I was fasting at the time and starving... couldn't think clearly... couldn't wait around any longer! I decided to walk towards Jerash, 15 km south-west from the highway. I'm not sure what I was thinking, I just started walking. After about 2km I heard footsteps behind me, only to look back and find another seven of my fellow bus passengers right behind me. I realized then that they were following me; they thought that I knew the way when I actually had no clue. I was just following a water stream through the fields so I kept following the stream and they kept on following me. It was a pleasant enough walk; it was winter time but not so cold although the soil was a bit muddy.

After one and a half hours we finally arrived at a village setting (it was actually a nursery or farm) hungry, thirsty and muddy. Another guy and I dared to knock on a door which was answered by a gentleman at which point I said "ehna dakhleen ala Allah ow aleik" - meaning "in God's name we are asking for your help" or "please offer us Iftaar!" The man was still welcoming after realizing that there were six more people with us and invited us all into his home.

Tens of people were in that house; women, children and men and they all joined us for a second Iftar. They were very hospitable and even offered us Qatayef - a regional Ramadan dessert - after which our host drove us to Amman in his pick-up truck. Being the only girl in the gang I had the pleasure of a seat inside the vehicle while the rest had to sit in the back of the truck, while we were driven to the bus station in downtown Amman.

That day I arrived at my house at around nine at night - the longest drive ever from Irbid to Amman.

We went up to the building roof, clambered over the water tanks and looked where he was pointing to - I honestly don't know how Abd knew about it - there was dark yellow smoke coming out of the building next to us. It turned out that the smoke was Nitrogen Oxide (a toxic air-polluting and carcinogenic gas) which is typically a by-product from gold crafting.

Abd found out that we do have a gold workshop in the building next to us so I called the Civil Defence after unsuccessfully trying to reach the Environmental Police. We transformed our office into an operations room!! About 20 minutes later we heard sirens and three fire trucks and two ambulances pulled up with about twelve firemen fully equipped and holding masks and air regulators went up to our roof to see what we called about.

I honestly felt guilty after I saw them carrying heavy oxygen tanks on their backs and up three storeys (I wondered whether we might have over-reacted!).

Anyway, we told them about the fumes, however it turned out they could not do anything since by the time they had arrived the smoke had stopped coming out and we had no proof or evidence and quite naturally the people in charge of that workshop denied everything we said!