taking the long way home. almost to the finish line.

Sunday, July 31, 2005

i saw an interesting music video yesterday. when people here arent out visiting or picnicing, they seem to be watching music videos. most of them are really low budget and have virtually no plot. the ones with a plot tend to be love stories. this was a different sort of love story. first i should mention that the singer is from iraq, which i figured out about halfway through it. it was a man and a woman in love. then came bombs and soldiers to keepthem apart. there were a good deal of images of american soldiers and tanks and the two lovers watching talking heads on the news because they couldnt go out and get to each other due to the war. in the end qa stray american bullet came through her window and killed her. i think that things like that make my host family uncomfortable when i am around. they dont really know if i am offended because they havent asked, and they dont understand that i really want exposure to that kind of stuff. i have tried my best to let them know that i dont like bush or the war, but the official conversation has yet to happen. anyway, this is the media we would never in a million years get in the states. just thought i would share that with you all.
there hasnt been a large reaction, or any that i can tell, to either the london bombings or the happenings in egypt. what does that look like stateside? i cant wait till i can really understand what al jazeera is saying, because that is the only news i get outside of the trips to the internet cafes, in which i get pretty limited time to surf. hmm... well on to the mundane...
the mosquitos here are out of control. i have bites everywhere. mostly on my feet and hands (even on the palms and the bottoms of my feet). you would also think that since i am covered head to toe, those would be the only places i would have them. no. those buggers bite through clothes too.
so far as village life, we have been doing practice sessions at a girl's center similar to where we will be working at our permanent sites. last week it was internet. we were trying to teach a bunch of young girls how to use email. they were about 12 years old, average, and had very little english or computer skills. we were told to use yahoo, an english based mail site. have you ever faced the prospect of explaining what a password is with body language? it was chaotic to say the least. this week was cooking. tuesday we tried chocolate chip cookies, which turned out reasonably well considering we had no recipe. we wanted to do rice crispies treats on thursday but they recommended we do pizza or tacos. we decided to make quesadillas - homemade tortillas and the like. well, it was semi disasterous. the stove didnt work and we ended up trying to fry them in the oven. not a pretty sight with tons of girls running around. the cheese here doesnt melt either. ah well. in the future stick to the simple things.
permanent site announcements and initial language assessments are next week. wish me luck. also, on thursday is my first real visit to amman! it should be fun. we are attending an al houssein summer camp for kids. i will write about it. the work here is definitely not what i expected, and i dont know exactly where i am going to fit in my health specialty. maybe basic hygiene like brushing teeth and stuff. there is so much sugar here. i am going to come back a caffeine and sugar junkie. i average about seven cups of super sugared tea, at least three turkish coffes, and 2 - 6 arabic coffees a day. and then they wonder how i can stay up with them till one am. till next time.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Life in the village is fairly predictable so far. wake up and have breakfast and tea. breakfast is usually flat bread withy olive oil and zatar (a powdery mix of sesame seeds and thyme and some other spices), lebana (a thick sour yogurt the consistency of cream cheese) and maybe jam or something. then it is down to the school for language class. we take arabic from our lcf at a girls school. on the wall of our classroom is a map of jordan. it is interesting because the map includes the west bank as part of jordan. i will post a picture later. there are a good deal of jordanians who believe the west bank is part of jordan because of some unenforced un resolutions. above the map os a picture of king abdullah. his picture, as well as king husseins picture is everywhere: schools, street signs, peoples cars. everywhere. that and the jordanian flag. even more than small town usa has american flags. there are even tapestries of king abdullah everywhere that remind me somewhat of a velvet elvis. i think that this is all from an attempt to unify the people of jordan under a state. there was a campaign some years back called jordan first. jordan has many people that define themselves as part of some other group. bedouins identify as bedouins and palestinians as palestinians. above that is also the strong identification with religion. it has made a strong state hard to achieve here.
it is strange to think that i have been here so short a time. every day feels like a week because everything is so new and so much work. i never imagined that sitting and drinking tea could be so exhausting, but everything is something to be learned. in the middle of the day i usually get a bit worn out and grumpy, but after a nap i am excited again. the closest i can relate it to is being a baby all over again. by the time i get to irbid on sundays i am fatigued. it is fairly comforting to be around a group of americans, in a way i never would have predicted. the intensity level drops and everything gets easier. we spend our time in our villages building an identity that fits with the culture here. it is not necessarily who we have been in the states. but when we are with the rest of the group we are allowed to be who we are. we can have the conversations we are used to without judgements.
speaking of judgements. people here are very blunt. i cannot count how many times i have been told that i am fat. i was prepared for a lot, but i cannot say that i was ready for people to be so blatant about my rather reubenesque look. it gets hard to sit through lunch with someone saying how fat you really are, so eat more because you must eat a ton. thankfully my family doesnt talk about my weight. i was at the house of the principle of the girls center in my town and her husband kept talking about how skinny my friend was, and how much did i weigh - must be more than 200 pounds... i was shocked, to say the least. but i think i handled myself well. perhaps they dont realize just how insulting that is. but i suppose if people are going to be saying things like that to my face i will just have to grow a thicker hide about it. but, like i said, my homestay is a respite from this sort of commentary.
my family goes on picnics fairly often on friday (our day off) or on a weeknight. they are a blast. we (and by we i mean at least 15 people from the extended family) sit around under the scraggly oak trees and make tea over a campfire. then when it gets dark, the family turns on the emergency flashers and the radios in the cars. everyone dances and sings. it is a good time. yesterday, my family turned on 50 cent - in the club and wanted me and my friend to dance. then came sean paul. for those of you not familiar, these are hip hop songs with content that is not culture friendly here. then came some raver music. they wanted us to dance like americans, but 1) it is akward to dance with an audience and 2) i honestly dont know how to dance to these songs in a way that is appropriate here. one of the uncles told me a bit about islam and told me that he was going to get me an english copy of the koran to read. i dont think it can hurt. i have read the bible, so why not the koran. besides, i think it may give me a good point of reference for a lot of the culture here, since it is so laden with religion. the aunts told me that if i converted i could marry a "nice arab boy". i told them this wasnt on my agenda. they didnt believe it when i said i was too young, but when i said i hadnt met my destined partner they seemed to understand and left me alone. then everyone kind of stood up, packed up the cars and went home. when people are done hanging out, they just stand up and leave. there really is no goodbye hubub, because most likely they will see each other later that day or the next day. back at home we visited some more. i made my first batch of tea, to everyone's amusement. it is really really sweet here. anyway, i have to make it back to the hotel.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

i am back in irbid after my initial visit to my homestay family. irbid has the highest concentration of internet cafes per capita than any other place, so i should be able to have some good internet time over the next few weeks. i am living in a town called deir abi said right now. it is about an hour and a half north of the dead sea and less than 10 k from the border with israel. i can see israel and the west bank from my balcony on a clear day. this is where i will be spending the next two months while i wrap up my language training. my host family is wonderful so far. samir is the father, leyla the mother, raef the eldest son (23), raouf the youngest son (15), rasha the eldest daughter (20) and rana the youngest daughter (10). they all speak a little bit of english and are most enthusiastic about helping me to learn arabic. every hour that i am not asleep, i am trying frantically to learn arabic so that i can say more than "my name is andi, nice to meet you, i am happy". raef is attending med school in moldova and is just home temporarily, but i hear rumours of a big party and mansef (a traditional jordanian dish involving the sacrifice of a goat) when he graduates. they asked me to come back for it, and from what i have seen of jordanian parties so far it should be worth the trek from whatever village i end up in. rasha is studying to be a teacher. my host father is a librarian at a university, as far as i can gather. the family has been very respectful of me so far, and i have not had to face the difficult questions that other trainees have: are you christian or muslim, why arent you married, have you ever had a boyfriend, and have you ever had alcohol, to name just a few. i have already met a good deal of the extended family (i would estimate at least 25 people). i think that my host mother's brother wanted them to talk to me about bush and israel, but the family wont let them. i was almost hoping that they would ask so that i could get it out of the way. when they showed me israel and asked if i knew it, i was very careful to find out whether they meant heard of or liked. it is too early to mess up and make them think that i am a zionist or something like that. the house is big and fairly well insulated from the heat. outside there is a marble deck and a fountain, and the front yard is full of olive trees and grapes. it is more gorgeous than i could have hoped for. it is up a rather large hill from my language lesson which isnt all that fun in the heat. with only one shower a week i am hoping that i adapt to the heat rather before the hot months come. my host family seems very progressive from what i can tell, and they have already told me to consider them to be the jordanian branch of my family. there has been almost nonstop coffee and tea since my arrival, which is good because so far as i can tell the family doesnt go to bed before two am. apparently in the hot months everybody stays up late, and in the cold months they sleep early. last night we sat and drank tea and ate fruit and visited on the balcony, while listening to the music from a nearby wedding. everybody here visits family and friends for hours every day. they say it is their favorite past time. somebody pulled out a scale and all of the children gleefuly weighed themselves. then they told me to jump on. i refused, saying that in the us we did not like to discuss our weight, but they would not take no for an answer. everybody discussed my weight for a bit. i dont know really what they said, but apparently it wasnt enough because my host mother wont let me stop eating. the food is wonderful, but they just keep loading up my plate, and it is really a good deal more food than i need, or want really. it is nice to be in irbid and be able to self regulate for a couple of days. so far, this has been much better than expected. i think that i may have lucked out in my assignment. on of the trainees is 75 and this is her fourth round through the peace corps. one of her previous assignments was turkmenistan and she said that two volunteers had to be sent home because there was not enough food and they were literally starving. it sounds much bleaker than the admittedly privileged experience that i am having. that is not to say that it is all rosey. there is still the fact that i am living in a place where i dont know the customs or language and is highly gender segregated. people stare and shout and honk,and i seem to cause a general fuss wherever i go. but, in general i am having a wonderful time and have not had the down moments that other people have or that i was expecting.
a note of interest (maybe): today was my first ride on the public bus. it was generally uneventful except that rock your body, by justin timberlake came on. it was all that i could do not to laugh. we are not supposed to really make noise in public or draw attention to ourselves, for obvious reasons, and it is true. i dont want to be the screaming american. the ride cost 27 grush. a gersh is to the jordanian dinar what the penny is to the dollar, and the exchange rate is roughly 1.4 dinar to the american dollar.
also, so far as i can tell, our hotel in irbid is on manamana street. i could be misreading it, but regardless, the thought amuses me.
i will be in my village tuesdays through saturdays and back here in irbid sundays and mondays, so i should be able to check email and update this fairly regularly for the next nine weeks. hope all is well in the states. also, i am fairly disconnected from world events right now, so you should send me any interesting news.
ma 'salaam,
andi

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

my first post from jordan. just to update you all. i flew into dc last week to meet my fellow trainees, had a whirlwind training and flew into jordan. at about 1 am, we flew over tel aviv. as we crossed the west bank, we could see the wall that israel is building from the plane. it was surreal. we got into amman (the capital) at about 1:40 in the morning. then we hopped on a bus to drive the hour and forty minutes north to irbid, our training site. we started lessons at 11:30 that same day. since then has been a whirlwind of culture and language training. i have almost picked up reading arabic script, and now i just need the rules and vocabulary. that perhaps sounds more optimistic than i am feeling about it. from looking at our language training manual, we have just ten weeks to learn a year's worth of material. the food is wonderful so far, and only one of the trainees has gotten terribly sick. i am, however, feeling a bit sore and fatigued from the typhoid vaccine i got today. hopefully it will subside before tomorrow. the gender segregation has not really hit me too hard just yet. i am starting to get used to the long skirts and shirts. one trainee said that the culture shock would hit the women here, and the men upon their return to the states. they are allowed to go anywhere, wear short sleeves, smoke, and go to cafes. the women, however are not allowed to do any of this. we will be cooking, cleaning and shopping. i think though, that between this and child rearing, the women may pick up the language much faster. many of the girls seem horrified at the undertaking, but i myself have decided that i will do it well and take whatever cultural experience i can from it. so far my only mistake has been to make friends with the guys, as i usually do. these friendships are a little easier than with most of the girls so far, but i suppose that when i am cut off from speaking to them it will get much easier to bond with my fellow female trainees. i have been shopping in town once, which was an experience all its own. i dislike shopping enough in the states, but this was far more intense than even i could imagine. once we entered the store (some of the girls had not brought appropriate clothing) clothes were furiously whipped around while girls tried them on and our language and culture facilitator (lcf) bargained to get us the best price. i ended up with a pair of slippers and was exhausted after only two hours. i am not yet accustomed to the time change, but i feel that tonight i may finally get a full night's rest. tomorrow is a big day. tomorrow i will meet the family that i will be living with for the next ten weeks and move into a smaller village. i will have to introduce myself using my very limited arabic as well as learn how to navigate public transportation to and from irbid. busses here run differently than in the states. i will be staying there and having language classes during the week and coming back to irbid to get back together with the group once a week. i appologize for the fractured feel of this post. i suppose i will get better at this as i get used to a public journal. hope all at home is well, and please send me mailing addresses. i would love to hear from you all.