Day 8. 27 March. 

THIS HOTEL HAS PANCAKES!!! Hello breakfast! No one else seemed to share my excitement, until Peter walked into breakfast. However, he then made a funny face with his egg, bean and falafel second helpings and I felt my excitement was childish. Hazel just shook her head at us and I think Ahmed genuinely had no idea what was going on. (Anthea and John had been and gone already). 8.30am we get picked up by Khalid and head off to the Ancient Roman city of Jerash. This is Ahmed’s hometown. He's been harping on all week about how great Jerash is and as we arrive I can see why. The first part of the ruins that we see is the Arch of Hadrian- yep, same bloke off of Hadrian’s Wall. As you walk through the arch you can see stretching out in front of you and to the left pillars and enormous rocks which once were part of enormous structures, to the right a modern city. Ahmed grew up in the ruins. He said, when he was little and his mother would make him take a shower, before going to the mosque, he would flee to the ruins and hide, so his brothers would come find him and take him back. When he was older and needed peace and quiet to study (but also a place to smoke without his mother seeing), he would come to the ruins. He knows this place like the back of his hand and he is so proud of it. I genuinely feel so lucky to have had him as my tour guide in the ruins. The columns, pillars and structures are so intricate and detailed. It's the first time I've stood in ruins and really been able to imagine a town around me. There was a stadium for chariot racing with seating, town hall with reserved seats held by names carved into the stone, theatre, temples, churches, a mosque, public baths, crossroad buildings, an oval town square surrounded by pillars, tall archways, shopping centre with a butchers block still intact and water fountains. Lining the road toward to town square were pillars each engraved at the bottom, this symbolised that they had paid their taxes and that shop was theirs- possibly where the phrase ‘set in stone’ comes from? Ahmed also showed us the difference between Greek and Roman columns, and we stuck our hands under 35 ton pillars surround Aphrodite’s temple to see that the pillars actually swayed and you could feel the pressure tighten and release. There were pillars which curved close up, but appeared straight from a distance, water fountains with concave and convex fish to create the illusion of the fish moving as the water fell. It was all so detailed. The mosaics, marble and painted stones were so beautiful and elaborate that I can only imagine living in that town could only have been so vibrant and colourful. We spent the morning touring the ruins and head back to the car. 

Ahmed had arranged for us to have lunch in his brothers house, the house he grew up in. It really is so close to the ruins. We are greeted by Ahmed's sister it law Imam (I'm not 100% sure if that was her name. But she introduced herself as Imam, mother of Ali- her eldest son), Moses- Ahmed's brother, Ahmed’s wife- I can't remember her name, she greet us and then spent all her time in the kitchen. Ahmed's wife is heavily pregnant and he has a 2 ½ year old called Salam. Moses and Imam have three children, Ali, Ibrahim and Aruba. Ibrahim is so naughty. He gets told off numerous times throughout lunch and Imam is up and down like a yo yo. About ten minutes after arriving Salam points to the window behind the chair I'm sat on and tells Ahmed that the window is unsafe, a few minutes later Ibrahim slingshots stones to the window and scares the life out of me. He claims he was hunting birds. Moses tells him what for and my heart rate settles down. Moses serves us Turkish coffee when we arrive. A little later, Imam comes out of the kitchen with sweet tea and ten minutes after that Imam serves the food. We have two plates each of colourful starters; peppers, chilli, pickled cucumber, relish, aubergine, green olives and black olives, with a small pot of yoghurt and flat breads. As we start Ahmed’s mother arrives. She is a short, round lady, with dark skin and bright eyes, who relies on a walking stick. I didn't learn her name. Shortly after, Imam presents Magluba and brings it out in the pan, she flips it over and removes the saucepan. It's so tasty again, I see why it's a favourite dish! We serve ourselves and the conversation flows. Ahmed’s mother has loads of questions so we all chat whilst Ahmed and Khalid translate. She is really inquisitive and eager to learn about all of us and our ways of living; she asks Anthea and John if their daughter is married, she asks Peter if he’s married, Hazel doesn't get interrogated and I'm asked if I'm married and then do I still live with my mother? Did I visit her on Mother's Day? Ahmed tells us that his mother has recently gone back to school to learn how to read and write in Arabic and she is learning some English phrases. After eating, she takes us upstairs to show us her home. Moses and Imam live in the ground floor of the building, Mahmoud (Ahmed’s other brother, a French speaking tour guide) lives above, and their mother lives in the top floor. We follow her up two flights of stairs (with her walking stick) and she proudly shows off her home. There's a living room, bedroom, kitchen, makeshift bathroom area cordoned off by a shower curtain, and a balcony lined with plastic chairs for entertaining. As you look over the balcony there is a basket hanging on a basic pulley system, turns out this is to pass food up and down to her from the brothers floors. There's a lot of love in this family. But the love, to me, seems to be shown through respectful actions, not an outpouring of affection. I understand it is a cultural thing, but Peter and John weren't to shake hands with Imam when she welcomed us, just as I didn't shake Moses’ hand. And Ahmed and his wife only shook hands to say hello, even though they hadn't seen each other in a week. When we left Ahmed didn't even really say goodbye to her. I can't quite explain it without sounding like I'm being negative and I don't think negatively of it, it's just an entirely different way of living, but Ahmed has a really lovely family and home.

We leave the house and head back to Madaba, en route Ahmed tells Khalid to head to a 2000 year old swimming pool which is still in use- mostly by Palestinian refugees. The pool was built by the Roman’s just for a festival! Next, a stop at the 2000 year old bridge which links the old town to the new, and finally a drive down the Kings Palace Road. These houses are enormous, such a world away from the regular properties I’ve seen.

We get back to Madaba around 5pm and head to the Greek Orthodox St George Church. The mosaic in the church is a map which is geographically accurate, but not to scale. And shows all major points of the holy land. The walls are adorned with more recent mosaics and paintings. Walking into the church you would not think you were in Jordan. There's just such an incredible amount of history in Jordan, both religious and non. We get back to the hotel at 6pm and arrange to meet in the bar at 7pm for our final dinner. Unfortunately we’re all still full from lunch so we just sit and chat, and have a few drinks. Ahmed leaves us to return home, he has another tour staring on Sunday so we don't mind that he try to spend some time with his family. I felt really sad when he left. The five of us head off to bed soon after.