Jordan Journey

I was asked to write an article for the Hilltop Monitor, Jewell's newspaper, about my experience in Jordan.

Today my article was published.  You can read it here.

Full Stomachs and Warm Hearts

Well its been a while but its two weeks left in the semester and I have been BUSY!!! I will try to catch you all up on what I have been up to these past few days.

I am pretty sure that CIEE- Amman has the best staff anyone could ever ask for, and I'm not just saying that cause they now have the link to my blog.  The office staff is great and so are the professors.  I will do another blog post eventually about my classes, inshallah, mumkin this weekend but right now I want to talk about what all I have done with CIEE since my last post.

BEDOUIN WEDDING

For starters I have an amazing Modern Standard Arabic professor named Ahmed.  If you are friends with me on facebook you will have seen pictures of him and his shenanigans in class.  Well last week his brother got married.  Ahmed has been talking about this wedding almost since we arrived in his class three months ago.  Finally the time came and he mentioned that he wanted to bring us to the party.  Of course we were all excited about it and he said he would ask CIEE if it would be okay if we went, the party was in another town and we still had travel restrictions placed on us. The next day he comes into class with a really somber look on his face.  He tells us that he spoke to CIEE and……..THEY ARRANGED A BUS TO TAKE US TO THE PARTY!!!!

The day came for the part and we were all really excited.  The girls could wear shorter dresses which was quite exciting but difficult navigating in Amman in Taxies and food because the stares increased exponentially.  Eventually we all boarded the bus that would take us to the party.

The party was split in half, men and women.  I wasn’t able to take pictures in my party because the woman were all without hijab and that is haram outside of the house.  The women's party was held in the house/tent.  Basically they set up a Bedouin tent that was connected to the house, similar to a sun porch but no one could see in.  We rounded the corner to see two girls on their knees waiving their hair back and forth while the rest of the ladies danced around them. Clothing was anything from full traditional clothing with hijab to a ladies business suit to strapless short dresses to sweat suits.  I spent the whole night dancing, and by dancing I mean jumping up and down and yelling.

We did learn a few traditional debqa dances, traditional Jordanian dance, and some belly dancing.  I danced for like 3 hours straight before we went inside to eat mensaf, the traditional Jordanian dish.  Mensaf is basically rice and chicken or lamb with liquidy yogurt pored over it.  We sat on the floor and ate with my hands.  I love the rice, it is so good!  I was having difficulty with the chicken and finding the meat on the bones and then one of the ladies next to me started pulling the meat off the bones and placing it in a pile in front of me.  It was so sweet. I could tell that Ahmad was proud that he could share his house and family with his students. 

It was finally time to go and non of us wanted to leave.  Even the ladies at the party didn’t want us to leave and yelled at Ahmad when he told us we had to leave! He tried to explain that we had class the next day and they told him that we didn’t have classes and needed to stay at their house over night!  It was so sweet.  We eventually had to tell them goodbye and load up and go home. 

VOLUNTEERING IN IRAQ AL AMIR

I was recruited to spend four Saturdays working in a small town outside of Amman to create a video about the community service project that CIEE worked on this semester.  We basically overhauled an all boys elementary school.

The first week we painted the exterior walls.  Each wall was a different color and pretty muted colors so the red looked like pink but that is okay.  The second week we painted the top half of the class rooms.  This was like a baby blue water based paint.  The third week was the bottom half of the walls, mint green oil based paint.  The fourth and final week was murals on the outside walls. Other projects include- building concrete railings so the boys don’t push each other off the stairs and break their arms, hands, legs, etc. (because that was happening), fixing desks, tightening screws and what not. 

Each week students got to sign up to go on the service trips and only the first 20 or so got to go.  I, however, got to go every week to make the video so I got pretty close to some of the kids, or at least I felt like we had a connection haha

On the last day we finished the murals and then had a few gifts to give the school.  The entire school was there.  They lined up in the court yard and did their usual morning routine for us.  This consisted of the singing of their national anthem along with the raising of the Jordanian flag, a few other songs and then an "attention getter" activity for the boys where commands were called out like "arms out" "arms up" "arms down" and they would have to do whatever command was given to them. 

Next was our part.  CIEE bought a winter coat for each of the students in the school.  They each came up one by one and got a coat.  The weather was pretty warm that day but they all put on their coats by the end.  I had to help a few cause they kept trying to put it on upside down…. 

We also gave at least one space heater per class room to the school to keep the boys warm during the winter.  Once they all had their jackets they wanted to present us with a gift.  Our gift was a coffee mug with a heart on it.  This will honestly be one of my most treasured possessions from my time here.  It meant so much to me to see the little kids so happy in their school and with their new coats.  So precious.

The newly redecorated school was the host to a Jordan vs  United States soccer game.  It was CIEE vs. the boys in the school. In the end Jordan toppled the US quite significantly but that is okay because afterward the US team received cookies and cake! 

Once our responsibilities were over we all ventured to a "park" WITH A STREAM RUNNING THROUGH IT!!! (so exciting to hear running water) and had a barbeque.  It was delicious. 

I really enjoyed getting to know the staff that arranged the volunteer experience and all the people in the group that went with us on each trip.  I also LOVED getting out of Amman and into the country side.  The land out there is unbelievably gorgeous.  I could spend all day out there.

DINNER AT AYA'S HOUSE            

In Arabic there are basically two languages.  You have the Modern Standard Arabic which is basically the Koran/Media Arabic and then each country has their own colloquial Arabic.  While in Jordan I studied both of these sects of Arabic.  My colloquial teacher's name is Aya. 

In class the other day we asked Aya about some of the foods in our book.  She sat down and described them to us and eventually invited us to her house to eat these things.  She is so generous!

We all loaded up in cabs after school one day and headed to her house.  After some trouble finding her  building we finally entered her house to smell the most delicious food.  I cant remember what it is called but it is basically five layers of giant pita bread soaked in olive oil with chopped onions in the middle topped with chicken.  

After dinner we moved to the living room and she had baked some kind of delicious deserts.  I have no idea what they were but I loved them.  Aya had also prepared some hot tea for us and some nargile.  At first I wasn’t going to try it because I always get made fun of when I try it but I decided that it might be rude to refuse so I tried it again and I got pretty good at it.  Its so common in the culture that Aya and her family have three nargiles in their house for whenever they have company over. 

One of the customs in Arab culture is to offer Turkish coffee to people when it is time for the night to end.  Once Turkish coffee was offered we all knew the drill.  Drink it and get out! Haha it was such a wonderful evening with lots of amazing hospitality.  I left with a full stomach and a full heart. 

Find me out on the mountain top...

So for the past few weekends I have been working at a school in Iraq Al-Amir.  We have painted the playground area and the classrooms as well as installed a type of railing for the kids so they wont push each other off the stair cases.  It has been really cool to see all the work come together and the place is starting to look pretty darn good. 

While I really like going and working and spending time with friends outside the classroom, I think that what I really REALLY like is getting out of the city.  Now Amman isn’t a bad place and it really isn’t a very large city but it is still a city.  I wish that you could all see the landscape out in Iraq Al-Amir.  It is just beautiful. I think I am meant to be in the country side as opposed to the city.  Im sure growing up listening to bluegrass my whole life (title of this post is a song lyric from a Blue Highway song) might play into it but regardless I love being out of the city.

Today the weather was super foggy.  On the way to the school our driver had a little bit of trouble seeing the road because it was so foggy.  This, however, set the scene for one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.  Instead of talking about it I am going to post some pictures.  These pictures do not do the area justice in the slightest but it is all that I have to share right now....

The fog on the road in front of our poor driver.

More fog.

Iraq Al-Amir

Iraq Al-Amir

Iraq Al-Amir

Iraq Al-Amir

Cemetery in Iraq Al-Amir

Iraq Al-Amir

عيد شكر سعيد!!!

This week marks a few significant things for me and my time abroad. 

First- Yesterday marked one month until I depart from this country.  I didn’t think much about it other than simple reflection with my roommate and the boys that live up the street from us.  We talked about what we wish we had done or could do and what next semester holds and what we plan on doing as far as Arabic is concerned. 

I cant say that yesterday was all that sad nor was it happy.  It was just another day in Amman.  I told myself that I wasn’t going to label it beyond what the calendar said and I would simply make the most out of the time I have left.

Second- Today was Thanksgiving.  It was my first thanksgiving away from home.  The day started off as usual in Gloria Jeans cramming in all my homework that I didn’t get done earlier while I sipped my free iced tea and ate my blueberry muffin.  I then ventured to my colloquial Arabic class where we had doughnuts and an oral exam.  We then returned to Gloria Jeans to finish more homework and study for our vocab test in the next class.  That class was once again in our fishbowl of a classroom, as we were still off campus due to fear of protests on campus.  From our classroom, during our test we could hear another class learning a song.  Our professor invited the class to come over and sing to us during our exam….

Once class was finally over we headed to the Thanksgiving dinner which was arranged by CIEE for us.  We weren’t sure where the dinner was but once on campus we saw a large group of UJ students watching something.  At a closer look they were actually watching our group play American football.  Some Jordanian students along with some random Asian students had joined in the game.  Many of our teachers from CIEE were also playing which was so fun to see.

Once dinner was ready we all filtered into the UJ cafeteria dining room for our Thanksgiving feast!  The tables were decorated in traditional Thanksgiving colors complete with a pumpkin in the middle of the tables!!!  We had apple juice and water to drink and the food was set up in buffet style.  They had a mixture of traditional American foods such as turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans.  But there were also a few Jordanian curve balls thrown in there like rice, hummus and pita bread.  It was a great experience and since I couldn’t be home to celebrate I am glad that I was here with these people.

After the dinner Beth, the other girl from my school, and I along with James headed downtown to film our video for Jewell's hanging of the green.  We took a bus and I guess there was a huge accident or traffic situation cause it took us forever to get downtown.  We wanted to do the video in front of a mosque but to avoid being confused as a journalist we decided to film the video elsewhere.  Our first choice was at Hercules Temple on the Citadel but the bus took too long so we filmed it at the Roman amphitheater.

While we were filming a group of little girls were fascinated by us and kept asking questions about us.  We invited them to be in our video but they laughed through the whole thing and you could hardly hear us so we didn’t use that take.  Beth, James and I finished the video and did a little exploring (spending money…what? We don’t get black Friday!!!) Worried about potential and predicted protests we didn’t stay out very late. 

When I got home my host sisters invited me to go out with them and run a few errands.  We got toilet paper for a video that one of them was making along with a Barbie for the video.  After we were done with our errands we went to a pizza place called Pizza Lovers which they assured me was the best pizza in the world! It was pretty good but for me the BEST part of it was…well other than being with my Jordanian fam…was the fact that the NFL was on tv in the pizza place.  It was so exciting. 

Once I got home I called home and checked in on them.  I loved getting to talk to the family.  I felt like I was back at home for just a split second. 

So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? I think the question is what am I not thankful for? I have been blessed with an amazing family and support group back home in the states.  I have wonderful friends, peers, teachers and colleagues here in Amman.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to come here to Amman and live and learn and experience and try new things and make mistakes and learn from the mistakes and grow as a person.  My list could go on about what I am thankful for and what I am thankful for back home, my mom can attest as I sent her a ranting text the other day outlining all the things I miss from home, but I think I will just keep it at this.  Thank you to all of you who are reading this too because I know that if you didn’t care about me or have an impact in my life then you wouldn’t take the time to read the rants of a college girl in the middle east.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Enjoy it!

Check out my video of my day HERE