oh... Canada, EH!

well the world is just the funniest place some times
yesterday was a really neat day
and i'll recount it starting backwards

-walking -
location: amman, jordan - near the citadel
time:after dark
took a stroll
through the nearby hills
(amman has 7 main hill tops)
to see if i could find an angle
to take photos of the amphitheatre
this being a full sized roman theatre
and all lit up at night
earlier this week
i'd visited the citadel at the top of the hill
far below was the amphitheatre
i found a path
leading out of the area
(which costs money to enter)
by following some locals
and found some stairs and paths
down the hill to the main street
i resolved to return
so return i did last night
slowly winding my way up
the dimly lit streets
walking up steep streets
climbing stairs
and generally retracing my steps
in the darkness
dotted with pools of lamplight
the last stretch
was in total darkness
but my eyes adjusted to the gloom
and i felt my way up the slope
with my feet
i should have worn shoes :P
at the top
was the monumental temple
the temple of hercules!
all lit up with spot lights
just sitting there for me
i was in heaven!
i started taking photos
when linda noticed
some police guards moving towards us
i could tell she was nervous
and she called out in a low voice
"you'd better hurry before they get here"
i told her not to worry
and slowly went on framing shot after shot
adjusting the exposures
and trying different angles
on the last shot
i could hear that the police had arrived
their footsteps crunching on the gravel
i took exquisite care
metering the light
and framing the shot
it was a good one :)
as soon as i took it
i stood up
and showed the guard
and linda
and smiled a big kirby smile
as the second guard also came over for a look
i stood there beaming
as the first guard said
with an apologetic smile
that he was sorry, but the area was closed
i looked at him
apologized
and then just "happened" to notice
over his shoulder
the dome of the ummayadd palace
off in the distance
on the other side of the hill
also lit up
nice and bright
and pleaded with the guard
for just one more photo
this time of the palace
(given my limited arabic
this request was accompanied by
a whole heck of a lot of miming :P)
in chinese, linda said to me
"you have a lot of gall!"
but in the next moment
the guard nodded
and said ok
so i walked over to the road
crossed it
and moved until i could see the palace dome
choosing a broken pillar to use as a temporary tripod
i set up my camera
and started shooting
i took a couple of shots
and stood up to leave
all content
when the guard walked up
and motioned me towards the palace
saying "ok, it's ok"
granting me permission to go way closer
cool or what!?
linda followed along
speechless
while i was hopping like a little kid on christmas day
i must have taken about 20 shots
in the main courtyard
completely unobstructed by tourists
and lit up nicely by the different flood lights
once again
sharing my favourite photos with the guards
who nodded and smiled
they said, that the area was closed
and we should go out now
the pointed in the direction of the gate
smiled
and waved
as we both thanked them profusely in arabic
cool :)

-standing-
location: amman, jordan - in a back alley bakery
time: just after supper
i walked in
to this tiny bakery
after an awesome supper
in a tiny restaurant
that had an upstairs seating area
consisting of 3 tables
in a "being john malkovich" sized room
sitting down was cozy
and the locals were friendly beyond belief :)
i walked into the bakery
and just stood there
looking at the bread
which was dumped by type
in various steel wire bins
with a few customary hellos
(salaam aley kum)
and welcomes
("welcome to jordan!")
all with lots of smiles :)
one of the men
motioned me to come around the counter
through a back door
to see
their oven
manned by a palestinian
with 2 long shovels
slotting lines of pita breads in and out
so quickly
it was a beauty to behold
i was greeted by another man
an egyptian named nasser
and a jordanian, bilel
who was the son of the owner
staffed by an assortment of people
upstairs and down
they were making the pita breads from scratch
with machine like quickness
from rolls of dough
pulled from a massive blob
one in each hand
to the automatic roller
fed by hand on one end
and flipped off a conveyer belt on the other
onto long wooden slats
one man on each end
moving as fast as the rollers could move
where one mistake
would cause raw flat dough
to be spilled onto the ground
to a stack of slats
passed through the floor
back to the first level
where the oven team
shovelled them in and out
to the guy at the front
who manned the till
and would pop back to help receive the slats
through the long hole in the ceiling
(or the 2nd story floor...
all depending on where you're standing eh?)
now,
i'd heard that there was this bread they made
filled with meat or cheese
and i asked belil about this
as i'd not seen them in his shop
nor in any other bakery
he said that it was easy to make
the meat a little harder than the cheese
but if i brought him the meat or cheese
he would make them for me
i asked him where one could get the right ingredients
and he took me 10 steps out of his shop
where he helped me buy
a huge bag of cheese
for 1 JD (jordanian dinar)
which should make about 4 breads he estimated
it turned out we had enough for 5
which he made fresh from the same dough as the pita
and then made pizza/cheese breads
baked fresh in the oven
i was looking for an easily portable lunch
for the next day
and there i had it
in the time i was there
talking and chatting away
i found belil
was really happy when he realized i was canadian
you see,
he was going to canada soon
after many visits to the canadian embassy here
(and he assured me
they were very friendly and helpful!)
and finally enough "points"
yes,
he was going to canada
to become a canadian
i said to him
"welcome to canada!"
:)
hehehee
neat eh? :)
well,
when all was said and done
and the piping hot cheese breads put into a bag
he gave them to me with a smile
and said "it's on my account"
and when i pressed him to take some money
he said,
it's my gift
because i'm happy to meet a canadian
the sincere generosity was so evident
i went away with a warm fuzzy feeling
and after stashing my bread
i picked up my camera
to walk up a hill
and see what i could find :)

-sitting-
location: eastern desert, jordan - in a cab
time: day time
i was sitting in a cab
a cab that i'd hired
to take me around for the day
to visit the desert castles
during this time
i spoke with our driver
who was friendly, laid back
and could really speak english quite well
abu mohammed
(father of mohammed,
and 10 other children)
came to amman in 1979
after fleeing the west bank
and has been there ever since
it says so right in the book
along with a description of his life
a book of interviews
people from all walks of life
commenting about... life
a palestinian by birth
he had lived
and still lives
a life
between the visits to the different castles
(we visited 5 in all)
there was much time to talk
abu mohammed related a story to me
it goes as follows:

I love Canada! Do you know why? Because Canada helps people. The United States bring war and soldiers and guns to the Arab countries, but the Canadians bring us food. When I was a child, I lived in the West Bank. We had no food, and everyone was hungry. And then the Candadian Government comes and gives us one meal a day. This meal is in the middle of the day, so we are all happy to go to school because this means we will have food. The government makes a special cafeteria in our school just for this. And you know what we call the restaurant? We call it "Canadian Restaurant". Every day when it is time for lunch, all the students start to chant "Ca-na-da! Rest-au-rant!" over and over! That was over fifty years ago and I still remember how generous Canadians are. That is why I like Canadians.

listening to the emotion
with which he spoke
made me proud
to be part of something
that i had no part in
it made me proud to be canadian
even though i had nothing to do with it
and most importantly
it made me realize
that something so simple
could have such profound effects
decades later
perhaps there are better ways
than sending in soldiers, eh?
one thing tho,
being proud to be canadian has it's burden too
hearing so many good things about my country
that i truly didn't "do" myself
really makes me want to be a better canadian...
cool eh? ;)