Desert Crib

This is my blue living room. Our foyer with a beautiful golden chandler and stylish mirrors is barely visible on the right. The door on the left leads to our balcony with a gorgeous view of the new bridge. A complimentary hookah was resting on the table for us when we arrived. We've spent many nights outside sipping wine, smoking sheesha and enjoying the desert breeze. The dinning room recedes in the middle of the photo. We don't spend much time in either of these rooms. They're reserved for company;)

This is our green living room. It comes complete with satellite t.v., DVD player and DVD's. Although, because copy right laws aren't enforced here, you can purchase any movie, even the newest releases, for around a dollar. We loaded up this weekend. So far we've spent the majority of our time in this room, chatting with guests and unwinding with a flick

This is our kitchen, with the dinning room peaking out the left. The picture is distorted because of my inability to work the panoramic function. The only amenity missing from this spacious cookery is a dish washer. There was even charcoal and flavored tobacco in the cupboard so that we could smoke hubbly bubbly on our first night in our new place.

This is my roommate's master bedroom.

This is my master bedroom. What would have tipped you off had I not labeled them? Surely not the mess;)

*Not pictured are the guest bedroom, two more bathrooms, the balcony, the laundry room with washing machine and the marble floors. As well, the pictures simply do not do the place justice, mainly because of poor lighting but also because the rooms are too enormous to fit into my view finder, even with the panoramic.

Why am I posting these pictures?To show-off my new panoramic picture taking skills? Obviously not. To brag that I am living in luxury in a developing country? I try to think I'm better than that. So that friends and family can better understand my life here and provide incentive for them to visit? Definitely a little.

But my main purpose is to demonstrate a phenomenon of the developing world and the benefits to those who work in it. One of many complaints about international development at SIT was that people with good intentions would travel to developing countries to help the poor and make life a little better for everyone. Sometimes though, their life would be the most improved. An American dollar stretches a lot further in places other than Europe. And due to these lucky circumstances, the good intentioned would end up far removed from the actual problems of the country and easily forget why they moved there in the first place. Or sometimes people's intentions are not to help, but simply to take advantage of this happy situation.

So yes, I'm experiencing a little bit of guilt. Especially since a full brighter or two have disdainfully snubbed their noses at our humble abode. Here's my justification. We chose this place because we wanted to get out of our expensive hotel as quickly as possible. EMDAPer's were only allowed a limited settling in allowance and our time at Al Qasar was quickly burning through this. Plus we just wanted to unpack. Abdoun, where we are located, is close to both my roommate and my jobs. The apartment has been used for years by full bright students and in fact, the landlord will only house them. We are a two minute walk from a trendy circle with an all night grocery store and lots of amenities, such as nice restaurants and gyms. Abdoun is one of the safest areas of Amman, and perhaps the only place I feel comfortable walking alone without cover. My independence and freedom to dress as I choose, regardless of my gender, means a lot to me.

There are other areas of Amman that had we known about when shown our housing options, we definitely would have pushed for. I was more than prepared to live in a hole. And to be honest, we are removed for a certain Amman experience and this is a down side. We see as many tourists as Jordanians in the area and the shops are expensive.

But I guess in the end, I'm just going to have to live with it and in it and continue to justify my guilt away. Sadly, it's not hard to do when I come home after a long day at the office.