As it turns out, my family DOES have a heating system in the house. I didn’t immediately notice it, however, because it was not on for multiple days last week when it dipped into the 40s. It was turned on later, though.

(To correct my last post: I incorrectly said that central heating systems were uncommon here. This is incorrect. Also, I misunderstood my host dad when he said the water on the roof was heated by the sun, and that’s how to tell if your shower will be warm. Though true on that day, he did not mention that he has a heating system that can be activated. This was my mistake. Judging from my experiences and those of my other peers, though, it does seem accurate to say that the “threshold” for turning on the heat appears to be much lower than we are used to in the states. Please forgive my error.)

This reality — that some families here who have central heating are hesitant to turn it on — is part of a broader reality that I’m noticing here in Jordan: the people are very frugal with their resources. (As I mentioned in my last post, this is out of necessity; this is a country almost entirely devoid of natural resources, so necessities like water and energy are prized.) This is both refreshing and frustrating: refreshing because no one in my family leaves on the lights or lets the water run indiscriminately. It is frustrating, though, when I awake in the morning and it feels warmer outside in the sun than it does in the house. (My friend who lives a few houses down says his situation is similar. These may or may not be isolated incidents, but they are in any case representative or the frugality here.)

This leads me to my next fact/myth.

Facts and Myths in Jordan

The Middle East is essentially all desert, and it’s warm all year: MYTH

While it is true that vast swaths of the region are (mostly) uninhabited deserts — much of the eastern part of Jordan would fit this description — these deserts can and do get very cold during certain parts of the year. And in Amman, which isn’t desert anyway, it has been quite chilly for the past week. In fact, it snowed so much last Thursday that they cancelled class. (In reality, it was probably just a couple inches. But if you saw how they drive in Amman, you would quickly realize why even the slightest bit of snow is hazardous). Of course, snow is somewhat rare here, and it’s already back in the 60s this week. But it’s still possible here in the winter months.

E-mail the author: Nicolas Persons