Lisa vs The Old Jordanian Taxi Driver!

One of the most knowledgeable and least trusted people in any country are the taxi drivers!! They might not know every address you give them and cheat you ones in a while, but they can give you a pretty good read on the mood of their city and their country. They can be the best newscasters, telling you all the news and rumors on the streets, the perfect cultural advisor and political pundit. During the petrol shortage in Accra, it was a taxi driver who told me about the oncoming petrol-shortage and after not believing him, it was he who found petrol to put in my car!!

In 2005, I had the opportunity to go to Jordan and participate in a training for the Iraqi government officials. The reason the training was taking place in Jordan was because it was too dangerous to conduct any training in Iraq.

As it is typical, we were told about some of the cultural do’s and the don’ts while in Jordan, a predominately Arab and Muslim country. My favorite is don’t shake hands with your left hand! OK, I won’t shake hands with anyone with my left hand….cultural crisis averted!! There were also other things told to us, as if Jordan operates on the cultural manual printed in the US for an American Foreign Service Officer!! Another advice I was given was Jordan is an Arab, Muslim country therefore listen to Lisa from Chicago who was in Amman for one year and is now an expert on Jordanian culture! OK, I will!!

We finally made it to Amman safe and sound!

Jordan was a wonderful country, some of us saw Petra and some saw the Dead Sea, but in that short, few days, for me it was the soul of the Jordanian people that stood out. In a region where intolerance rules, I had one of the most enlighten conversations and discussions with some wonderful individuals. I think I even shook someone’s hand with my left hand and they did not stop the conversation to tell me how much I insulted their religion and culture!

Here is the Taxi part...

Couple of days into our trip, we were walking in downtown Amman, there were four of us, including Lisa "the Jordanian cultural expert from Chicago", two men and two women. We flanked down a taxi, and the taxi stopped. We all jumped in, and as it happened, one of our female companion sat in the front and three of us sat in the back. As the taxi was about to take off, Lisa asked the woman in front to come and sit in the back! And asked one of the men to sit in front saying, “In Jordan women are not supposed to sit in the front seat!” So the woman came and sat in the back and I got up and sat in the front! Suddenly the taxi-driver, who was an old man, turned around and told Lisa in English…"who told you women in Jordan can’t sit in the front seat?”…"you go and tell lie to the world about woman in Jordan!”…"Jordanian woman can sit anywhere she wants!! In the front, in the back…why you lie?” Lets just say that was a very uncomfortable taxi ride back to the hotel!

Could it be that Lisa having spent one year in Amman was not an expert on Jordanian culture? Is it possible?...And what does an old Jordanian man who has spent all his life in Amman driving a taxi and whose great-great-great-great… grand parents have lived in that part of the world, really know about his own culture and civilization?

I plan to send the Jordanian taxi driver, the American Foreign Service Manual for living in Jordan, autographed by Lisa…he could definitely use one!!