In Amman, heading out for R&R.
I won't bother commenting on the trip except to say it's been long and hot so far, two days going and not even on vacation yet!
As I was driving out to Queen Alia Airport from the hotel, I noticed all these families on the side of the road having open fire cook outs. Now, I'm talking like 10-20ft off a major highway. And they had horses out, and camels, and kids running around, and old folks too. Mile after mile of them.
Thursday is their friday night you see, and it is Thursday, so out comes the firewood, the blankets, the plastic chairs and hookahs, and off the family goes for a cookout 20ft from traffic. I'm not down on it, it's just unusual to see, and would give any State Trooper in the US absolute fits for obvious reasons. But it's not actually a bad tradition either.. a family cookout over an open fire at the end of a week... as opposed to our 9000.00 barbeque "systems" and outdoor surround sound mosquito netted indoor-outdoor AC'd version of the same thing. There's something more pure about the way they do it, even if one decent crash can take out five entire families at once.
I do wonder though, if they come back to roughly the same spot each time, and if so, do they run into the same families over and over. Or is it more a random thing. Even though they stay in discrete groups, there's simply no way for them to avoid overhearing each others laughter, and in a way, I suppose that may be a good thing too. Building a sense of larger-tribeness, if you will. It's funny also, how obviously old traditions get updated and adapted over time.
Anyways I'm off on R&R and hopefully won't need bail money! :D
Regards,
-Bouncer-
