We're Glad We Went

We had a meeting with Jamal Iqtish on Wednesday morning to discuss some upcoming humanitarian projects for LDS Charities and United Muslim Relief.  We were on the road by 7:30 a.m. headed for Amman when we got a phone call from Jamal inviting us to go with him to Mafraq again.  We weren't too excited to go to Mafraq since we were there just two days ago for a food box delivery.  Why could he possibly want us to go back?

I think we mentioned once or twice that we love Jamal dearly, but sometimes trying to follow an Arab man who is going a mile a minute creates a bit of a problem.  We don't always completely understand what is happening or where we are or what we're doing.  We reminded him of our meeting in Amman and he apologized - "oh, oh, oh, so sorry, so sorry, so sorry"  but insisted we turn the car around and go to Mafraq.  He also assumed that we knew the meeting place.  Nothing but the Spirit can help us, and He always does--we were able to find the meeting spot and join him for his project of the day.

It seems that Jamal recently found out about some families who are living out in the desert in the same area as the other people we visit and we were off to the rescue.  "Yella!!" (Let's go).  What's really funny is that he didn't know exactly where we were going and when he motioned his arm out the window for us to take the lead (two cars and a truck) we were astounded. The good thing is that two of his assistants who thought they knew where we were going were riding in the back seat of our car.  The bad thing is they didn't speak English.  So off we went out into the desert laughing and pointing and yelling at each other.  We wouldn't have missed this for the world.

The first thing we noticed when we found the camp was a large tent with speakers on the top.  The tent has been set up as a prayer room or a "mosque in a tent."  Everyone knows you have to have speakers with a prayer room so someone singing in Arabic can remind you and everyone else to pray.

 Jamal took one look at the tent and made a decision.  (Mormons aren't the only ones who receive inspiration).  He told the leaders they can pray anywhere, but the children need to go to school and they should use the prayer tent for a school.  He promised to help them set it up.  Before we left everyone was very excited about the plan.  Then we rode off like the Lone Ranger.  How fun!

"Your children need to be in school!"

A box with enough food for one month for one family.

The flies were "thicker than flies."