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
