PC excitement!

Hello! First, I would take pictures of all these exciting events, but I can’t find my camera battery charger. sad.

I am so sorry for being so behind in blog posts! We haven’t been spending the night at Al Al-Bayt anymore, which gives me about an hour a week for internet time. Luckily for you (and me), SPED and Youth Development are spending the night tonight before we all go to Amman to meet the directors and counterparts at our actual sites! We will be having the counterpart conference for a couple days and then go with our new co-workers to our new home for a two day site visit. I will get to see my center in Kreimeh and to see my house; we sign the lease during our visit. It all seems so crazy!

Okay I’ll back it up to the past few exciting life events that occurred before today. 

The week of Thanksgiving was a blur of people, places, and emotions. The J15s (me) went to visit current PCVs currently serving. I got to visit a village outside of Irbid, which means we got to meet up with several other volunteers around Irbid and eat Papa Johns. It was an absolute highlight of the trip. As much as I like chicken, rice, tomatoes, cucumber, pita, and yogurt…in various forms, I am very much sick of eating it daily. Jennifer, the PCV, and I got to talk about all the random questions I had, make brownies (YES!!), and watch He’s Just Not That Into You. It was an All-American night and it was perfect timing. I love my host family and my village, but it is exhausting to spend weeks trying to digest the language, the food, the never-ending questions…basically being “on” all the time. Speaking candidly in English was a breath of fresh air. The next day I shadowed her at her center and got to meet her center staff. It made me excited to learn about my center and the students I would be working with for two years. I started feeling incredibly impatient because I knew it was a matter of days (well, day to be exact) before I found out my placement! 

On Thanksgiving we were going back to Al Al-Bayt for site unveiling, but first we stopped in Irbid and went to an American coffee chain, where I ate my feelings about missing Thanksgiving. I got an enormous frilly coffee, an egg and turkey wrap, and a chocolate chip muffin. You better believe I absolutely ate all of it like a crazy person.

All the J15s got back to Al Al-Bayt excited for the rumor of the Peace Corps providing pizza for the sad Americans away from home…turns out the rumors were not true. The past few years pizza was provided, but we got the usual Kibsa (one of the versions of rice, chicken, pita, etc). Needless to say the mood was a bit disappointed. After eating lunch, we were further tortured by having to sit through more sessions before learning about our site. The wait was killing us. The energy in the room was electric and impatient. FINALLY we were a) told there was no pizza, and b) told to go outside to do site unveil.  Talk about an emotional rollercoaster. I stood arm in arm with Meg and Judith, my two “cousins”, pretending that if we linked arms, they would have no choice but keep us close to each other, and preferably, by Irbid. We all stood along the edges of the white outline of Jordan painted on the college parking lot. My name was one of the first called. Brian, one of the big bosses, yelled “Megan Mozley…Al-Kreimeh”. I ran to him and grabbed my envelope with “Megan Mozley SPED-Al-Kreimeh/ Irbid” printed boldly across the front. I ran to my village and stood eagerly listening to where everyone, but mainly my other SPED girls were placed. Judith was called….  “Irbid”. Yes! At least two of us would be together. Maggie was called, “Rumtha”. She was also close to Irbid. Slowly everyone was called out and most were being placed in the north, by Irbid. I looked at Meg, still standing on the outside of our mini-Jordan and started panicking. Surely she wouldn’t be in the north with so many of us there. She looked calm, but I knew she wanted to be in the north. She steadied herself with Brian called, “Meg….”. We waited silently for what must have been five minutes… “North Maazar”. Her envelope read “Meg-SPED North Maazar/ Irbid”. We cheered and hugged and wouldn’t stop running around exclaimed how excited we were to all be so close. Most of us are about 20minutes outside of Irbid, and Judith lives in the city itself…needless to say, slumber parties will be happening. 

After eating some sweets, we got back on the bus to return home to our families with the realization that it was Thanksgiving slowly sinking in. The bus ride was quiet and contemplative. I didn’t think Thanksgiving would be a huge deal for me to miss. I had missed it numerous times before. While sitting at my “aunt’s” house, watching a video of her wedding and slides of her family vacation, it hit me. They asked if I was tired “Inti Nasana?”  I responded “La, Ana mishtek Ayelti fe America…illiom otlaw Americii...” (no, I miss my family in America…it’s an American holiday today). They asked again about my family and I immediately started crying. It was a weird moment. I was sitting on the farsha  (the pads they use on the ground instead of couches) in the living room of a woman I hardly knew…crying while her daughters and my host mom watched. I looked at both my aunt and my host mom and noticed they also started crying with me. They asked how long I was here and I said two years. She said she was close with her mom and understood it was hard to miss someone. Her daughter, who is 17, brought me water and reassured me that two years wasn’t that long. It was one of those moments that absolutely bond people. I felt instantly closer to my Jordanian family and knew they cared about me enough to show immense amounts of empathy for me.  

When I got home, I called my mom and found out the family wasn’t coming over until Sunday…so all that sadness was wasted! I told her about my site and my trip to Irbid. I then let her know that my hos mom wanted to talk her on the phone. We prepped how the conversation was probably going to go (hello, how are you, hamdillah-thank god, Megan is fine, etc). I took the phone to my host mom and she immediately turned two shades darker when trying to remember her English, in which she is typically well versed. The two spoke over the phone about my health and happiness and my mother thanked her for taking care of me. Standing there watching the interaction, I realized that this may be the first, and only, time these two lives would intersect and the moment became unforgettable. My host mom got nervous and handed the phone back to me giggling nervously… and just like two of the most influential women in my life split paths. 

Friday afternoon two J14s had us over to a Thanksgiving dinner…sweet potatoes and all! The 14 of us went around the room saying what we were thankful for and sharing our traditions with our LCFs. They were not particularly fond of all of the food choices, but ate respectfully….I can attest to that being a two-way street at times. We enjoyed the afternoon of being American, but returned back to the host family stress later that evening. Just beyond the horizon, and well in the front of our minds, was our mid-training language proficiency interview. We studied furiously (well somewhat furiously), and I ended up doing okay, but not as great as I wanted. I received a Novice-Mid rank, and step below the Novice-High rank I need to get for the final LPI. Most trainees got Novice-Mid, but it still disappointed. After reading our rankings of our LCF, and listening to our language tapes, a decision was made to switch our LCF to a fantastic language teacher named Moaid….granted the spelling of that is probably very wrong. He has worked with us tirelessly this past week and is determined to raise our Arabic skills….in fact, he is having us meet for a class soon so…I’ll leave you with a few moments of happiness from Pre Service Training:

We are doing secret santa and I can’t wait.

We are currently watching Aladdin with all our LCFs.

I am happy to be in Jordan.

hello adventure followers!

UPDATE: PICS!

 DISCLAIMER: I wrote this in several sittings, so it may be intimidatingly long, and rambling...sorry! I haven't been able to update because of holidays and lack of computer access. 

We have been living with our host families for approximately two weeks now, although sometimes it seems much longer. I live in  a more affluent middle class village outside of Mafraq, with 9 other volunteers. Our typical schedule for the 5 days we spend in the village is as follows: 8:30-10:30am Practicum at a SPED center in Mafraq, 10:30-1:00pm Language lesson in village, 1:00-3:00pm lunch break, 3:00-5:00pm Cultural session in village, 5-9:30 family time. I try to duck out of visits and family time around 9:30 so I can have some downtime before I sleep at 10:30. Most days I wake up at 5:30ish with the call to prayer from the mosque down the street. All in all the days are long and exhausting, but in the best possible way.

I am staying with a women in her 40s, who is a widow, and her three sons, Sufian,10, Nedal, 9, and Ahmed, 6. I adore them so much for only knowing them for a few weeks! My mother works as a labor and delivery nurse to provide for the boys, which is rare in Jordan and even more rare in the smaller villages. She always shows me pictures of her at university and of her graduation. It is obvious she worked hard to get her job and loves her work. 

The three boys are incredibly energetic and aggressive.... all the time. They LOVE soccer, ahem...futbol, and computer games. For other forms of entertainment they have to get pretty inventive. Typically they just beat each other up or play with a half-deflated gym soccer ball. From what I have seen, this is the average experience of a child in my village. Some families obviously have the means to provide more, and some not enough to provide what the boys have. It is a pretty stark contrast to what is considered middle class in the U.S. 

My experience in Jordan has been more than I could've asked for when signing up for the Peace Corps. The people are incredibly welcoming and are continually amazing me with acts of generosity to strangers invading their village and are currently butchering their beloved language. I don't use the word butcher lightly...we are still horrible and often incomprehensible to the Jordanians. Since arriving in Jordan, I have been showered with candy, tea (basically sugar water), more sweets, clothes, house slippers, and more tea. Turns out sugar tea is a big thing in Jordan and you HAVE to drink it, a lot of it. I have met entire families and was for some unknown reason, immediately taken in by the whole clan. I was told my last name wasn't Mozley anymore, but was their tribal name. It was a moment of unexpected acceptance on a particularly difficult day, which made it all the more beautiful. 

Stepping away from my pretty spectacular family, I guess it may be helpful if I describe the rest of my experience. I get along well with not only the other volunteers in my village, but all the 38 volunteers thus far. I think we all really want to be here and feed off the group energy in all the right ways. I will admit I am partial to the other 4 SPED volunteers that are in my village. We spend most of the sunlight hours together in class, trying desperately to incorporate our new language lessons given by Baha'a, our friendly Jordanian language and culture facilitator (LCF). I am pretty sure the 5 of us drive him crazy with our constant questions, laughter, and general shenanigans, but he is willing to teach us and plays the role of our big brother, even if he is younger than most of us at 23. Most of the time we spend together is in class, but three of us are lucky enough to all be in the same family. Meg, Judith and I are cousins and get the opportunity to visit with the families pretty consistently. It has been amazing. The three of us have gotten insanely close and I know they will be lifelong friends. 

Once again, I'm sorry for the length and flow of this blog, but I only have access the two days we are at Al-Bayt University for trainings. Last week we didn't have center days because of Eid-Al-Adha. It is a 5 day holiday marked by slaughtering a sheep in remembrance of God telling Abraham to kill his son, then to kill a sheep instead. I'm sure more of you religion scholars can tell me more, but I feel that was the basis of the holiday. My holiday consisted of kids getting new clothes, a broken perfume bottle, a black eye after a battle royale involving two of the boys, watching a sheep get butchered, refusing to cut the warm meat (I kept gagging), visiting family, drinking tea and Arabic coffee...oh and getting a gnarly fever for a couple days. Awesome holiday all in all haha. The American mindset of being sick is to be left alone with a huge blanket, a book and some soup...instead I was asked if I was okay 1900 times a day, expected to go on visits, and eat meat with bones showing (one of my general dislikes). It was not a great moment for my cross cultural exchange experience. Luckily I wasn't sick for too long. 

Okay, I feel like I have shared plenty for this and will end for the week. I have tried to add all the email addresses given to me, but if you know anyone still wanted to follow me, please email me (memozley09@gmail.com)

Inshallah (god willing) I will update next week :)


 The boys in my family

 Facial hair Post-its for the win

 The very amazing Maggie sharing her sweet guitar skills with the village

 my family wanted to see me in the special hijab that covers my face, which is what my host mother wears when she goes outside. The top flips down to cover my face completely. It is typical attire for widows in the villages of Jordan.

 The view from the edge of my village. Please notice the trash. It is definitely an issue in Jordan.

 my village!

Amman

UPDATE: pictures below!

Greetings from Amman! I have landed safely after some serious layovers and J-15 bonding time. There are 38 total in my training group; 22 TEFL (teaching English), 9 SPED (special ed), and 9YD (youth Development). Most volunteers are from California or the East coast, but there are a few representing the Midwest; there is even another volunteer from KC! We have all been getting along amazingly well, which I think is rare for this many people. We are all similar in the right ways, but all have different strengths, it seems like Peace Corps definitely knows what it takes to be successful as a volunteer.

So far I haven’t seen much of Amman because of the training schedule. We spend most of the day in the hotel learning about Jordan, setting up bank accounts, getting phones (you should call me!), and safety issue briefings. It is exhausting! Part of that may be due to the extreme jet lag we are all experiencing. It is horrible. Going through that many time zones, on that little sleep is rough. It also doesn’t help that we are all too excited to sleep!

Tomorrow we leave to stay at the university in Mafraq to have a few more days of intensive training (including language). On the 27^th we meet our host families. That is actually what I am most nervous about. I realize they are nice and patient, or else they wouldn’t volunteer to open their homes, but it is incredibly intimidating! I know I won’t be able to communicate with my family, which scares me! Hopefully by end of the 3 months (well, more like 2 months, 1week) of total language and cultural immersion, I will be able to hold my own in a conversation with Jordanians, Inshallah (God willing). So far people have been incredibly patient with us and seem to enjoy helping us try to learn. I think they appreciate the effort to try and interact, albeit very minimal (we are talking about saying “hello, how much, thank you”…it will undoubtedly improve when I am in the village and have no choice.

I am in a coffee shop (Gloria Jean’s…just like America) and my battery is dying.

Until next time,

Ma’assalama (goodbye)

also... I will need to password protect my blog soon...updates to come later.

                                           part of Amman...maybe a 10th of the whole city

The Final Hours

So... I guess this whole Peace Corps Jordan thing is really happening. For so many months it just seemed like a hypothetical, distant possibility in the future, but it has quickly become a glaring fact of my present. I leave Tuesday morning for the next "dare to be great situation" (if you get that movie reference, you have made it to my favorites list!). I have too many thoughts, lists, packing notes, and Arabic phrases running through my head to really stop and think about actualizing my goal of joining the Peace Corps. Maybe after 27months I will be able to reflect on the whole experience.

Let me take a step back and tell you some logistics of my first three months in Jordan, because frankly, if I talk too much about how I am feeling about leaving, I may go into an intense existential crisis and I just don't have time for that in the next two days. After the Peace Corps gives me a nice tour of the most round-about way (via Philadelphia, NYC, Germany, and finally Jordan) to reach Amman, where a few more days of training will continue. We will all then be transported to Al Bayt University in Mafraq to, you guessed it, train! On October 27th I will move in with my host family for my three months of intensive language and cultural training. During this time I will be with my fellow Special Education trainees enduring 4hrs a day/ 5 days a week of Arabic lessons, as well as intensive trainings on the Special Education system, programs, and centers in Jordan. I will have limited access to computers during this time, so I do not anticipate updating until after I am sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in January 2012. I can only imagine this period of time will involve being exhausted, confused, excited, and nervous on a daily basis. It sounds incredibly overwhelming, and yet I can't wait.

I'll try not to weigh this post down with the mundane aspects involved with trying to get around in a Muslim country (especially since I have yet to do so), but I have realized the dress part is a hassle when trying to shop for things in the United States. Turns out we are not fans of thigh-length, long sleeved, high collar shirts and floor length skirts. I know we will have time to grab the necessary pieces missing, but it makes me feel less prepared while packing. Speaking of packing, I feel I should give a big shout-out to all the amazing organizations and stores that give enormous discounts for Peace Corps volunteers. They truly made it possible for me to really be ready for anything that could happen in Jordan. There is a comprehensive list of stores that do give discounts, as well as a list of those that are not so friendly to PCVs on the PeaceCorpsWiki page if you are curious.

On to the sad part, saying goodbye. I hate it. I have always hated it and have employed the habit of not saying in instead of being sad and seeing sadness in others. This is a tricky situation because I am equally sad as I am excited about my new phase in life. I also know that with the amazing advances in technology (I'm lookin' at you Skype), it will be a little less lonely during my service. I will miss you all dearly and I hope I am able to stay in touch through letters, Facebook, Skype, emails, and any other creative way you choose! I know it will be the little things that will get me through the difficult days. I am a mess of emotions and just want it all to start already!

I'll update when I can!