We just left Jordan or “Ordan” as they pronounce it in Arabic;  it became “Yordan” in Hebrew; now it’s Jordan in English.

We drove up into the green mountains that look like Israel’s Samaria and then into the brown mountains that look like Israel’s Judea.  But, there are fewer similarities than meet the eye…

Jordan is 95% Muslim with the remaining 5% split between Orthodox Christians and Druse.  There are no Jews or Protestant Christians or Shia Muslims in any official census.  Jordanians are proud of how close their spoken Arabic is to classical Arabic.  They are proud of having the highest standard of living in the Arab middle east.  We don’t have the economic statistics but lots of people live in what appear to be physically dilapidated dwellings with not a few abandoned cars strewn about.  But, everyone on the streets seems energetic, well-dressed, and mostly bustling.

Jordanians are incredibly handsome people—everyone of them.  They smile a lot.  They are very demonstrative in their informal social encounters.  Everyone in the tourist trade is happy to have us, though they assume that we are American Christians rather than American Jews.  I am not sure Jordanians’ welcome would change that much if they realized, but they would be reflective and consider it (later they figured it out and didn’t mind—we discussed the “situation” and water politics).

Jordanians vary in appearance—a lot.  A few are blond and blue-eyed with completely European features—descendents of Crusaders.  Some are as dark or even darker than many Africans but with Caucasian features.  And most are in between with almond skin and very dark hair.  Many men where thick bushy mustaches.   Almost no one is conspicuously over-weight.

Women vary a lot in degree of Muslim dress.  Many women and girls wear Hijab (headscarfs), sometimes with traditional long dresses and sometimes with jeans.  Women in Amman are chic and would be good-looking anywhere. Even in the villages some women go with uncovered heads and western clothes—most little girls do.  A few women—eyeball math at 5%—wear full body  black chador’s with nothing but a slit for their eyes.  Maybe 10% of men wear kaffiyeh—checkered scarf with broad braids to hold it in place on the head.  You often see King Hussein (now deceased and replaced by his son, King Abdullah II) wearing one in the numerous photos all over Jordan—that is, when he is not pictured in his business suit or his Jordanian Air Force uniform.

Outside of Amman, things look poor from the outside.  Villages are mostly dense clusters of small apartment buildings.  Some people live in unfinished buildings with no windows.   This may conceal what’s on the inside.  The last thing to waste money on is the outside of your building.  The inside and the courtyard are what matters.  Coming into Amman everything improves economically.

Amman is over 2 million people and it is huge in extent.  The old city has extended far beyond the ancient walled citadel. It covers seven hills—jabals.  They are close to mountains—very steep sided with lots of rocks (Jordan is made of rocks) and even some canyon sides.  Ever inch is packed.  Streets snake through and up the hills.  Within the old city, packed into a neighborhood that grew around it, is an old Roman coliseum that seats over 7,000 and is still used for events.  The new city extends well beyond the core of the city.  It includes a very fancy new business district (I counted at least 10 construction cranes for new skyscrapers), homes for the very wealthy, and the foreign embassies.

Jordanians LOVE cars.  Everyone wants a car.   Car repair places with storefront garages are everywhere.  One street appeared to be the “street of mag wheels:”  easily 30 little storefronts on one street selling fancy wheels (“pimp my ride” though I am sure Jordanians don’t say that) and big tires.  If you have an older tiny Asian car, this is one of the few hot customizations you can do until you can afford your Mercedes or BMW.  Despite the cars and the twisting roads full of traffic, traffic is surprisingly orderly—not at all like Italy or Mexico.  A little bit of honking, but a lot less than in New York City.  Things just seem to work here.

Stay tuned for Jordan photos and more of the trip…

I am also going to look up some economic and demographic statistics to provide a quick comparison of Jordan and Israel.