"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates"...Tine

Tucked away in the heart of the Middle-East, the last thing you tend to expect is guests (much less UCG guests). I mean, it’s not like brethren just happen to be “in the neighbourhood.” But believe it or not dear reader, since my last blog...we’ve had three!

Our first guest was Michelle Mills, a native of New Zealand who now lives and works in the Emirates as a journalist and editor. She was in Jordan for business and we made plans to spend the weekend together. This was quite a pleasant surprise because apart from the Hook family in Kuwait, we were unaware of any other UCG members in this region.
One of the things we were able to do was take Michelle on a historical tour of downtown Amman.
Our first stop was "the Duke's Diwan."--The oldest townhouse in Amman. The townhouse was built in 1923 and operates under the patronage of the Duke of Mukhaibeh who has since turned it into an intellectual and cultural haven where scholars and artists can retreat and ruminate. Post Duke's Diwan, we made a stop at a second hand bookstore where Michelle bought some “antique” legal tender while I bought an old cook book and dug up a dusty and obscure manuscript of English prose which I acquired for 0.5JDs ( I convinced the vender that the prospects of him finding a more generous buyer were slim to none:-). Next stop--the splendid Roman amphitheatre, a 1900-year-old historical Bonanza, where we indulged Michelle as she went crazy with her camera.

Last stop: the "Hill of the citadel"--an ancient Roman fortification that showcases ruins from the Temple of Hercules and the Umayaad Palace complex. After touring the site we did silly impressionisms on the ruin mounds and then made a whirlwind tour of the Jordan archaeological museum (dead sea scrolls anyone?).

Michelle, what a sport! We tried to wrestle another visit from her, we’ll see if it worked.

Our next two guests were Shannon & Samantha Sweat. Shannon was born and raised in Africa (she actually grew up with my aunt!), and has been through several continents before settling down in Dallas, TX. One unsuspecting morning, we received an email from Mr. Horchak saying that Shannon and her 7 month old baby Samantha would be in Amman on a 6 hour stop over and was enquiring as to whether we could “put them out of their misery.” We obliged. Emily and I made our way down to the airport (in very interesting circumstances), picked up the Sweats and brought them back to our apartments where they relaxed and had dinner before heading back to the airport. As an aside, Samantha is the most agreeable baby I have ever met. She sat on a blankie with wooden spoons and plastic bowls smiling the entire time, not once did she cry or fuss (and this is not an exaggeration.) Her mother said she had been that way the entire trip and Lena told Lewis that if he could promise her that their baby would be that way, she would consider having one. Lewis said he couldn’t make any promises...

XXX