We've
been living in Arabic countries now for nearly a year and one thing
keeps happening, almost every day. It happened again today, this
morning, as we were walking up a hill in Amman, past a barber's shop
where men were being shaved and others were waiting to be shaved. One
man, sat outside, was chatting to a friend and looked at us as we
passed, he caught me eye, smiled and said, "Welcome to Jordan".
The country name has
changed over the past months but the sentiment hasn't. We are constantly
being greeted and welcomed as guests by people in the street even
though we are just tourists. Does this happen in Britain? Does this
happen anywhere in the West? When have you ever extended spontaneous
greetings to a tourist. I never have.
I love being in the Arab
world because of moments like this: being made to feel welcome. It may
be a cultural conditioning that prompts people to do it, a morphed
manifestation of the age old Bedouin tradition of extending hospitality
to travellers, but the effect is explosively positive. This morning,
preoccupied with thoughts about a business meeting, struggling up a
steep hill, I was suddenly exchanging warm spontaneous smiles with
someone I would meet for only a few seconds. It changed my day.
