the fall of linda

jerash
an ancient roman city
in the north of jordan
with kilometres and kilometres of ruins
after spending a whole day exploring the ruins
the sun was starting to set
painting the columns and stones a golden colour
walking down
from the temple of artemis
with two steps to go
linda slipped
and fell
straight over
HARD
screaming in pain
i thought she'd broken her arm
but it turned out
that this freak slip
twisted her knee
after a while
we realized very quickly
that she couldn't walk
so i piggybacked her and our bags
and started out of jerash
with a good 3km or so of walking ahead
i was happy to see
a tourist police walking towards us
...averting his head
to what seemed to him
a shameful display of public affection
between two people
however
once he realized
linda was hurt
he immediately radioed for help
which came in the form of an ambulance
coming in through the back door
(northern gate or so)
however with thousands of years
to erode and buckle the famous roman road
not even the ambulance
was able to drive up
so two men in camouflage
and bright orange ambulance vests
hauled a stretcher over
and carried her the couple hundred yards
to where the ambulance had managed to navigate
one thing to note
neither of these ambulance dudes
would touch her
(she being a female and all)
so i had to help lower her to the stretcher
the world can be a funny place sometimes....
:P
after that
we were racing through the city
up a massive hill
siren wailing
sun setting
children jumping
(in front of the ambulance
while playing kick the ball)
and taxi drivers cutting us off
(ok,
it only happened once
and the driver DID look embarassed
when he realized it was an ambulance...
the flashing lights and siren gave it away)
through winding narrow streets
all the way to the hospital
which proceeded to x-ray her
(without shielding her)
and though people smoked in the hallways
(and in the x-ray room itself even!)
after the statements were taken
(by the tourist police)
they ended up charging us nothing
is that cool or what?
it was neat having the chief of tourist police there
to help us interpret
(he had 4 other uniformed officers
and one plain clothes officer with him)
and make sure he had in writing
that no one pushed linda
(including me)
that said,
i'm sure that he was the one
that had the charges waived
and arranged for a taxi
to take us back to amman
as we'd missed the last public bus
and linda wasn't up to walking
the world is sure full
of friendly people
and it's awesome!
:)