I learned my first Arabic word during a bizarre Pepperoncini accident –– “Shu-kraan”

Our driver greeted us at the Queen Alia International Airport after a 20+ hour journey from California. We stopped at a shawarma fast food place for dinner and he introduced himself saying, “My name is Salam, it means peace in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.”

No one I had ever known introduced himself in quite that way. After his introduction, the world seemed to slow in this busy part of town, coming into...