August 15, 2004

Amman, Jordan.

I paid the nice taxi driver his exact set fare and thanked him.  He responded with “You are welcome, Amo.”  That is a term that is dear to my heart.  Older men here refer to themselves as Amo which is Arabic for uncle.  In Palestinian society, you don’t call older people as Mr. or Mrs., you call them Amo or Khalto, uncle or aunt, even if they are total strangers.

As I walked away, I said to my cousin “It is really nice to be able to speak Arabic with taxi drivers”. 

She laughed and mocked “And how is this different from being in Ottawa?”

“In Ottawa, they are mostly Lebanese, but here they all seem to be Palestinians.”

Amman is a progressive comfortable Arabic city with truly wonderful weather.  So far, we have spent the week lingering at cafes and balconies doing what people here do best – socializing.  Apart from the officials at the airport and at the Visa renewal station everyone else I’ve met and spoken to has been a Palestinian.

Upon arrival we were given a visa good for only two weeks, and were told to go to the nearest tourist visa station to get a three months visa.  At the police station, we sat in a room filled with almost 20 people who were all waiting to have their visas extended.  They ranged in skin color and features.  They also spoke to their kids in different languages, some in French, others in Italian and so on.

The way they were dressed also varied between ultra modern tank tops and jeans to Saudi style Abbaya and head cover.  I watched them one by one picking up their stamped passports from the officer as he called out “The Irish Passport is done…the Sri Lanken passport is ready…the family carrying the Indian passports…the British family…”  and finally us, “the Canadian family.” 

The one thing worthy of mentioning here is that all these families were in fact Palestinians.  I laughed when the Bolivian family was called up.  No offence to Bolivia but is there a nationality left that Palestinians have not acquired?

On the way home, our taxi driver who is a Palestinian from Acre had a note attached to his windscreen.  It read “All the people have a home they live within, but we (the Palestinians) have a home that lives within us.”

"Amo" : In Arabic you can call someone by the same title they would use to refer to you.  For example I say to my kids "Sure, Mamma, I will do that soon, Mamma".

Samah Sabawi, originally from Gaza and whose permanent residence is now Ottawa, is a writer, playwright and well-known activist. Her articles appear in several popular online journals.  Her Palestinian Diary is exclusive to YayaCanada.


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