September 26, 2003

After a couple days spent in front of computer screens we had serious cabin fever. So we decided to go out for dinner. "Hmm. Shall we go Korean or Ethiopian? Or perhaps the old standby, Thai?" There are times when we really really really miss Chicago.

Dinner with friends is always a treat.

The closest we could get to a night on the town is supper at the University restaurant/coffee shop, where we had grilled kabob and chicken with some of our friends who teach there. Most of them had just come back from Jordan, having had to leave the country and come back to get new tourist visas. For three years the University has been trying to get work visas for its foreign faculty. No dice. So every three months (or less) they have to leave and come back in, hoping to get another three month tourist visa at the border. Once this was standard procedure for many organizations and NGOs. However, now, tourist visas are harder to get if you in any way resemble a peace activist (young, single, carrying a backpack). Again, almost miraculously, all the teachers got back in, although some were given only one month visas. Others were turned away, got new passports at the Amman embassy, and tried the other bridge. We are so very thankful that we have one-year visas through the Latin Patriarchate, so we never had to deal with that run-around.