Relationships
I got to Amman yesterday, relieved to find the weather absolutely tolerable, even chilly in the evenings. I came to stay with Tamara, my dear friend of nearly 20 years (oh my god, I’m old). We rarely see each other these days because we always seem to be living on different continents. Aside from the fact that I’m staying with her for the next couple of weeks, yesterday there was an extra treat. For YEARS I’ve been hearing about Trish, a woman she befriended when living and working in Ramallah 8 years ago. While I was hearing about Trish, and Trish was hearing about me. We became famous to each other. Yesterday, Tamara, Trish and Kathy sat together on the patio, drinking coffee (like good Arabs), finding the fact that we were all together absolutely unbelievable. It was great, and though I’ve never met Trish, the energy among the three of us was quite natural, which is pretty damn special.
My first day in Amman was wild. I came to Tamara’s house and sat with Trish for a little. Mariam, a free-lance journalist, came over and picked us up. We maneuvered through the crazy driving that is Amman and went to a hotel. I didn’t realize why or what we were doing there, but it turned out that she had a media friend there, who was set up in an office. I mean, literally, one of the rooms was turned into permanent office space for a major media outlet. The conversation that ensued was the theme of the day, a theme that started with Trish.
What inevitably comes up in conversation with Palestinians or people who’ve lived in Palestine is the occupation. This time, we talked about the psychology of being under the constant threat of getting killed or shot, of death always looming ahead. It brings with it fear, of course, but also becomes strangely addictive. The high of making it one more day and accumulating close-calls must be exhilarating. Life is as exciting as it can get when something as simple as going outside is an unpredictable and frightful occasion, so much so that “normal” life becomes the most boring thing in the world. And actually, that’s what happens. Once out of the war zone, boredom sets in, life becomes mundane.
The man we met has spent some time in Iraq and upon our settling in, the stories began. The crazy thing about it was how excited he got when talking about near death experiences – leading a convoy of journalists and media people into Iraq at the beginning of the war because they thought he had an armed guard (turns out he didn’t); cars breaking down in Fallujah, the site of intense fighting, where they had to sit and wait for two hours to get them repaired and get on the way; how relaxing (I swear to God he said that) it was to stay in the compound in Baghdad, because there was nothing to do but sit around, read or socialize. How interesting we humans are, adapting cleverly to situations in which we find ourselves.
Mohsen, Tamara's husband, came back to Amman last night. He is a fantastic musician and was in Beirut recording. Again, fighting....it took him days to get to the studio to fetch the tape that held all his work. After all this....my stay here begins.
My first day in Amman was wild. I came to Tamara’s house and sat with Trish for a little. Mariam, a free-lance journalist, came over and picked us up. We maneuvered through the crazy driving that is Amman and went to a hotel. I didn’t realize why or what we were doing there, but it turned out that she had a media friend there, who was set up in an office. I mean, literally, one of the rooms was turned into permanent office space for a major media outlet. The conversation that ensued was the theme of the day, a theme that started with Trish.
What inevitably comes up in conversation with Palestinians or people who’ve lived in Palestine is the occupation. This time, we talked about the psychology of being under the constant threat of getting killed or shot, of death always looming ahead. It brings with it fear, of course, but also becomes strangely addictive. The high of making it one more day and accumulating close-calls must be exhilarating. Life is as exciting as it can get when something as simple as going outside is an unpredictable and frightful occasion, so much so that “normal” life becomes the most boring thing in the world. And actually, that’s what happens. Once out of the war zone, boredom sets in, life becomes mundane.
The man we met has spent some time in Iraq and upon our settling in, the stories began. The crazy thing about it was how excited he got when talking about near death experiences – leading a convoy of journalists and media people into Iraq at the beginning of the war because they thought he had an armed guard (turns out he didn’t); cars breaking down in Fallujah, the site of intense fighting, where they had to sit and wait for two hours to get them repaired and get on the way; how relaxing (I swear to God he said that) it was to stay in the compound in Baghdad, because there was nothing to do but sit around, read or socialize. How interesting we humans are, adapting cleverly to situations in which we find ourselves.
Mohsen, Tamara's husband, came back to Amman last night. He is a fantastic musician and was in Beirut recording. Again, fighting....it took him days to get to the studio to fetch the tape that held all his work. After all this....my stay here begins.
posted by kathy at
3:52 AM
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