On Friday mornings, the city of Mafraq sleeps. It’s the first day of the weekend in Jordan; midday, men and boys will trickle to local mosques for prayer before returning home for lunch with their families. Usually, downtown’s grid of narrow, dusty streets is packed with honking traffic. This morning, shops are shuttered and cars parked.

For Laith Sahawneh, clinic manager at Annoor Sanatorium, Friday mornings are anything but quiet. In his office outside of central Mafraq, the landline rings. Text messages ping through his mobile phone. Pharmacists, doctors, and even patients pop in and out of his office, asking questions, seeking advice. Though it’s the weekend, the hospital for chest diseases is open for business, accommodating patients who work a normal Sunday-through-Thursday week.

“We want to serve as many patients as we can,” says Sahawneh, a Jordanian Christian.