An Angel from Jordan

by Silica Kole (India)

Making a local connection Jordan

I went to Jodan with three of my friends in June of 2019. In the first 5 days, we covered the major destinations, we reached the Gulf of Aqaba on the last leg of our trip. Aqaba is a port city situated on the southern tip of Jordan. The gulf of Aqaba is the northernmost tip of the Red Sea. Aqaba has picturesque beaches, Coral rich waters, sumptuous seafood, and pleasant weather. Planning to visit the major beaches on day one, we set out at midday. After a 20 minute drive from our stay, we reached South Beach. The beach was well stretched out. The water looked too blue and inviting. Among my friends, I was the only one who knew how to swim. I decided to rent Snorkel gear. One of my friends named Varun joined me requesting I have to assist him in the water to swim. We approached this little refreshment shop to enquire about hiring snorkeling gear. A big man with a broad smile greeted us and affirmed he had snorkel gear. We exchanged pleasantries, the guy’s name was Khalid. We rented gear. Khalid gave us clear instructions in his heavily accented English on how to use the gear. Both of us excitedly ran to the water to try snorkeling. We started floating in the shallow water of the beach. I was trying to use my floating skills but my friend Varun having no swimming skills was struggling to stay afloat in the water. The sea bed was rocky. Both of us scratched our knees in the sharp pebbles of the shallow sea bed, all we could see underwater were a few small fish scooting away from us. Even I was struggling to float while helping Varun. Varun was exasperated with his lack of swimming skills. He said we should have booked a dive trip with a professional. Earlier in the day, we enquired about one, but the steep fee discouraged us. Amidst this struggle, Khalid appeared out of nowhere and held Varun’s hand and offered to help with snorkeling. We agreed with hesitation. We held hands and Khalid confidently pulled us away from the shore, the moment we immersed our face into the water, another world opened up, we saw Corel of all imaginable colors, fishes of all shapes, sea horses and seagrass. Khalid kept guiding us to cluster of Corel at various locations underwater while strongly pulling us along, with him doing the major swimming. I and Varun just tagged along with him. He moved in the water with the confidence of having known the underwater map like the back of this hand. We could explore all the Corel spots of the South beach thanks to Khalid, he guided us back to shore after a 45 minute Corel tour. Our other friends met us at the shore and enquired where did we disappear. We told them about Khalid, they suggested we should pay Khalid’s fee for the Corel tour. I and Varun exchanged a glance thinking we completely forgot to ask Khalid his fee. We reached Khalid’s shop to return our gear and enquired about his fee. He laughed and said it was complimentary. He refused to charge us anything saying in his broken English “ You visit Jordan, you my guest, you welcome ”. We tried to pay him a tip of $50, which he blatantly refused. We pleaded but he kept saying firm Nos. We ordered tea and refreshments from his shop, he asked us to wait in the adjoining cafeteria. He served piping hot Jordanian tea with walnut cake. They were amazing. Khalid refused to charge us for the tea too. He sweetly introduced us to his young kids who were playing on the beach. He showed us his wife’s photo, told us stories of his Job and free diving passion. The only thing Khalid sweetly agreed to was to click a couple of pics with our group and exchange numbers. We left South Beach with immense gratefulness and awe for the Jordanian Hospitality bestowed on us that evening. I believe people like Khalid are Angels on Earth who exist to reinstates our wavering faith in Humanity and true Friendship.