After living in Amman, with a Jordanian family, attending a local university, and knowing the lay of the land pretty well, I can say that I am not really a foreigner in an unknown country. Rather, I think I can say that as time has progressed throughout this semester, I have engaged life in Amman – getting to know Jordanians and other nationalities living in Amman – and after nearly 4 months of living in Amman, I can say that I am a local, in the sense that I know the general rules, I can speak Arabic in the local dialect to the extent that it will get from point A to point B and I can hold an average conversation with a Taxi driver or my Arabic peer tutor (with adding some of the formal Arabic as well). So basically, any surprises should have happened months ago. I am used to the crazy driving (although I still clinch my feet, anticipating a major collision), the university professors are not the same as those in the U.S., good food does not cost much, having coffee and/or tea at someone’s house or at meetings with car dealers or friends is a constant in Middle Eastern society (something I will sadly miss), and taxis have a meter that they must use and the cost of using a taxi is unbelievable cheap.
Well, as I said I shouldn’t be surprised by hardly anything anymore. However, the other night a taxi driver threw me a curve ball.
I apologize ahead of time for my rambling about this event. Anytime I talk about it, I get riled up and start getting more and more angry.
After having dinner with a group of seven of us for our friend Caitlin's birthday on a Friday night at a relatively nice restaurant in Jabal Amman, we left the restaurant around 10:45 pm and I decided to return to my house. I walked down the stairs of the restaurant to the street and made a left to the main road, as the restaurant was on a side street. Just as I was walking to the main road, a taxi pulled over ON THE MAIN ROAD (this is important) and I proceeded to tell him where I was going. He said “ok” and I entered the taxi, relaxing myself for a nice 15 minute ride back to my home.
As we are driving around the second circle, in order to return to seventh circle (near my house), he told me that he had no meter and that it would be 5 JD. My first reaction to myself was how did I not look to see if there was a meter. I guess I have become accustomed to taxis with meters, and was becoming more and more tired that I was not paying attention. My second reaction to myself was “5 JD – I can’t remember a time that I paid $5 JD for a taxi in Amman.”
Side note. There are three types of taxis in Amman – yellow, white, and silver. Yellow is your basic meter taxi, starting at 0.25 JD for most of the day and at 0.30 JD from 10 pm to the early hours of the morning. White is a service taxi, which has a particularly route and will stop for more people on the way to the destination; thus you always pay under 1 JD. The final taxi is called Taxi Mumayez, and this is the more luxurious taxi and costs more – I’ve never ridden one, as it costs much more.
I flagged down a normal, yellow taxi and since it was 10:45 pm, I expected the meter to start at 0.30 JD and move at a faster pace than during the day. If I had to guess, on any normal evening after 10 pm, I would pay 2.50 JD at the MOST from Jabal Amman. So why was this man abusing his job and attempting to take advantage of me, a foreigner?
So back to that night. After hearing that he did not have a meter and that the trip would costs 5 JD, I began to become angry and I told him, “How do you not have a meter? All other taxis in this city and every city in Jordan have a meter, how do you not have one?” He shrugged his shoulder, mumbling some excuse. Then I told him, “I am not paying 5 JDs, you can drop me off right here and I’ll find someone who is not trying to rip me off.” He replied that it is past 10 pm, so the meter normally starts higher (not much though!) and goes at a faster pace (not enough to make the total cost 5 JD!). He also said that he picked me up at the restaurant and they charge more because they wait for the restaurant’s customers to ensure them a taxi as they leave.
Now I was beginning to become more angry. I agree with the whole 10 pm thing, fine, khallas, he is right (however, not to make the price 5 JD). However, saying that he picked me up at the restaurant – now that is ridiculous. I purposely walked to the main street, to avoid the taxis who wait at the restaurant, knowing that they do charge extra at most western establishments throughout the city. I told the driver, “You picked me up off the main street; you were not waiting for customers at the restaurant. I flagged you down and you stopped.” He said, “No. I picked you up at the restaurant.” I replied, “What restaurant do you claim to have picked me up at?” Quick response, “Romeros”. Funny thing bud, I was not at Romeros. I was next door. If you were waiting outside you would have noticed, but another funny thing you were not waiting for me.
I told him for a second time that I would not be paying the outrageous 5 JD price for this unmetered cab. He said fine…4 JD. Umm, I’m sorry sir but were you not paying attention to this whole ridiculous conversation we were having. At this point I was so angry and so flustered, that I told him to just take me to my house and that’s it. He tried talking to me during our ride, I would turn to him, give him a stare and look away. I was not in the mood for him to try to compensate me for the money he was stealing from me by talking to me.
But wait. It gets better. He then asked me if I would like to maybe have some girls tonight. Some Eastern European or Russian women. Now he was getting under my skin and I was infuriated. “How dare you. You, sir, should be ashamed of yourself. This is absolutely disgusting and I am appalled that you would even say such a thing.” My tone and words struck him and silenced him for the rest of our ride. He dropped me off at my house and I exited the taxi and took out my wallet to find 3 ones and .75 worth of coins and a 5 JD bill. I gave him the 5 asking for change. But no, he didn’t have change. “How do you not have change? You have been working all day and now its night. You have no change!?! What have you been doing all day?” I told him I would not be giving him my 5, so he accepted the 3 JDs and the change. I closed the door and walked to my house.
As I walked up to our flat, I had so much energy inside of me and I was so angry. If this was my first night in Jordan, I think I would have placed all Jordanians in the category of that taxi driver. It’s a real shame. What makes this man think he can take advantage of foreigners? They come to Jordan, hoping to see its beauty, its stability in a region full of conflicts, but they are left leaving with a terrible experience like this. At the end of the day, it is through the people one meets - whether on the street, on tours, at restaurants or tourist sites, and in taxis - where one will take the most back with them to their home country, saying Jordanians are wonderful people like my host family, my peer tutor, the Jordanian who knows me by name and we greet each other each time I walk through the tunnel at the university, the Jordanians I have met through my family, the taxi drivers who I have lengthy conversations with and the many more I have encountered. Or one could leave Jordan, saying that the taxi driver who ripped them off and offered them prostitutes is like all Jordanians and their desire to return to such a beautiful country is nonexistent.
As you can tell, I hope, from my blog posts, I have loved my time in Jordan. In all honesty, I do not feel like a foreigner any longer. I feel at home when I enter a taxi and drive to my home. I feel at home with my family and as an older brother to my two host siblings. This one unfortunate incident will not impact my view of Jordanians. This incident made me wonder about how we, as Americans, treat foreigners who come to the States for a visit. The whole ordeal reinforced in me the importance of welcoming those who are visiting, whether it is from a different state, different country, etc. If you can welcome the “other” – whether he/she be from a different background, ethnicity, religion, etc. – and you can welcome that individual with open arms and an open heart, I believe that the individual will leave with a smile on his/her face, remembering the specific instance when someone he/she had never met, who came from a completely different background, treated him/her in such a respectful and welcoming manner. When I see these types of instances in our world today – the mutual respect and understanding between Muslims and Christians, the love shown towards your neighbor and even your enemy, and in so many other ways – it makes it hard for me to imagine that there is hatred and violence experienced throughout our world and in the societies that we live in. I am given hope and encouragement for our society and our world through these spectacular and beautiful instances when the true nature and essence of mankind manifests itself in such a beautiful and, at times, unimaginable way.
