Kindness in Jordan

This is a post about trust and kindness on my travels. I’ll share 3 stories from my experiences on kindness in Jordan. I met the nicest people!

I’ve met great people in every country but Jordan is a standout. Jordanians would go so far out of their way to help us.

People were friendly in Indonesia and other countries. However, Jordanians kept going that extra mile beyond reasonable expectations. They were random strangers to help me. Often they tried to help us but most spoke very limited English, so the level effort was apparent.

Stories of kindness in Jordan

Here are three (3) stories of trust and kindness from my Jordan trip.

1) waiter offered to host us!

For example, a waiter actually invited us to stay with him at his home the “next” time we visit. We’ve gone through the conversation multiple times. We can’t quite figure out how it came to that. Nevertheless the invitation was incredibly generous!

2) Lost in the fog with no gas

Here’s another example. When we were driving in the fog, we were hopelessly lost in Jordan. Even worse, we were almost out of gas. Then, a guy we met along the way invited us into his house. He tried to help but couldn’t understand some parts of our English. Then, he called someone he knew that spoke marginally better English. That guy then tried to help direct us for this missing road.

3) Closed his ship to provide a personal escort

Here’s a third example. On our last night, we were a little lost driving through Amman, their capital city. The highways are actually very well marked in Jordan, but there’s almost no signs on the local roads. We thought we must be really close but couldn’t find our hotel.

We pulled over to walk into a car dealership office to find someone to ask for help. There was only one guy working, and lucky for us, Mohammad that was nice enough to help.

He started kindly directing us. However, halfway through he said it was really complicated. We were only 15 minutes away, but he said he’d help us. He didn’t just finish telling us where to go, or show us on a map. He closed the office, hopped in his car and had us follow him to our hotel.

If this had happened when I first arrived in Jordan, I’m not sure if we would have trusted. We’re so skeptical, which typically makes us “street smart.” Would you trust a random person in the Middle East to drive to your hotel? That might have been slightly frightening, but at this people we expected friendliness.

This is Jordan, and it was yet another example of Jordanians going out of their way to help us. Mohammad was incredibly nice and helpful, and I’d like to give a plug to his business. Mohammad gave us his card afterward – he’s actually the Deputy CEO at Great Wall Al Said Automotive. If you’re moving to Jordan, that’s where to buy a car! Thanks Mohammad!