Ma'an-iac Express

On Sunday, we tried to get our visas extended for 30-days. It was our 30^th day and the guide books say it is a simple process: just go to a police station and you will be in-n-out pronto. However, the actual procedure is a little more complicated- you need to obtain a certificate of health. In this case it must be from the Ma’an Medical Center, even if you have a letter from your doc back home saying you are A-OK and one of his medical practice partners is from Jordan (they’ve probably heard about the health care issues of the USA and insure you are healthy, or make sure you haven’t been sneaking a visit to the Chinese massage parlors in Aqaba). We were going to be driving to Amman, so we took a short detour to get the necessary medical certificate.

Ma'an Museum

Our 1^st challenge was going to be finding the Medical Center. They use the universal sign for hospital (“H” in a circle), but hospitals and Medical Centers aren’t always co-located. Just outside Ma’an , I approached 3 Traffic Police working on Hwy. 15 (there are 3 types of civilian police forces here: Tourist Police [that I’ve been working most closely with], Traffic Police [working the roads of course], and the General Police Authority [that sent us to Ma’an on the Medical Center quest in order “to follow our procedure”]). Using my best Arabic (which is limited to a few phrases) I showed my passport & visa while trying to convey I wanted directions or route to the Medical Center for the visa health certificate. They defaulted to their English: “Where you from?” and “well-come.” In retrospect I forgot the universal offering of police-speak: donuts (and me being a retired LEO). Anyway, I eventually used the word hospital and was quickly told to turn right here and go 2-3 Km (anywhere but here as I was probably blocking their view of oncoming traffic). We found the hospital, and were ushered into the office of the medical director. He informed us that indeed we needed an AIDS test (they obviously do know of western life-styles here, but one wonders “why after being here for 30-days already?”) and the prized Medical Certificate, BUT you don’t get that here: we still had to go to the Medical Center which wasn’t here. The director had a staffer lead us by car, via a route with only 5-turns to get to the Medical Center.  There we learned we had arrived at the correct location; we had our blood drawn (for 20JD)- the medical tech didn’t glove-up, and told to come back at 12:30 on Thursday as the results won’t be ready until then. In the mean time, our visas have technically expired, but no one really seems to mind. So, it was off to the big-city (Amman) and meetings-in-the-morning. Such is the life-n-times of the Benevolent Bureaucrats with the Petra Arachaelogical Park Ranger mentoring program.



Amman

I learned that my mom (Margaret Ann Newlin Young-Renihan) has been in the hospital since last Thursday. She was originally suffering from internal bleeding that has been remedied. With assistance, she was able to sit-up yesterday and is probably facing some long-term rehab efforts and care... THANK YOU for your thoughts-n-prayers...