Wrong Number

Yesterday, or the day before yesterday, I received a strange phone call during class.

It was an international phone call, but with 964 as the country code. Later, with the help of the internet, I discovered it to be the country code of IRAQ.

Just to see if my Jordanian family was up on their Arab country codes, I asked them which country they thought it was.

"Kuwait."
"No, that's not Kuwait. It's got to be Oman."
"Where's the phone book?"

(By phone book, you must realize, it was a notebook with phone numbers hand written inside, not a standard government-issued book like you would find in the States or France. Just like there is no public postal system...or phone system...democratic countries seem to take more interest in public sectors of their countries.)

"It's Iraq."

The irony of an Iraqi making a wrong number to one of the handful of Americans in Jordan makes me laugh out loud.