dispatches from here

Hanging out on my balcony, overlooking a corner of downtown Amman

As I start to post more photos with me in them, you’ll quickly notice my extremely limited wardrobe. The ~40 pounds of meds/supplies and ~35 pounds of photography equipment necessitated that I had to pack super light as far as everything else was concerned, so I went minimalist on the clothes. Fortunately its cheap and easy to have laundry done here.

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potentially heading to Petra tomorrow + miscellaneous adventures, so I may be out of touch for the next 5-6 days.

The church overlooking Amman

On Monday, I had the opportunity to meet some extremely dedicated individuals who through years of hard work have been able to dramatically change the lives of many Christian refugees from Iraq, both Assyrian and Armenian. I got here through the help of Nuri Kino, an Assyrian-Swedish journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Sweden. In 2007 he wrote an absolutely chilling piece about the status of Christian refugees in Jordan titled, “By God: Six Days In Amman”. And because he is a far better writer than I am, I strongly urge you to read the article. I contacted him for help with my project and he put in touch with Hanna Shamoun, one of the church elders and community leaders devoted to helping the refugees here in Amman.

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The streets and alleys of downtown Amman are where all the action is, the hustle and bustle and chaos associated with a Middle Eastern city.  At night, things quiet down just a little and there is an eerie beauty to it.  The yellow sodium streetlights clash with fluorescent white escaping from people’s homes and blend with neon shop lights, all under the dim green glow emanating from every mosque’s minaret.

There are also LOTS of stairs.  Downtown Amman is built on hills that make SF look flat, and they are interconnected by long series of steep stairs.  Some stairs lead to other streets, while others just lead to people’s front doors or back yards.  Its impossible to tell which is which until you’ve already gone up/down the stairs.  Fortunately, Ammani’s are extremely nice and don’t seem to mind when someone wanders into their backyard.

the stairs home

dimly quiet

the front door to my "hotel" is in this alley.

closing up shop

Its everywhere…But Popeye’s?  Really? And of course, right across the street, a KFC to compete.  Bonus points for effort for the Arabic translation for KFC…Although it says “Chicken of Kentucky”.  Funny that they would de-emphasize the “fried” part, because I think in America we de-emphasize the “chicken” part.

No, I did not eat here (but was tempted)

Sorry Col. Sanders, I'll have a shawerma instead.

There’s a slight difference between no plans and no preparation. While I had no concrete plans for the next 10 weeks, I hope I’m at least adequately prepared. Case in point: GPS. I have yet to find a single straight street in Amman. Very few of the streets have street names, and even fewer have street signs. Maps only have the major streets, and the directions you get from people or in guidebooks are something like this: “Cross the street from Hashem’s Restaurant, enter the unmarked alley, and it will be the third unmarked door on your left, go up three flights of stairs.”

The only thing that has kept me somewhat sane is my handhelp GPS which I preloaded with maps of Jordan and Syria that were generated by users. While not completely accurate and unlabeled, I can at least track where I’ve been and make sure I can get back. Also very helpful for dropping pins at cool cafes or restaurants (such as the one I’m sitting in now, writing this blog post). I will also be geo-coding my photos and placing them on interactive maps so you can see where things come from.

As an aside, pretty cool to know that the GPS works even on the plane (and is an approved device, don’t worry!).

584 MPH at 34,000 feet? Awesome!

The illustrious Cliff Hotel…my second floor window opens directly into an alley full of shops. Right below my window is a falafalateer (is that a word?) that fills my room with a deep fried odor, and an arabic CD/Tape seller, who plays his samples LOUD until about 3 am.
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Success.  I made it through customs in Amman with all of the meds and supplies in tact! My bags didn’t even get searched.

I did have an issue with the immgrations agent though.  First of all, there were three lines: one for Jordanian citizens, one for all other nationalities, and one for “VIPs & Investors”. Seems like Jordan is doing their best too woo some FDI. All of the American citizens in front of me breezed right through with a quick stamp.  I get to the counter, show him my US passport, everythings going fine, and then he notices I was born in Iran.  At this point he began to freak out a little, asked me long list of questions and then disappeared to the back office for 10 minutes. Now I’m nervous. This is supposed to be simple!  His supervisor comes out, with his shabby uniform and beret ajar, and asks me the same questions.  Some reasonable (How long do you intend to stay, what is the purpose of your visit, and some ridiculous (What is your father’s name?). He seemed satisfied that I was safe and let me through. 

I think that says a lot about how low Iran’s standing in the world has become, when its easier for US born American citizens to get into a Middle Eastern country than Iranian born US citizens.

So all in all a good border crossing, and I was able to get my 60 pounds of medicine and supplies in.

Medication headed to a refugee clinic in Syria

Whenever we (UCSF med students) visit a clinic abroad, we try to take supplies and medicine to help out.  A few years ago helped on of my classmates with a student run organization called REMEDY. He founded the UCSF chapter of this group, which collects unused/unwanted medical supplies from hospitals in the US and helps deliver them to clinics in developing countries.  At UCSF, there are bins to collect unused medical equipment otherwise headed for the trash in the main hospital ORs and ICUs.  So I met with one of the med students currently helping with the group and collected a few bags of basic medical supplies, first aid supplies, glucometers + test strips, etc.  But I wanted to take some medicine too, because from what I’ve heard, the clinic I’d like to head to in Syria literally only has a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope and hugely dedicated volunteer physicians.

So I called my uncle, a family practice physician in San Jose for some help.  I knew he would help a little, but he came through huge!  I showed up at his office to find bags of meds ready for me to take.  Useful meds too, in huge quantities that can probably supply this clinic for months.  I’m not sure the picture above does justice, so for all of the medical people reading along, here’s a short list:

tetacycline 250mg x 300 tabs, 500mg x 200 tabs
penicillin 250mg x 200 tabs, 500mg x 500 tabs
amoxicillin 500mg x 500 tabs
cephalexin 250mg x 200 tabs, cephalexin 500mg x 300 tabs
ciprofloxacin 500mg x 200tabs
septra ds x 300 tabs
erythromycin 250mg x 100 tabs, 500mg x 100 tabs
elanapril 5mg x 200 tabs, 10mg x 200 tabs
hydroxyzine 25mg x 100 tabs
amlodipine 5mg x 90 tabs
atenolol 25mg x 300 tabs, 50mg x 400 tabs
famotidine 50mg x 100 tabs
prednisone 10mg x 500 tabs
paroxetine 10mg x 90 tabs, 20mg x 40 tabs
fluoxetine 10mg x 400 tabs
citalopram 10mg x 500 tabs, 20mg x 300 tabs
erythromycin eye ointment x 2 tubes
triamcinolone 0.1% oint x 9 tubes
ibuprofen 400mg x 500 tabs
naproxen 220mg x 50 tabs
diphenhydramine 25mg x 50 tabs
robitussin x 11 bottles

This is seriously a huge haul…I have no idea how I’m going to get through customs in Jordan or Syria with all of this stuff. I guess this will be the first of many challenges on this trip.

meds and supplies for refugee clinics