Yesterday I went to the town of Salt to visit my peer tutor, Nimr, who lives there. Salt is the oldest city in all of Jordan and has been inhabited for about the past 3 or 4 thousand years, since before Christianity or Islam even existed. Right now the town is mostly Muslim but has a larger percentage of Christians than most of Jordan, the relationship between the two communities is really good. It's about 30 minutes outside of Amman and is the 4th largest city in Jordan, I'd call it a large town. It was originally intended to be the capital of Jordan, but the town elders at the time didn't want it to become all commercialized dirty and have large buildings, like Amman is today. So although Salt is a larger metropolitan area of the country, it doesn't feel very urban, or at least it's urban yet still green. Kinda like Paris, how you'll walk down the street, and buildings are obviously the main thing you see, but there is no shortage of trees or green everywhere you look. Pictures below. It's kinda the town that everyone makes jokes about, like dumb blondes, or polish, but of course they don't like you saying that =)
Nimr was saying how there's about 100 or so tribes or clans of about 5000 people each that are still living in salt today. His last name is Abu-Rumman, so he shares the same last name with a lot of other people in Salt. To get more specific about who he is he'd say he's from the house of his father's name. Everyone in Salt is connected by no more than 2 degrees of separation, because you're bound to know at least one person from each of these large families, so if you don't specifically know the person you're talking to right then, you know at least one person who they're related to, and that person who they're related to most likely knows the person you're talking to because when anyone in a tribe gets married, or dies, everyone is invited, or goes to share condolences.
The main plaza of salt is called Hammam plaza, because it is at the end of Hammam street. Hammam is bathroom in Arabic, so if you learn one phrase before you come here, it should be "waen al-hammam" (where is the bathroom) but if you do ever come here, practice squatting beforehand. Using the bathrooms here has provided some of the more...'formative' experience of my study abroad. I'll upload some pictures of good ones later. Unfortunately the smell isn't transmittable via the internet...someday...someday. ANYWAYYYY back to Hammam street. It's called that because it used to be where all the Turkish baths were in Salt. It's on the side of a hill and all the water for the baths was just routed from the nearby stream, through the baths and continued out of the buildings into the creek in the middle of town. How cool! There aren't Turkish baths anymore, now it's just the main souk of town. Which is sweet cause there are no tourists, and it's not too big, and you can see super old churches right nearby. Near hammam street is commonly used for movies when they want to simulate being in Jerusalem. Nimr was saying that one production blew up a car right by Hammam plaza, the director got a couple thousand authentic extras for free that day.
Later that afternoon we were at a random cafe in Salt and it was just us and two ladies, maybe mother and daughter, in the cafe. They started asking Nimr if he was a tour guide or what, then they asked me name. Once I said Yazan Fattaleh the younger lady almost fell out of her chair.
"Do you know Rawan Fattaleh!?"
"Yeah! that's my aunt!!! you know her??"
"Yeah we were really good friends growing up! Your dad used to drive us around before we had drivers licenses, your grandparents are so nice, oh I miss them so much. Rawan and I still stay in touch and we always have a blast every time she comes back to Jordan to visit! Oh my god, I haven't seen you Yazan for 20 years!"
I couldn't believe it. My aunt's friend is originally from salt and was back for the weekend to see her family who still lives there. And was randomly in the same cafe as me. How small is this world!
Also, while I'm on meeting random people who know me, last Thursday my friends and I were at a choir concert (in Amman) that one of our friend's was singing in and the old lady sitting next to me was good friends with my Dad's Mom, and distant cousins with my Mom's Mom.
All the signs for the stores in Salt must be wooden with white lettering like this.
One end of Hammam Street:
Old guys playing Mancala under a tree all day every day:
Where that one movie blew up a car in "Jerusalem":
An old sweets shop that's closed now:
An old house:
The other end of Hammam Street:
Some good Engrish:
Garlic Anyone?
Over view of the city, it was super dusty that day:
Nimr's living room:
And unrelated, here's a picture of a backpack coffee guy from the Friday Souk in Amman:
Nimr was saying how there's about 100 or so tribes or clans of about 5000 people each that are still living in salt today. His last name is Abu-Rumman, so he shares the same last name with a lot of other people in Salt. To get more specific about who he is he'd say he's from the house of his father's name. Everyone in Salt is connected by no more than 2 degrees of separation, because you're bound to know at least one person from each of these large families, so if you don't specifically know the person you're talking to right then, you know at least one person who they're related to, and that person who they're related to most likely knows the person you're talking to because when anyone in a tribe gets married, or dies, everyone is invited, or goes to share condolences.
The main plaza of salt is called Hammam plaza, because it is at the end of Hammam street. Hammam is bathroom in Arabic, so if you learn one phrase before you come here, it should be "waen al-hammam" (where is the bathroom) but if you do ever come here, practice squatting beforehand. Using the bathrooms here has provided some of the more...'formative' experience of my study abroad. I'll upload some pictures of good ones later. Unfortunately the smell isn't transmittable via the internet...someday...someday. ANYWAYYYY back to Hammam street. It's called that because it used to be where all the Turkish baths were in Salt. It's on the side of a hill and all the water for the baths was just routed from the nearby stream, through the baths and continued out of the buildings into the creek in the middle of town. How cool! There aren't Turkish baths anymore, now it's just the main souk of town. Which is sweet cause there are no tourists, and it's not too big, and you can see super old churches right nearby. Near hammam street is commonly used for movies when they want to simulate being in Jerusalem. Nimr was saying that one production blew up a car right by Hammam plaza, the director got a couple thousand authentic extras for free that day.
Later that afternoon we were at a random cafe in Salt and it was just us and two ladies, maybe mother and daughter, in the cafe. They started asking Nimr if he was a tour guide or what, then they asked me name. Once I said Yazan Fattaleh the younger lady almost fell out of her chair.
"Do you know Rawan Fattaleh!?"
"Yeah! that's my aunt!!! you know her??"
"Yeah we were really good friends growing up! Your dad used to drive us around before we had drivers licenses, your grandparents are so nice, oh I miss them so much. Rawan and I still stay in touch and we always have a blast every time she comes back to Jordan to visit! Oh my god, I haven't seen you Yazan for 20 years!"
I couldn't believe it. My aunt's friend is originally from salt and was back for the weekend to see her family who still lives there. And was randomly in the same cafe as me. How small is this world!
Also, while I'm on meeting random people who know me, last Thursday my friends and I were at a choir concert (in Amman) that one of our friend's was singing in and the old lady sitting next to me was good friends with my Dad's Mom, and distant cousins with my Mom's Mom.
The Boys high school in Salt, the oldest school in all of Jordan:
All the signs for the stores in Salt must be wooden with white lettering like this.
One end of Hammam Street:
Old guys playing Mancala under a tree all day every day:
Where that one movie blew up a car in "Jerusalem":
An old sweets shop that's closed now:
An old house:
The other end of Hammam Street:
Some good Engrish:
Garlic Anyone?
Over view of the city, it was super dusty that day:
Nimr's living room:
And unrelated, here's a picture of a backpack coffee guy from the Friday Souk in Amman:
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