Today, we come out of three days of full curfew in Jordan. The temperature has dropped by almost half, from the high 30s almost all of last week to low 20s, starting yesterday, along with a good amount of rain that washed the dust off the leaves of a rosebush, a citrus tree, and a grapevine just outside our bedroom window.
Today is also May 25, the 74th anniversary of Jordan's independence. No celebrations as usual (as in this video of an official ceremony in 2019) but citizens are encouraged to put out the Jordanian flag. We foreigners can only be thankful for being welcomed to wait out the pandemic here.
When and how will the pandemic ends still hangs in the air but that we try to have a sense of control with other end and start dates that make us ask what's open and what's closed. Like the last day of Ramadan and the first day of Eid al Fitr, which were a day later than expected since the moon was not sighted as expected on Friday. So, today is the 2nd day of Eid. Are stores open? Can we now buy beer or wine somewhere?
In the U.S., May 25, the last Monday of May of this year, is Memorial Day, a day supposed to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Perhaps, there will be a memorial day to remember the people, like health workers, who have worked and died on the frontlines of the fight against the spread of covid-19.
I am not on any frontline of any fight but rather watching, learning, waiting, mostly in front of (or behind) my computer screen, in a foreign country. Over the weekend, I've read the NYT Magazine and chuckled at stories of how some people are dealing with the blurring of days staying at home. Without the familiar, regular routines that structured our days previously, we are all trying not to fall in on ourselves, like countries turning inward and struggling to answer what opening up again to the outside world would mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment