid her in over four months (I’m sure she works 12 hour days/7 days a week) and they were kicking her out in a few days and she had no place to go and of course, no money. This is the same woman J saw slapped by one of the boys of the house in front of our home one day. To think this is happening to a woman that lives literally 6 feet away from us is just crazy!

Another story- Jane was at a grocery store when a Filipina woman tried to initiate a “secret” conversation with her. She said that her employer was beating her (Jane saw the cigarette burn marks on her arms and face) and that she needed to run away but didn’t have anywhere to go and no money. Then, about a minute later, her employer came up to them and slapped her in the middle of the store (in front of police even) for speaking to Jane. Jane told me she was just glad that she could give her a few bucks before they were caught talking.

The sad thing is, there is just no place for these women to go! Really! Their embassy has about 200 women (at last count) all living in cots in a warehouse but they are not real advocates for these women, in one word- corruption! J keeps telling me I need to find the Oprah of the Middle East and write her a letter. I wish there was something more that I could do… often they don’t even have their passports because their sponsors confiscate them, so if they do manage to run away, they can’t leave the country (not that they’d have the money to do so anyway). I wish there was some sort of a shelter here for these women, or legal advocate to at least help them get their due pay but I’m pretty sure the wasta (powerful class) wouldn’t allow it. The Jordanians get pretty pissed when their help runs off because it cost them a lot of money to bring them over here and sponsor them. You should see how skinny and malnourished some of these women look- it reminds me of when we were living in Korea and they had the “drinky” girls brought over for the clubs. I know this kind of stuff happens every day around the world and it is just one more thing that makes me thankful the U.S. has tough laws and shelters!

Okay, on a happier note, it’s Election Day! Regardless of who you’re voting for I hope that we can all agree that it is great news we are finally getting a new president! (That is unless you are in the 29% approval ratings crowd and if that’s the case, stay in your cave! Ha!) God Bless America that I can even write the above, I am well aware that I would not dare say such a thing about a Jordanian official. We are actually attending an election party with a bunch of Jordanians hosted by my half-American friend tonight. We are looking forward to hearing their comments! The world is fascinated by US politics and it’s easy to see why- we have the best dialogue don’t we? (Even if most of what they promise will never happen, LOL!)

We’ve got a busy week ahead. The Marine Ball is on Fri. night, I’ve never been to one before but I’m told it’s “the” social event of the year. Although, I am definitely not looking forward to dressing in a formal at 20 weeks pregnant. At this point, I don’t look preggo, I just look fat! And I have to quick figure out a way to get rid of my tan lines before Fri., it’s not easy to find that fake tan stuff here. Then on Sat., we are heading to the Sinai for a week. It’s going to be a nutty trip- driving to Sharm El Sheik with a stop at Mt. Sinai so J can climb it. We drive from Jordan to Israel to Egypt and back, which in itself will be a huge pain crossing all of the borders. Please pray for our safety on the roads : ) Driving in Egypt is about the craziest thing we’ll ever do… there is a reason we saved this trip until the end and we’re hoping our expertise pays off. Lots of photos and stories to come! I’d better sign off now, after K sat on her potty chair for 20 min. she decided the best place to go was on my lap, that little stinker! Cheers!