Things I learned about Arabic this week (that have a high probability of being false):
Tequila comes from the Arabic word for heavy. And tally ho comes from the Arabic phrase that means “come here.”
I was mistaken for a refugee this week. As a general rule, Peace Corps volunteers look a bit ragged when we go to Amman. The people in Amman are generally very clean looking and well dressed. Even fashionable. The women wear nice clothes that women in the states might even wear. And then we come in, long clothes, too big for us, washed by hand (maybe weeks prior) and probably not ironed. Most likely we haven’t showered in at least a day or two, if not longer. And for those of us coming from the south, we have been riding buses since the crack of dawn (4:30 am to be precise) and look it. So, my friend and I dragged ourselves into a coffee shop, bags in tow. There seem to be two camps on the bag issue in peace corps – one giant bag, or many small bags. Those in the small bag camp generally end up resorting to plastic grocery bags along with their real luggage. So we sit down with all our stuff – big and small plastic bags, and ask if we can eat lunch at 10 am. The look of disappointment on our faces must have been too much because the man brought us two cookies fresh out of the oven. And then when we asked again at 10:45 if the kitchen was open he said no, but he could open it early for us. When he came to freshen our coffee, he sat down and asked us if we had just come from Lebanon. Because we were speaking Arabic, and looked a little like we had been through hell, he assumed we were students from Lebanon. Sad.
Its been busy lately. Had a couple camps with my center. 4 days each, 40 girls each. I don’t even think I can talk about it. All I can say is that the highlights were few and far between. For example, wandering around Amman with some girls from my center at night. That was fun. a girl busting into my room that I didn’t even know (from a different center than my own) to rummage through my luggage and wake me up and stand about a foot from my face and interrogate me about why I don’t cover… not so much a good time.
So that was eight days of my life. And in my one day break between the two camps I hosted a trainee from the next group of volunteers. I don’t know if I convinced her I was normal or if she left thinking that she is going to turn crazy and antisocial and awkward. And then after the second camp I had a four day training with peace corps about project design. I am working on a health project with a male volunteer and my own counterpart couldn’t come to the training. So it was just me and my “man team” as a peace corps supervisor referred to them. I think that sitting at a table trying to make my opinions seem valid at a table of three men was one of the less pleasant things I could have done, but I think I did eventually manage to convince them that I was, in fact, not retarded. I did manage to get in a fight with one of the Jordanian men there (not on my project, thankfully). He was trying to tell me that nepotism doesn’t exist in Jordan (I think he got his job through connections) and that Jordan’s big problem is really free trade. I was like, whatever guy, how the hell are we supposed to fix that with a grant of $5,000 or less?
The new trainees find out their sites this week. thinking back on training, it felt like an eternity had passed in that month that it took to find out. And here in my village it flew by. I remember thinking that I wouldn’t make it through peace corps if it was two years like training. I wouldn’t go back to that for anything. So, to the j10s, congratulations, you’re practically through training. Then the rough part is over.
And to everyone else. I don’t know. I feel like this must be pretty disappointing as a commentary on life in the middle east. But this is what it is. Life is normal everyday stuff for the most part. And the politics. Well they have been more centered on Israel and the us, but not like you might expect. And I am sure you know all the same details as I do, maybe more if you have oodles of internet time. I guess I have just seen more pictures of the dead. For those of you who are worried, yes I am safe. And no, I would not be here if I weren’t. promise. So, off I go to my grant writing and large groups of girls. Stay happy.