I hosted my first visitor! My friend Cristella from the Berkeley Free Clinic came to visit me. She came in on a boat from Egypt. And who knew that I have connections at the port here? I had been waiting for longer than I thought I would have to, and apparently my face was starting to look a little panicked. The army guy at the door asked me if I had just come in and I told him that I actually lived here and was waiting to pick someone up. He asked where I lived and when I told him he said that it just happened to be his hometown. So he whisked me inside past security, told me to find my friend and bring her to the front of the line. So that was picking her up. She had been traveling for the last three months – morocco, India, Egypt and Jordan. All by herself. It is amazing. Makes me hold out hope for my post peace corps travel plans.
We had a great time together, although our late night talking made all my neighbors ask me if I had recently gotten engaged. Apparently girls only stay up till 2 giggling if they are going to get married…
We spent most of our time in my village. I got to take her to 2 days of a wedding as well. it was the best wedding I have been to. The men and the women had their parties in 2 separate houses, so the women really got to cut loose. Off came the headscarfs, on came the music and everyone went nuts! We all danced for hours. And they made me dance. They wouldn’t let me just sit and watch. It was pretty fun. The second night of the wedding we all piled into various cars and drove to wadi musa to pick up the bride. Everyone was singing and honking and sort of playing leapfrog with their cars. Then at the brides house all the women got out and went to fetch her. They all circled around her clapping and singing (some crying) as if to sort of psych her up for it. Then we got in our cars again and drove clapping and singing to ma’an (another town). There we ate and danced with the bride. And again I couldn’t sit on the sidelines. I didn’t even know the bride or groom, but their families wanted me to dance and so I did. it was much better than the weddings where the women all sit quietly and talk about what a great party it is.
So that is the short version of her stay.
Yesterday my center had a lecture about AIDS. From what I could tell it was less than useful. He was talking about enzymes and treatment options. Not that that is necessarily useless information, but I don’t think that it really helps the 17 and up crowd. He offered to do the lecture half in English so that I could understand what he was saying. I declined. It sounds bad, but the whole time I was just thinking of how great a workshop you could really put on. That is, if it weren’t for the rigid definitions of what is and is not appropriate here. And I still haven’t figured out why he talked about the internet and mobile phones for a half an hour at the beginning of the lecture.
I was telling a friend in an email that I feel like I am losing the will to blog. Part of that comes from the fact that I am falling into a fairly steady routine. I wake up and work on the grants I am trying to write. Maybe go hang out at work and do it. Later I go to work and give English classes and exercise classes. That’s about it. I do have other stuff going on, but that is the bulk of my life right now. So, that’s not much to talk about. The other part of is that I never really hear from the majority of folks at home. I don’t know what is going on in your lives. I don’t know what you want to hear about mine. Its like I am writing this for myself. And I know what is going on in my life. And that is what I have a journal for. Please write. It makes me feel like people still remember me. And even if I suck at returning those emails I eventually will get around to it.
I put up just a couple new pictures. One of them is at an amusement park. I wasn’t expecting to go to one, and on a field trip we just showed up at it. It was kind of like a state fair. It was strange. When I got on the rollercoaster there was a picture of king abdulla waving, as if to say goodbye. And next to it a sticker that just said “irony”. Strange. On that same trip a girl from my center bought some face soap that had a wonderful example of translation gone wrong. Or maybe someone just had a sense of humor. The bottle said “30 seconds dispels horniness”. She told me that the Arabic version just said it made your face smooth. I almost fell out of the bus laughing. And of course I didn’t tell her what the English actually meant.
So. Like I said. I am having a hard time writing this. Summer is rolling around quickly. Maybe the myriad of activities my center will be involved in will inspire me to write y’all. Till then…