two weeks in Heaven, Day 13

I'm gonna skip couple of days for now.



I got the call earlier from ala that we’ll have our meeting tonight. Sometime around 8 pm. However, I was supposed to visit my uncle in the morning..closer to lunch time. I am also supposed to go with my brother in law to slaughter a lamb for a dinner fest on Friday in my parents home. I wanted to invite my sisters, brothers, and their families for a dinner. At any rate, today is supposed to be a very busy day.
It started with me and my father visiting my uncle. We got there about 10 am. Again, there seem to be some obsession with food in this family of mine. The visit was just to say hello and spend couple of hours with the guy. Instead, he planned barbeque. At 10 am…barbeque? I couldn’t say no. I really wanted to say no. I honestly did. Regardless, we spent good time in his house. They have a maid from indonisia…or that sort. She wears the veil. Such a lovely face. Another example of the many houses in Jordan that do not need maids, yet, they have. I mean my uncle lives with his wife..and I don’t see the need for a maid. Oh well, this is the norm these days there.
We got back to the house at about 1 pm. I rushed with my sister to go to marj el7amam to catch my brother in law before he leaves the house. He was still sleeping at that time. So we get there as soon as we could. He was ready to leave. The plan was that I go with him to slaughter the lamb, since he knows good places for that, and then come back to his house, and then my sister and I go home before 8 pm. Sounds like a good plan….simple. That’s what I thought initially. We went to his small factory somewhere in amman. I was impressed by his small place, and the fact that he is building himself. We sat in the office. I told him that we need to leave. He agreed. Well, not so fast. Two visitors arrive to the factory. They started talking about business plans. After about an hour, they left. My brother in law and I head out to this place to slaughter. Got my eye on a small lamb, barely 26 kg whole. The dude did his job, and within 5 minutes, we were heading out as the butcher told us to come back in 2 hours after the meat cools down. My brother in law wanted to take me to city center. He spoke highly of a restaurant down there, called shahrazad. I was full, but he wanted me to try something different. We drove down to city center. This was about 5 pm now. We got to the restaurant

There, we ordered some 3arayes. I just wanted to eat 3arayes there as I heard so good things about that place. He ordered an additional 2 kg mixed grilled meat, 1 for him and 1 for me. It tasted so good. I couldn’t finish. He kept on pressing. I was begging for mercy. He ended up winning. I ate the whole damn kg mashawi. We then walked in the center. We took some steps that made me feel like an old man. We arrived to the parking garage, picked up his car, and drove out. On one of the traffic lights, a man crossing the street stopped in front of our car. He was talking to another man that didn’t cross yet. The light turns green. We sound the horn. He doesn’t even look at us. My brother in law drives the car slowly to hit the guy. The dude gets mad and slams his hands against the hood of our car. My brother in law rushes out with a small ganwa on the side. He aims to hit the guy..and the guys backs away apologizing. This is all new to me. This is strange. No one has any patience in this country?

We drove back to the butcher house, and got our lamb. Drove back to marj el7amam. My sister was waiting in the car outside. We rushed home. I wanted to use the bathroom at my sisters house, but we just didn’t have time. I have to be home at 8 pm. We drive fast back to the house. We got there at about 8 pm. I rushed quickly to the bathroom. I could swear that I lost 2 kg in that one trip to the bathroom. So I call ala, and he said that he will be there in couple of minutes.

Standing in front of our home, hiding behind a wall, smoking a cigarette fearing that my father see me. Enigma and ala show up. I got in their car, and all three of us drove away. I didn’t know where we were going. I was hoping to have a very late dinner. I can barely breath. 5 minutes into the drive, I decided to put on the seat belt. These guys drive crazy in this country. Nothing worse than to ride in a car where Enigma drives, and ala gives direction as where to go. We now headed to the airport. We meet up with Sa2ed on the way. We got to this nice park, the park of the king of Bahrain…such a long name.

There, Hector comes to the gate to lead us to the camp area. So we get there. Nice park. So I get to have mashawi for the third time today. I couldn’t tell the guys about my experience today. So I kept quiet. Some of us sat down, some started lighting heeisheh, and some started to grill the meat. Hector had a friend with him. The smell of barbeque is so overwhelming. We talked about everything. A third friend of hector also showed up few minutes later. It was about 10 pm now and the food is flooding the big dish that is in front of us. I sat next to ala, which is not a good idea as the food was disappearing fast there. We then started telling jokes. None of the jokes that were told that night can be told in here. The night was crisp. There was a group sitting not too far from us. They were a little loud…singing and dancing. Luckily, we were not sitting too far from the bathrooms. I needed to be close. The problem, there was a dog between me and the bathroom. I had to carry a long stick, just in case the dog develops a good taste for human meat.Toward the end of the night, most of us were cold and obsessed with the red burning charcoal. We gathered around the two grills, and stayed warm. It was cold that night.

At about 1 am, we decided to call the night off. We headed out, and off we go. I was home about 1:30 am thanks to Enigma’s driving. Tomorrow is also going to be a busy day as we are having lots of people coming over. My brother just arrived from the UAE to see me. Last time I saw him was 13 years ago. My other brother in law also arrived a day earlier from Canada. So it will be a busy day.