misbah tooreel / tooreel pool

i went to a pool
– all-female including (mostly) prepubescent males –
near the university of jordan yesterday
with my neighbor, ummUthman.

it felt good to be outside and in the water.
well, we weren’t quite outside.
we were in a building with an open roof.
in addition there were metal walls on top of the roof
so that uninvited onlookers couldn’t see from nearby buildings, i guess.

it was on the outskirts of the city
on the side of a hill looking away from the city,
a beautiful view even on the hot, hazy day it was.
the temperature topped out at 103 °F / 39 °C.

it was interesting just getting to the pool
and true to jordanian style, so i’ve heard:
a couple of days before, she asked me if i wanted to go to the pool.
i asked her what time and she gave me a ball park idea.
sure, i said, and i excitedly informed the girls.
the day before we were to go, she called saying we couldn’t go
for womanly reasons.
the day we were supposed to have gone,
she called and asked if i still wanted to go.
everything was cool in the way of womanly issues.
i said sure and she said be ready in an hour.
an hour later, with ishaq helping to rush me and the girls out of the house,
we arrive at her door downstairs from us.
and after ringing her bell i get a call on my mobile.
it’s her, saying she’s picking up some family
and she be by in an hour and a half to pick us up.
we trudge back upstairs,
our bubble of excitement popped,
to wait it out.
i don’t know how much time passed,
but soon afterwards our door bell rings.
it her niece saying be down in 10 minutes.
plus our neighbor’s kids were in the hallway
waiting for their dad to come home.
i let the neighbor’s kids in for 10 minutes to play with sanaa
while i made salat.
afterwards we get ourselves together again,
kicked our neighbor’s kids out
(not really, dad was home)
and head out.

we traveled jordanian-style, as well.
besides sheikh ali, ummUthman, and her 2 children,
also in the car
other than me and my 3 children were
her aunt, cousin and neice.
this was an average 5-seater vehicle
about the size of a honda civic.

on the way
– since amman refuses to use a street address system
rather than a neighbor address system
e.g. tooreel pool is next to masjid so-n-so
vice 31 muhammad ali al-labouni street –
we stopped no less than 3 times asking for directions
trying to find this pool.

i can’t imagine how we stood out in the pool,
us brown dots among the tanned and pale olives,
but i again had the pleasure of being a welcomed guest
even in a public place
and patiently entertained the usual questions:
where are you from?
you are muslim?
is your husband jordanian?
do you like jordan?
why are you in jordan?

the pool was busy.
the kiddie pool kept being invaded by preteens.
i had to give a few threatening looks to some rowdy kids
splashing my youngins in the face.
but we had a good time.

ummUthman wouldn’t let me just chill with my children.
she made me get in the big pool.
turns out i had to get right back out
because a swim cap was required,
as i was informed by the lifeguard.
she gave me her plastic shower cap,
but it just wasn’t fittin over all this hair i got.
(thankfully, cause in addition to being too small,
it just wasn’t attractive.)
she suggested i just get back in
until the lifeguard told me to get out again.
that’s how they do things ’round these parts.

after about 4 hours of being at the pool,
we got ready to leave.
while we were waiting for everyone to get dressed,
sanaa and rahmah managed to get themselves some henna for free.

i just didn’t feel like waiting for another hour
for ummUthman’s husband to finish whatever he was doing
to come pick us up to get back home,
so i stood outside waiting for something.
i think ummUthman talked to the lady at the front desk
about getting us a ride to where we could actually get a taxi,
but there was some confusion
so that didn’t happen.

Allah sent a taxi for us –
somebody was coming to the pool in a taxi –
so we hopped in.
sanaa and rahmah fell asleep almost immediately.
ishaq wasn’t home to help me get them out of the car
so i had to push rahmah out and pull sanaa out,
all the while holding aya and a back pack.
but again, Allah sent his aid.
labinsky happened to be walking by with some friends
and she helped me take them upstairs.

sunbaked and spent,
we snacked until ishaq came home
bringing some food from applebee’s
where he’d been having dinner with some friends.
applebee’s never tasted so good.