The Iraqi Family

One of my favorite places in Amman is this Iraqi family's house. They're refugees from Basra and are being moved by the UN to San Antonio in a couple months. Before the war, Abu Nur had a successful construction business. They're so loving and so happy. The mom and dad, Majd and Abu Nur, call us their kids. One of our TAs, Randell, met them because they're on his way to the bus stop every day and Arabs are open and friendly enough to ask strangers to come visit. After his first visit, Randell asked if some girls from the program would come too because there are three daughters in their teens and the only son is eight.

Abu Nur, probably just after confusing my name for Randell's and then calling me Habibti or my sweetheart (Habib or Habiba is thrown around a lot here)

They never fail to feed us, but tonight was another exceptional night. I have a food baby named Fatima and she's growing a lot thanks to this family :) We ate rice and vermicelli, hamburger patties, eggplant, tomatoes, and other vegetables and fried chicken.

The boys, Randell, Nishwan, and Abu Nur. Randell taught Nishwan, 8, 4 phrases in English, but his answers to How are you? is usually Iraq and Where are you from? is usually Good ;) This was the first night where he got them all right!

The girls minus Nouris, Me, Jordan, Nur, Nadia, and Jadyn. Randell asked if any girls wanted to come because it's a family of mostly girls. We're so happy we got introduced to them.

 If the video works, it's of one of the card games we played after dinner, after tea, and before hot chocolate. It got real intense, as you may be able to see. We also played Arab Spin the Bottle. I laughed when Majd, the mom, first spun the bottle, not knowing what to expect but excited to find out. It's like Truth or Dare without the Dare part with the person across the table from you.