Returning to Jordan after four months in the US – the
longest period of time that I’ve been away since arriving here in 2006 – was not as I anticipated. After
the significant shock of readjusting to life in the US, a country that I
haven’t called home for 12 years, I imagined that my return to southern
Jordan would be as a stranger and that I would struggle to adjust to changes that have taken place - both personally and professionally in my life - since leaving Jordan last October.
I arrived in Aqaba from Istanbul at 3 am on 17 February and
hopped into a taxi to the center of town.
My cab driver was a friendly man from the hill town of Tafileh who
welcomed me profusely back to Jordan, complimented my Arabic and then promptly
tried to overcharge me. Some things never change. :)
As I stepped out of the taxi and Mohammed, the Egyptian receptionist
at the much loved funduk al Quds
(Jerusalem Hotel), smiled gently as he helped me to gather my bags, a sudden sense
of well-being washed over me. I realized that as far as I may be from my family
and country of birth, I have, indeed, returned home.
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| Aqaba and the Red Sea Photo courtesy Al Amer Chalets |
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