I Saw a Camel

Check it out. This guy greeted the guests (the press corps. and board members) at the Iftar following the King's Academy press conference and tour. He bent forward, pouring tamarind juice from the spout and into the glass. Then he stood up, emptying the liquid back into his cumbersome contraption.

About 30 or 40 reporters (myself included) met yesterday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman to catch a bus to Madaba for the press conference about King Abdullah's new boarding school. The hotel was one of the three damaged last year by suicide bomb attacks. Yesterday was the grand opening of the renovated bar and deck of the Grand Hyatt. It's beautiful. The back wall of the lobby is now one huge glass window that looks out on the deck and the whitewashed buildings that rise up beyond. Outside there are couches arranged under wooden shade rooms and lots of comfy chairs. I remember the sound of water so I want to say there is a fountain too, but don't quote me on this.

We were almost an hour late by the time we left the Hyatt, but I wasn't really surprised. On the way to Madaba (a 30 or 40 minute drive) I watched the country fly by outside my window. On the side of the road, I saw a donkey lumbering along with his wares and goats grazing just off the highway. I saw trash, trash and more trash. It is carelessly thrown out of car windows and litters the roadside and blows into fields. I saw a luxury resort and patched-together tents, I took them to be bedouin, but I might be wrong. I didn't know what to make of a dusty man in a gray suit and blue tie, who sat on the shoulder of the road. He either had his legs tucked under him or had no legs at all. As odd as it seems, I think it was no legs at all. Finally, once we turned onto the gravelly road that led to the school, I saw a camel!