AC

Today I am grateful for air conditioning. I used to think that the weather in Amman was hot. I would be hot before I made it halfway down the block on the way to work. By the time I would reach the service taxi, I would be sweating. The trip back home was even hotter. This is compounded by the fact that cars turn into saunas when they sit out in the sun. It seems like nearly every time I get to the service station in Al-Ashrafiya, a service taxi fills up right before I get there so I have the pleasure of waiting in the taxi in the sun for several minutes before it fill up. I don't think the heat would be quite as bad if there was a lot of water that I could just jump into as soon as I left the taxi, but Jordan is a desert and there is very little water. However, that changes a bit when you are in Aqaba. The weather is much hotter, but the Red Sea is waiting for you at the end of the street. Today I walked down the street and could feel the heat radiating off of the pavement through my sandals. I jumped into the Red Sea and the top six inches of water was warm. The water wasn't uncomfortably warm, but it was definitely not cold either. It wasn't even cold enough six feet under the water to be a shock to your system when you jump in. The real shock that the Red Sea brings to your system is when it gets in your eyes, nose and mouth when you jump in. Hopefully, not all three of those happen at once. I try to keep my eyes closed when under the water, but I can't control the splashes of other and I would have to say that salt water in the eye is no good. I did get several gallons of salt water up my nose when attempting to learn how to dive however. I was mostly successful, but times like this are when I realize the why I was born in a land-locked state. Water is not my element.

=)

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

She told me that today she was fasting. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at this revelation. I knew that all of the children who were older than eight were encouraged to fast as a part of Ramadan, but I didn't even know if she was older than eight. My confusion was enhanced by the fact that she came to the activities department at the same time as the younger group of kids who weren't fasting. To my surprise, she is actually nine years old. Developmentally she is a few years behind. I don't know all the reasons for that, but she is definitely battling some disease. This becomes apparent when she stands up and her legs are a bit stiff and her belly is a bit swollen. It becomes even more apparent when she smiles and half of her teeth are rotting away. The final straw comes when she takes off her sunglasses and the whites of her eyes are actually yellow. Despite all that she must have gone through in her life and is currently going through physically, she is one of the children at the orphanage who I have never seen without a smile. She makes people happy simply by being around them. That's just the type of person she is. Now, we are nearly a week into Ramadan, and she decided to take on the challenge of fasting from sunrise to sunset. This isn't an easy task for anyone, let alone a child or a child who struggles with physical ailments. But she wasn't put out or grumpy at the prospect. In fact, she was excited and determined. After telling me that she was fasting, she proceeded to tell me the other things that she was doing for Ramadan.

1. Not eating a sandwich.
2. Fast from sunrise to sunset.
3. Working to make her mom happy and not mad or frustrated.
4. Don't hit her siblings.
5. Pray five times during the day.
6. Drink tamr hindi after breaking her fast in the evening.
7. Eat qatayif or Ramadan pancakes.

Her reason for doing this was not simply because the other kids her age were fasting or that she was forced to by the people at the orphanage. Rather she made the decision because it would make God happy with her. That is the power of the faith of a child. It's been a really neat experience to see how the children view Ramadan. Everything they do takes on a special significance. They are generally just as happy and energetic as they are when they aren't fasting. They also spend more time listening to the Qur'an and learning and reciting parts of the Qur'an. My favorite part of the day is listening to the entire group of kids recite Surah Al-Fatihah or the first chapter of the Qur'an. These kids may have been given the short end of the stick as far as life goes, but they have the potential to make a big difference in their lives. All they need to do is put their enthusiasm and faith to work for them. They are so strong. There is a reason that the scripture says, “And a little child shall lead them.”

=)

Garbage

Today I witnessed a rare occasion. I saw a Jordanian get up from his chair next to his shop in Wast al-Balad, walk over to one of the small garbage cans welded onto the power pole and throw some garbage inside. Throw garbage inside a garbage bin? Who just does that? Not many people here in Jordan. A few days ago I was even shocked to watch a Jordanian youth who was walking by one of the big dumpsters throw some garbage in the dumpster as he walked past. It seems like people are much too busy or tired or something to take the time to find a garbage bin of any shape or size. If there is any natural or unnatural hole or divot in the road or sidewalk, that is a good enough garbage can. Heck, the road is a good enough garbage can. What usually happens when someone finishes with a wrapper or a plastic bag or a paper cup is that they simply toss it out into the street. When I first arrived in Jordan, I was a bit shocked at how dirty everything seemed to be. There was garbage in every street. It wasn't small amounts of garbage either. There would be entire piles of garbage sitting the road. It would get really funny when the pile was sitting next to an empty garbage bin. Sure there are some people who take the time to throw the garbage in the bins, but the mindset is that it's so much easier to just drop a single wrapper on the ground than to take the time to walk over to the garbage bin and dump it in. I mean that's a lot of work for one wrapper. There are also people who have a job specifically to pick up the garbage in the street. However, they don't get everything or even close to everything. I have also learned that fences and any shrub or small bush are excellent garbage catchers. The wind grabs the garbage laying on the ground and moved it along until it happens to pass by a fence or other object that is permeable to wind but not plastic bags. The wind is therefore allowed to pass through, but the bag or other garbage is caught.

I have never been part of an official highway patrol, but I have participated in picking up the garbage that was around the school grounds or on the ground close to the landfill just outside on town. I was always amazed at how clean our school grounds would look and yet we would pick up so much trash. At least it looked like a lot of trash. Cleaning up the garbage on the roads next to the landfill just felt like a waste of time. In my mind, more garbage would just come and replace it anyway. I would still help and participate because I couldn't leave a job half-done. Maybe that is the mindset that a lot of the garbage guys have in Jordan. They are getting paid to pick of the trash in the streets of Amman, but they know that as they pick it up, more will come to replace it. I think that would make doing a good job difficult at the very least and the job wouldn't feel very fulfilling. It's one thing to be in charge of cleaning the streets in America where you can look at them at the end of the day and everything looks cleaner and like a nicer, newer place. It's quite another thing to be in charge of cleaning the streets in Amman where you can look at them at the end of the day and nothing looks different. Ten minutes ago, you picked up the trash along the street, and now another pile is waiting for you. What difference does it make? This is a mindset that is in the whole country. Will it change? It could, but it would take a catalyst and a lot of time.

=)

Jude

I found my sister Emma's look-alike.  Jude has brown hair that is curly around the edges and falls to just below their shoulders, deep brown eyes that can sparkle with amusement, and a slender body build that given the right coaching could produce a stellar athlete. But it wasn't simply Jude's physical characteristics that reminded me of my little sister. The moment Jude walked in with her mother and noticed the many people sitting on the patio that she didn't recognize, she clung to her mother and would hardly leave her side. Emma used to be just as shy.  Now, she is one of the more outgoing out of the bunch of us kids. That being said, there is hope for Jude. It only took me an hour or two before we were playing “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” It wasn't without effort on my part though. It required a paper frog that actually jumps, several questions that she could answer with either holding up fingers such as how old are you, asking even more questions with a barely perceptible tsk for a no, and a paper rose. At that point her interest was peaked enough that she would answer my questions. At first she would talk through her mom, but eventually she was comfortable enough to speak to me directly. We talked about food and the fact that neither one of us like mulukhia and her favorite fruit which just happens to be watermelon. We talked about her favorite color, orange. We talked about animals and it turns out that her favorite animal isn't a nice pet type of animal such as a cat or dog, but a lion. At least that's what her favorite animal was that day. And we got a picture together. I don't think she was actually smiling in the picture because every time her mom would pull out the camera, she would suddenly remember that she only met me that night and would fall silent again. She also wouldn't look at the camera. I know cameras can be scary, but she was having none of it. The whole evening was very enjoyable. There was good food, good company, and good conversation. When Jude and her family got up to leave, each one of the younger girls was allowed one of the sweets on the table to eat. And yes, Jude took my recommendation. Who knows? Maybe she would have chosen that one anyway. If so, all that means is that she has excellent taste in her desserts. If not, then I made a new friend and that's something that someone can never have too many of.

=)

Wadi Hassa!

What would happen if you combined the Narrows canyon in Southern Utah and the jungles in Swiss Family Robinson? Wadi Hassa. That's what happens. Some call it a tropical desert. The trip didn't start out very tropical. Definitely more on the desert side of life. In fact, there wasn't a single, growing, green thing in sight. As we approached the river that runs through Wadi Hassa, everything remained brown and dry. However, along the banks of the river, green reeds and other living things were in abundance. Looking at the horizon while standing next to the river, you would see a green strip right next to the river where everything was growing. Following that would be a brown strip where nothing was growing. Finally you would see a blue strip that had no white clouds to mar the pattern. I didn't spend a lot of time staring at the horizon because shortly after getting outfitted with helmets and life jackets we were heading down the river. The first part of the adventure was the first of many “water” slides. Basically we slid down some slippery rocks. It was pretty great. Only a short while later, we reached the first pool. Most of the pools had big rocks or cliffs to jump off of, while we simply chilled in some of the other pools for a while before moving on. Two pools in particular had great cliffs to jump off of. The cliff at the second pool was the picnic spot for lunch. Lunch consisted of sandwiches, fresh tea and almonds. I think it's pretty great that Arabs love their tea enough to haul around all the equipment necessary to fix tea while sitting on a rock that has a small river on one side, and a hill that is nearly a sand dune on the other side. The worst part about eating lunch was that we had to stop moving momentarily and we weren't in the water. Because of that, the flies had a chance to catch up to us. I think I had nearly twenty flies on one sandal. I also think that the spot we stopped for lunch was the worst spot because it was around so much standing water. Other attractions in Wadi Hassa included but was not limited to standing behind a waterfall, walking through the reeds that line the river, spotting some frogs, birds and other wildlife, and sitting in a natural hot pool that didn't smell like sulfur. Believe it or not folks, water in Jordan isn't naturally hot unless it's been sitting out. However, this one stream of water is heated by unknown means that haven't always been in place. Until a couple of years ago, this stream also contained cool water. Since the water is pretty warm and bordering on hot, a few rocks have been placed strategically to dam off the stream a bit and create nice place to sit and rest at the end of the trek through Wadi Hassa. It would have been even better if it had of actually been the end of the trek. But after climbing out of the water, we then had to walk up the dusty road to where the bus was waiting to take us back to Amman. The walk itself wasn't too bad, but I definitely gained new appreciation for the significance of Jesus washing the feet of his apostles. It had only been one day and we were in water for most of it. However, that dust wasn't just sand. It was a fine powder that stuck to your skin and didn't fall off once it dried. It simply caked on more layers. The drive back to Amman was nearly as exciting as the trip down the river. As we climbed up the mountains on the side of the river, the only evidence that Wadi Hassa exists lay is the green line snaking it's way down the canyon. We had only traveled about 2 km, or less than 1.5 miles, and it took us five hours. It's crazy how time flies when you're having fun!

=)

O Susannah!

It took a minute for my brain to register that the music I heard as I was walking down the street was actually familiar. At first I thought it was because the music being played sounded like a music box on a sound system similar to the music played by the gas truck. Then I realized that the familiarity ran even deeper. The tune wasn't the Happy Birthday song or one of the other two songs that the gas truck plays. The tune came from a much earlier stage of my life. Notes to O Susannah, The Farmer in the Dell, and Yankee Doodle rang out through the neighborhood. I couldn't quite see the source of the music until I went around the corner. Then I saw a cotton candy machine. The strangest thing about this machine was not the music it was playing, but the fact that the only person in the vicinity of the cotton candy machine was the person who was making the cotton candy. It seems like every time there is cotton candy, there is also a line of eager children who are simply dieing to eat the sugary goodness. I didn't stop for any cotton candy, but I would say that the music made my day. Who knew that you could be walking in the middle of Jordan and listen to Yankee Doodle? Now you do.

=)

Rappin'

My schedule at the orphanage changes very little, but today was one of those days that was different. A few weeks ago, I was informed that other volunteers would be in charge of the activities on Mondays and Saturdays. There have been other days when I have shown up to the orphanage only to learn that the kids would only be there for a few hours. On those days, I have simply spent the remainder of the time in the baby department. I can't complain about that because those babies are also very cute. However feeding babies can get old after four and a half hours of it. Today was one of those days. When I learned that the kids would be leaving the orphanage only an hour and a half later, I asked the woman who informed me of this if they had a regular schedule when they left the orphanage. The answer was no. They didn't have a set schedule. That does make planning my days a bit more difficult, but that's also to be expected. Today the difference came when I was invited to go with them to the center. I was thrilled to accept. Eleven o'clock came up rather quickly and the bus loaded even quicker. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was excited for a change of scenery. We also didn't even have to wait to arrive at the other center for the fun to begin. As we pulled away from the orphanage, the bus driver turned up the music and the kids busted out some dance moved in the aisles. I was rather impressed at how good some of them were. All of them seemed to have a natural sense of rhythm, even the kids who really struggle understanding how to play the piano. After a bit of an adventure in trying to find the center, we finally reached the center which was really couple of dance studios in a mall. The kids from the orphanage made up just over half of the group of kids there. The rest of the kids had families who paid for them to come. It was interesting to see the difference in the development levels between the two groups as the day went on. Maxim was the dance instructor in the first room. They went through a series of warm-ups and then worked on a set dance they have been learning. I have no idea what style of dance it was, but the dance moves were things you see at dance parties in America. At this point, there wasn't a very big gap between the kids from the orphanage and the other kids. However, the other kids were a lot more focused and, generally speaking, they picked up the dance a lot quicker. A McDonald's lunch break was the next item of business. All of the children were very excited. After that, we went into another room where the kids were learning about rap. They had already made up a rap about learning how to read and write a few days before. It wasn't a very long or difficult rap, so it only took one kid about three minutes to teach me the rap they had created as a group. Then all of the kids split up into smaller groups to make up another rap. Music was pumping in the room to give the kids a nice beat to work with. It wasn't long before lyrics started flowing around the room. The only thing was that they were all coming from the kids from normal families and not the kids in the orphanage. I was pleasantly surprised at how well those kids could read and write. Then I looked at the kids from the orphanage. They had given up trying to create a rap. Some were drawing. Others were bouncing off the walls. I also noticed that one boy had even misspelled his name on the corner of his drawing. Shortly after that, one of the other women also pointed out the developmental gap. In her opinion, the cause of the gap is the fact that the kids in the orphanage don't have a normal family. As much as the employees try to create a stable and positive environment at the orphanage, it's just too hard. It's also hard for a child to develop at a normal rate when their 'normal' family situation is also crazy. Throughout the summer, I've found it interesting that the kids prefer to have me draw pictures for them. They prefer to have me roll out their play dough. They prefer to have me color pictures for them. They also don't think they can figure out how to play the piano. They just don't believe that they can do it themselves. At times I think their favorite phrase is “Ma Ba'arif.” Or “I don't know.” Sometimes, I don't know how to respond to that. At other times, I simply affirm that they really do know how to do it. After moments like that, it's really neat to see them focus and do what I had asked them to do. Bravo 'Aliek! Shatar!

=)

Fanoos

Ramadan has been creeping up on me for quite a while now, and suddenly it's almost here! Ramadan lights, commonly called Christmas lights in America, are popping up on almost every street corner and in windows throughout the city. Fanoos, or Ramadan lanterns, are also seen swinging from posts by the street vendors. These lanterns are a pretty big deal for the people here. Most of them are extremely ornate with Qur'anic script written on the glass. I found out just how big of a deal they are when I attempted to draw one. It was a bit of a tricky thing because I hadn't heard the word fanoos before. However, after I saw a picture of one, I got the general idea. But getting the general idea just won't cut it. I looked at picture after picture, and attempted drawing even more styles than I looked at, but none of them were good enough for the craft the women at the orphanage had planned. My attempts must have been getting worse and worse because, one of the women finally drew a lantern for me to then take and trace onto a slab of styrofoam. Forty eight outlines later, I could finally, hopefully, draw a decent Ramadan lantern. There are many reasons that Ramadan lanterns are important to the people. The first is that they have become a big tradition and a part of their heritage. Another is the symbolism of light. In many traditions, including Islam, light is related to God. The lanterns are also pretty. It's fun to see how people here are preparing for this holiday. I have heard of people who practice fasting so that the month of fasting won't be as big of a shock to their bodies. I see people who decorate their houses, prepare for guests, and prepare a lot of food. There are also those people who are always on the lookout for their fellow man who might need a hand. The other day, I was riding back from work in a taxi with a few other Arab men. When we pulled around a corner, we saw a vehicle that was stopped on the left side of the road. As we got closer, we could see the owner of the car trying to fix his car, while the rest of traffic was trying to maneuver around him. I wouldn't have been surprised if we would have gone around him as well, but instead, we pulled up behind him and our driver asked if he needed any help. Then the rest of the Arab men piled out from the taxi and helped the man push his car out of the road to a place where he could get help. The first thing the driver said when he climbed back in the taxi and we started moving again was a mild reprimand at the other men for grumbling about the lost time. Then he said, “This is Islam. When you see your brother you must help him.” Words to the effect that Ramadan is also close and they should be extra kind to their fellow man were also included for effect. I would have to agree with that taxi driver. That is Islam. Awareness for those around you and an effort to help them. Granted nobody's perfect, but generally speaking, those people I have been around while here in Jordan were genuinely interested in being of service.

=)

Epic Fail

At times it has been difficult to think of new craft ideas that the kids at the orphanage would enjoy. This morning, I was hit with the inspiration to make paper plate tambourines with the kids. Since I would be walking through the balad on the way to work, I knew it would also be rather easy to pick up the necessary materials. I was right. The first store had paper plates, markers, and tape. The second had the macaroni noodles that we would use to put between two paper plates as the noise-maker. The first group of kids was already in the art room when I arrived, and they were very excited to see what was in the bag I was carrying. Coloring their plates didn't take nearly as long as I had hoped it would and soon six kids were clamoring around me yelling for me to put noodles in their plates next. That was only the beginning of the chaos. Immediately after handing the musical instruments back to the kids, they proceeded to be very 'musical' with them and the volume in the room was suddenly 120 decibels. The last time I can remember being around noise that loud is when I was running the swather last summer. Okay, so that was a bit of an exaggeration, but those homemade tambourines were extremely loud. They were so loud, that every kid on the floor could hear the racket we were making and came running to see what was going on. Some of those groups of kids were allowed to come in and make a tambourine for themselves, but fortunately other groups were kept out of the room. It didn't take very long for the other women who work in the activities department to decide to find something else for me to do. Apparently, they didn't really want kids running around with hearing-destroyers in their hands. It took them a bit longer to think of something and even longer for me to understand what they wanted me to do. Ramadan is just around the corner, so I spent the next hour and a half or so outlining Ramadan lamps on Styrofoam. Turning the kids loose on decorating those will be one of the activities in the next couple of weeks. The entire activities department seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the last tambourine was finished and the kids were settled down doing something different. I was also relieved. I hadn't remembered those tambourines being so loud. However, as I thought about it, I decided that there were a couple factors that increased the noise level.  The first was that I was only able to find plastic plates.  Anything hitting one of those plastic plate will be much louder than if it hit a paper plate. The second possible difference is that the kids were much more liberal with how hard and often they shook the tambourine because it was something they hadn't seen before. However, this would be hard to prove and would require some extensive research on random groups of kids throughout the world. Therefore, I will now be changing my major to Tambourine Development and will focus my life studies on how children play with homemade tambourines.  Psych! That was a joke and I will not be changing my major. What I will be changing is the type of crafts I think of for the kids at the orphanage. Noisemakers were a fail, an epic fail. But I guess, if they had to fail, at least it was epic.

=)

Sunrise... Sunset

The day began rather early this morning even though it ended a bit late the night before. I spent the weekend camping under the stars at an organic herb farm in Ajloun which is in the Northern part of Jordan along with  the rest of the BYU interns. Festivities began yesterday evening with bread, hummous, vegetables, and grilled chicken and lamb. Dinner was served at a later time than most people had anticipated, but you'd think we would be used to the fact that nothing in the Arab world runs on a time schedule. A great example of this would be catching a bus out to Ajloun to go camping. We had planned on meeting up with a group of people at the bus station at three, but when we arrived, the bus was already full. So we had no choice but to wait for the next bus. At first the driver told us that the next bus would be here in 10 to 15 minutes, but the actual translation of that statement is that they had no idea of when the bus would actually arrive. The next bus didn't arrive. However, after sitting at the bus station for nearly an hour, another bus arrived that was willing to take a group up to Ajloun. It wasn't the normal route of that bus, so the fare was slightly higher. By that time there were also more people waiting for a ride to Ajloun or Jerash than there were seats available on the bus. So even though we were some of the first people waiting for the bus, we still had to push our way onto the bus. After arriving at the farm in Ajloun, we spent the next four hours chatting and sitting around a fire made of a few sticks and a few pieces of coal. After eating, we also sang around the campfire and danced the dubka to some lively Arabic music. Later in the evening, we shot off the fireworks we were able to buy or rather firework because we only had one firework that fortunately had 16 shots in it that lit up the sky for the 4^th of July – a few days late. Sleeping that night was an interesting experience. The ground was rocky and most of those rocks seemed to find their way to where I was trying to get some rest. I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew, the sun was peeking over the eastern hills and the neighbor's rooster was crowing. What a great way to start the day! After watching the sunrise and looking at the beautiful countyside for a couple hours, the rest of the day began. Watermelon was breakfast, galayat bandura was lunch, and then the work began. Rocky soil took on a whole new meaning. The farm where we were working is an organic herb farm. Their current project is terracing the hillside so that they can use it to grow more herbs. For the next five or so hours, I hauled rocks and dirt up and down the hill. I have to say, the manual labor felt wonderful! It's a bit different than the projects I've worked on back home on the ranch, but the dusty sweat and exhaustion were still the same. Mansuf was the next item on the agenda. I cannot lie; that was some of the best mansuf I've had while in Jordan. And that's saying something because I've had a some pretty dang good mansuf. The sun was on its way down by the time we finished  cleaning up the campsite and was completely behind the hills before I reached my apartment.  Sunsets here aren't very spectacular because clouds basically don't exist this time of year in Jordan, but it was rather fulfilling to be able to say that I rose with the sun and was still up when it set.  I mean how neat is that?


=)

The 4th of July

Believe it or not, today was not a national holiday here in Jordan. However, a group of us did gather for a bit of a celebration this evening. It's been interesting to see that when Jordanians think of American food, they always think of hamburgers and pizza. Those might not be the most common foods eaten in America, but that is the association that they have. No one even thinks about roast and mashed potatoes or enchiladas or anything else like that. So we decided to be as American as possible and have pizza and root beer floats in honor of our nation's birthday. Finding fresh ingredients for the pizza wasn't very difficult except for finding the yeast. There are so many bakeries where you can buy fresh, good bread for hardly anything that buying the bread is one of the daily chores in a family here. Therefore yeast was hard to find. Eventually we found some in the cupboard in the boy's apartment. Now that's what I call a fully furnished apartment. Everything is included from the furniture down to the utensils and in this case, the yeast. The real struggle for this American meal came in finding root beer. In this case, even the third time wasn't a charm. After visiting C-Town, Miles, and Safeway supermarkets, we were finally able to track down some good old A&W root beer at Cozmo. It wasn't an easy process because when we asked where the pop (or soda to some of you folks) was, they showed us the Pepsi and the Coke. When we asked for the root beer, they told us that they didn't sell beer or alcohol because it was haram (forbidden). Eventually we were able to get the idea across that all we wanted was a certain type of pop by the name of root beer. Dinner was a success. I mean, it's hard to beat fresh, homemade pizza with fresh seasonings, sauce made from fresh ingredients, and fresh toppings. Then we topped that off with some root beer floats. The only thing missing were the fireworks. No one had a wedding party going on, so we didn't even have that in the background. Guess you can't have everything...

=)

Ka-Boi

Sketch by Brigham Teichert

Arabs love their families and they love talking about their families. They have also loved hearing about my family and how we are ranchers. At first I wasn't sure how to explain growing up on a ranch not to mention that I didn't have the vocabulary I wanted to explain what we did. So I talked around the subject until they got the idea of what I was telling them and filled in the blank. I started out by telling them that back home, we had a lot of animals. One of my little sisters raised chickens. The other one loved taking care of her cats. My brothers and my Dad worked with cattle and owned horses. At that point they got really excited and asked if my Dad was a real “ka-boi.” Did he wear a hat when he rode his horse like in the movies? The only thing that got them more excited than answering yes to that question was adding that I also rode horses and that my brothers were also very good at roping. I wasn't surprised that they were excited to meet a real cowgirl, but what surprised me is how fixed their attention was on the hat. Maybe part of that is due to the significance that is placed on what someone wears on their head in this part of the world. The pattern on the koufeyah that many men wear tells everyone else if you are Jordanian, Palestinian, or Iraqi. At least, I can recognize the patterns for those three nationalities. Even more emphasis is placed on what women wear on their heads. Some women leave their hair uncovered, but women will wear a hijab more often than not. Some of the hijabs only cover the hair and leave the face and neck exposed. Other hijabs leave only the face exposed. Some women will also wear a veil when they are out in public so that the only thing that is visible is their eyes. Other women will go one step further than that and cover even their eyes when they are out in public. I don't know all the reasons for why they choose what style. I have heard from many different sources that the prettier the woman is, the more of her face she will cover in public... I have yet to learn all of the reasons.

=)

Football aka Soccer

Soccer is the biggest sport in many countries in the world including Jordan. I will have to admit that I have never been the biggest soccer fan. I simply was never around it growing up. About the most soccer exposure I ever had was talking to my cousin who is an amazing soccer player and playing soccer in PE, but neither one of those qualify me as an expert by any means. I had never even seen a soccer game live until a few years ago and until now, I had never watched a soccer game on TV. This Sunday, Spain and Italy will face off in the championships of the Euro Cup. Underdog Italy upset Germany yesterday with a final score of 2-1. I didn't actually go watch that game, but the day before, I went to a restaurant called Baboonej and enjoyed the game along with many other interns and even more Jordanians. Jerseys from both the Spain and Portugal team filled the restaurant along with many snide remarks about both teams. Conversation was starting to get pretty heated and then the game started. That is one great thing about watching competitions like this: you can let the players do the talking. I was privileged enough to hear many people talk big games for various players, but to someone who knew next to nothing about the teams, they were virtually meaningless words until I saw the players actually back them up. I was also lucky enough to sit next to people who were experts on the game. Shortly after the game started, the hookah smoke started drifting freely about the room. We had run into a group from the BYU Jerusalem Center, but after a bit, the hookah smoke was getting to them and they left to find some fresh air. We'll give them a break because they didn't have enough time to get used to Jordan. Yelling at the TV also started up about the same time. I didn't do enough of that to lose my voice, but there were many others who did. That's devotion to a team right there. The game was a low-scoring but exciting game. After overtime, the score was still 0-0. Penalty kicks decided the game and Spain came away with the win to the delight and relief of many in our party and to the disgruntlement of others. I was just happy to be there!

=)

Raindrops

The Castle

It wouldn't be lying to say that Jordan is the driest place that I have ever lived. When we arrived in the middle of May, the vegetation was already dry and brownd. I don't know what this place looks like in the winter, but I imagine that is the time when things are green and beautiful. I was surprised at the amount of dead vegetation I saw. Back home, May is when things turn from brown to green because we have finally reached the end of the winter. The snow melts, usually we get some showers and then things really start to dry out until the end of July to the middle of August when we get thunder storms. However, to my surprise, I didn't have to wait until I go home to see rain. Prior to coming, I had heard that they had received a couple of showers in late May the last year. I also know how big of a shock that was to the people in Amman including my director Annie who had never seen rain that late in the year before. My time in Amman has been a dry experience excluding the time spent in bodies of salt water known as Aqaba and the Dead Sea. However things were shook up a bit last Friday. The day started early on a bus headed to Northern Jordan. The first stop was a place called Um Qais. There, many Roman ruins lay on a hill overlooking the sea of Galilee. When I stepped off the bus, I remarked to my roommate that the air felt a bit more humid than usual. It didn't feel humid, but it didn't feel as dry as it has been either. That day, I also saw some clouds which is also a rare occurrence in Jordan. One of the really neat things about touring Roman ruins in Jordan is that you can walk through them and touch them and walk and stand on them. I have a feeling that if they had been in America, you would only be able to stand on a raised boardwalk and look at but don't touch the ruins.  After Um Qais, we headed south to Ajlun where a castle is still standing that was built about 500 AD. It has a long history that includes several different empires and consequent additions onto the castle. At the castle, we were able to explore nearly every nook and cranny. I did decide that if you were to have a castle, the Middle East would be the place for that. In a dry climate, moving from sunshine to the shade is at least a 10 degree difference, but moving from shade into the castle, we got another 20 degree difference. It was very cool inside that castle in more ways than one. We left the castle and climbed back on the bus to head to Jerash which has another city of Roman ruins. I believe it is actually the most complete city of Roman ruins. However, prior to going to Jerash, we took a pit stop at a game refuge. The main attraction was some deer. They looked very similar to the deer back in the States except that they keep their spots even when they are older. There were also a few people offering horseback rides on half-dead looking horses. I didn't take them up on the offer, but I did notice that the horse's tail were splayed out as if there was a storm coming. I didn't think too much of it until it started raining. It wasn't a downpour, but the rain was definitely heavy enough to get the road wet and slick. After that, our bus was fishtailing around the corners on every switchback down the mountain. We didn't die, but we also weren't able to go see the ruins in Jerash. However, a group that went on the same trip the next day reported that the castle in Ajlun was still wet and damp.  Maybe it rained a bit harder than I thought.

=)

Happy Endings

A few nights ago, I attended a film festival and watched a Jordanian film called “Habibi.”  It was in Arabic with English subtitles. The story takes place in Gaza and revolves around two people who met at college before they had to leave and go to Gaza because of the Israeli occupation. In the movie, a friend is killed by the Israeli soldiers. Because of that the main character's (Layla's) brother joins the Hamas. Layla loves a man named Qays but he is a poet who didn't finish his degree and is now working in construction. Consequently her family thinks that he is not good enough for her. Through his sorrows, he paints poetry of his love for Layla on the walls around Gaza. The words in the poems are enough to start people to talking about Layla. So her family decides that in order to save her honor, she must be married right away to a man that she doesn't love. Qays and Layla try to run away, but he is caught with a fake visa and the plan simply falls apart. After both returning to their homes, they commit suicide. He goes too close to the border where he is sure to be shot and she goes to the sea and drowns herself.
 That is how the movie ends. The storyline reminds me a bit of Romeo and Juliet, but I never really cared for that story either. I'm definitely an American when it comes to movie preferences. I like happy endings. I have also heard the flip side that many people dislike American films because they all have happy endings and that isn't real life. Maybe it isn't completely true to real life, but when you see that someone got their own happily ever after, it gives you a bit of hope that you can also find a happily ever after. In my mind it's much nicer to go through life hoping for something better than to go through life thinking that there is no way that anything good can come of life, that life is just too hard to be enjoyed.
Another interesting thing about this film is that the director also played the main character of Layla. I don't know how common this is, but she did do a great job with both roles. After showing the film, they had a brief question and answer session with the director. One of the more interesting questions was about the hijab. The character of Layla seemed to be the type of person who wouldn't wear a hijab. However, as the director pointed out, in Gaza, women wear the hijab even if they aren't religious. So to portray someone not wearing the hijab would be unrealistic. Also if I understood what she said correctly, she also mentioned that she wanted to show that there is more to every person under the hijab. Another funny question was how the main character smoking was important to the story. Were they partly funded by a cigarette company? The director hadn't even thought of that. They weren't funded by a cigarette company, but for Layla, it was a way to destress. They were probably a destresser for the director as well. Directing a film is no easy task especially when you are also playing the role of the main character as well. I'm sure she needed some way to destress. However, it just makes you wonder why she didn't choose to bake a chocolate cake or brownies instead. I find that to be a marvelous destresser.

=)

Connections

If I'm not making Cokeville connections, I'm making BYU connections. Last night, I met a girl who will be attending BYU this coming fall, in sha' allah. The visit was actually a planned event for the purpose of introducing her to some fellow BYU cougars. She just graduated from high school and wants to study accounting at BYU. Basically, she chose the right school seeing as how our accounting program is within the top five in the country. She seemed excited at the prospect of a new adventure, but her father seemed a bit nervous. I can't blame him. It would be hard to send your daughter to the other side of the world in order to go to school. He tried to talk her into going to Turkey, but she wanted to go to America. The reason he tried to get her to consider Turkey is because that is the place where he will be spending a great deal of time over the next several years as the Jordanian ambassador to Turkey. Their house was beautiful! And ginormous. I basically spent the first five minutes at their house trying to scrape my jaw off the floor. First we went through a greeting line that strongly reminded me of going through the line at a wedding reception in the States. Just after the line was the sitting room where we were served lemon and mint juice which is very delicious. We sat and chatted for a while then moved outside to the porch and did a bit more of the same. When the food was ready, we moved back inside to a large room that was perfect for serving a large group in many different ways. The food was delicious! My personal favorite was freekeh which is a dish made from green wheat with chicken piled on top.  I was also glad that I wasn't the only girl that went back for seconds. After dinner, we moved back to the porch for dessert of kanafa and watermelon. After chatting for a bit longer, we then had tea. I took the za'atar tea that was made from fresh leaves picked from their herb garden right next to the porch. We finally arrived back at our apartment at 12:30 this morning. And I almost promptly went to bed. It was a great evening!

=)

Let's Party!

Weddings are a big deal in most cultures, but in Arab societies weddings are the biggest holidays. The wedding celebration starts the evening before the actual wedding at the home of the groom. A few days ago, I arrived at one of these parties at 7 pm after receiving an invitation from the uncle of the groom. One of the biggest differences between this celebration and parties in America is that the women party in one area and the men party in a separate area. So after arriving, the women in our group left the guys to their own devices and entered the women's tent. Over the next hour, many more women arrived and filled up the tent. Then the dance party really began. Men were not allowed in the tent, so several of the women removed their hijabs and let their hair down. Some girls had long, beautiful hair that hung down to their waist while others had beautiful hair that was about at their shoulders. One thing I learned about Arab dancing is that I'm just as bad at that, almost, as at “American” dancing. I think the Arab women rather enjoyed watching a few American girls try to fit in. It didn't work very well especially for the blonde ones... Eventually, the women and girls lost their reservations about us. The younger girls, around 14 years old, were especially interested in us and kept asking us questions about things from dancing to jewelry to college life to what we thought about Jordan. Some of the girls became like additional arms because they stayed right next to us. During the five hours following our arrival, the women's tent was a big dance party with some henna on the side and the men's area was one explosion after another. Fireworks galore were set off all through the evening. Handguns and shotguns carrying blanks were also shot off at random intervals. Bubbles, foam, and sparklers decorated the area and music pulsed through the air from every corner. Mansuf was the main course. One word: Delicious! The only problem with the food was that we didn't eat until 1 in the morning. We also ate it with our hands so it was a good thing that I had practiced once before so I didn't look like a total idiot... just half of an idiot. I love that Arabs make such a big deal about weddings. What a wonderful thing!
=)

Breakfast =)

This morning for breakfast I ate chocolate cake and I feel great about that! Last night I realized that I had all of the ingredients that I needed to make a chocolate cake in my cupboard. So I whipped up the batter, poured it in a pan and prayed that I had the oven close to 350 degrees F. Cooking on our stove is very different from the cooking I have done on other stoves. For one, this stove is gas powered. I have cooked on a gas powered stove before, but the other ones I have cooked on had more than two settings for the flame like this one has. I also don't think I have used a gas powered oven to bake anything before. One of the trickiest things is that we can only light the bottom of our oven. This meant the top was the last thing to finish cooking. All I can say is the domestic goddesses must have been with me because my cake didn't burn! Ice cream on the side and strawberries on top finished the plate and made for a well-rounded meal in more ways than one. The first is that cake this delicious is very good for maintaining a well-rounded shape. The second is that every food group was represented. Sugar, of course, made up the fats section. Strawberries contributed for the fruit. The eggs in the cake were the protein. Ice cream is definitely dairy. Flour is a grain. And chocolate is a vegetable considering that it comes from cocoa beans. If that doesn't convince you, just google it and you'll see what I'm talking about. I know you are all jealous about my breakfast, so I won't tell you that it was also the main course last night – with a portion of chicken and rice on the side.

=)

Playdough!

One of my favorite activities growing up was to help my mom make playdough. I love adding the food coloring so that it turned out as my favorite color, but even more than that I really enjoyed the places you could go with a healthy imagination and some playdough. The possibilities are basically endless. What isn't endless is my list of craft ideas for the kids at the orphanage. So I hoped that if I brought playdough to the orphanage, I could entertain them for at least a week. Making the dough was almost as fun as I remembered and just as messy. My hands were an interesting tie-dye of colors for a couple days until the dyes rubbed off my skin. In one night, I made three batches of playdough and turned the dough twelve different colors. By the end of day one, we were down to eight colors which was better than one color. We also had a major mess on the floor. Some of the younger kids just didn't quite understand that the goal was to play with the dough on the table and not tear off small pieces to throw on the ground. Day two saw slightly better results with the dough staying off of the floor and colors that leaned toward gray at the end of the day. Day three is coming up. I'm rather excited to see how long this playdough will last because the day the kids get bored of playing with it is the day that I will need to come up with another craft...

=)

Burn!

As I walked up the hill toward the orphanage today, I passed a group of boys gathered around a fire. Some parts of this scenario weren't very strange, but others were most definitely interesting. For starters, it's not uncommon to see people burning garbage, but that usually takes place in one of the metal garbage cans that line the streets or in a deserted field in the middle of a group of apartment buildings and not on the middle of a sidewalk. It's also extremely common to walk by a group of boys or several groups of boys in that part of town. However I think the thing that struck me the most was what they were burning. Textbooks and old homework. School is out for the summer! I can't count the number of times that I have threatened to burn my textbooks, but the hope that someday I will be able to sell them back to the BYU Bookstore before they reach their quota has stopped me multiple times. Maybe this next semester, I'll just cut my losses, burn the books, and count it towards money spent for entertainment.

Fate of the Textbooks

=)

Mandi

It turns out that eating with your hands is an art form. There are many dishes here that are traditionally eaten from a big communal dish with your hands. With some of them, pita bread becomes the vehicle to get the food from the giant platter, with others, your fingers are the vehicle. If you have seen toddlers eat with their hands, you know how easy, and messy, it appears to be. All they have to do is stick their hands in whatever is placed before them and smear it around their face. This method would be a great diet because only a portion of the food actually makes it into your mouth. However, since we should be acting like grown-ups and not toddlers, it is generally frowned upon to make a mess while you are eating. It is also frowned upon to touch the food vehicle to your mouth and then put it back in the communal dish. In some cultures this is known as double dipping. But I have to say that when eating with your hands, the temptation to lick your fingers is pretty strong. Today I received my first lesson on eating with your hands. The name of the dish was mandi, a rice-based meal with chicken on top. I don't know what spices were used in the rice, but labna, a hot sauce, and some minced vegetables were also set on the table to eat with the rice. The setting was a table, low to the ground, with long couch cushions against the wall which are very convenient for taking a nice nap following a big meal. It took me a while to figure out how to eat appropriately with my hands, but after laughing at me a bit, one of the other, more experienced eaters, showed me what I needed to do.

Step 1: Add labna, hot sauce, chicken and/or veggies to your area of rice.
Step 2: Go ahead and mix that around a bit. Just make sure you stay in your area. It's very rude to mixwhat is in someone else's area or what is on the entire platter.
Step 3: Gather a bit of the rice mixture into your hand. Try to keep as much as possible of it toward the top of your hand. Things just get a bit more difficult if the food is all the way down to your pinky.
Step 4: Squeeze the rice. You want it to form a ball and the labna will help with that. If you don't squeeze it enough, it won't stick together. If you squeeze it too much, the juices will run out and it won't stick together.
Step 5: Move your thumb so that it is under the ball of rice and push it into your mouth. Be careful so that you don't stick your thumb in your mouth as well.
Step 6: Repeat until satisfied.

The food was delicious and part of that might have been the fact that it took so long to get every bite into my mouth so I had plenty of time to anticipate each one. One member of the group was a Jordanian. I was rather impressed at how efficient that method of eating can be. It was also pretty impressive to see how clean his hands stayed. I had to use several napkins afterward to clean up the extra labna, rice, and hot sauce that couldn't find their way to my mouth. All in all, it was a great adventure, one I hope to repeat soon.

=)

Hugs and Laughter

Looking down at Amman from the Citadel

The warm greeting I received at the orphanage today was the perfect beginning for a very hot day. The outside temperature reached over 100 degrees F today. But that's another story. Choruses of “Selina!” greeted me when I opened the door to one of the activities rooms. Along with that came numerous hugs from some kids who settled for hugging my knee and others who were able to reach my waist. Every hug was wonderful though. Children are blessed with an amazing capacity to love and trust others. I can't imagine how hard it would be to walk in their shoes, but they do it with a smile. It's fun to see how the simple pleasures in life can bring such joy into their lives. Paper airplanes, paper frogs that actually jump, a hug, a story, doing a puzzle, and many other simple things are enough to bring a light into their eyes, a smile on their faces, or even laughter. In the baby room, causing laughter is a game. So many of the babies are always smiling and seem to be on the brink of hysterical laughter without actually falling over the edge. I'm not always successful with getting them to laugh, but after being successful a time or two, I have decided that the laughter of a child is one of the best sounds in the world.

Newspapers

Samurai hats made from newspaper are pretty legit, but getting the newspaper for the hats was an adventure. Every day on my way to work, I pass several places that sell newspapers. The craft that I had planned a couple days ago was to make newspaper hats, not just any newspaper hat, but samurai newspaper hats. So that day, I actually stopped at one of the many places to pick up a newspaper. I knew that I would have at least twenty kids making crafts that day with me, so I simply picked up the biggest newspaper there. I asked the store owner how much it was and he spouted off something really fast. Somewhere in all of that I was able to pick out what I thought he said the price was. I was right on what I thought he said the price was and he was right on what the confused look on my face was. “English?” When I said that I did indeed speak English, he was kind enough to show me The Jordan Times, a two page spread in English. He was also a bit put out that I didn't want it, but I was running a bit late to work and didn't want to explain what I was doing with the paper. Besides I could practice reading news articles from what was left over. I didn't think we would use all of it, but we somehow managed to use it all and wish it was a little bit bigger.

=)

Salty Water

Yesterday I hit a new low: 1388 feet below sea level. Visiting the Dead Sea was an interesting experience. For example, once in the Dead Sea, I could actually float without needing to move my arms to stay above water. I couldn't even do that in the Red Sea. It was slightly unnerving at first to see several other people out in the water at a distance that they couldn't possibly be standing, and yet, their shoulders were out of the water. All you had to do was walk until you could no longer touch the bottom and suddenly you were floating. The water was extremely salty and I found out that I had a few more small cuts on my hands and feet than I had thought. A fellow intern attempted swimming normally, but splashed water up into his face. His eyes were red from the salt and he looked a bit sick from the water that had reached his mouth. Imagine water that is several times saltier than ocean water and then give it an oily taste and you have the Dead Sea water. After spending some time floating in the Dead Sea, some of us headed down the beach a ways to find some good Dead Sea mud. Apparently the high salt content makes it a great exfoliator. So we rubbed down with some dark brown mud, let it bake for a minute in the hot sun until it was dry and then washed it off. Between that and the oily water, my skin felt pretty good. It was also really neat to see how high the salt content was in the water. After swimming in the Red Sea, I had some streaks of salt deposits on me where the water dried, but after swimming in the Dead Sea, I had a good 1/8 inch of salt covering my skin.

Earlier that day we had visited Mount Nebo and the place where Jesus Christ was baptized by the Jordan River. Mount Nebo was different than I had expected. Mount Nebo is not very much higher in elevation than Amman, but from the lookout spot on Mount Nebo, you could see Jericho, the Dead Sea, and much of the surrounding area. From there we went down to the Jordan River. Most of the landscape near the river was the same as the rest of Jordan: basically a desert. However, when we got closer to the river, we were suddenly thrust into the middle of a tangle of bushes and sea cedar trees. These cedar trees look just like any other cedar tree, but they can utilize sea water. Evidence of this is found easily enough. Licking one of the cedar leaves, leaves a salty taste in your mouth. I was a bit surprised at the location of the baptism site. I had always assumed that it was in the middle of the Jordan River, but it wasn't. Archeologists have found what they believe is the baptism site which is a spot located just east of the river in a rather secluded area. Support for this theory comes because of the many ruins of church building that were built around the area as well as records kept by many of the ancient churches. There was very little water in the baptism site because of how dry the weather is, but the ravines around the area lead me to believe that in the winter, there is actually quite a bit of water there. Soon, we reached the Jordan River.  The water was green, murky, and not very cold.  But that only makes sense because the temperature outside was hot enough to make me start melting - almost literally.

=)

Dedication

It has been interesting to see how dedicated the people are to their religion. Most taxis that I have ridden in have been playing Qur'an recitations which I have decided are some of the most beautiful, soul-filled sounds ever. I might even track down a CD to take back with me. Many people walk around carrying prayer beads to remember the 99 wonderful names of God and consequently remember the many wonderful things that he has done for them and blessed them with. Another wonderful thing is that nearly half of the books in book stores are the Qur'an. I also feel that the hijab can be a reminder for many women of the promises they have made to God and their duty toward Him. At the orphanage, it has been rather interesting to see how Islam is a part of everything they do. Before and after eating, the children are sent to wash their face and hands so that they will be clean because that's what Islam says to do. At other times, the children are taught what to say before eating or when they are given something in order to show their gratitude towards God. One particular time, I was present while they children were being taught a prayer. It was done in a call-response manner, but the thing that really stood out to me is that the woman who was teaching them told them to speak in a loud voice to show their sincerity. I'm sure there other reasons for wanting the children to use a loud voice such as to make sure they are actually participating, but it's just one example of how devout these wonderful people are to their religion.

It's also touching to see the concern that they have for your welfare. I have only been approached once when they were actually trying to convert me, but the experience was rather neat. At first, it was just a young boy, probably 10 years old or so, who was talking to a small group of us. What were we doing at the time? Sitting on a dock at Aqaba staring at the city lights coming from both Jordan and Israel. A little way above us was a beautiful mosque that was lit up like a temple and stood out like one as well. After getting to know us a little bit, he asked us if we had seen the mosque. When we responded in the affirmative, he then told us that was the place where he went to pray and asked us if we prayed. I don't think he was expecting us to tell him that we prayed every day, but shortly after that, his uncle came over and recited a piece of the Qur'an for us. It was very beautiful and about missionary work. He was just doing his Muslim duty to try and make sure that the ignorant foreigners had a chance to be saved. What would the world be like if everyone had the same type of concern for everyone else? Dang good. That's what it would be like.

=)

Quote for the day:
LIFE is not easy for any of us, but it is a continued challenge, and it is up to us to be cheerful and to be strong, so that those who depend on us may draw strength from our example.
~Unknown

Social Norms

Cute family at Petra.

At times, the checklist of do's and don'ts seemed to be miles of small things that I was sure I would never remember. Things such as eye contact, smiling in public, and riding shotgun were forbidden. But these things are simply the result of street-smarts and a different style of respect. I feel like people, and especially women, need to be cautious wherever they are traveling whether it's Chicago or Amman. In Amman, this includes going out of your way to avoid contact with the other gender. Things such as handling money in such a way that hands don't touch and sitting in taxis without touching those around you start to become habit. It has been interesting to see how men and women react in many different situations. For example, sitting in the front seat of a taxi is a manly thing to do, so women generally don't do that. However, if there are three male passengers and one female passenger in the taxi, the men will shift in order to give the woman the front seat and therefore give her a nicer journey. There have been several times where I have been the first the passenger to climb into the service taxi only to have three other men ride in the same taxi. Almost every time, as the last man arrives at the taxi, the other two men have climbed out of the taxi to allow me to also climb out of the taxi and ride shotgun. What gentlemen! Not smiling at people is one thing that is rather difficult for many people to get used to. In America, smiling is a way of acknowledging people. Here, smiling is flirting and therefore something that you probably shouldn't do in public places. During the first few days I was here, I tried to watch native women and my facilitator to see how they acted in public. It was rather interesting to see how quickly their business face came on. Annie, my facilitator, wouldn't even greet us interns in public with a smile. For now the smile will just have to stay in the apartment and around the kids I work with...

=)

Sand!

 

Between Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba, I probably brought home a whole sand dune! Petra, one of the seven wonders of the world, is several beautiful buildings carved into the sandstone cliff faces of Southern Jordan. One of the most ornate buildings was actually part of the set for the Indiana Jones movie which is where most of its fame comes from. This year marks the 200^th anniversary from the rediscovery of Petra. I can only imagine walking through a narrow canyon that looks like something from Arches national park and then coming around a corner to stare at a giant edifice carved into the wall of the canyon. It was so fascinating to see how advanced this culture must have been. Blocks of stone created a pathway that wound through the canyons. Small aqueducts lined the paths that led to these beautiful buildings. Roman ruins lay on top of some of the older ruins. An amphitheater carved into the rock sat just off to the side of one road while older Bedouin dwellings sat on the other side. After trekking through the ruins at Petra, we headed off into the heart of Jordan: Wadi Rum or the Valley of Rum.  However, all the rum was all gone so instead we played football in the sand, participated in a Bedouin dance party, rode in some beat up Toyota trucks, watched the sun set over the desert, and went star-gazing from the top of a sand dune. Bucket List: Check! The next morning we headed out to Aqaba or the gulf of the Red Sea that touches Jordan. From our spot on the beach, we were in Jordan and could see Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. The Red Sea was beautiful! Picture water as blue as Bear Lake the difference is that the water in the Red Sea is salty. The water is also very clear which was very helpful for going snorkeling. This was my first successful snorkeling adventure! And it was a great first time. I swam through several schools of fish and swam away from even more jelly fish. I was only tossed into the coral twice, but fortunately I wasn't cut up. While most of my time in Aqaba was spent in the water, I did spend a bit of time looking at the town. One shop I poked my head into was owned by a man named Osama, but not Bin Laden. =) After chatting for a few minutes, his brother also dropped by. His brother is the Imam of the nearby mosque and invited me to come and look at it. So yeah. I got a tour of a beautiful mosque by the Imam. What an amazing opportunity! This actually provided an opening to understand how Osama and his brother, the Imam, live their religion. Both told me multiple times that everyone in the world are brothers. Osama even has a Bible in his shop. It is in English, so that makes reading it difficult, but the fact that he kept it shows the respect that he has for other religions and the tolerance that Islam has for other religions as well. This is something that I think a lot of people don't really see or think about when they look at Islam. Just something to think about.

=)

Clean to Dirty to Possibly Clean

This morning I pulled the tag off of the shirt I was going to wear to work today, but by the end of the day, it was no longer in pristine condition. Coloring and drawing pictures can be quite a project, especially if you need to tell them what they need to be drawing or have the outline already drawn. It gets even more interesting when they completely color one piece of paper with one color and then fold it into a paper frog. Who knew that handling that type of paper would turn your fingers the same color as well as anything you touch? Storytime is usually better, unless they spilled on themselves during lunch and then climb on your lap. In which case, you end up with some leftover mulukhiyah, a somewhat slimy green sauce on rice, on your lap as well. The baby room is next on my schedule and so far I haven't had to change any diapers. It seems like every day, I'm asked to do more and more in there, which is very exciting, so chances are rather good that I'll change my fair share of diaper before the summer is over. However, as excited as I am for that prospect, I did have one 'first' today. One adorable baby decided to throw up on me. It's not the first time ever that has happened to me, but it is the first time this summer.

Shortly after cleaning up a bit, I headed home to throw in some laundry because since today is Wednesday, that also means it's water day! Washing clothes in Jordan is a much different experience than in the States. It's much more labor intensive, but it's still easier than washing the clothes by hand. After filling up the washing machine and letting it run for about five minutes, the clothes need to be wrung out and placed in a separate compartment to spin out. Then you drain all the water and put in clean rinse water. Let the machine run for another five minutes, wring the clothes out, put them in the spinner, and then hang them on the line to dry. It's not a difficult process, but it's more time intensive. And judging by the color of the water when the machine is done, who knows if the clothes actually get clean or if they sat in dirty water for too long. Yep, definitely grateful for washing machines that work!

Artist?

Since I am the great-granddaughter of Minerva Teichert, I have been asked many times if I was an artist as well.  My response has always been one of two things.  Either, "I can almost draw a stick figure."  Or, "No, but my brother is really good."  This time the question didn't come as a reflection on my heritage but because the director at the orphanage was trying to figure out where I would be the most help.  Now, I spend the day trying to pass myself off as an instructer in the arts.  In the mornings, I help in the crafts room helping kids learn how to fold a paper frog or simply watching them draw pictures of things ranging from flowers to future career options.  Later in the day, I attempt to teach piano using an extremely limited vocabulary.  For starters I didn't know what to call the notes.  A, B, C... is not part of their vocabulary.  So I tried alif, baa, taa... (the Arabic alphabet).  I'm pretty sure I only managed to confuse those poor kids.  Today I had a lightbulb moment when one kid starting singing do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do.  So now I have names for the notes, but not enough words to convey what I want to or an attention span from one kid to actually get something across.  Oh well, if one kid can play one song by the end of the summer, that's success.

Cute Kids!

The youngest child in the orphange where I am working was born yesterday.  I had forgotten how small they could get!  I had thought that the babies I held today were small, but they are at least a month old.  But most of the day is spent with kids who can chatter all day.  I can sit and listen, but between their lisps and my limited vocabulary, I only catch a bit of what they are saying.  Sometimes I repeat some of the words I heard, but until I actually pronounce it right, they have no idea what I'm saying.  A prime example is the word for frog: Dufda'.  First I heard "tufdH" but judging from the confused looks I got back, that wasn't quite right.  Then I tried "DufdH" and that was close enough that some kids could tell what I was trying to say and correct me.  Thank goodness for kids who are willing to be brutally honest!  This picture is not of the kids that I work with in the orphanage, but they are just about as cute.  I ran into these cute kids at a town just outside of Amman called As-Salt.  Some fellow interns and I had just sat down on some stairs to catch some shade when these guys came out to meet us and offer us some of their green apricots.  Apparently that's the best way to eat apricots...  In return we took their picture.  What a trade!

=)

Happy Independence Day! Yesterday...

Sometime yesterday afternoon, I was given a free, small Jordanian flag and a red and white checked shouba or small koufieya, the national head dress. Shortly after that the “Truck Club” (mostly Dodges because even in Jordan, they know quality when they see it) revved on by. Nearly 20 trucks passed by waving the Jordanian flag. Right behind them was another parade of vehicles carrying flags and pictures of the king. Flags flew from every building and giant flags cascaded down the front of some of the bigger buildings in the area. Later that evening fireworks popped into the sky from several places in the city. I sat with a bird's eye view on a hill called Al-Ashrafiya where Annie, my facilitator, lives. We had just finished a delightful meal of falafel, bread and hummus. The area of town was quiet. Cars were driving on the streets beneath us, but they were too far away to be heard. But as the sun went down, the call to prayer went out. “Allah Akbar!” God is greatest! Echoes of the reminder to remember God rung out over the city as we finished our meal. Then the city grew still with the peace of night. What a wonderful day!

=)

Fun fact for the day:
The seven points on the star in the Jordanian flag represent the seven verses in the first chapter in the Qur'an as well as Arab unity.

I Think We're Speaking The Same Language...

I should probably learn how to speak Arabic. While I can carry on a decent conversation with many adults, children don't really know when to speak slowly and clearly for the American who doesn't know nearly as much Arabic. One sweet girl was kind enough to try and help me learn the basics today after asking me a question that I couldn't understand. First she held up one finger and slowly and loudly said, “Wahid.” Then she held my hand so that I also held up one finger and again said, “Wahid.” Some children speak so fast that I don't have time to figure out what they said before those words runs into the next ones they want to say. Other kids have lisps which definitely doesn't help me understand what they need me to do. But when you do understand them and talk with them, their eyes just light up! Smiles are contagious, but I think that's one epidemic the world could use more of. =) I spent the bulk of the day with children who were about six, but I also got to spend just over an hour in the first baby room. This room has the youngest babies and currently, the youngest ones (they are twins) are only one week old! They are asleep most of the time, but I did get to hold and feed one little girl. It's only a couple more days till I see them again and I'm super excited!

=)

In Sha' Allah

The past few days have been spent waiting for something to happen. Yesterday, it finally did. We were able to meet with someone at the Ministry! Each person in the internship received either a final assignment or a confirmation of the assignment they had previously been given. I am the lucky gal who gets to work in the King Hussein Society which is an orphanage for children from one day old to six years old. Basically I'm pretty stoked to be working with children. For one, children are usually brutally honest which will be very helpful in correcting my pronunciation of many words. For two, they won't be speaking English so I'll have to improve my Arabic skills. For three, children use a different vocabulary set so I'll learn so many new words. For four, those kids are pretty dang cute! I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but (in sha' Allah, if God wills) I'll find out tomorrow morning and then get to work!

=)