Hospitality Club hosts
Ahmad Najjar had earned many glowing reviews on the Hospitality Club website—all from women, which boosted my confidence about contacting him as my host for Amman. One of the best features of Hospitality Club is the ability to see how recently someone has logged on; I knew that I was likely to get a quick response from Ahmad. With typical Middle Eastern hospitality, Ahmad warmly told me that I was welcome to stay at his place anytime.
We were able chat over email and IM before I left home, which made me even more comfortable and ready to meet him. He is full of good advice, friendly, and eager to help others experience his beautiful country.
When I mentioned I would really like to camp out in Wadi Rum, Ahmad said that he would like to camp as well, and if I did it on a Thursday (weekend in the Muslim world), he could join me. This threw me a bit—I hadn't even met him yet and he wanted to spend the night with me in the desert?
Fortunately, I could contact all his former guests on Hospitality Club to gather some opinions. Most of the women told me that they would be happy to camp with him and that Ahmad was an absolute gentleman and nothing would happen. One woman's somewhat more cryptic response was, "He asked you to go camping in the desert. What do you think will happen?" I thought I knew what she meant, but the rest of her message suggested that Ahmad became a good friend after her stay, and he would never do anything untoward, so I thought that I misread the first part. I decided to trust the warnings all over the Hospitality Club website that "THIS IS NOT A DATING SITE" and hoped Ahmad took that as seriously as I did. I mentioned my boyfriend several times as a backup measure.
Meeting Ahmad meant leaving Egypt early and spending the night in Aqaba, as the buses to Wadi Rum leave well before my arrival in Jordan. But, when he finally arrived from Amman, I was so relieved to see a friendly face. Of course, I had been silly to hope Ahmad's intentions were totally pure, but he was nice, respectful, and backed off when I asked him to. His somewhat awkward advances didn't detract from the beauty of the desert and the wonderful experience at the Jebel Rum camp.
The following day we road-tripped. We stocked up on junk food, listened to bad tapes (yes! tapes!), and chatted for hours while driving to Dana Nature Reserve. I learned about his most-hated radio commercial, which involved a boy named Ahmad who died at 18—hearing it always gives him chills. He helped me practice my Arabic numbers. He also told me that he had seen Braveheart at least 30 times. Having seen it zero times, I could not discuss it with him. In Dana, we spent a pleasant afternoon hiking and napping in the shade, but when we decided we couldn't afford to camp there, we were on the road again.
Next, Ahmad drove me to Petra... he and his car really helped me speed through Jordan! He didn't have time to explore Petra with me because he had to get back to Amman the next day, so after dinner in town (where he stalked out of one restaurant for only offering a "tourist" menu) and watching Annie Hall on the English movie channel, we parted ways for a few days.
When I got to Amman a couple days later, Ahmad met me at the bus station. He informed me that his best friend Ala Shehada, another Hospitality Club member who was renting his apartment, would be taking care of me while I was in Amman.
After picking me up and taking me out for a drink, Ala brought me back to the apartment with a feast waiting. Ala loved to cook, and as an apparently rare 30-year-old bachelor who did NOT live with his mother, had become quite good at it. He lived with his brother, and Ahmad stayed over once a week as well. The first night we had a full house, which was fun...we ate and chatted and watched loads of TV. It was a very comfortable experience.
Ala actually cooked every night, and was excited to have someone who appreciated it, as his brother preferred to eat out and Ahmad preferred to criticize while eating. The apartment was quite large, with a huge entrance area/sitting room, a spacious living room and kitchen, one bedroom (where Ala and his brother slept), and a decent bathroom. I crashed on the couch.
I was given a key, but the apartment was a bit out of Amman, so it really wasn't that convenient. Here, unlike in Luxor, I was definitely saving money by staying with a local, but it wasn't easy to get around. In the morning, Ahmad or Ala would drive me to the bus station, so I never quite learned how to get there myself—it was a long way away. I also never quite figured out how to get home by myself, but they were very willing to help with directions or pick me up if necessary.
Both Ala and Ahmad were eager to point out good places to visit in the surrounding areas and helped me figure out how to get to Jerash, Mt. Nebo, and most importantly, the Turkish bath in Amman. Even though I was amazed how quickly I had been able to hit the major sites of Jordan and was excited to move on to Syria ahead of schedule, I was really tempted to stay in Amman another day. Amman is not a particularly interesting city, but I was having so much fun with the boys.