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

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Snow? In Jordan? Yes. As I typed this I was sitting inside my house looking out the door at six inches of snow in my front yard. My pipes were frozen and I had no water. And the electricity had just come on after a brief six hours without. But the electricity was of little concern. The only thing I use it for is the water heater (see above), the tv (which has no reception because there is snow on the dish) and the refrigerator. Nothing is going to go bad in this weather. Worst case scenario I could stick it in the snow. The 26th was a beautiful sunny day and I thought that people were just kidding when they said that snow was coming. And blam!! I wake up the 27th to a snow day. It snowed all day. And there was such a large drift of snow on my gate that I couldn’t open it. so, I was literally snowed in to my house and yard. All the people in my village were very concerned about the crazy girl that lives alone with no family. You see, when it snows in the village, everything shuts down. No one leaves the village. No stores open. Nothing actually functions. So they all wanted to call and have their children jump the fence to make sure I had gas for my heater and enough food and water, and most importantly was still alive. I look like a little dragon when I sleep because of the steam that comes out of my nose when I breathe. It wasn’t so bad. Snow can even make a dirt and rock desert look clean. And it was just a couple days late for a white Christmas. Christmas was unimpressive. I stayed in my house mostly. I did get a couple of gifts from villagers, which was nice. It was nice to be remembered. I have finally gotten to a place in my village where they are totally not threatened by my not being muslim and the attempts at conversion are genuinely because they don’t want me to go to hell. They tell me I look better with my head uncovered. And remember Christian holidays. Of course I have a hard time getting all the bible stories right. And they ask to see my cross necklace that they think all Christians wear. I tell them that I left mine in America.
In other news, I’m famous in Jordan. Well, not actually famous. Recently, there was a new worldwide peace corps director appointed. And a couple of months ago he came to Morocco and Jordan as sort of a kick off visit. He was only here for less than a week, I think and could only see one or two volunteers working. But seeing as how I am just so conveniently close to Petra, a visit to my center was fit nicely in between being received by the king and a visit to Petra. My center is tiny and the whole thing felt just a touch overwhelming. We knew about 60 or more girls were coming for the visit. And we knew the director would have some sort of entourage as well. They wanted to observe us doing some sort of normal activity at our jobs, so I just decided to do my normal English class. My English class right now is about 70 5th and 6th grade girls. I had told them that a guest was coming and taught them to stand up and say nice to meet you. The director’s entourage ended up being about 13 strong. And every time someone walked in the room my poor girls all got up and looked frantically at me to see if it was indeed said person who it would be “nice to meet”. The girls weren’t the only ones on edge. Up until they had all shown up my center ladies were hurrying here and there making sure everything was just so. And asking me if I was nervous. I said I wasn’t. it was just an English class like every day. But then when the country director, his wife, the regional director, my country director, a PR person and a woman with a camera who wanted me to wear a microphone all came walking into my center I thought that I just might have a stroke. My cool, calm, collectedness vanished and I was left red faced and stuttering. I don’t really remember what I said, but someone does, because I was on film with a special microphone. Whee. I do remember that somehow I ended up telling them about my whole life in music and marching band. That must have made some sort of lasting impression. My English lesson plan was to teach body parts. And end with a grand finale of teaching the girls to sing head shoulders knees and toes. It went over well enough for me and my girls being ever aware of the presence of a large group of Americans in suits. Something I have found since being here is that Americans are really really tall. So they make an impressive group. And as I taught my girls head shoulders knees and toes I was suddenly possessed with some sort of demon that made me think it would be a good idea to get all these important people to come sing and dance for my girls. So I suggested the idea to the girls in Arabic and then sprung it on my guests. They were all excellent sports and came and played along. I heaved a sigh of relief thinking that it was over and I had breezed through the whole thing. But no. It was time for my close up. I am sure that I wouldn’t have worn such a ridiculous outfit if I had really thought about the possibility of camera time. Also, I may have waited to dye my hair an unnatural shade of red. I am not even sure that whatever came out of my mouth in response to her questions wasn’t complete gibberish. But, I did my best. And then she told me to get a group of my girls and walk away from and toward the camera without looking at it and “being totally candid” with my girls. The girls obliged, but thought that we were doing just about the craziest thing in the world. And the photo shoot really did mark the end of the visit. I think I went home and collapsed in a heap. But back to the fame. A few days later I picked up the Jordan Times and what is there but a picture of me and all the important visitors at my center pointing at our noses. I don’t know how they got their hands an that gem of a picture, but they could have gone with something semi-dignified, couldn’t they?
So, that is the brief update on my life. I will try to write sooner next time. Happy New Year!