First of all I want to say a big congratulations to my big sister Jennifer and her husband on the arrival of little baby Nolan!! And also, a happy belated birthday Jenn.
Isn’t this supposed to be the land of God? Imagine all those pictures you have seen of a blond haired, blue eyed jesus. And in the background there is the sun just streaming in well defined rays through thick clouds onto the sand mountains. It is kind of like that. I mean, except for the jesus part. I am the only one in my village that looks anything like that (minus the beard) and I am fairly sure that I am not jesus. But in my village the sun really does come streaming through the clouds onto the valley of Moses (think Petra) and if it catches you in a moment of reverie you might expect choirs of angels and the voice of God to come booming out of the sky. But God doesn’t ever talk. Unless of course he is a donkey or a 5 year old screaming “andi, andi, what’s your name!?!?!?!” But it sure is purty to look at… and just as I was getting used to seeing that everyday, winter swooped in for one last stand. I had already put away all my winter stuff (and by put away I mean I shoved them under my bed).
So, news. Not too much. Valentine’s day was just like any other except that I broke down and actually wore the bright pink turtleneck that one of my villagers gave me for Christmas. With all my big work for my health project out of the way I’ve gotten to stay in my village for more than a week consecutively without going anywhere for meetings or planning or buying. It’s great. My villagers are all demanding to know where I have been. They all thought I had run off and gotten married or returned to America without saying goodbye. But I have to say, it is such a relief to be back in my own little house. When I first came to Jordan I was a bit traumatized to be alone in my house so much. But now it is the big weekends and trips to amman that traumatize me. And being around English speakers seriously damages my Arabic skills.
My birthday came and went, and was vastly superior to my birthday last year. And all my friends remembered! It was great. I went to amman and went dancing and the dj actually stopped the music for the dance floor to all sing me happy birthday. And as an extra birthday treat away went the techno and on came the hip hop. Good stuff.
As for work. I have internet at work now (after more than a few road bumps). So I am likely to be online at very strange hours. My counterpart thinks I live at work now.
I am doing 2 exercise classes every day. They are really popular. I have a waitlist of at least 15 women and my counterpart says that people call her about it every day. It is kind of a strange dynamic for an exercise class. One day they will call me Hezbollah for making them do squats, and the next day they bring in coffee and chocolates to share with the class. But no matter how popular the class is, they doubt my methods because, well, I am not the skinniest girl around. So when I try to tell them about healthy eating, they instead decide that not eating is a better plan. So the other morning a woman came to class and in the middle of it sat down and started crying. So I got her a cold cloth and laid her on the ground and asked her what was wrong. Well, the day before she had skipped lunch and dinner and that morning she had skipped breakfast. So I told her that she was probably dizzy because her blood sugar was too low and tried to get her to drink some juice. Instead she went to the hospital. And indeed they said it was her blood sugar and gave her some glucose. But, it scared me. And fortunately it scared everyone else in my classes out of trying to starve themselves skinny.
And finally, in just a couple weeks I am leaving Jordan for the first time since I got here! I have a fabulous month of stuff coming up. Going to Geneva to meet a friend, hosting the two girls I used to babysit in Berkeley and their mom, going to cairo with my dad and hosting him here. It is a much, much, much needed break. I am hoping to come back refreshed for my last 6 month stretch. I guess it is about time to start planning that epic Africa trip. Any suggestions for what to do to get south from Egypt?
oh, and because he is one of the only people who reads this, and he thinks i should talk about how great he is.... *ahem* dan obrien is great. really neat. and he is a chowhound for bacon.