Dispatch from Petra, Jordan
December 18, 2017
“You can’t say that here,” a salesman warned me.
I froze. What about my answer to “Where are you from?” could have offended this salesman in a tourist trap waystation to Petra?
“Texas” seemed a benign enough response. Having traveled overseas during the George W. Bush years, I did have residual anxiety about telling people I was from Texas. But, in 2017, there were more embarrassing reasons to be from the United States than from Texas. Plus, people in other countries appreciate when you’re from a place they can recall.
Honestly, I should have been more on edge than him. I had yet to learn that “Where are you from?” was the Middle East sales pitch opening of choice, followed closely by “Welcome to [insert country here].” Those two phrases had yet to enter my red flag vernacular, so I thought I had stumbled into some Jordinian faux pas. Foot-in-mouth is my forever state of being, so leaping to the assumption that I had offended him felt natural.
I assumed my meekest pose.
“Oh no, what should I have said?”
The salesman gave me his most stoic face.
“You SHOULD have said you’re from The GREAT State of Texas.”
I paused. He smiled. My husband laughed.
And, let me tell you, he was the only salesman who closed a deal with me that trip.