Amman has been in the local, regional, and international news quite a bit this past week. Our quiet little town has been rocked by terrible acts from nature and man.
We had another big dust storm which blanketed the city in a yellow cloud of grit that made you chew air and lasted for 2 days.
Followed by a 45-minute deluge of rain that turned streets into rushing rivers that killed four people and devastated businesses, homes, and property.
Followed by questionable deaths of 2 dual-citizen American-Jordanian sisters, friends of the queen, one who was a parent at ACS.
Followed by a shooting at a police training facility just on the edge of Amman which killed 2 Americans, a South African, a Jordanian, and wounded several others including 2 more Americans.
A week ago the Embassy was wrapping up a month's worth of planning for the First Lady to have a successful visit for her #LetGirlsLearn initiative. People were exhausted and worn from the daily ups and downs of plans that never seemed to get set in stone. Our Embassy is amazing in their ability to hop from one "must have" and "must do" to the next, pulling long hours and making things work even when they sometimes seem like impossible hurdles. Need to switch a program from day X to day Z even if day Z means bringing in hundreds of people on their day off from all over the city? Sure. Want to switch arrival airports in an hour and ensure that everyone already at airport A is cleared and set at airport B? Fine. She might fly to point D, or drive to point D, but we don't know if she'll leave from point G or H yet? No problem. I'm in awe when these things go off right.
As it happened, it didn't go off at all. However much of your and my tax dollars were spent to prep for this event... however many man hours put into it... however many gray hairs sprouted and wrinkles gained, it doesn't matter anymore that the First Lady canceled her trip here. That feels like a year ago.
Instead we mourn our losses. Ian calls families 7 time zones away to tell them of theirs. And we try once again to make sense of the nonsensical, the frightening, and the heartbreak.
We had another big dust storm which blanketed the city in a yellow cloud of grit that made you chew air and lasted for 2 days.
Followed by a 45-minute deluge of rain that turned streets into rushing rivers that killed four people and devastated businesses, homes, and property.
Followed by questionable deaths of 2 dual-citizen American-Jordanian sisters, friends of the queen, one who was a parent at ACS.
Followed by a shooting at a police training facility just on the edge of Amman which killed 2 Americans, a South African, a Jordanian, and wounded several others including 2 more Americans.
A week ago the Embassy was wrapping up a month's worth of planning for the First Lady to have a successful visit for her #LetGirlsLearn initiative. People were exhausted and worn from the daily ups and downs of plans that never seemed to get set in stone. Our Embassy is amazing in their ability to hop from one "must have" and "must do" to the next, pulling long hours and making things work even when they sometimes seem like impossible hurdles. Need to switch a program from day X to day Z even if day Z means bringing in hundreds of people on their day off from all over the city? Sure. Want to switch arrival airports in an hour and ensure that everyone already at airport A is cleared and set at airport B? Fine. She might fly to point D, or drive to point D, but we don't know if she'll leave from point G or H yet? No problem. I'm in awe when these things go off right.
As it happened, it didn't go off at all. However much of your and my tax dollars were spent to prep for this event... however many man hours put into it... however many gray hairs sprouted and wrinkles gained, it doesn't matter anymore that the First Lady canceled her trip here. That feels like a year ago.
Instead we mourn our losses. Ian calls families 7 time zones away to tell them of theirs. And we try once again to make sense of the nonsensical, the frightening, and the heartbreak.
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