Getting lost, one city at a time

I know, I know…I am no good at this. To show I'm horribly sorry and I am going to try and be way more proactive, I am going to bombard you with posts and pictures as I wait for the dough for my apple dumplings to rise. I am finally adventuring outside of eggs, pancakes, and stews. I figured out (sort of) how to bake on my stovetop (no oven) so I have been at making bread items nonstop for the past week, which is doing nothing to help with my weightloss goals. As far as I know, they do not sell flour in my village and I won't be traveling to the American supermarket for awhile, so there is hope!

First I want to be that obnoxious person who talks all about vacation. Living and working in Jordan with little chances to be "American", meaning wearing t-shirts, talking to guy friends, or *gasp* enjoying a cold beer at times, I felt it was time to get out for a bit. I mean, It was about 9 months… I made up my mind, and my fellow volunteer (and closest friend) Judith and I chose Istanbul, Turkey and Tel Aviv/Jerusalem, Israel for our week vacation out of country. 

My neighbors have been begging me to go with them to Palestine/Israel since I got here. They have family that still live across the border and talk about it as if it were the most magnificent place. In fact, that is about the only topic my landlord and I discuss as his wife is making dinner or generally running around yelling at kids. I can tell by the tone in his voice that he misses it with his whole heart. You see, he moved here in 1948 when most of the Palestinians were forced out, and their land claimed. He affirmed that most of my village is made of Palestinians, a fact I hear about once a month from someone here. For this reason, and many others (mainly PC related), I could not tell them I was going to Israel. I was heartbroken. I longed to tell him that I ate the fish he told me about, I saw the beach he went to as a child, and felt the same warmth from the people that he brought to Jordan with him. I wanted to be able to show pictures and tell stories of my time in their homeland and knowing I still cannot share that piece of shared experience killed me. My neighbors believed I spent the entire week in Istanbul, and were sorely disappointed when I didn't have more pictures of ALL my Turkish adventures. 

Here I am getting ahead of myself.  Let's start in Istanbul, shall we? We arrived around 6am and quickly discovered that no place in the airport exchanged the Jordanian Dinar. Luckily for us, I was traveling with some US money that Mom forced me to bring to Jordan "just in case". Thanks Mom! We had enough to get on a train and head toward Sultanahmet, the area our hostel (and the tourist locations) was located. Once there, we found that most placed exchanged JDs, so Judith was back in the game! We went to our hostel, napped for a bit, then explored the HagiaSofia (pics below), the Blue Mosque, the fountain between them, the general tourist area full of souvenirs, food, foreigners, and hookah bars. I believe on day one we got lost a few times, always managing to be down an enormous and steep hill from where we needed to be. I worked off all the calories I ate, and then some during Istanbul! Day two and three ended up being very similar to Day 1. We took a boat tour around the Bosphorus Strait to see the islands and the bridges connecting Europe to Asia, we got lost again, ate tons of fresh fish, went to the Galata Tower, got lost again, ate ice cream, went to a craft show, and finally had to catch our flight.

It was strange being in a different country where Islam was still a predominant religion. I am used to the conservative outlook of Jordan and was jarred by the contrast in Istanbul. I don't really remember hearing the call to prayer often, even though we were next to a mosque, and many people chose not to fast for one reason or another. That is unheard of in Jordan. Everyone fasts, and if you aren't, you still say you are fasting. Aside from that, the integration of both European/Middle Eastern, as well as Christian/Islamic culture was beautiful. It was frustrating feeling as if I should understand people/ be able to speak Arabic, but I couldn't understand them, and they didn't know Arabic… disappointing! That being said, I am moving there immediately. I never wanted to leave, but was excited about what Israel had to offer. Pics of Turkey below:

The Hagia Sophia

 Inside Hagia Sophia

Me in Hagia Sophia

 Me in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque)

The fountain between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (I wanted to live in this fountain)

 

The. Best. Chicken. Shish. Ever.

 

 One of the Bosphorus Bridges

The Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus Strait. AKA my future house.

The view from the top of the Galata Tower

 We got lost daily, but if you don't get lost, you never get to these little pieces of beauty, just off the beaten path.

We got into Tel Aviv and immediately got lost again. We got off the train too early, and got turned this way and that. Eventually we gave up and took a cab, which turned out to be incredibly expensive, as is everything in Tel Aviv. We didn't plan on spending much money though because our number one goal was to live on the beach. Judith grew up near the beach (she's from LA), and I have a thing where I need to be by or in the water at all times to feel whole, so it was a perfect pairing!

After putting our stuff at our hostel, we went out on the town! Well, sort of. It may be more accurate to say we went to a tapas place and then directly to the beach for nighttime beach appreciation. We walked around a boardwalk, saw amazing street art, and, you guessed it, overshot our turn and went about 30 minutes too far. We were lost again. Luckily not once did I feel afraid or threatened in Tel Aviv. We walked through Jaffa (old old old old city) at night and finally found our way back to the hostel. The next day was beach/ Jaffa/ killer sunburn day. We sat at the beach for a few hours, I lost my sunglasses to the ocean while wave jumping with children, and got incredibly sunburned. It turns out, when most of your skin hasn't seen the sun in 9 months, it is even more important to reapply sunscreen on a 15-20min basis. Silly me. 

 The beach! 

Jaffa

So sunburned! 

 The souk in Jaffa

We didn't have much time in Tel Aviv and had to grab our bus to Jerusalem. That evening we got into Jerusalem, got to the hostel and found out it was the biggest, most well-run, amazing, lovely, fun, spirited, monster of a hostel. They knew exactly what they were doing. It was perfect! I highly highly recommend Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem. They offered tours, theme nights, things to do in the city, etc. I was so happy! 

The next day we joined a free tour of the Old City to get our bearings on the city before wandering around ourselves. After wandering around for a bit, hearing the history, and stopping for photo ops, we ended up on the The Holy Church of the Sepulchre looking out over the Temple Mount and heard the most haunting call to prayer. It began with one man singing "God is Greater"…following quickly by two more mosques calling Muslims to prayer. A chorus of "God is Greater, there is no God but God…come to pray…God is Greatest". As this rang through the air, each word lingered in the air and I felt an infinite sadness. An overwhelming, crushing feeling of heartbreak. My heart broke for those who were forced to leave this place they called home. My heart broke for those who suffered while they stayed. My heart broke for the conflict. My heart broke for the families I live with, eat with, laugh with, and love. My heart broke. I began to cry with no ability to even attempt to control the tears. I felt so completely devastated. As the prayer continued and my mind focused solely on my landlords eyes and the way they lit up when talking about his home in Palestine, I had to walk away from the group and try to collect myself. I looked at Judith, with hope of getting a sympathetic smile and a hug, but I could see the tears coming from under her sunglasses. Her brow was furrowed much like mine in an attempt to understand what just happened. We never could describe that moment. I don't think there is a way to make it real for others. I know it hit me harder than it should have and I knew that I belonged to Jordan, my neighbors and their story. 

Inside the Holy Church of the Sepluchre

Inside the Holy Church of the Sepluchre

 One of the amazing pieces in the Holy Church of the Sepluchre

 At the Western Wall

Praying at the Western Wall

I was right about here when I heard that call to prayer

After that experience nothing else on vacation seemed to matter as much. We went through the motions of seeing the sites, taking pictures, and of course, getting lost. At least when we got lost this time it was in the Muslim quarter so we were able to speak with people and here music that was once anxiety-provoking, but was now the sounds of comfort… of home.

We made it back, a big thanks to Judith who had to exchange all her money in order to get me back across the border. Turns out I am not so good with budgets. I'll learn someday… maybe.

Camp!

As mentioned before, my summer has been crazy! I think I have been in village maybe three weeks this summer. The rest of the time I have been visiting people, volunteering, and helping with summer camps. I wouldn't have it any other way! Now that it is Ramadan, the month of fasting here, I suddenly have a lot of free time as my center is half operational now (the hours are strange and somedays non-existent) and my neighbors sleep all day to minimize the hardship of going without any food or drink (water too!) from 4am-8pm.

Before I share a thousand pictures and talk about how amazing the camps were, let's talk about painting my center walls and the shenanigans currently occurring. After trying several times to take the posters/pictures off the walls, I was halted because the Ministry of Social Development is supposed to come tour our place and they wanted it to look pretty for them. I thought that was fine since I still was penniless and was waiting for them to tell me an estimate of the cost. After speaking with them, I felt maybe I should talk to the Peace Corps to figure out the details of getting the money into my account. Turns out it gets a bit complicated. I have to apply for a grant through the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) and try to get funded through donations from, hopefully, all you beautiful people who read this blog. So the time I am at home, while roasting slowly in my house (it has been an average of 110 degrees where I live) under my single ceiling fan, has been spent working at my center and writing my proposal. Don't you worry; you will be the FIRST people I tell that it has been approved :) Also, let it be known that the Ministry still hasn't visited.

 

Okay, on to happier, more productive news! The first thing I did this summer was volunteer for the Operation Smile mission in Amman. I spoke briefly about Operation Smile in an earlier post, but it is an organization that focuses on dental surgery for children, typically, who have cleft palettes and the like. I was unable to volunteer for the week long mission, but the time I spent there was amazing. I got to work in the pre-operation play area. We played with the children, tried to answer the questions of worried parents, and offer a smile of reassurance when there was nothing else to give. A few volunteer nurses and doctors approached us throughout the mission and asked where we were from. When we said Peace Corps volunteers, we always got a positive reaction. One woman said she loved having PC volunteers because we were able to communicate with the families; we knew enough of the language and the culturally appropriate responses. I had never felt so proud of all the incredibly hard/ long hours I put into learning Arabic and trying to make sure I knew what was offensive/appropriate. That one sentence made it all seem worthwhile. I wish I had pictures to share with you, but I put my camera away for this mission.

After Operation Smile, I helped with an English immersion summer camp in Aqaba. This was as much a vacation as it was work. During the day I helped teach drama sessions for about 60 girls, and we had the days to ourselves after 3pm. The girls were amazing! The camp was set up so the girls were in three different teams, and rotated between Drama, Environmental English, and Arts/Crafts.  In each of the stations the girls learned a bit about environmental issues and got to do some great activities. In drama the girls learned about voice projection, improv, scene writing, acting, and environmental issues. The last day they performed a skit about an environmental issue impacting Jordan (e.g. pollution, or water waste). I have rarely met a group a girls so excited and enthusiastic about learning about the environment and working incredibly hard to only speak English. They were brilliant. Here are some of the pictures I took throughout the camp.  

  the sunset from my balcony at our dorm

 the stage!

arts/crafts project using natural things/ trash

warm ups

 teaching the electric slide during downtime. It is something EVERYONE should know

 watching one of the environmental skits

shirt signing on the last day

 volunteers getting our pictures taken by the girls. true moment of "fishbowl effect"

After the girls left, the volunteers would often nap for an hour (or some days for 3 hours), then hit it beach! Our site was a 5-10 minute walk from the beach, so I was in heaven. Swimming in the Red Sea was spectacular..and salty. It is nowhere near as salty as the Dead Sea mind you, but I didn't really have to try and stay afloat (so much for counting it as exercise). After the beach, we would often go into the city of Aqaba and find some delicious food, go dancing, watch the soccer games…this was prime EuroCup time, or just walk around the city

The second camp I helped with was a Brain Camp put on by another Peace Corps volunteer living in the Jordan Valley. I have also talked a bit about Brain Camp, but I will say again, if you would like to know more about this phenomenal critical thinking camp developed by two PC volunteers please go to Think Unlimited Brain Camp and read up on it! 

Poor Kasumi, she was stuck with me invading her house for a week, demanding obnoxious nostalgic music to pump us up in the morning, as well as the new obnoxious songs. I hope she doesn't hate me! Throughout the week the girls learn new critical thinking skills that build on the previous one, until finally they work on problem solving by using all the skills. For Brain Camps, the girls work on creating a solution to Jordan's water crisis. Each day the girls showed up, were eager to learn, asked a million questions, were respectful to each other, and didn't even complain the day the power went out and the center ran out of water. A bit more about disaster day, the power went out about half-way through the day, which meant there was no air conditioning and no fans during the hottest week we have seen in Jordan. One of the women said the temp hit 119 outside that day. This day also happened to be the day that the drinking water ran out at the center. Instead of wanting to go home, the girls sat patiently and listened without complaints. I gave them some of the materials to use as a fan, and then there were group trips to the ducan (convenience store) to buy ice cream and water.The girls were a blessing. I was surprised because I wanted to quit and go home early haha. A similar situation happened the next day, but at least this time there was water! Again, the girls did not say anything; they listened to the task at hand and then got to work on their projects. 

I have NEVER been so inspired by girls wanting to learn and participate as I was those two days. It truly spoke to the power of education and the fact that the desire to learn is here in these girls, in these villages. It is our job to find a way to get to them to spark that passion. On days that I forget why I am here, I will think about this camp and find some hope there.  

Having said my piece, here are some pictures of the camp!  Next post will be about my lovely vacation to Turkey and Tel Aviv!!!  

 

 making card houses

 pick up sticks

 tangrams

 Spot the Difference

Memory

 Blokus

photo shoot with some of the girls. Love them!

 writing her perspective/opinion on this art piece. The girls went through the "gallery" to write their thoughts on the pieces and later walked through and read all the opinions.

 girls showing off their Squiggle drawings. They were given paper with a squiggle and were told to make it into something using their creativity skills.

we made it!

summertime and the livin's...chaotic.

I want to throw out there that I have never been good with keeping up communications. I rarely write people back, never return phone calls, I've started at least 10 journals that lasted about a week... I guess it is really no surprise that I fail at updating this blog. Habit die hard people.

Instead of trying to fill you in on the many adventures I've had, I'll save them so I can have some fresh stories when I come home. Also, there are a ton of new pics on my facebook for your entertainment. I will however share my crazy summer schedule with you!

So, much like the American school system, our students get summers off to buy ice creams from trucks, play in the street, yell things at foreigners, and generally cause trouble around the villages.  My center claims to be trying a new plan this summer. The director wants our students to come to the center two days a week. Normally I would be all for this continuation of routine, ability to keep learning, etc. the problem is that our school has no A.C., only two of the classes have working ceiling fans, and the temperature here reaches 120°F in the summer. So far no one seems to know what day the students are supposed to be at the school and what they will be doing while there.

I, in the meantime, have an enormous classroom renovation project to start. I am going to paint the four classrooms. Before you "pshaw" my endeavor and write it off as a small task, I want you to look at the classrooms currently, and my sweet designs for them.

the old room...

Room 1 picnic theme

other wall-picnic

Room 2 before

Room 2: beach! this is the chalkboard wall

Room 2 Beach

Room 2

room 2 (my favorite)

Room 3 before (don't mind the people)

Room 3: circus (with colors and shapes to practice)

Room 3: circus (practice counting with monkeys)

Room 3

Room 4: before, also army child?

Room 4: Woods/flowers (I'm gonna get pics and put them in the flower center)

Room 4: visual calendar

Room 4 (Hearing disabilities room, the hand signs/ arabic for the alphabet go in the apples)

Yeah. "pshaw" now, I dare you.

Of course this isn’t going to be done for free, so I am currently seeking funding above and beyond USAID that gives PC grants. I want to use that grant possibility to get new classroom furniture for the students and not on my smaller, less expensive project. I just believe that with a happier, visually interesting learning environment, students and teachers will be motivated and hopefully gain some energy from the new looks. I'm still figure out the price tag, but I'll try to remember to keep everyone updated on the progress.

The kids being in the center, maybe, could be a unique opportunity to let them (and the teachers!) learn a new skill, work on motor skills, visual perception, colors, etc…and and that being in the center can be fun! On the other hand, it will clearly make my timeline for completion longer. I would say it would be worth it to see them having such a great time.

So, the days I am in village, that is my grand undertaking! Unfortunately for the project, but fortunately for my sanity, I will be helping other volunteers around Jordan with various summer camps. Obviously my life would not be complete with at least one camp oriented activity in the summer. Rotary Camp, you did this to me. I would maybe implode without camp. Most of the camps are Brain Camps. I think I posted information about this program before, but here it is again: ­­­­­­­­­http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1817

There are some unique camps as well, for instance, I just finished a 5 day SpEducation camp. There were three centers that participated. Volunteers staffed different stations that the children rotated through. I think the stations were: arts/crafts, yoga, science, games, relay races, music, soccer, and karate. It was fun to see the students engaging in new activities and gaining self-esteem as the days continued. Here are some pics!

Along with that, I hope to be helping with a martial arts based character development for girls camp (CDMA-Girl Power). It is a camp created by a previous PCV in Jordan. The program focuses on teaching basic self-defense to girls, while helping increase self-esteem and confidence through the character development curriculum. I took the training and I LOVED IT! Who know I would enjoy hitting people and throwing them to the ground. Clearly this is going to be a new hobby.

Oh! I will also be helping in the Drama portion of a three day English immersion summer camp in Aqaba. It is gorgeous in Aqaba and I can't wait to have a mini reunion with the other volunteers during the evenings. 

Right before Aqaba, I will be helping with Operation Smile again in Amman. My past experience with the mission was phenomenal and I know this larger mission is going to have just as much impact on my time here. 

So as you can see, my summer is going to fly by…until Ramadan. Ramadan is the month of fasting for Islamic culture. It is illegal to eat or drink anything (water included!) during the hours of sunlight. Because of this, the whole country basically stops. They fast all day and then have extravagant meals in the evening. I'm excited to see how this works in Jordan and to participate some of the days, but it will surely be excruciatingly slow during that month. Lucky for me, I will be going to Turkey and Tel Aviv for a week during Ramadan. My friend and I are ready to go exploring for a bit away from Jordan. I am positive I will need a break by August, especially with all this running around Jordan.

I feel like this is plenty long, so I'll try to update about the camps and rooms as they happen. I'll also take a million pictures, because let's be honest, they are the best part. Let me know if you have any questions/comments/painting tips!

Oh-I might do a brief conspiracy theory post about Syria soon. I give you fair warning.