Jordanians Help With Car Chaos

We just got our van back, after a two-week absence from Daar Al Kounouz.

I must give a HUGE cyber shout-out to dear neighbors, friends and brethren in Christ Abu and Um Elias, who loaned us their very nice Camry for the time. Abu Elias was traveling, and Um Elias insisted we use the car, being so very Jordanian (and so very Christ-like) from the very first day, not ever having watched me drive. Well, we do car-pool to like-events, but wow, loaning a car is a pretty big example of trust and generosity. I drove it more carefully than my own…and drove Ammanis driving behind me insane, I am sure.

It was kind of nice to be anonymous on the road… a champagne colored Camry is an innocuous as a silver Lancer. Our mini-van is rather large and loud colored.

Back to the van. We have had it for 2.5 years now. Here is the post from that event, when we traded our 20 year-old Peugeot station wagon in on for this momma-vehicle.

YAHOO!! We got a ‘new-to-us’ minivan!! I feel like a REAL mom now. I remind myself of that minivan billboard I saw in the US: “The Myth of the Stay-At-Home-Mom”. Or was it “Stay-At-Home-Mom is an Oxymoron”? Both work.

Funny thing, this van has been for sale for 18 months. When the guy ( a Jordanian friend) was giving me the hard  sell, it was very cute (“You DESERVE a nicer car!”), but we weren’t in the market for a car and were hoping we could set a record in getting the old lady to 25 years on the road. BUT, I heard the Lord’s voice say: “This is your car. You will drive it”. I said “Lord, is that You? If so, I will wait patiently”. I mentioned the conversation with his friend to hubby, but not the second one with God. I didn’t want him to think God and I had a conspiracy going. I don’t nag my husband for what I want, I just talk to God. He then either works my husband, or gives me contentment without what I think I need.  He is so good, all the time.

So when the price was lowered, my husband said: “What do you think? We don’t know how much longer the old lady will last, and I doubt we will find a better deal then he is offering”. I sweetly agreed.

In addition to a much lower price, one of the major selling point of the van was that it only had 20,000 kms on it. Another was helping a family whose youngest child was in the US for leukemia treatment. You may remember praying for Yusef, he is the boy, and he is still alive, and still fighting. His father Omar, did leave this earth last year, from Lou Gehrig’s disease, and the brother-in-law who handled the transfer of title has like passed away. Amazing faith has this Jordanian family.

As with all things on this earth, our dear van has begun is descent into decay. It seemed we had something every month. We try and be generous as our Jordanian friends, and often lend the van to folks to use when we are traveling. This summer, our poor van was driven into the dust and has never recovered.

Our dear mechanic gave up. “No parts for this van in the country. This year of make was two years before the van was imported to Jordan, I just can’t work on it anymore”. Arg.  He likes to work on newer cars, cars without major problems, cars so new the dealer carries the parts. That is now, not us. What next?

Sahab.

We are now having the van serviced by a different kind of mechanic, the kind regular Urduniyeen use rather than the Abdouni brand. The resourceful, creative, retool-and-duct-tape kind of mechanic. The kind that we need a translator to understand, and he needs a translator to understand us!

But he knows his stuff. When he took the engine out of the van, he knew it was bad news. “Hate to say it, but you’ve been had. This van had already turned the clock of 100,000 kms when you bought it…it was not a Kuwaiti-Teta-Drives-On-Fridays van.”

Oh well. It had to be gutted. It cost 1,700JD to fix. OUCH.  I am glad the illness-stricken-sellers did not know about nor have to deal with such an issue. I figure we are now just paying up to the sales price it should have been. I am glad to have it back, to roam the roads a little higher in the saddle, have the respect a bigger car gives you, and am able to haul the Kounouz and all their friends and gear around town.

Looks we’ll be getting acquainted with Sahab in the future. Discovering Jordan, indeed

 

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