Happy superbowl y’all! It feels like it has been three months since I last posted. I’ve been a pretty busy gal. Busy, but not necessarily productive. I was looking over some of my past entries and I realize that it sounds like I eat a whole lot of ice cream! It really isn’t as much as it seems. Anyway, I have kind of been on the go since last Thursday (the 26th). All last week I was at a camp that hosted three boys centers and one girls center (none of which were mine). I was invited by the volunteers that were putting it on to observe and hopefully do the same thing next year. Every summer in Jordan there are summer camps all over the country. But unfortunately the kids just kind of sit around and don’t do anything. There is really very little planned for them to do. Well this workshop was meant to give the kids the chance to learn to facilitate workshops for their peers at these camps this summer. The focus was drama and team building. The drama tried to focus on bringing up discussions about problems in Jordanian life, such as gender, wasta (connections), unemployment, etc. And by team building I mean things like trust falls and group problem solving. You know, the kind of stuff one might expect to see in a work retreat in the states. But the kids here really don’t have any exposure to stuff like that, and it actually fits into the m.o. of the higher council for youth here. So they flew in a ropes course guy from the states and we had translators and all that. Pretty cool overall.
So last Wednesday we found out at the last minute that the counterparts (managers of the center that work with the volunteers) had moved the camp from the valley to aqaba. That sort of stuff really happens all the time here. So, last Thursday I woke up at 4 to catch a bus to amman to meet up with everyone. And I made the bus stop to pick up another volunteer on the way. It is pretty nice. I teach exercise to the wife of the amman bus driver so all I have to do is call her up and say I want a bus the next morning. Sometimes he will even come to my house. So I can reserve seats and stuff just like a Jordanian! Anyway, we got there early. And my friend decided she really really wanted some American coffee. So we went out to starbucks. It is in the part of town that is like stepping into America for a bit. It is by the embassy and some malls and a lot of important people’s houses. So as we dragged our raggedy asses in, carrying a weeks worth of luggage and hoping just for a cup of black coffee, a blond woman breezed in past us and asked for a venti skim caramel latte… oh and some candy for her kids. Paid 5 jd, gave us a sideways glance and breezed back out to her green range rover. Yes kids, that woman exists here too. She is all over the world. And yes, I know I have very little to say since I was in a starbucks. But sometimes you just need something reminiscent of home.
So Friday we had hoped to leave to go to aqaba by 2. but my friends counterpart was really hung up on getting a calendar made before we left for the workshop. And the ability of most Jordanians to use a computer is very limited. So my friend was basically working the mouse while her counterpart hunted and pecked. Hours later we got the bus there and loaded and went to pick up the boys. At which point all the girls were ordered to go to the back of the bus. We went and crammed together under a teetering pile of luggage. Every center had brought a few extra people, so we didn’t fit on the bus. But they didn’t give up until everyone had piled off and on to the bus several times. At this time they decided the problem was all the damned Americans on the bus. So we hopped off the bus and called a cab. By cab I mean a little five person van with a covered bed. So we crammed all ten of us in and off we went to aqaba. We were rather crammed together, but when you can go literally weeks with no physical human contact you don’t mind these things so much. Feels kinda cozy. And we sang to pass the time. And I actually don’t think that anything I can say here can really give you an idea of the complete absurdity of it all. Especially when we stopped for a break in the middle of the desert. No lights around us, no cars, no people, and some of the brightest stars you have ever seen in your life. I think we were somewhere outside the dead sea.
So we got to the camp site / youth hostile around ten at night. This is when we found out the volunteers had no place to stay. After negotiating for about an hour we gave up and got on the bus to go into the actual city of aqaba. We stayed at a little cheap hotel which only had 2 rooms for us, and overcharged us. So we got 2 or three hours of sleep, all 2 to a twin bed. And then we were up and ready to start the camp!
It started out really well with a skit by us and discussion with the boys and girls. Yes, it was a coed camp. But these girls are from a really liberal city called salt. It used to be the capital back in the day. Some of them were uncovered, and I even saw one in short sleeves. My town is really nothing like that. Anyway, after that we went to start the segregated workshops. About ten minutes into our session, one of the male counterparts came in and demanded three girls to go make lunch. Ashley (the girl leading the workshop) said it wasn’t possible. But he wasn’t going to give up so we compromised by sending the extra volunteers (me and two others) to work in the kitchen. And this guy wouldn’t give up. He wanted to tell us that we were cutting everything wrong and how to do it. We told him he could do it, but I guess he didn’t really think that getting the onions cut to his specs was worth it. I also told him that if he brought me some tape I would be happy to tape them back together for him. I guess that didn’t work for him either. We eventually found out that if we just sang in English he would leave us alone. But through the course of the week I got to really like the ladies that worked in the kitchen. They were fun and we talked and they would randomly shove food into our mouths to taste. But I cant say that the blanket expectation that the girls take care of kitchen work didn’t make me see red. But at the end of the whole camp one of the boys came up to me to say thank you, and that really kind of made everything a little bit better. But having actual discussions with boys and girls about the state of gender relations here made me sad. The boys think that things are as they should be, and the girls for the most part openly agree. There really is the idea that men and women are biologically different and destined to different roles in life. One old woman at the camp said it best “women clean and men work and that is it.”
And I had some really fascinating conversations with our translators as well. These are Jordanians with extensive experience with Americans and America, so they are unlikely to believe that we really are our village personas. I even told one of them my real views about god and religion, I haven’t told any other Jordanians that. And she took it like a champ. It didn’t seem to bother her at all. And we talked about things like religion, gender, politics, family, marriage, how people feel about the royals here. Everything. Some of the best conversations I have had here. So those are the highlights of my week at camp.
The kings birthday was last week. He turned 44. so I went to a big party with my center. It was really fun. It was one of those days where I was just really sad all day. But then we went to the party and my spirits rose considerably. While we were in the center waiting to leave, one of the girls got herself trapped in the bathroom. So there we were with our nice clothes on and a pickaxe, pulling down the bathroom door. I tried really hard not to laugh, but it was fairly amusing to me. I am sure the girl in the bathroom felt differently. I also attended a birthday celebration in aqaba. I really can understand now how people get trampled to death in crowds. Yeah, it was just about that bad.
In personal news, I have had two marriage proposals this last month. The first runs the boys youth center in wadi and called my counterpart to ask her permission to marry me. She said she thought I was probably too busy and not interested, but she kids me about it all the time. The other was my schwarma guy. He asked another volunteer if he thought that I might be interested. He also said no. oh, and one of the older girls at the center has recently informed me of her decision to marry my dad. She is 23. I said no.
The other big news here is the Danish newspaper depictions of mohammed. For those of you that don’t know about it, a Danish newspaper asked its readers to send in their own depictions of the prophet mohammed. And some of them were offensive. If I understand it correctly this happened last year, but then a british paper republished them. So they have been seen in the middle east and people are pissed. Just the other day when I was at the internet there was a demonstration outside. It was a pretty small crowd of men out in the street shouting stuff I didn’t understand. But from the stuff I have been seeing on tv other demonstrations are pretty intense. Lots of Danish flags burning around here. And now there is a Jordanian boycott of Danish goods. So no more butter or cheese for me. I wont say the cheese was good, but it was better than most of your Jordanian cheeses. But people are really mad. In my village they said that if the water was Danish they would go without. But I think they were halfway kidding. They were more curious to see if I had seen the cartoons and what was in them. And that is the news from here. Oh, and in aqaba I bought my first schmag (the red and white head scarves for men). But I bought a multicolored one. I am really into it. Fun to play with. I am gonna buy a bunch more. And when you all come to visit I will show you how to tie them! Hey, gotta entertain yourself somehow… ok. This turned out to be pretty massive. If you waded your way through the whole thing, thanks! And I am attempting to upload a few pics this time. Hope it works. Im done now. peace.