"Life needs Movement"

Please take a moment to gaze into the sunset provided (if you don’t have one at hand) and have some existential moments before continuing this post.

Okay, so before we left for Jordan someone told us the best advice they were given was to “embrace the ambiguity”. I think my happiness at my site has been because I have tried my hardest to do just that. I tend not to overthink too many things here and go with the flow of village life. Today was a brilliant success because of that current life motto. 

The day started just like many others, waiting for the bus with my neighbor (he goes to the center), playing with the kids, chalkboard dot-to-dot, breakfast with one teacher, and outside for recess. At some point the bus disappeared and returned with what seemed like 100 16yr old girls. They came into the center and no one knew why. All the kids were loaded on the bus and I did my best to leave as well. After an agonizing conversation about not understanding anything during the workshop (which is apparently why we were overrun by giggling girls), already knowing about the topic (breast cancer/pap smears/family planning), and just wanting to leave, I FINALLY got the okay to run away when another teacher basically said “um…no” and walked out. We were done dropping off the first few kids when we realized we actually left one girl at the center. OOPS! 

We arrived to pick her up and there is a gentleman there who wanted to speak with me. He told me he is an English teacher at the school and his friend is giving a presentation and wondered if I could edit the powerpoint. No problem, I took my neighbor boy and we went to a room in the center to use the computer. We promptly found out the internet is not working and he couldn’t access his email. Okay, he said we could go to his house (his wife is home so it is okay).  I said sure to that and we were once again off to drop of my very confused neighbor boy, and edit this bad boy at his house. It turns out we live maybe 5-minute walk from each other and that he lives in the most beautiful house I have seen here. He later told me he built it (its several houses/apartments inside a compound with a playground, an enormous veranda, and a garden) for 65,000US dollars. It’s majestic. Anyway…I am getting off topic. We went up to his office and started to edit this really boring power point about something related to website interfacing. After we got half-way through, the presenter called, they have a brief conversation and then he hung up and said, “do you have plans this afternoon?”. 

 Ummm.

 Stop. 

What do I say? 

Ambiguity embraced. I said, “no, why?”. He wanted to take me to Amman to meet with her (the presenter), so we could all sit together and edit. I said okay because I was apparently feeling invincible.  After calling my center director and talking to my landlady, we were off!

He speaks amazingly fluent English and told me his life story between the seemingly non-stop phone calls. He was a police officer for 25 years, worked with the UN (in Bosnia and Croatia), retired to teaching, owns a spare car parts company, a supermarket, and is a manager for a tourist company. Oh also, he has a BA in English, Masters in Computer Sciences and is about to start a PhD in Management. Needless to say, he has some stories to tell. I was just elated the stories were in English! We finally arrived in the general area of Amman, where we went directly to the Prince Hussein Hospital and met with some radiologists. It was here I discovered that I can indeed sleep with my eyes open. After they spoke for an eternity (okay, maybe 30 min), and being invited by several doctors to lunch, we left. Next we went to a printing press to order labels and business cards. Again, ambiguity embraced. I sat, smiled (but not to men), drank coffee without sugar, smiled some more, and acted generally oblivious to my surroundings. 

Finally we made it to the Dr’s house (the presenter). She lives in one of the upscale neighborhoods in Amman and teaches at Philadelphia University (I believe). We walked in and are instantly called back to meet her mother, who is confined to her bed with a broken leg. She was approximately the age of Mother Earth, if I had to guess. She explained to me that her father is Lebanese, her mother is Turkish, she married and Iraqi, and now because of blood transfusions, she is becoming Jordanian. She was hilarious. She is an author/poet, and continues to write for various magazines, particularly on the topic of youth development. I was in awe that I even got to sit in the same room with her, let alone that she request to meet the American and she called me beautiful :)

We then spent the next 4 hours editing the powerpoint. We went through every slide and made her practice each word (it was in English). It probably would have gone faster if we weren’t off topic and laughing hysterically 60% of the time. I was just so happy to be speaking English with people. After we finished the powerpoint, we went to pizza corner and had a delicious meal of cheap pizza. At 7:00pm we said goodbye to the professor and went on our way back to the Valley. 

On our way home he nonchalantly  said one of the most poignant messages I have heard. We were talking about his life and how he is always busy, always in school, or at work, or helping someone, and he said

 “Life needs movement”

 Heavy. Let it mean what it will for you, but I completely latched on to this and connected with the thought. It was hard for me to believe this statement came from the same man, who hours earlier, after leaving me in a car for 10 minutes while he went into a store and left me to watch random children stare at me, said “You are driving me stupid”.

 We had a fantastic ride home and talked about how he feels about punishing his sons (against harshness), discipline in schools (against yelling at students), teaching methods (wants more real-life implementation), and general life stories. It was refreshing to listen to him and hear his desire to change things. Also, this was the most I think I have talked WITH someone since I have moved to my village. Normally I make feeble attempts at conversation, which then leads to me sitting in the corner during my visits with the hajat (elderly women) posse. It was nice and now he is my tutor, so win!

Thank you for the advice, RPCV I don’t remember from Staging, I am so happy I chose to embrace the ambiguity today….and that I didn’t get killed by a random man whose car I chose to get in.

Paparazzi!

So I have learned over the past couple weeks that children wanting to pose for the camera is a universal desire. As soon as I busted out my camera, I had twenty new friends! Well, not new, but they were definitely more interested in me.

I have been sitting in each of the three classrooms or the past month trying to get a grasp on what happens daily and where I can be used the most. The amount of teaching varies by day, but I have witnessed teaching regularly (on some level) in two of the three classes, so that is a fantastic start! Typically the lessons consist of the teacher drawing shapes or numbers in a small notebook that the child then identifies and colors. The same lesson is taught each day. I felt as if I was in Groundhog Day for a week as I was watching a child repeat the same action of identifying and coloring a square and the number hamsa (5). I think this would be a great place to add activities to make the lesson interesting and perhaps have a more successful retention rate. I am always on the lookout for new fun lesson ideas about: shapes, numbers, colors, etc …so message me if you have ideas! Thank you all for your desire to donate supplies to our center. I am going to speak with my mudeera and the teachers to see what they think about it and what they feel we need most. If it goes through my director, I may be able to get more donated (customs can be difficult sometimes). 

The kids and teachers are still pretty fantastic and I cannot wait to have adventures with them. Rumor has it, we will go on picnics when the weather is nice again. Right now it’s the rainy season (like the Midwest). Most of Jordan actually saw quite a bit of snow the past week, but none here. I was assured it never snows here. Several of my friends in the other villages and cities in Jordan were lamenting about the cold, lack of heater, lack of food, and the copious amount of snow. I still don’t have a heater because it isn’t cold here, no snow and plenty of food. I am absolutely lucky in that sense. On the other hand, it hasn’t stopped raining for longer than 6 hours for the past two weeks. I am pretending I am in Seattle and going along with it. It also seems to stop raining just long enough for me to wash all of my clothes and hang them up. It then continues to steadily and heavily downpour for days. At this rate my clothes may never dry. 

Other than the somewhat gloomy weather, things are going smoothly here. I am doing the Lent thing for the first time in my life and it has been interesting to say the least. It has shown me just how hospitable and thoughtful Jordanians are. After the initial look of being appalled with me not eating sugar for 40+days, they have made it a point to give me tea without sugar during visits, have fruit or veggies as a snack instead of sweets (for me only), etc. They are amazing. My mudeera (prinicipal) brought me fish and veggies one day because of not eating meat; she also brought me biscuits and breads from Amman because she doesn’t think I have enough food here to eat. As assertive as she can be at times (like when she tried to put me on the Atkins diet) she genuinely cares about me! My village has made me feel incredibly loved and welcomed on a daily basis. 

There are numerous days when I wake up and wonder why I am here, how I got here, why my neighbor won’t stop knocking on my door, why there is a child staring at me through my window (note to self: always close curtains!), how am I going to make it 20 more months. I then think of the faces of the children at my center and how happy they are in these pictures. 

 On those hard days, I have looked at these pictures and realize…they keep me here.

Some of my fantastic students: (just as an aside, photos of minors/students is not an issue here, I checked :) enjoy! )

 not that I have favorites, but he's my favorite. I basically stalk him all day. This was their lesson today, coloring strawberry shortcake for the 40th time.

Why yes, I did make that day of the week poster in the back. It says "Today: Wednesday" and then has a space for yesterday/tomorrow and weather conditions.

 Get ready for more pictures later, but please enjoy this video of an impromtu dance party in the class with hearing impairments

We have students!

So as many of you know already, I finally got to meet my students! They are fantastic, inquisitive, and phenomenally welcoming. I was urged to update my post earlier by several people, but I wanted to wait until I could take pictures because describing the center doesn’t do it justice. If I were to describe it, I would say: the center has two, maybe three classrooms, an unused computer lab full of broken computers, and a large corner office that belongs to the director. I would say the classrooms barely qualify as classrooms, as they have one or two small round card tables surrounded by patio chairs to serve as a learning space…one blackboard and virtually no school supplies. What exists in the room typically came from the teachers’ own pocket. 

This description seems sad, and exaggerated, but the pictures show this is the truth for my students. This is their learning environment. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of my students are not on an academic track to college, but should be learning the basics and some daily living skills. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to assist in creating programs and curriculum that focus on these tasks, as right now the learning in my center is minimal. There is about an hour during the day that is designated for academics, but is rarely utilized. I want to emphasize that the lack of learning is in no way due to my teachers not caring. The two teachers I have met and observed are both young and enthusiastic about teaching, but the resources are difficult to acquire and creative teaching is not something that is taught in schools here. Teaching methods revolve around rote memory and worksheets; I probably don’t have to tell you that, while rote memory has its place in school, not all students learn through this tactic. It must be frustrating as a teacher to do the same lesson every day and the student does not seem to retain the information. I am excited to be able to work with the teachers and bring some new, fun ways to reach the students. 

Discipline is also an issue with many Jordanian schools, SPED and mainstream. Corporal punishment is normal here in schools. I know from my experience and the experience of other SPED volunteers, that physical punishment is particularly pervasive in the SPED centers.  One of the teachers uses face slapping and hand slapping (with a plastic ruler or by hand) as a usual form of punishment. It is difficult to observe this behavior, especially when the student is visibly confused about the reason behind the slap. Today I watched a student start tearing up after being slapped, and I wanted to cry with him. The teacher said “he is crying, any time I hit him, he cries.” My response was, “when I am hit, I cry too”. It is frustrating to watch, but relationships have to be built first in order to make permanent change.  I am lucky to have the opportunity to teach/ model different ways of classroom management and behavioral plans that do not involve bodily/ psychological harm

Enough of my spouting random thoughts/ideas/ hopes, let’s get to what my day looks like, shall we?

 I used to walk through our marketplace around 8am to get to school by 8:30; however I was informed today that the school bus would be picking me up at 7am. I am a little sad to be losing an hour of sleep, but excited to a)have a ride and b) get to spend more time with my students and teachers who all ride the bus. We get to school between 8:15-8:30, at which time I say hello to all the students and then choose a room to observe in for the day. Later I will be assisting the teachers and bringing in fun activities, but for now I am observing like a pro. At approximately 10:00, the teachers, one classroom (I’ll describe later), and I walk up the street to the ducan (store) to buy chips, candy bars, etc that count as the snack for the students. When we get back, the students come outside, sit on the curb and eat snack until about 10:45-11:00…when we get on the bus to leave for the day. Yes, my center only has students for approximately  2hrs. I get the idea that this isn’t true for other SPED centers, but since mine is a private center, it has less governing bodies setting protocol. I get dropped off at my house at about 11:15. I go visit with my landlady and whoever is hanging out there until noon, when I hide in my house for a few hours. I do chores during this time and then go visit again around 6-7pm-9pm. It is a nice schedule so far. Later the time will be filled with working on resource development and secondary projects in my community. 

A bit about my center:

There are two classrooms…maybe three…I am not clear on this yet. I have definitely observed two of the classrooms. One class has 7-9 students and is for the children with physical disabilities. Four of the students are in wheelchairs, with differing levels of functioning, and the other three have slight physical impairments. The teacher is very motivated to teach! She is great at adapting the lessons and making sure everyone is doing something academic for at least a few minutes every day. The students in this classroom are very bright students, who really want to keep learning. A couple students were quizzing me on English words for things today! 

Clasroom1: 

The second classroom seems to be a ‘catch all’ class. The majority of the students having hearing impairments (deaf/HoH), a few are nonverbal, there are two students with Down’s syndrome, and one student who has Down’s and autistic tendencies. On any given day there are at least 8 students in the classroom, which is less than half the size of the other class. The ages range from 5-20years old in this class. The teacher has discussed the difficulty in trying to work with students with such varying capabilities, so it seems she gets overwhelmed and focuses on other issues in the center. This room is often left unsupervised (pretty typical in Jordan), while the teacher works elsewhere.

Today I witnessed something fantastic in this classroom. The students were teaching each other while the teacher was away. The older students were working with a younger boy to help him learn the first letter of the alphabet and when he drew it correctly, they all clapped for him. I was amazed. These students wanted to learn and tried to work independently on things, like writing the alphabet, learning the signs for the first few letters, and counting. I drew some connect the dot images for them and they loved them! The students were thrilled to have something to do and to show off their work once completed. When the teacher came back into the room, she seemed pleased with what they were doing, collected them when finished, put the name and date on the papers…so I guess it counted as classwork. Later she did a worksheet with them to work on counting, which they also enjoyed. 

Classroom 2:

Both classes full of students who have the potential and the desire to learn and I can’t wait to aid them in their journey. I hope that as the year (and next year) progresses, I will be able to help the teachers find new ways to work with the students, and the students will be able to show just how much they are capable of!

Sorry if this seems tangential...it just goes to show how my mind is working these days.

Currently...

UPDATED WITH HOUSE PICS!

Well currently I'm sitting on a mattress (farsha) on the floor in a room adjacent to my kitchen listening to my water boil, eating pita/olive oil/ thyme mix sandwich, drinking sweet tea, trying to decide what movie to watch, but this post is not really about that.

Sorry the title was misleading.

I wanted to give you an up-to-date sequence of events from my village. So far I have:

*  acquired most things I need to survive (still no fridge). This includes buying cleaning soaps from
    giant barrels in the back of a truck.

* sat inside a giant tin tent (think of an old shack really) with a bonfire inside for at least an hour     

   daily. I permanently smell like day-old bonfire, which no one likes.

* successfully hand-washed my clothes and wrung them out.  I have new respect for the 

   pre-washer/dryer generations. No wonder great-grandparents have incredibly strong grips.

* walked through my village market twice a day to go to work without incident (besides the typical,   

  "What's your name" that we all love so much)

* Read an O.T. manual for 5 hours at work because there were no kids (we are on break), and it was 

   not a day the physical therapist works. It was the only book in English. 

*Said "yes" to numerous questions I did not understand. I wonder what life they think I lead now...

*Found out Sandook Bareed means P.O. Box and that I should probably have a number that goes  

  along with that in the address, but they didn't give me one. I promise you if you send the 

  package/letter to Megan in Kreimeh...with the various information I gave, it will get to me I am now 

  friends with the mail ladies.
* Participated in a basket weaving workshop at my center. I am now a pro at using banana paper and
   what I can only describe as prairie grass to make fun baskets. 

As you can see, not a lot is happening in my world right now. Hopefully it will pick up when the students come back. Miss you all and I hope exciting things are happening. Give me updates!

UPDATE: for those of you not on facebook, here are the pictures of my house-enjoy!

First, here is the tent/shack I mention in some posts (I think):
View from my front door-

 Inside the tent/shack/shed-

The kitchen- cozy

 my stove top set up

 My shower situation.

Turkish toilet-

  

the living room I never use because a)its right next to the landlady hang out spot, which means not the best for privacy and b)its weird big and not cozy. 

My resouce making, internet using, reading, writing, everything area.

 

My bed. I used to have an actual bed, but it was horrible so I sleep on a farsha on the floor.

 

 A quote that makes me feel better on horrible days.

The first week

What a terrifying experience! The past couple weeks have been full of all kinds of emotions, most of them positive. 

Swearing-In was relatively uneventful I must say. We all donned our abeyas (traditional Jordanian dress) and dish-dashes (traditional Jordanian menswear) and trekked across the Al-Bayt campus confusing the Jordanian students, who were all wearing jeans. I think it counts as a cultural exchange moment. When we got to the auditorium, we were told we were going to have to introduce ourselves, say which sector we were working in, and where we were working…all in Arabic. Needless to say, we were all frantically practicing the three sentences before the service began. After the U.S. ambassador made his way to his seat with his large entourage, we all took our seats in line according to height. That means I was sitting front and center for the whole service, which was being televised on Jordanian television. No pressure. After what seemed like an unimaginable amount of speeches, we made our way to the stage for introductions and the oath. I immediately forgot Arabic as I walked to the microphone. Eventually I stuttered by few lines, and went to join the group. I was shaking as we swore our allegiance to America, well the constitution to be more specific, and to work as volunteers. Then it was done. We were officially Peace Corps Volunteers that would be working alongside Jordanian counterparts for the next two years…and we would no longer be in the training bubble with each other. We all mingled with our host families for the last time, and said the final goodbyes (but still promised repeatedly to visit).

Team Manshieh (our training village)

I immediately went back to the dorms to face the giant pile of stuff I had acquired over the past two months and tred to figure out how to pack it all. It would be my biggest challenge of the Peace Corps. I eventually gae up and opted to go on a trip to Mafraq in order to get money out of the bank, and pick up some last mnute necessities (peanut butter, cereal, and nutella) before leaving for my site. When we got back, I noticed that the pile still hadn’t packed itself, and went to dinner disappointed.

That night we were having our Talent Show…so basically Peace Corps training was summer camp for us, a really really difficult summer camp with a ton of paperwork and shots. The talent show was a booming success! Here is link to an edited remix of the night made by my favorite LCF, Mu’ad. 

Talent show
 

You might notice that my talent was not put into the video, but I had one! My talent was watching other peoples’ talents and laughing really loudly the whole time, which I excelled in. After the talent show, we decided that sleeping was for the weak and we would watch movies and have a dance party (we tend to have these every time we are together) until the next morning when we were shipped off to site. I was game for the staying up all night, until approximately 3:30 when I crashed.

 I woke up at 6:30 and got ready for the big day as they wanted us to leave by 8am. The vans all had a few people in them going to the same general area of Jordan, except for those going south. The south group (10ish total) got a giant Embassy bus to take them since they were traveling for a long time. My bus had Meg and Kasumi, two volunteers who did their PST with me in my village. Naturally we were happy to have the support, but knew saying goodbye to each other would be heartbreaking. We finally said our tearful goodbyes to the other volunteers and hit to road north. After about 20 minutes of nonstop sniffling, we settled into our ride and one by one were dropped off at our sites. I was the last person left in the van, which gave me about an hour of silent panic time. 

We rolled into my village at about 12:00 and met my mudeera (director) and the school bus at the markiss (center). After loading my few things into the van, we made our way to my house. My landlady, a hadja (elderly woman) and the family that lives above me were waiting with open arms for me to join them. I was immediately swept away to drink coffee while my mudeera and hadja talked business. When I was finally permitted to get up and see my space, I thought it was much larger than I remembered…and full of stuff! Well, full may be an overstatement, but it had a bed, curtains, a stovetop, chairs, and a dresser. In the kitchen I noticed they left a set of mugs as a welcome gift and I immediately wanted to cry. I was so overwhelmed at the idea of having to buy everything on the very small allowance PC gave us for moving in, and I found that I was almost fully furnished! I am confident in saying Jordanians are the most giving people, especially if you are a young single girl living in a foreign country. I have received a lot of “ya haram”s (poor thing!) when we are visiting, and have yet to eat dinner alone.

I have been getting plenty of invitations to visit and gift varying from a fridge to rides to the next town to get internet hooked up. The first time I visited Kreimeh it was kind of a disaster and I was not thrilled about the idea of living here for two years, but now I can say that I feel welcomed and excited about getting to meet more people and to be part of this community. 

I have completely nested in my house, as much as possible. I have pictures of friends and family up on the wall, cards that have been sent to me hanging around my world map, as well as a poster of the Arabic alphabet. I still haven’t completely unpacked, but my Cubs afghan is on my bed, so it may as well be home! I still don’t have much in the kitchen. My mudeera gave me a basket and some fruits and veggies to keep in it, a giant bottle of water (the water here is not drinkable without boiling or filtering), and on several occasions has sent me home with food for the night. I received a dozen oranges as a welcome gift from a neighbor (she had no idea how perfect that gift was since I LOVE oranges) and a bag of pita bread I bought under close supervision from Hadja. I have a knife/shredder combo thing, one fork, and one spoon. I have two travel mugs, my water bottle, and the two mugs from the set. That makes up my kitchen! I should probably get on that whole buying things to eat off of thing… baby steps. I will take pictures as soon as Mom sends me my battery charger!

That has basically been my life thus far…a lot of visiting people, a lot of tea, coffee, sweets…you name it. This is the key to surviving in a strange, new place where language is limited…eat and drink whatever they give you!  

I have news about sending me things, but first here are some guidelines:

1)     1)  Don’t send anything that could be labeled as “haram” (forbidden). This includes: magazines that aren’t news or nature related (most magazines have scantily clad men/women- a volunteer got kicked out because she threw away a muscle/fitness magazine and the neighbors saw it), booze (but that’s a given), inappropriate gag gifts…etc. As a note, if you wouldn’t send it to a very Christian grandma, don’t send it to me

2)     2) PC says letters should be sent “International Airmail” because it gets here faster

3)      3)Try not to send packages via Air or Sea Freight because they have to be cleared by a customs broker (that costs money and takes forever!)

4)      4)Typically packages over 4kg are opened at the Post Office and assessed a customs duty of 12% on contents whose declared value is greater than 20JD (so declare things as SUPER cheap!!)

5)    5) Don’t send me meds or vitamins (they have to be sent to the Ministry of Health)

6)      6)Basically…packages are great, but make sure you declare things as less than 20JD (I’m not sure the conversion rate), and don’t sent inappropriate things since they open it at the post office. Just as an easy comparison, typically people pay up to 10JD for NICE shoes,  .10$ for coffee, .15$ for a kilo of pita…so things here are pretty cheap, so it wont be weird for the contents to be less than 20JD. 

7)      My Address…I believe (im like 99% sure on this one) is:

Megan Mozley

Jummeat Shaharbeel Ben Hasnah Women’s Society

Sandook Bareed

Ajloun-Kreimeh, 51682

Jordan

I am actually sharing a box with the Jummeat (private center AKA markiss), so my mail will go to their box. My main concern is that it will be in English, not Arabic. It shouldn’t be a problem though as I am confident that I am the only person getting packages written in English so they should get to me.  Oh because I’m sharing the p.o. box with the school, please keep the envelopes looking the least ridiculous as possible (I’m looking at you mom).

I can’t wait to hear from you! Letters and always always always welcome!

Oh and I have internet in my house now, so I would love to chat with you all on email: memozley09@gmail.com, facebook chat, and through Skype (once I get a microphone).

Talk soon!

Here are a couple pictures I took of Kreimeh before my camera died
The view from my mudeera's window-

The view from the street. The hills on the other side of all the trees is Palestine/Israel (depending on what side of that discussion you are on...I have heard it referred to by both here)

So this is the new year...I don't feel any different.

Greetings! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season and were able to get together with friends and family! I can picture it now: a cozy room with giant blankets, a fire in the corner, a giant tree decorated with handmade ornaments…my family gathered around the table eating Christmas cookies and listening to carols while drinking egg nog….okay so I realize that is nowhere near any Christmas I have ever had. It typically involves the following:  a beautifully decorated room (thanks mom!) cookies I haphazardly decorate against my will after the first 10, my family watching some new movie, probably based on a comic book, and inevitably some argument about whether or not the movie stayed true to the events in the book…and I hate egg nog. A girl can dream right?

This year my Christmas looked even more radically different than my image of it. We started out by leaving our host village and staying at Al-Bayt from 24-26^th so we could have a somewhat American holiday. On the 24^th we went to see the Peace Corps office in Amman and then to the Embassy for a Christmas lunch. We all got on our enormous bus and waited anxiously to get on the road to Amman. Our training director wished us luck and then dropped the bomb that our group had our very first Early Termination. She was an older woman who went home because her mother was ill. After we got the news, we sat in contemplation for approximately two minutes before the caroling began and we were off to Amman. Most people that know me know I am in no way a fan of Christmas carols…well more specifically listening to a month of Christmas songs nonstop. The caroling was nice for about five minutes, and then I popped in my headphones and listened to my own Christmas mix, having nothing to do with Christmas. Well, it had to do with Christmas in the fact that the music was from Kevin’s various Christmas mixes…thanks Kevin!

We got to the Peace Corps office and were supposed to get into groups, fill out a getting to know you worksheet, and meet everyone in the office. The introduction day turned into us spending two hours in the PCV lounge going through the shelves of books, the heaps of movies, and the mounds of clothing left behind by the previous volunteers. The room full of free wonders became the final tour spot for most of us, much to the annoyance of our secretary who planned the tour worksheet activity. I left with a few movies and books to take with me to my village. We then filed back onto our bus and set off for the Embassy. I wish I could tell you all about the Embassy, but security risk…blah blah…so I won’t describe it much. We got inside and it was the perfect image of a Christmas party, there were trees decorated, giant gingerbread villages, hot chocolate, the works! Our other training director welcomed us and read a lovely letter from President Obama thanking us for service. He then told us the lunch was only possible through the donations of Embassy workers…thanks guys! We then ate more than I have ever eaten. We had turkey, stuffing, roast beef, sweet potatoes, veggies, and of course…pumpkin pie!! After eating, we chatted with the J13s and J14s that were at party and got to know our new family a bit more! Eventually we were forced back on our bus and shipped back to Al Al-Bayt for Christmas Eve.

Some of us at the PC office blatantly stolen from another volunteer (thanks Evyn)

In true J15 fashion, we chose to celebrate Christmas Eve with a crazy outfit dance party DJed by my LCF, Mu’ad. I must say it was a huge success! Meg and I made signs, which means Meg sat in my room and made the signs while I watched, and we posted them around the room. I believe everyone attended for a bit and we all decided a couple hours of continuous dancing was the most cardio we have done in the past couple months. It died down and the room became the card playing/ internet room (it’s normal role) while people talked to family members and reminisced about Christmases past.

Dance party pics courtesy of Michelle:

Christmas morning it was raining. We have to walk outside our dorm building, across the parking lot, and into another building to get to our meals…so we schlepped across the parking lot to get our special Christmas breakfast of pita, cheese, cucumber, tomato, and falafel. At least our chef said to me “I prayed to my God that there would be snow for you on Christmas”. I instantly wanted to cry and hug him, neither of which are appropriate, so I thanked him, took my usual breakfast, and left. I told as many people as possible about it, and they had the same response, so I guess we were all missing home a little. 

As is the Peace Corps way, we had a couple sessions on Christmas. Our warm-up was brought to us by a J13 who was leaving. She made a White Elephant game and we got all the stuff she didn’t want to pack. In a way, it was perfect! Naturally the warm-up took longer than expected, so language was shortened, which was good because none of us were mentally checked-in for learning on Christmas. After an excruciatingly slow morning, we ate our special Christmas lunch of Kibsa (what we eat EVERY lunch at the university), and I went to my room to watch Tron:Legacy  (Merry Christmas to me, I gave myself the gift of Daft Punk and Garrett Hedlund. After about an hour, we decided to all get together for the Secret Santa finale!

We gathered in the dance party, internet, movie, card room (AKA the Training Of Teachers room officially) and set our presents under a tree drawn on butcher paper. There were farshas thrown about, sleeping bags around, people in giant sweaters, the heaters were on, and a slight glow came in through the windows, providing the perfect Christmas morning effect. We paused Office Space, and started the gift giving. Everyone had a gift and as far as I know, people were happy to have some semblance of Christmas involved in Jordan. We included the LCFs and counted it as a cultural exchange. One LCF received a handmade card, and instantly started crying…apparently handmade items have the same effect everywhere.

I found out Meg drew my name and was my very own Secret Santa! She gave me a Wenik card (to call home), a jar of Nutella (LOVE), and the best mug I have ever seen, it comes with a spoon! It was perfect!  I immediately went back to my room to eat my Nutella and watch the rest of Tron. I also took a much needed three-hour nap. When I woke up, I joined my  PC family in the multipurpose room to talk to family, play cards, and just be together.

Our SPED-Manshieh group with Mu'ad

Christmas was more than I could ask for. 

After Christmas it was business as usual and we had a fun-filled day of sessions and were taken back to our training villages. I was greeted by my lovely family, who made me a homemade card calling me precious, and gifts of chocolate and lotion. I felt incredibly loved and it hit me that my time with them was limited, as we only had a week before we moved out of training villages and ended PST. The next few days were spent getting ready for the LPI and spending as much time as possible with my family.

As expected, LPI day was horrible. I was incredibly stressed about not knowing Arabic and felt self-conscious about every word I said. During my test, the interviewer asked me about the plot to both Batman and Groundhog day…turns out I don’t have words for either of those plots…I can barely explain them in English, let alone Arabic. I left the room feeling defeated and sat with everyone as each one came out of the room feeling confident; it was unpleasant. We then had to wait a couple days before we got the results. I achieved Novice-High, which is what I needed, but I am incredibly disappointed with it. The other trainees in my village got Intermediate-Low so that was a bummer for me. I feel like I am the incapable one of the group, even if we aren’t supposed to be comparing. I don’t know, it was one of those moments where I felt like I disappointed my LCF and, as many of you know, I don’t handle disappointing people very well. So that’s where my mental state is right now.

Anyway, on to my experience leaving the village, it was awful. I felt so connected with my family and it broke my heart to leave them. Like some divine act, the power in my house went out and we sat around the kerosene sobba and the old-school oil lamp in the kitchen. My new grandmother, aunt, uncle, and the cousins were over to wish me safe travels. We all sat in a sort of calm silence for an hour and discussed the fact that I have nothing when I move to site. I learned some quick cooking tips, and politely reminded them that I would not have a stove-top at first. Of course the first appalled reaction was my aunt saying “but how are you supposed to make tea?!” I felt it was a perfect Jordanian response. They left and I promised to visit as much as possible. 

I miss these guys!

The next morning was a blur of tears, promises to visit, promises to eat more than pita and cheese sandwiches, promises to call, promises to buy a sobba…and more tears. I finally made it out of the house as my hostmom was crying at the front door. The bus picked us up and we made our final ride from Manshieh to Mafraq. In two days I will be swearing in with 36 other trainees, and we will be the official J15 Peace Corps Volunteer group. It seems to have gone so fast, and yet so slow all at once! Our host families will be at the swearing-in and we will be forced to say our final goodbye (until we visit of course!). 

On the 4^th I move to my site…with nothing but my two giant bags and the miscellaneous things I have acquired since coming to Jordan. It is completely surreal. I hope I learn to love Kreimeh. I hope I learn to cook. Hopefully I get internet hooked up within the first week so I can inundate the blog with pictures stolen from other volunteers, boring blog posts, and facebook updates. When I move to site the markiss will be on holiday for a month so I will have nothing to do but learn my way around and hopefully buy my necessities. This may be it for a while team, so I made it nice and long for you. 

You’re welcome- wish me luck!