No requests for autographs, please!

A few weeks ago when it was becoming likely that we'd be moving from Jordan this summer we made a list of places we want to be sure to visit before we move. We probably won't make it through the entire list but at least it gave us some focus. Last Saturday we looked at our schedules and realized none of us had any commitments. We decided it'd be a great day to do a "Desert Castles tour." Lest you judge me, remember we're 9 hours ahead of UT time here so conference still hadn't happened yet. Otherwise I'm sure we would've been home dressed up in church clothes with our notebooks and pens on hand (and cinnamon rolls) ready to immerse ourselves in the words of our leaders :)

When we announced to the kids we would be doing something as a family that day, they were excited at the prospect but with some reservations. Basically, they begged us to "please don't make us see more ruins." Since most of what there is to do in Jordan is visit ruins, our list is significantly shortened. We haven't eliminated the list but decided on this day we would do something non-ruin related but also cheap. The kids' items on the list are of course the most expensive.

What we decided to do was go spend some time at King Hussein Park. It was a gorgeous day weather-wise. As it turned out we needed to get some paperwork signed and verified because this next weekend we will be taking our rental car to Jerusalem and you can't just do that because you want to. There's quite a process as we (Todd) found out.

We loaded up bikes into and on the car, took along some water, and off we went to the park. Todd dropped us off while he went to take care of the simple paperwork and was going to meet up with us a short time later.

I've taken the three littlest kids to this park before. It is a huge park. When I was there before it was the afternoon and it was empty. Jordanians are not known for early morning activities so the thought was we would go about 10 am and I could walk/jog around the park while the kids played and rode bikes and we would be done before the crowds arrived. We were mistaken.

It seemed every kid and school in Amman was taking advantage of the great weather and the free park. We drove up and saw several cars and school buses in the parking lot. (Some Christian-based schools have Friday and Sunday off instead of Friday and Saturday.) And it was crowded. I was wearing my exercise clothes and no make up. The sloppy American woman. I really didn't expect there to be that many people. I didn't go walking or jogging because there was so many people I was afraid T and possibly Nic would get lost in the huge park and crowds of people so I stayed close by.

This was the first time we've really had our bikes out for the season and we realized they need a little work. Tires were going flat, brakes were malfunctioning, etc. We brought a pump with us to the park but one of the tires on Batman's bike wouldn't stay inflated for more than a minute or two. The older kids rode bikes for a little while but then walked them back down to where I was sitting by the playgrounds.

From the time I sat down to watch the kids play it was like we were celebrities. We were swarmed by people. It was a constant stream of people welcoming us to Jordan, asking where we were from, wanting pictures of us, pics of the kids, pics of themselves with our kids . . . In one sense it was great because there was always a helping hand to help the little ones down the slides and on the swings. It was mostly the school kids swarming us but there were a handful of adults staring as well. I still don't really get it because there are a lot of "westerners" in Jordan. We're not THAT much of an oddity, or so I thought. I've determined it was because of the way I was dressed that truly set us apart :) I think I've mentioned how women here dress. It's always a fashion show. I'm not kidding. The adult women at the park had on heels trudging through the sand to help their kids down the slide.

After struggling to keep the bikes working long enough to enjoy them, the older kids made their way to the playgrounds where I was sitting. Then the adulation was kicked up a notch because all the Jordanian kids wanted to ride our bikes. Calvin's was the only big bike in complete working order so we let them take turns on that one. It was interesting to see that they were all so excited to ride the bike as though biking was an oddity but yet they all knew how to ride and they weren't struggling to stay up on it. So they've learned to ride a bike somewhere but I haven't really seen a lot of people riding bikes here in Jordan. Maybe I just haven't noticed.

Meanwhile I was getting texts from Todd that the simple process was not so simple. He was having to drive different people all over town to get the right papers signed so we can get into Jerusalem with the rental car. That's a different post for a different day.

Critter had made some plans to meet up with a friend and we were at the park longer than expected so his friend came to the park to meet us. Jared hadn't been to this park before. Did I mention it is huge? And next to the huge park is a huge sports-complex park with soccer fields and basketball courts and such. I walked down to the entrance to try to direct Jared and his mom to where we were located and they were lost and I wasn't sure where they were so it took several minutes to find them. I'd left Petey alone with the bikes while the rest of us went to find Jared. Apparently some boys really started harassing her wanting to ride the bikes and she couldn't explain in Arabic well enough that the brakes weren't working and they were giving her a hard time. She was practically in tears by the time I got back to her. I felt bad. Evidently there were some adults there that saw what was going on and shooed the boys away but by that time the damage to Petey's psyche was done. We were all tired by that point.

Four+ hours and 8 sunburned family members later, Todd arrived back at the park. We loaded back up and headed for home. We stopped and got hamburgers, fries, and McFlurries. We didn't want our McFlurries to melt and we were all so hungry so we ate the McFlurries as soon as we got them then ate the rest once we got home.

The video is of a group of kids that wanted to sing us a song. Would you ever get that in America? A group of kids asking to sing a song to total strangers? They also sang another song and two girls danced for us but the two girls didn't want us to video them dancing. So we didn't record that second song.



These are some pictures of the kids with their new best friends/admirers/fans.