WHAT'S WRONG!!

When we arrived back in Jordan the driver picked us up at the airport and took us back to our apartment. We had no water and no internet service so I couldn't tell anyone I was back home. My plants were on the verge of death. I had asked Lucy, our housekeeper if she would water the plants for us. She left us a note saying there was no water and she was sorry. Well, after a 17 hour flight we both felt a little grungy. Mark sponge bathed with the water from our water cooler......doesn't that sound delightful!! I, however, decided I stay in my filth for one more night. Sounds even MORE delightful!!

The next day Mark went to work and I called Waseem, our landlord, and he sent over someone to fix the water. It seems as though Mark turned off the water pump with the switch on the wall thinking that was the right thing to do when you leave for a few weeks. BUT, it wasn't. Air got in the pump and wouldn't work. The "Mr. Fix-it" guy - Maqmood - got the water up and running pretty quickly.

As far as the internet goes, it seems as though the bill was never paid. Mark got that worked out and it took 2 days to get the internet going.

Waseem remembered that I asked him to put in air conditioners in the extra bedrooms for the girls. So I waited around for the air condtioner guys to come and do their work. They work on "arabic time". Meanwhile, our airconditioner in the main part of the house was not pumping out much cool air. (I don't like the heat) so they "fixed" it while they were here putting in the new air conditioners.

When we were trying to figure out why we didn't have water when we first came home, Mark noticed that our desiel level was only about 1/3 full, so we had to call to get that filled. I waited for Aymen to get the desiel truck here only to find out we had more than half a tank!! Oh, well, we filled it anyway. Don't want that getting empty. We had that happen in the winter and we had no heat or hot water!! We like to learn things the hard way.

Mark reminded me that he had used one of the propane tanks for our stove/oven while I was gone and we needed it replaced. Now, getting propane is a unique experience here in Jordan. Getting propane is like getting ice cream from the ice cream man in the States. Propane tanks are in the back of a truck and the driver of the truck plays music - like "Happy Birthday" to let you know he's on your street. Normally, each apartment house has a "Boab" - a man that lives in the building a cleans the steps, makes sure lights work in the halls and gets the propane guy when you need propane. OUR apartment does NOT have a Boab. We live on the top floor of the apartment building and the propane guy usually comes in the morning....when you are still having your coffee and in your pajamas. The first time I had to run and get the guys I was in pink capris, brown sweat shirt, blue crocks and I just got out of the shower.....you get the picture. I went running down the road and asked him to bring the propane, which he did. THIS time, it happened that I was just getting back from bringing Mark to work and he went by. I turned the car around and chased him down to come to our building, which he did. He noticed BOTH tanks were empty and they were both leaking propane, so we not only needed 2 tanks, we needed 2 valves. He was able to replace them right then and there. I was very grateful I had seen him when I did.

This was my first week home.

The water pressure started to diminish again and the air conditioner in the main part of the apartment started not working again........Now I'm wishing I were back in the states.

It seems as though there is another water pump button upstairs that must have been turned off when the air conditioner people were putting in the air conditioner in the bedroom upstairs. That now has a piece of tape over it and a post it note on it so it will never be turned off again!!
The air conditioner guys said they'd come one day, then the next day they finally arrived. They did a lot of banging around and put freon in and so far so good.....I can only hope it stays working well.

I did get to go to coffee one day with the ladies then lunch with Judy. I enjoyed that.

Had a photo lesson with Simon who really taught me about the new light source I just bought. We are going out on Sunday afternoon to take photos. I'm really looking forward to that.