Monday, Monday

I love living in Jordan.  This plucky little country I now call home had itself quite the week last week. The hills of Amman have turned green, almond trees have started blooming and roadside vendors are selling heaps and heaps of blood red, super-sweet strawberries.  Spring has finally sprung and brought with it not only President Barack Obama, who visited Jordan for 4 days last week, but also the Khamsin, a sure sign that winter is over and serious heat is on the way! 

The Khamsin (khamsin means "50" in Arabic) blows in from both the Sahara and the Negev deserts and lasts for approximately, yes, fifty days.  If you've ever seen that wonderful movie, The English Patient, you may recall the scenes where Count Almasy and Katharine were trapped in a vehicle, caught in a terrible sandstorm?  Well, that was the Khamsin, or the more fluid name for it used in Egypt and Libya, the Ghibli.  Sounds like water slipping over smooth rocks, doesn't it?  Gee-blee...

We had our own mini-brush with the Khamsin on Friday when we joined our friends Andrew and Emily for lunch at (can you guess?)... Haret Jdoudna in Madaba!  Yes, I know, we really should try different restaurants, but I reckon, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  Friday morning was lovely and warm and showed a lot of promise, so we set off to Madaba at around one o'clock, only armed with light sweaters and a shared positive attitude towards life.  As we approached Madaba, however, we realised that we picked the wrong day for a scenic drive as it became darker and more ominous looking by the minute. 

Sat down for lunch, ordered the usual, plus a couple of extras but almost as soon as the food arrived, so did the Khamsin!  The wind was so strong that it blew a huge outdoors umbrella right out of its stand and here I must applaud the resilience of kids, as one of the littlies at the table next to ours was hit on the head with the wooden edge of the umbrella, twice, and other than a brief look of shock on her face, recovered rather quickly from her ordeal!  (Had it been me, with my constant fear of things falling on my head à la Asterix and Obelix, I would still be in therapy, but that's a story for another day). 

It was the weirdest sensation, this sandstorm.  The skies turned completely dark and it initially felt like raindrops, but instead of water, we were being pelted by millions of "drops" of sand!  Pretty soon there was a fine powdery sand covering on everything and we wisely decided to head off to the Dead Sea, determined to continue with our scenic tour for the day.  Things went downhill from there, literally, as the road from Madaba down to the Dead Sea is a very steep, twisty-turny road that almost made me car sick! On a clear day this would be a wonderful drive, but with very little visibility, sand flying everywhere, not to mention sheep, goats and rabid-looking dogs in the road, this was not a pleasant drive.  We will have to revisit this one, me thinks.

And that was the week that was.  Woke up to bright, clear skies this morning. Let's hope it lasts until the weekend!  I want to drive up North and e-x-p-l-o-r-e...