Adventurous day

What an adventurous day! Truly, I felt a bit like a knight of old, not knowing what God may set before me today.

It began with uncertainty about the weather. Yesterday, there was talk all over campus, the weather stations, Amman, and Jordan in general that there would be snow the following day. We students received an email from our program stating that if there was snow, we would get an email at 7:30 in the morning informing us that we had a snow day, something we never thought would happen in Jordan.

Well, it didn’t. 7:30 came – bitter cold and grey, but no snow, no email, and no three day weekend. Tightly I wrapped my scarf about my head, donned my gloves and coat and braved the cold. This was not what I bargained for in leaving the Midwest for the Mideast.

Our teacher had no more blown into the room than we looked outside – only to see a blizzard. That’s right, folks. It was snowing heavily today in Amman, Jordan; apparently, the second snow of the year. Did we get a snow day? No. Did we get to go outside and marvel at this wonderous thing? No. Did we have class with the curtains pulled shut so we students would not be distracted? You betcha. It snowed for three hours and finally turned into a nasty cold rain after class.

Following class, I ducked into the University’s cafeteria to wait for lunch – mansaf! Our program’s Culture Club had put together a day where the students could “help” make Jordan’s national dish.

We were ushered into the cafeteria’s kitchen, where the biggest cauldron of rice I’ve ever seen was bubbling merrily away. (Seriously, the diameter must have been around 3 feet). We got to help stir the yoghurt, and then watched as the workers added the rice, meat, and seasonings. Mansaf consists of a bed of thin bread over which yoghurt (a water mix of two types of yoghurt) is poured to make it easier to tear. Then, seasoned rice is spread over that. The meat – lamb in this case – has been cooked and then its broth added to the big vat of yoghurt that is used to soften the bread and make the rice sticky; then the meat is added to the yoghurt and cooked for awhile. Finally, the meat is put on top of the rice with slivered and toasted almonds. While all this was being done, we also got taken back to another room in the huge kitchen to sample some dessert that I don’t know what it was actually called, but it had pistachios sprinkled on top. It was good.

We ate the mansaf with our hands, of course. And, of course, this was taking place in the cafeteria, so the two large tables of American students eating mansaf acted as the day’s entertainment to the rest of Jordanian students. A random student even came over and took a picture of us while eating. I love blending in.