some friendly bartering

this morning i accompanied my host mom and sister to a pottery workshop, because farah needed to buy an engagement gift for her friend. she had found some handmade lamp-bases she liked in a store at the mall, but didn't want to buy them there because they were too expensive, so she was able to find out the place where they were actually made. so, we drove to this random looking row of car-repair stalls, turned the corner to go around back, and entered the pottery store (a treasure it would be very difficult to find if you weren't looking for it). once farah had found the lamp base she liked, the real action began: abeer stepped up and started to discuss the price. the store owner informed her it was 25JOD each; abeer said she would only pay 15 each. this discussion continued back and forth for about five minutes, at a very high volume, but in a friendly tone, with both abeer and the shopkeeper smiling and laughing at each other the whole time. with neither party willing to budge from their quoted price, abeer proceeded to bring out the big guns: she called a friend of hers who had supposedly paid only 15 for such a lamp base there, and handed the phone to the shopkeeper so that he could hear for himself that the price should be 15. the shopkeeper then discussed with the phone-a-friend for another five minutes, with abeer chiming in in his ear, with the name of allah being invoked as being on the side of both parties, etc. however, the phone-a-friend attempt did not persuade the shopkeeper to go down to 15, so they agreed on 20 per lamp base. abeer then proceeded to buy two extra for her own living room, in addition to the two farah was already buying. as we waited for all the purchases to be packaged, the conversation turned to the curiosity of my presence in the shop (note, this narrative makes it seem like i understand much more arabic than i do- in reality, the words i caught from this conversation were the numbers, 'allah,' and 'meghan,' and the rest was guessed/inferred from body language). anyway, when informed of my obvious visitor status in jordan, the shopkeeper gave me a tour of the back of the shop where all his pottery was made, and then informed me that all visitors to jordan/his shop have to take home a gift. i was subsequently pressed into selecting something from the shelves- my first choice, a small cup meant for serving turkish coffee, was deemed entirely too small, and i was instructed to pick something better. i thus came away with a beautiful bowl decorated with a flower mosaic- a wonderful memento of jordan and of the extent of arab hospitality.