Ice, Ice Baby

All thanks and praise are for God alone. So we thank Him for bringing an end to our first Jordanian winter.

We'd heard the horror stories. We brought our coats. We froze.

Here's the real deal on winter in Jordan. The weather is not the problem. A couple of days of snow, some rain, a chilly wind, really not too terrible outside. The problem is inside. There is no cost effective way of properly heating a cinder block apartment. It's like living in a cave- damp, weeping walls and an inescapable chill that'll have you bundled so tight that you can't really do much except sit in front of your little portable heater for hours on end ruminating about how you'll never take sunshine for granted again and how stupid you were for ever complaining that the weather was ever too hot, and how when you get back to Southern California you'll have to try super hard not to hit people who live in the suburbs with central heating and a constant supply of hot running water who still find something to grumble about come winter.

There are places here that have what they call "central heating." It isn't really. What they are are diesel-fueled radiators installed along many, if not most of the walls in an apartment. These are actually extremely effective, both at warming your home and completely draining your wallet. We have heard stories of people paying upward of $400 a month to keep their diesel tanks full through the very long winter. That's the other thing. It starts cooling off late October into November, and now, a week or so shy of April, we're just starting to come out of it. We still need to wear our jackets inside.

We brought a little travel clock here, one with a built in thermometer. It broke. I think one of the kids sat on it. But before it broke we were noting the temperature. We were averaging around 50 degrees Fahrenheit inside. I suspect it dropped even lower, but I don't have any numbers to back me up. We could see our breath. My brother will tell you that he's been able to see my breath for years, independent of weather conditions, but this was new for the rest of the family. Watching your children play inside your home with little puffs of steam billowing from their mouths with each chuckle, it's kind of frustrating. The walls were streaked with moisture, rolling drops pooling along the edges of our floor. Here, the mold would grow.

We bought two little electric heaters, and we have two working gas heaters. A third was making really scary noises, so we stopped using it. We kept one electric heater going in the baby's room all night. But the rest of us would have to tough it out under blankets and lots of clothes.

I spoke to my father in the States at one point during the winter. I mentioned that we were cold. He told me,"That which does not kill you will only make you stronger."

We aren't dead.