The cab driver has just put some music on, ‘you like Jordan music?’ he asks with a smile. It’s raucous, traditional music which is, if I’m totally honest a bit too loud and tonally challenging to my Western ears.
I do a little dance mime in my seat to express that yes I like the music, in which he joins in, more elegantly than me, pointing his fingers gracefully in the air. Just us two men dancing in a cab. Totally normal stuff.
He is an old man with eye wrinkles from several years of laughter. I am in an awkward position because I don’t want to keep on doing this pretend dance all the way to the airport, but I want to continue to show how much I like the music. Awkwardly I get my laptop out and write this.
I tend to spend a lot of time in taxis and cars when I’m in Jordan. My Nan has asked me about the Dead Sea, Petra and the like but all I can tell her is about meeting rooms, taxis and not very good expat bars where UN types like to wind down.
Amman’s population rose from 33, 000 in 1947 to nearly three million now, and continues to grow rapidly. There’s no mass transit system and most national roads run through Amman rather than round it, although a metro is planned. For landmarks they have big roundabouts which they call circles.
The airport is fine as a destination, but often you find yourself having to shop around with cabs if you don’t speak Arabic. Sometimes you get very maddeningly close to the place you need to be and the language gap kicks in.
So you say ‘take me to the Ministry of the Environment, 6th circle’, and you get to the 6th circle but you find that, oddly enough, your driver doesn’t know the English word for ministry and it’s very hard to mime ‘environment’ [this literally happened].
At some point either passenger or driver decides that, look, it’s not working out, it’s not you it’s me but I think things are over between us, and it’s time for a conscious uncoupling. As cabs are incredibly cheap, it’s no big deal.
Each journey seems to cost one Dinar, or just under a quid. One cab driver saw my newly ATM’d big denominations and let me off the fare completely, smiling as he did so. ‘You are welcome my friend,’ he explained. ‘Enjoy Jordan.’
Amman, frankly, is not widely viewed as the most exciting city in the world. Given what’s happening in the region this seems a churlish complaint. It has taken in more than a million Syrian refugees lately. This is roughly the equivalent to the UK taking in 10 million refugees.* In the space of three years. Imagine the Daily Mail headlines.
It’s remarkable, and whilst there are several well-documented challenges and resource issues associated with this influx of people, it’s often overlooked that this little country has welcomed so many people.
The majority aren’t in camps either; a typical refugee family in Jordan spends their life savings on renting a shared house with several other families: many aren’t accessing services at all, and they aren’t officially allowed to work.
Meanwhile the Syria Crisis continues whilst dropping off the news agenda; which means the relief effort needs more cash than ever. Fortunately you may be able to help out on that front, even if you can’t currently afford ‘to buy’ in the town where you live.
http://donate.unhcr.org/syria-uk?gclid=COWFpbqxtb0CFZQZtAod3BwAng&gclsrc=aw.ds UNHCR Syria appeal
http://www.dec.org.uk/appeals/syria-crisis-appeal – DEC Syria appeal
https://secure.savethechildren.org.uk/donate/single?&sourcecode=A12022004 – Save The Children Syria appeal
* Britain has taken in around 4,000 Syrian refugees; it has refused to support the full UNHCR programme which would increase that number, but Britain punches above its weight on humanitarian aid, having committed to more than £600m