Have you ever eaten testicles?

*** Warning: This article is only for strong-hearted people ***

*** Another Warning: People from Jordan, can read this post without hesitation. They just understand! ***

Today, my Mother cooked us a very delicious Mansaf. Mansaf is a famous traditional dish in Jordan. Karak, my governorate, is famous for cooking this dish.

Today’s Mansaf was different; It didn’t only contain goat meat, but also, it contained a weird clyndrical-like piece of meat. This piece of meat was white-colored. It was lying there as if boasting as being the only one of its kind in our Mansaf.

“Is this a testicle?” I asked silently and slowly. In front of Mansaf, I don’t usually hesitate; There is always something to eat. Even if there is little amount of meat, the rice, BAGDONES, and syrup is delicious enough. Today, I hesitated.

“So this is what Dr. Hareega talked about…” I rememberd a very funny post by Dr. Fares Masanat- Hareega at www.hareega.blogspot.com. Dr. Masanat is a Jordanian physician working in the USA. That post was about him trying to buy “testicles” in the USA. I remeber he called this part of the goat’s body, “Beed”. Which means in Arabic, “Eggs!”….

[Wait! I now can describe the shape of this “weird clyndrical-like piece of meat.”… Yes! It is egg-shaped. This must be the cause why it is called “Beed” or “Eggs” in Arabic… Ah! Do you agree with me? I am not sure. I have just got this explanation in an Epiphany!]

“Yes, it is a testicle…” I heard. I was then sent into deep thinking, “Should I eat it or not?” After sternuous thinking, I said to myself, “If Dr. Hareega said that he loved them… I am sure it wouldn’t be a problem for me to try them!”

Next, encouraged by the opinion of Dr. Hareega, I grabbed this little lonely “egg-shaped” testicle. Then, I did it…

One bite… Second bite… A part of me told me to stop but another part wanted to find out what special taste it had… I continued eating. Finally, I reached a quick answer":

“Lamb testicles, cooked with Mansaf, are roughly the same taste as the goat’s brain that is cooked with Mansaf!”

A small fraction of the testicle was left in my hand. In order to hide its weird taste, I ate it with a spoon of rice. The taste of the Mansaf rice was strong enough to hide its taste.

Will I eat testicles again? Soemtimes, people do things once in their whole life-time. This describes me today! Firstly and foremost, I tasted testicles because I wanted to know how they taste! Secondly, I wanted to know what special is about them that a Jordanian physician – Dr. Hareega- took the plunge of trying to buy testicles in the USA.

*. NB, I have just finished writing this post at my home where I don’t have an internet connection. This is why I am using the word “remeber” to talk about the post of Dr. Hareega.

# Update 30.08.2010:
See what reactions Dr. Hareega got here:
http://hareega.blogspot.com/2007/10/searching-for-testicle.html

10.09.2008 Chris, An American Volunteer Arriving at Smakieh in the House of Mukhles Torman Hijazeen (2nd day)

*. At 9 o’clock this evening, I went to Mukles Toman house. Yesterday, I arranged with the new guest of Smakieh, the American Chris, to visit my aunt. He wanted to install an internet connection at his house. I suggested that he share a connection with my cousin. Although I wasn’t sure of what I was talking about, I just wanted to socialize with this different human being. Today, however, I did my calculations again. Why should I force myself on him? Certainly, he will look down at me. Doesn’t a proverb say, “Easy come, easy go!” If Moabite gave his services quickly and without any considerations to his own needs, will this make Chris respect him? I don’t think so. What if you think that you have good English when compared to inhabitants of a desert village like Simakiyya? Chris is not searching for fluent English speakers. He is searching for someone who is not interested in improving or even learning English. This way, he will be improving his Arabic more effectively. Are you good at dealing with your fellow Jordanians? How could you deal with a person from a different culture? Do you have a lot of friends? You don’t have. How could you gain the friendship of a foreign person?

As a result, Moabite didn’t talk to Chris at all this evening. At the beginning of the 10 minutes visit to Mukhles house where Chris was invited to dinner, Moabite apologized to Chris because his cousin is in Amman (Daniele is bringing his wife from her family’s!). Next thing, he asked Chris how his first day of School was. “Students here are much different than of Irbid.” It was the only good sentence that he said that contained no compliments. Moabite acted like a smart ass and said, “These are the type of people Lawrence of Arabia lived with!” Wow! How informative are you Moabite. Do you know anything about this Lawrence except the Movie you watched? Do you know any worth-mentioning point about this obviously great man?! Why are you opening subjects you are not well-informed about? “Yes,” Chris answered. What could he answer other than this? Moabite then realized how he is raining this fresh visitor of not very accurate information. “Bedouins!” Chris cleverly deduced. Moabite was touched when he heard Chris’s answer. “How could he think of such a simple, concise, and 100% correct answer?”

After asking this question, Moabite sat silently. He talked not to anyone. Mukhles was talking to his sister-in-law, Umm Udai Torman. Mukhles wife was occasionally talking to Moabite. “What does your brother study? You study in Jordan University? How many years have you been studying?” Moabite was asked. The TV was turned on. It was a Syrian soap oprah. “A person doesn’t get bored with all of these shows!” Mukhles wife commented to Moabite. Moabite didn’t have an answer and only gave a smile. He ignored the TV and tried to figure out what important subject is preventing Mukhles from talking to Chris. It seemed that Mukhles was discussing something very important with Umm Udai. Moabite lost hope in Mukhles. “He won’t talk to Chris! It is non of my business. I am not talking to him.” Moabite thought, “I have many questions to ask, but I won’t to make any further damage to my image in front of Chris.” The situation continued this way for more minutes. There were about 6 children in the room. All of them were, as yesterday, looking at Chris. This time, however, TV shared attention with Chris. Children would look at the TV, then quickly look back to see how Chris is reacting to whatever is shown on the Channels. The situation continued this way. “Mukhles,” Muklhes wife grabbed her husband’s attention. “You have a guest!” He sounded like a mother banishing her son. “Talk to him!” Mukhles was very interested in his conversation that he didn’t even respond. He just continued speaking. Moabite kept silent. Chris tried to take interest in the TV. Chris tried to smile between now and then.

Finally, Chris said in broken Arabic words that he was tired. He left and Moabite followed him as a child follows his father. They walked together to Chris’s house. It was less than 50 meters away. Moabite, still, didn’t say a word. Chris commented how the sky is clear. It seemed that Chris was anxious because he didn’t correctly locate the hand of the house outside gate. “Nice to meet you!” Moabite said just before Chris was about to disappear behind a wall. Chris responded the same sentence. “You know something?” Moabite almost shouted to grab Chris’s attention because Chris almost arrived at the door of his house. Chris stopped and walked toward Moabite as if he waited Moabite to say something. “I don’t know you name yet!” Moabite commented. How ironic? Moabite had spoken with Chris for hours and hadn’t asked him about his name! “Chris!” Chris simply answered. “I…” Moabite muttered. Chris understood Moabite and answered after little hesitation, “Moabite!”.

Moabite continued walking toward the direction of the house of his aunt, he said at last, “Nice to meet you!” How irrelevant! Moabite didn’t know what to say! The same sentence was repeated from the yard of the house. Moabite went to the Layer’s house to check what happened with the potential buyer of their land in Ws. He didn’t find the layer. Later that evening, the Layer called them and told them that the buyer thought that the land is very tall in length. Moabite, courageously, called Hussien and told him that they only wanted to sell one piece of land. Hussien said that he only wanted to buy the two. “Put yourself in our place, will you sell the two pieces and put the money in bank?!” After hearing this great explanation, Hussien didn’t comment anymore. Moabite continued, “If you happened to want to buy the land, call us!” Next and lastly, “Thank you Abu Sa’ed!”.

American Volunteer arriving at Smakieh

A few days ago, an American volunteer rented a house in Smakieh. It is the house of Sharea’ Hijazeen. His name is Chris. He will be both teaching English and learning Arabic at Hmood High School for boys– a governmental school. Yesterday night, I met him in the house of Mukles Torman Hijazeen.

Chris works with an organization called “Peace Corps”. “Peace Corps aims at eliminating the misconceptions that people have about the US” Chris said yesterday evening at the house of Mukhles Torman. What is more, helping promote understanding between the Middle East and the United States is but one side of the coin. “After 2 years,” Chris said. “I will be back in the US. There, I will be teaching my fellow American’s about the Middle East.”

Before coming to Smakieh, he spent two months in Irbid. He used to live at a host Muslim family. In order to understand more about Islam, Chris proudly and happily said how he fasted for five days. His next station was Smakieh. “I was astonished.” He describes his feelings when he found out some facts about this tiny southern Jordanian village. “In Irbid, I was taught how to live in a Muslim society.” He recalls. “I came to Smakieh and I found that it is an all-Christian village.” He regretted.

Mukhles Hijazeen and his wife, one of Chris’s closet neighbors, were very happy. Still, their happiness is nothing compared with that of their children. One of their two sons, Hamzeh, aged around 8 year-old, smiled as if he was sitting beside a king. Most of the time, the tiny hands of Hamzeh held the left hand of the embarrassed Chris. Hamzeh looked like a son clinging to the hand of his mother. You should have seen the embarrassment on Chris’s face when the little Hamzeh kept and kept holding his left hand. Moabite noticed a silent call of help in the eyes of Chris. Moabite, however, never allowed himself to intervene. Moabite thought that if there was anything wrong in the obvious huge compassion the child shows, then his parents are the ones who should react.

Moabite acted as a translator between Chris and this Hijazeen family. “I should make no conversation at all. This is why I was invited to drink a cup of tea, it was because they needed my knowledge of English.” Moabite told himself. Consequently, most of the time, Moabite was only doing translation. Occasionally, he looked at the faces of Muklish, his wife, and his 6 children. Based on previous experience, Moabite used to think that people, especially young children, stares at him when he speaks English. Wouldn’t you stare at a person who speaks a language you don’t know? But that night, not on any of the few occasions he looked at the family did he find anyone looking at his direction. All of the people present, young and adult, males and females were staring at Chris. All of the time, Chris was the center of attention like a singer on stage. “I am invisible!” Moabite thought cynically. Was Moabite upset because of being ignored? Not at all! He gets embarrassed whenever he is a center of attention. “Nice, I hope that no one is looking at me now, no one will be describing my English to Smakieh.” Moabite thought the way his society teaches. He hoped that no one would ‘envy’ him because of his English. How sad is that some people, in the 21 century, still believe in myths as envy!

Over a period of 60 minutes, Moabite and Chris drank 2 cups of tea with mint. The time passed quickly because there was always something to talk about. For example, how much does the organization pay Chris? Chris told them that he receives a salary of 170 JD. Every one present, except Chris and the little children, were amazed. How could it be that an American receives such a low salary? Egyptian workers receive higher salaries. Don’t they? Chris had to explain, for many times, what it means to volunteer. On the other side, more than 3 times, Mukhles and his wife made the translator, Moabite, translate to Chris stories about the Canadian family that used to live in that same house Chris is now living in. “In two years, they spent more than 100,000 JD. All paid by the organization.” Mukhles said amazed. His wife followed him to say how the Canadians toured not only whole Jordan, but also the whole Middle East. “Jerusalem, Syria, Sharm Sheikh…” She gave examples of places they visited. After huge emphasis on the salary issue, the conversation took a turn to discuss the Canadian Family. Both of the parents praised, Ken, the husband, a lot. They stated how nice he was, how he used to come and sit with them, and how different he was from his wife. Talking about his wife, Chris laughed about a description they gave of her character. They didn’t love her as they loved the husband.

In another instance, a hazardous subject was started; Politics. In short, political views of Chris will bring him publicity with a Middle Easter. He stated how horrible America’s foreign policy is. Later on, he described how America, not the American government, wants money from the whole world. In many occasions, he clearly stated the need for a change. In his opinion, laws in America only support the wealthy people (Somehow, I can’t remember this point exactly.) “You are voting for Obaman?” Moabite deduced easily. Chris didn’t object on Moabite’s comment. The conversation about politics ended when Mukhles wife whispered to him, almost stealthily, “Leave it!” Moabite laughed as he was the only one who noticed this warning. Muklhes looked at Moabite and said nothing. From that moment on, politics was history.

“I wash my clothes manually; I want to buy a washing machine.” Chris asked for advice. Mukhles showed him 2 types of washing machines. One of them was very plain that only rotated the clothes within it. It had no dryer. “You can get it as low as 50 JD” I translated after Mukhles. To my amazement, Chris said that this was expensive. He wanted to know if there were cheaper washing machines. Mukhles informed him the bad news. Later, Mukhles told Chris that he can take him to Karak city if he wanted to buy anything. I don’t believe that Mukhles will profit any money from Chris. Chris thinks that 50 JD for a washing machine is ‘expensive’. How could such a person afford hiring a car when he wants to travel? “I will pay his bus fee if we go to Karak castle together.” Moabite took sympathy at Chris because he thought of how an American can get used to living by such a very low income!