27June (late-no Internet access!): The bidet soaks the duvet

27 June I may have pushed the girls too hard this morning but thankfully everyone held it together.   My original plan this morning was to take the girls to a humane society (center for abandoned animals) located just outside of Amman.  I have heard about this place from several sources and it sounds enjoyable. I called this morning in advance of our visit just to confirm that it truly exists and found out that appointments are necessary.  The woman who answered the phone kindly told me that she would be back in touch in a few days to set my appointment.  Oh.  I suppose it is just as well, because the woman also informed me that if I wanted to come by taxi I would have to have it wait for us to provide transport back, as there are not taxis simply waiting around on the road outside of town.  I am SURE there are busses and the old me would have been happy to fly by the seat of my pants and just figure out the return as I go...but that sounds less and less appealing now the I have three small kids in tow.  We shall see; I apparently have a few days to figure it out while I wait for them to call me back. Plan B!  What is Plan B?  There were a lot of things we could have done but of course I chose the most challenging.  Why do I do this? As I know Io have mentioned, I had an idea in my head prior to coming here of the kind of activities we would be doing each day.  Most of them involved going to souqs and eating street food.  I bought an extra ergo so I could carry both Aya and Emi on me, leaving me one hand for Yumi and one hand for the bags of fruit and veggies and trinkets we would buy.   Today marks the three week anniversary of our arrival and I still have not figured out that me + three girls + downtown Amman + the heat do NOT = fun.  Let me remind you that it all worked out okay--no casualties--but we all returned back to the hotel pretty worn out.  Picture this: On our way out of the hotel I let the girls go down to the hotel restaurant to say hello to Koko the parrot.  While coming upstairs Yumi tripped and, as I discovered later, skinned up her leg.  She immediately began a fit, shouting "no!" repeatedly and "I want to be by myself!"  She vehemently rejected all attempts at sympathy and offers of bandaids.  While the hotel staff looked on, I decided to just give her space and allowed her to walk a bit away up the street from me.  I told her that if she was not ready by the time I found a taxi than we would not be going anywhere.  She acted as she always does these days during a fit--so angry at me--but this time I knew it had nothing to do with me.  I was pretty certain she was mad because she fell.  Fortunately she pulled herself together and got in a taxi.  Only than could I see that she had indeed scraped up her leg and it assuredly did hurt.  Only then did she allow me to give other sympathy (and some chapstick to smear on her leg).  Whew!  I got off easy on that one.  Sigh of relief. I determined that the best course of action was to go for freshly squeezed juice--cocktail is what they call it here--a downtown Amman hallmark.  Three cups of half carrot and half orange later and everyone seemed be okay.  We stood in the umbrella shade of the cocktail shop and I watched how every passerby stooped to caress Emi's head or face.  She was protruding a bit from our spot under the umbrella and it is just second nature for Jordanians to cuddle children when they see them.  Not inappropriately, mind you, but definitely counter to western cultural norms.  Emi does not mind, thankfully.   I brought the second ergo along today.  Prior to our departure I stewed and stewed over whether I should buy and bring a second ergo.  I rightly imagined that it would be hard to negotiate Yumi, Emi, and bags of purchases in the souq and figured a second ergo was the answer.  I have not used the second ergo much, however, because 1) it HURTS to carry both of them and 2) Emi usually resists.  Knowing both of these things I still brought it and planned to use it.  Emi DID allow me to put her up on my back but it STILL hurt.  And yet the alternative--walk through the souq and make purchases while trying to hold onto both Yumi and Emi was not appealing as well.   So I walked through the fruit market with Aya on my front and Emi on my back.  We bought raisins and plums.  We bought large bath towels to use at the pool.  We walked what seemed a hundred blocks to get to my favorite restaurant downtown.  Yumi complained but hung in there.  I felt like a beast of burden as I collapsed at Hashem's and unloaded Emi, Aya, bags of fruit and towels into a heap.  The place was packed and we were lucky to get a table in the shade.  I immediately began using the water from my water bottle to wash off some fruit to appease my children who were clearly bordering on mutiny.  All of this was watched very carefully and with amusement by everyone in the restaurant.  I kept the girls busy with fruit and falafel while I ate hummus and fuul.  I found myself relaxing.  Maybe we were going to get through this without any meltdowns after all!  But as the fruit and falafel dwindled the anxiety returned.  I had to get everyone's faces cleaned off, convince Yumi that no, we really DON'T want hot water with which to make mint tea (a Hashem tradition but I was not about to attempt it without another pair of adult hands), gather all our bags and bottles up, pay, and get through the maze up tables to the street--ALL without anyone throwing a fit.  I felt daunted.  Why did I decide to do this again? We made it out of the restaurant and to a point down the road where the girls could rest in the shade.  I put Aya's hat back on and stood out in the street trying to hail a taxi.  Fifteen minutes passed!  No joke.  Thank heaven Aya is an angel baby.  Not a peep from her.  Yumi and Emi looked like that had only just survived a forced march double time and were being allowed a reprieve.  They sat on these chairs, wilting.  Imagine my relief when FINALLY a free taxi passed.  No matter that it was a special hire taxi taxi and, therefore, more expensive.  I hustled Yumi and Emi across three lanes of traffic and into the backseat.  Whew!   We returned to a flooded bathroom and no towels.  Emi, who had been needing a toilet for at least an hour, ran in there and promptly fell flat on her back.  I finally got super huffy with the staff;  they have ignored my nearly daily requests for towels but not this time, not after using some strong words.  We had TWO deliveries of towels after I delivered my strong words and I got the bathroom cleaned up.  Good thing, since we were all in need of a quiet time and the bathroom is Yumi's quiet time domain. The leak persisted, however, and it was a wet Yumi that emerged from quiet time 1.5 hour later!  No joke.  The duvet and pillow I lay down for her on the bathroom floor was soaked!  Argh.  But we got it all sorted out. We had plans to meet Nate on the main road on his way back from school.  We had 1.5 hours to burn before meeting him.  Sadly, I felt just like it was burning time.  I did not want to take them out on some sort of outing since we had plans for an outing later with Nate and I did not want to overload them.  So what to do for 1.5 hrs?  We have little to do in our hotel room but even more troublesome than our lack of activities is the persistent nagging knowledge that I came here to interact with Jordanians...something I cannot do from our hotel room.  I had an idea to the girls downstairs to the hotel restaurant in hopes to hang out with cook for a little while.  He is Syrian and very difficult for me to understand but SUPER nice.  This was not a bad idea but the timing was poor;  Mohaned the cook had just made a meal for the hotel employees and they were setting down to eat and watch some violent Hindi movie on television.  We hung out for about ten minutes but eventually moved on, walking slowly down to the main road.  We meet up by a fruit seller so it was there they we spent the rest of our time waiting for Nate.  It is good to eat some fresh fruit and try to chat in arabic  (key word here is "try" since the guys who run the operation are also super hard to understand and with cars whizzing by it does not make for an optimal conversation spot).  If only there was more shade...I also need to bring along a whole bottle of water dedicated to the washing off of the fruit anytime I go there: else, as today, I use up the small amount our portable bottle holds and it only is enough to wash about three pieces of fruit anyway. There we were when Nate finally arrived with a picnic dinner in hand.  We went on over to Sports City and walked on their running trails.  These trials are in a lightly wooded forrest coved ankle deep in trash.  Honestly-till the day I day, I will wonder what makes some people (regardless of nationality!) positively unable to litter (me, for example) and others do it without a second thought.  Bizarre.  We had fun, though, and the girls got to just run.  They were pretty cranky on the return walk (a sliver-Yumi, dropped stick AND no animals sighted-Emi, complete blowout by unnoticed by her parents-Aya).  Nate veered off with Yumi when we reached the hotel to take her for an ice cream because she did reach her goal today of no MAJOR tantrums.  I dragged the stroller and it's flat tire upstairs with Yumi and Aya and out both girls into the shower.  The day ended well enough with showers for all but me and only a little crying by Emi when put to bed.  Time to relax.....