So I'm a big advocate of learning through music, videos, movies, commercials, etc. I think they are the most effective way to learn about an issue because they're visual/melodical and it's much easier for the average person to connect with this type of media opposed to reading a 20 page article. So I'm sharing what I've been connecting with and learning from lately.
The first two music videos are for the World Cup that's coming up in July. Now soccer isn't taken very seriously in the US but think of this like the Super Bowl. All the commercials, all the hyper....X100! If you think the Super Bowl is big, wait until you're in a country that's into soccer. Everyone's live revolves around major soccer games and outside life comes to a halt when important games are on. So with the coming of the World Cup there's been a lot of media hype. What I find interesting about this is that the World Cup is inclusive of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and at least the 1st video by K'ann tries to be inclusive and create a sense of unity. I think it's also important to consider that Coca-Cola is funding all of these ads and musical endevors...so maybe take it with a grain of salt condsidering Coca-Cola is an American company. Non the less, I love the K'ann video and get chils every time I listen to the song. It reminds me of Invictus (a movie and poem) which I highly recommend everyone should see/read! "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my destiny".
The 2nd video by Akon (an American hip hop artist from Senegal) sings mostly about uniting Africa which is a task in itself given the diversity and conflict across the continent. But soccer is just one of those things that brings people together regardless of nationality.
The last video is not World Cup related. This is a public service announcement about terrorism. In the US we have public service announcements about drug and alcohol use, maybe teen pregnancy...in Jordan it's about terrorism. The slogan behind this campaign is that "Terrorism has no religion" which refers to a really important idea. Terrorism has absolutly no foundation in Islam and is a radical misinterpretation, just like there are misinterpretations in any religion- Christiany, Judism, etc. I'm actually not a fan of this ad but it's interesting none the less.
K'ann Video
Akon Video
Terroism Public Service Announcement
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Research and Tying Up Loose Ends
This last month in Jordan has been completely free of classes and structured events. But we all have to conduct an individual study project (ISP) which is full blown research and I've never done full blown research! I'm used to short research papers that take about a week and require reading a few articles. And I much prefer reading other people's brilliant ideas opposed to coming up with my own. I suppose I tend to second guess myself and how much I have to offer in terms of new ideas and innovative thinking- I feel like its all been done before.
The full title of my research project (just finished within the last 6 hours) is Addressing Women's Issues: A Portriat of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and Ministry Gender Divisions. I know this topic may not appeal to everyone so bear with my rant...this is something I'm passionate about! Women in Jordan experience a far amount of inequality and discrimination. Granted it’s not as bad as some 3rd world countries but its not as good as the US (but the US has its own gender issues that still exist). Jordan is in the middle in terms of women's empowerment. For example, the parliament requires that 6 women be included in government but women are not actively being elected by the Jordanian public, they're just appointed by the King. There are no Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Condeleezza Rices here. A woman with a Masters degree will only be permitted to do the same job as a man with an Undergrad degree and there is little job mobility for women even if they're educated. You can get fired if you get pregnant because companies don't want to pay for maternity leave. Women are still having 5-8 children, one child a year because many traditional communities emphasize that a women's sole purpose is in the home and caring for a family. So Jordan as a modernizing country working towards democracy has acknowledged that these trends and practices are wrong. One thing that makes this whole situation more challenging is that 85% of Jordanian laws treat men and women equally. Equality is enacted in the government but it hasn't trickled down to the community based level. Social traditions are still the norm despite laws and policies. My research is based on how the government and NGOs are approaching these issues and attempting to fix them. NGOs are always the obvious way to go when addressing any kind of social change. And the JNCW is a strong organization that is tackling a lot of projects to help women. One of their main programs is to go into rural areas and having conferences encouraging women to run for election- how to run a campaign, addressing the media, how to act in Parliament. There are so many little cultural limitations. For example, even if a women is elected and there's a meeting in Parliament, she's not suppose to raise her voice when talking about her issues or platform. The JNCW encourages women to be assertive and yell if they need to even if it goes against the norm.
Many of the Ministries in Jordan have a gender division- the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labor, etc. Gender divisions are the government's way of pin pointing women's issues in specific areas such as education and labor. The Ministry of Labor for example is running programs to encourage women to generate their own income so that they are not so dependent on men and possibly tied into abusive relationships because of a lack of income. These divisions are all running great programs but they are often put on the back burner and not considered a priority in the whole scheme of things.
Overall, both NGOs and the Ministry gender divisions are limited by funding and social traditions. A program may be run in a rural area but it is not successful because it goes against the social norms. So this means the issues have to be broken down to a micro, community based level which is even more challenging. My overall recommendations for these organizations was to break down their work to a community based level or grassroots that really gets down and dirty with small communities and their (mis)perceptions of the role of women in Jordanian society. As always, this is much easier said than done but in my opinion this is really the way you change the world. The government can only do so much in terms of laws and policy making. To really change negative traditions you need to connect and relate to small, local communities. From personal experience, this is the most frustrating way to go about change but also the most rewarding when everything pans out.
Thank you for listening to my rant, ana khulas (I'm done). If anyone would like to read my whole research paper please let me know, I'd be more than happy to share it with you!
The full title of my research project (just finished within the last 6 hours) is Addressing Women's Issues: A Portriat of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and Ministry Gender Divisions. I know this topic may not appeal to everyone so bear with my rant...this is something I'm passionate about! Women in Jordan experience a far amount of inequality and discrimination. Granted it’s not as bad as some 3rd world countries but its not as good as the US (but the US has its own gender issues that still exist). Jordan is in the middle in terms of women's empowerment. For example, the parliament requires that 6 women be included in government but women are not actively being elected by the Jordanian public, they're just appointed by the King. There are no Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Condeleezza Rices here. A woman with a Masters degree will only be permitted to do the same job as a man with an Undergrad degree and there is little job mobility for women even if they're educated. You can get fired if you get pregnant because companies don't want to pay for maternity leave. Women are still having 5-8 children, one child a year because many traditional communities emphasize that a women's sole purpose is in the home and caring for a family. So Jordan as a modernizing country working towards democracy has acknowledged that these trends and practices are wrong. One thing that makes this whole situation more challenging is that 85% of Jordanian laws treat men and women equally. Equality is enacted in the government but it hasn't trickled down to the community based level. Social traditions are still the norm despite laws and policies. My research is based on how the government and NGOs are approaching these issues and attempting to fix them. NGOs are always the obvious way to go when addressing any kind of social change. And the JNCW is a strong organization that is tackling a lot of projects to help women. One of their main programs is to go into rural areas and having conferences encouraging women to run for election- how to run a campaign, addressing the media, how to act in Parliament. There are so many little cultural limitations. For example, even if a women is elected and there's a meeting in Parliament, she's not suppose to raise her voice when talking about her issues or platform. The JNCW encourages women to be assertive and yell if they need to even if it goes against the norm.
Many of the Ministries in Jordan have a gender division- the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labor, etc. Gender divisions are the government's way of pin pointing women's issues in specific areas such as education and labor. The Ministry of Labor for example is running programs to encourage women to generate their own income so that they are not so dependent on men and possibly tied into abusive relationships because of a lack of income. These divisions are all running great programs but they are often put on the back burner and not considered a priority in the whole scheme of things.
Overall, both NGOs and the Ministry gender divisions are limited by funding and social traditions. A program may be run in a rural area but it is not successful because it goes against the social norms. So this means the issues have to be broken down to a micro, community based level which is even more challenging. My overall recommendations for these organizations was to break down their work to a community based level or grassroots that really gets down and dirty with small communities and their (mis)perceptions of the role of women in Jordanian society. As always, this is much easier said than done but in my opinion this is really the way you change the world. The government can only do so much in terms of laws and policy making. To really change negative traditions you need to connect and relate to small, local communities. From personal experience, this is the most frustrating way to go about change but also the most rewarding when everything pans out.
Thank you for listening to my rant, ana khulas (I'm done). If anyone would like to read my whole research paper please let me know, I'd be more than happy to share it with you!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Goin' South
I apologize that it's been so long since my last blog post, things have been pretty busy since Egypt.
We've finished up classes and I had all my finals in Arabic and finished up all my papers for our Modernization and Social Change seminar. As a little end of classes break we travelled to the south of Jordan. The main cities are Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba.
Petra was really cool. Based on guidebooks, I was under the impression that Petra was just one main building carved into rock (it's a common image I'm sure you've all seen). I was surprised to discover that Petra is a whole ancient city of carved buildings and tombs. The city was carved hundreds of years ago and the builders started carving from the top down so there was no need for scaffolding. At the top of the city is a mosque and there are 1,000 steps going up to the mosque. I decided to be lazy and rode a donkey up the hill. I had a very interesting "donkey driver". He said he doesn't agree with Islam (which is extremely uncommon and I have never heard anyone in Jordan say this) and he wants to have the religion on his passport changed from Islam to Christianity. He said this wouldn't be a problem but I can't imagine changing the religion on your passport is easy. I'm not even sure if religion is listed on Jordanian passports so I took this conversation with a grain of salt as interesting as it was. Coming back down the hill I had a bit of a fall. I'm grateful that I didn't walk up because the walk down was challenging enough. I landed pretty hard on my shin onto the rock. No serious injurious but I think this is the biggest bruise I've had to date.
The next night we camped in Wadi Rum which is as "desert" as you can get. We went for Jeep rides through the desert and watched the sunset. There's something very spiritual and enlightening about being in the desert. I hiked up a few sand dunes which is more difficult than it looks...this resulted in sore calfs. The night ended with a great view of the stars and a campfire. Camping is not always my first choice but this was a great experience and I survived.
Next was Aqaba which is on the coast of the Red Sea and a nice resort town. A little bit like Ocean City minus the tacky boardwalk. Soon after getting there we went snorkeling which again was another interesting experience. It took me a little while to get the hang of breathing through my mouth for prolonged periods of time. But the coral was beautiful and the fish were very colorful. I didn't realize how close the coral was to the surface and at one point I kicked the coral. This left a set of weird looking scratches on my foot which is just now starting to go away. Later that night I did a little shopping a market where there was minimal harassment and very nice shopkeepers!
We ended our southern travels at the Dana Nature Reserve which is a protected area in Jordan. The environment was totally different then the desert in Wadi Rum which was amazing given that they're only 2 hours away. Dana had lots of stone and greenery and a much milder climate. There was a little hiking in Dana, I chose to do some of the easier hikes. One included a few other students and some of the academic staff. Ahmed is the assistant director and has a very tough, almost mob like aura about him. He makes sure everything runs smoothly with the program, renews our visas and acts as a "bodyguard" on our trips outside of Amman. Us students often construct stories about his job on the side as a drug lord and his mob activities (these are all just stories of course). On this hike we all found a nice place to sit and suddenly Ahmed goes philosophical on us and asks if we can have a 10 minute moment of silence to relax and collect our thoughts. As difficult as it was to be silent for 10 minutes with a group of giggly girls, it was nice to see that side of Ahmed. That night we camped out again and played a great game of charades. My shining triumph was guessing "neo-liberalism" within 3o seconds and acting out "phenomenon" successfully.
After Dana we headed back to Amman. We don't have any classes this last month and we have the whole month free. However we don't have complete freetime. We're all required to do an independent research project on the topic of our choice. My next post will be about my research and any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Egypt
I have concluded that I have a love/hate relationship with Egypt. When I was younger I went through an Egypt phase which included lots of books on mummies and secretly wanting to be Cleopatra. So going into my week long trip to Egypt, my expectations were high.
Our group arrives outside our hotel in a big tour bus and I take my first steps into Cairo!! Venturing out of the hotel later that night, a man offers to sell me hash (drugs), asks if he can pay me for sex and a few other vulgar comments. Now my initial reaction is to retaliate, stand up for myself and put this guy in his place. Unfortunately that doesn't fly in Cairo and actually can make the situation worse. The best way to handle things is to not make eye and ignore them. But this leaves me feeling even more powerless and taken advantage of because I can't stand up for myself. Similar situations like this happened throughout most of the trip and I'm still thinking about how to best handle them. The consistent stream of harassment got very wearing and frustrating for me. It's frustrating that women are treated like objects for men's entertainment and that some of the men in Cairo are so blatant about this objectification. Now I don't mean to say all the men were like this. I had some nice conversations with cab drivers and made friends with some shop owners in the market. But with such a bad initial impression of men in Cairo it was difficult for me to stay open minded and not generalize.
Most of the week consisted of seeming tourist sites and having a few free evenings. We visited the pyramids and the Sphinx which did fulfill all my childhood dreams. It was really amazing to touch something that is so old and has survived so much time- I felt like I was touching history. The best part was riding a camel! My camel was named Mickey Mouse and a little boy led me around the desert. You get on the camel while its sitting and when it stands up to walk it can get pretty wobbly. I managed to climb onto the camel and make it into a walking position all while wearing a long skirt! Yes, I am very proud of this accomplishment.
Two days were spent exploring Coptic and Islamic Cairo. These two days were filled with lots of old mosques and Orthodox churches. Again, it was just amazing to see something that is so old and well constructed without the advanced technology we have today. One day we took the train to Alexandria which I like much better than Cairo. It’s right along the Mediterranean and has a lot of activity without being overwhelming. I got to see the catacombs, Bibliotheca Alexandria and the Citadel.
With all the chaos of Cairo there was a redeeming experience- Hana Hulili. This is a really old market which offers touristy thinks but also beautiful scarves, jewelry, clothes…basically everything a shopper could want. What makes it great is that you haggle for everything! There is a certain skill to pushing for the cheapest price, not giving in and being able to walk away if you don’t get what you want. It’s a good sound to hear shop owners yelling for you to come back as you’re walking away.
Now I’m back in Amman and classes start up again tomorrow. Cairo has made Amman look like a calm city and I appreciate this much more now.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Back to basics...the Badia
Ohh the Badia. This is not a lamenting "ohh" this is an oh there are too many stories to write type of "ohh". For 4 days I lived in a small village about 15 mintues south of the Syrian border. I stayed with a host family who had four amazing children- Aya (2), Ayat (4), Raheem (9) and Muhammad (12). During my time there I had to keep my head covered, wear a thobe (long dress), stand up when men entered the room and help with cleaning and cooking. I slept in a house but many families in the winter live in a tent because it's warmer than the house. Also there is a lot of tradition behind tents and being close to the desert.
I'm am not usually very good with children and am not very patient when it comes to little ones but I was blessed with great host brothers and sisters. The food was amazing and meals are eaten differently than in the US. Usually there is only one big meal a day. I had Mal Grouba, Rashoof and Mansif (I have no idea what ingredients are in these dishes) and they were all amazing. The meal is served on a big, round platter and everyone sits around the platter on the floor and digs in. There is a lot of sitting and lounging on the floor. Instead of chairs, there are mats and pillows on the floor.
My host father's great grandmother is still alive and I got to meet her. She is 100 years old and I was amazed that she is still able to get up and down from the coushins on the floor. There was a little bit of an awkward situation because she doesn't speak English and is very hard of hearing and my Arabic is limited. She ALWAYS wanted me to come and sit next to her and kept asking questions that I never understood. I still wanted to make a connections so I thought about what my grandma might do in that situation. So even though I didn't understand her I just did a lot of hand holding and smiling and tryed to send good love vibes. At the end of the 4 hour visit my host dad said that the great grandmother thinks I am a very special person and that she is glad she met me.
Now for horrific story #2...worse than the shower experience. One day I went to visit the girl's school in the village. The father just dropped me off at the school and I was shown around by teachers and swarmed by girls. I went to a few English classes and somehow got roped into teaching 3 English classes. In one class of 6th graders I was attempting to teach the five senses when I got flooded with a sea of questions. "What is your name?" So I write my name in Arabic on the blackboard and they all cheer and clap like. "How old are you?" "What does Katie mean?" "What are your parent's names?" "Do you like Jordan?" "Jordan or America better?" "What is America like?" "Do you love Islam?" "Am I pretty?" "Do you pray?" I was getting flustered with all the questions and had way too many young girls crowding me and suddenly they decide that they want me to sing. They are all yelling for me to sing and waiting and I completely freeze. It gets to the point of an awkward silence and I cannot for the life of me think of any songs what so ever! I realize that I am not going to be able to get out of this situation so I start racking my brain for songs. This whole time I'm thinking "Katie!! You are a musician, you remember the lyrics to tons of songs, you have 15 days worth of music on your iTunes! Why can't you think of anything!?!" Then I have a breakthrough but unfortunatly the breakthrough consists of "Jesus Loves You" and the Theme from the Brady Bunch. Now Jordan in 80% Muslim so Jesus Loves You is ruled out and I am left with the Brady Bunch. In a cracked, nervous voice I started singing the story of a lovely lady who was bring up three very lovely girls...and then I can't even remember the rest of the words so I start making things up and just singing along to the tune and it was horrible!! I was hoping that the girls would be excited with any performance but this was not the case. They clapped after I wrote my name but there was no clapping after my singing. This is still a little painful to think about. And now it's time for a shower.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Making Connections
Over the years I've realized I have many interests and these interests are not always directly related. However, on occasion, the different things I am passionate about connect and that's always exciting for me. Today this happened twice!!
Throughout my college years I've started to realize how important a sense of identity (individual, group, national, etc.), community and ownership are in creating stable societies. ALL the time I learn about unstable communities, governments, social structures, corruption, failing economies...all the bad things going on in the world. But I frequently come across an equally strong push against these "bad things" and these movements never cease to inspire me. It's because of these movements against a destructive "norm" that I keep plugging along even when times get tough.
Today that inspiration came through a song and a New York Times article on city planning in Amman. Now music and city planning are seemingly two very different things but in this case they indirectly touch on the same issue- Palestinian immigrants. Orange Sky by Alex Murdoch was written in support of Palestine and Palestinian immigrants make up a good amount of the population in Jordan. The article on city planning in Amman highlights some of the achievements in the city but also the challenges it faces. The government has had a difficult time creating a sense of community and ownership because there are so many immigrants, both Palestinian and Iraqi. Even though Palestinian families have lived in Amman for generations, they don't identify as being from Amman, they're from the West Bank.
So how do you go about creating community and unity without discouraging unique and valuable national identities? Food for thought and something I haven't figured out yet.
Orange Sky- Alex Murdoch
New York Times article
Throughout my college years I've started to realize how important a sense of identity (individual, group, national, etc.), community and ownership are in creating stable societies. ALL the time I learn about unstable communities, governments, social structures, corruption, failing economies...all the bad things going on in the world. But I frequently come across an equally strong push against these "bad things" and these movements never cease to inspire me. It's because of these movements against a destructive "norm" that I keep plugging along even when times get tough.
Today that inspiration came through a song and a New York Times article on city planning in Amman. Now music and city planning are seemingly two very different things but in this case they indirectly touch on the same issue- Palestinian immigrants. Orange Sky by Alex Murdoch was written in support of Palestine and Palestinian immigrants make up a good amount of the population in Jordan. The article on city planning in Amman highlights some of the achievements in the city but also the challenges it faces. The government has had a difficult time creating a sense of community and ownership because there are so many immigrants, both Palestinian and Iraqi. Even though Palestinian families have lived in Amman for generations, they don't identify as being from Amman, they're from the West Bank.
So how do you go about creating community and unity without discouraging unique and valuable national identities? Food for thought and something I haven't figured out yet.
Orange Sky- Alex Murdoch
New York Times article
Off to the Badia
These next few days will be quite an adventure. We're going to the Badia which is a more rural area in Jordan. As I understand it, the Badia can be towns or more mobile societies. But "Badia" means the start of settlements or the population that began the settlements. So most of the older families living in Badia towns were nomadic and have settled down in one location. Most Bedouin tribes were nomadic and in the 1960's there was a government push for the tribes to settle down in one place...resulting in the Badia.
We're not going as a group...I will be by myself in the village of Um Alquteen in the northern Badia. All the students are assigned to their own village. I'll be with another host family named Falf al Adaamat. All I know is that the father is a school teacher. The first part of the adventure will entail getting to Um Alquteen. I know I can get myself to the Amman bus station (Raghadan) and then I find the bus for Mafraq which is a town in northern Amman. Then from Mafraq, I give the bus driver my written directions to Um Alquteen and my family's house. According to our teachers, our bus drivers should know where exactly our houses are and should drop us off there or point us in the write direction. Hopefully I'll get there. Inshallah (God willing)
I'm not quite sure what to expect in the Badia. Secretly I'm hoping to be living in a tent in the desert, riding camels, herding sheep and drinking tea by a fire while the town elders tell of their nomadic adventures. More realistically I'll be in a lower income area, sitting around a space heater listening to mothers, sisters and aunts gossiping about who's marrying who. Because of gender roles girls don't usually go sheep herding, so most likely I will be spending 5 days inside. I'm praying and thinking about how to get the most out of this time even though it may not be my first choice. No doubt though that God will take care of things and I'll have a meaningful, memorable experience.
We're not going as a group...I will be by myself in the village of Um Alquteen in the northern Badia. All the students are assigned to their own village. I'll be with another host family named Falf al Adaamat. All I know is that the father is a school teacher. The first part of the adventure will entail getting to Um Alquteen. I know I can get myself to the Amman bus station (Raghadan) and then I find the bus for Mafraq which is a town in northern Amman. Then from Mafraq, I give the bus driver my written directions to Um Alquteen and my family's house. According to our teachers, our bus drivers should know where exactly our houses are and should drop us off there or point us in the write direction. Hopefully I'll get there. Inshallah (God willing)
I'm not quite sure what to expect in the Badia. Secretly I'm hoping to be living in a tent in the desert, riding camels, herding sheep and drinking tea by a fire while the town elders tell of their nomadic adventures. More realistically I'll be in a lower income area, sitting around a space heater listening to mothers, sisters and aunts gossiping about who's marrying who. Because of gender roles girls don't usually go sheep herding, so most likely I will be spending 5 days inside. I'm praying and thinking about how to get the most out of this time even though it may not be my first choice. No doubt though that God will take care of things and I'll have a meaningful, memorable experience.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Traumatic/Humorous Shower
Last night I took a shower. I get to take 2 showers a week because water is VERY limited and can sometimes be expensive. In my house there is hot water but you have to let the water heat up for an hour before its comfortable enough to shower in. So finally the water was warm and it was my turn to shower!
The room the shower is in is very small and a bit tough to negotiate. There is a hose connected to a bidet and this is where the shower water comes from. So I start up the shower and everything is comfortable for a little while and then the water starts getting hotter…and hotter…and HOTTER! I’m frantically turning on the cold water and there is no cold water. Then I hear my host dad yelling “Hot, Katie hot?” and in my best Arabic I say yes the water is hot, too hot and I need cold water and of course he doesn’t hear me. I do my best to wash my hair and body without the water actually touching me because it burns. And then the room starts to get steamy, really steamy- to the point that I can’t see my feet. In my attempt to put just my head in the water I step into the huge hole in the floor that serves as a drain and my foot gets stuck. While all of this is happening, the call to prayer is playing outside.
Now looking back I can laugh but in the moment I was traumatized….I’ve never experienced a shower that was too hot. Maybe my next shower (4 days from now) will be a bit better.
The Call to Prayer
The room the shower is in is very small and a bit tough to negotiate. There is a hose connected to a bidet and this is where the shower water comes from. So I start up the shower and everything is comfortable for a little while and then the water starts getting hotter…and hotter…and HOTTER! I’m frantically turning on the cold water and there is no cold water. Then I hear my host dad yelling “Hot, Katie hot?” and in my best Arabic I say yes the water is hot, too hot and I need cold water and of course he doesn’t hear me. I do my best to wash my hair and body without the water actually touching me because it burns. And then the room starts to get steamy, really steamy- to the point that I can’t see my feet. In my attempt to put just my head in the water I step into the huge hole in the floor that serves as a drain and my foot gets stuck. While all of this is happening, the call to prayer is playing outside.
Now looking back I can laugh but in the moment I was traumatized….I’ve never experienced a shower that was too hot. Maybe my next shower (4 days from now) will be a bit better.
The Call to Prayer
Shenanigans in Salt
This past Saturday we went to Salt for the day. A young guy named Bashir lives there and volunteers with SIT so he gave us a nice tour. The drive was only 30 minutes by bus and we started by going to a few museums that showcased the history of the city. It was amazing to see artifacts that are from 1000BC and even old. Afterwards we walked through the main street market. They had everything from shoes, cell phones, dead chickens, live chickens, clothes, spices...a good variety of things. We all felt very out of place being a big group of Americans. I think all of us students are trying our best not to be tourists and really take our travel experience to a deeper level. In the case of Salt, I think it would have been better to split up into smaller groups so that we didn't showcase our "American-ness" so much. The end of the market opens up into a large community area where a few groups of men were playing mancala. At first I was really excited because I know how to play mancala but unfortunately their version wasn't exactly the same. They were excited to try and explain the game which was fun but fruitless.
Lunch was at a small restaurant that I would never have noticed if I was traveling by myself. After lunch we went to Bashir's high school which is one of the oldest schools in Jordan. The school was completely empty so we had a chance to walk around and look into classrooms. There was an English class that had questions on the board like "How do teachers react to student's mobiles?" "Why do you think teacher's have this reaction?" I found it interesting that this was a topic for discussion in school because in the US cell phones in class are never acceptable and really discouraged. I got the impression that the sentiment in Jordan is a bit different.
Outside the school there were a bunch of kids playing soccer and some people from our group joined in. It took a little while for the game to start because boys from our group kept kicking the ball over the fence. Now over the fence doesn't mean it lands in someone's backyard. Over the fence means falling several feet, rolling down a hill, getting kicked around in the market and then maybe ending up in someone's backyard. So the process of getting the ball back was extensive and happened twice. Once everyone figured out not to kick the ball so hard the game started and the Americans lost- badly. After the game a boy named Mohammad who was about 13 came over and introduced himself. I reached to shake his hand and he wouldn't shake it. I know there is some religious reason for this that I'm not remembering right now but initially it caught me off guard. He was very enthusiast about having his picture taken but not shaking hands.
Bashir then told us we were going to have tea and then head back to Amman. We all thought that we would have tea in a café like we have done in the past so we were all a little surprised when the bus pulls over on the side of the highway we’re told to get out. Bashir then announces that we can see the West Bank in the distance, the sun is setting and pulls out a thermos of tea. So we sat on the side of the highway drinking tea and watching the sunset over Palestine.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Something fun
Today in Arabic class I learned something interesting. There's a phrase in Arabic that translates as "May God give you a hug" (yahtik elahlfia). It's used as a "thank you" or when good friends are saying goodbye. Just thought that was neat.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Taxis
Taxis are a tiny challenge in Jordan but I think I'm getting the hang of them. There are always lots of taxis so finding one is not an issue. For the most part, Amman has very distinct "neighborhoods" which are fairly easy to navigate. Amman is planned around 8 cirlces (roundabouts) and most of the neighborhoods are near circles. Abdoun for example is the area where the SIT headquarters is located and is near the 4th circle. Rainbow Road where all the fun cafes and stores are is near the 1st circle.
Unfortunatly, my house is not located near a circle and is actually a good ways outside of Amman. The area is called Marj Al Hamam and somehow I always manage to mispronounce this when giving the taxi driver directions. Luckily, I've had patient taxi drivers with a good sense of humor and who will put up with my frantic pointing and really bad Arabic. Despite their good humor and patience, they still try to overcharge me. Today for example, I took a very short ride which should have cost .5JD, the driver asked for 2JD and I paid 1JD. Taxi meters are irrelivant and a lot of taxis don't have them to begin with. However on this same ride I got to practice a bit of my beginner's Arabic:
Katie- "Hello, how are you?"
Driver-"Fine thank God. How old are you?"
Katie- "20"
Driver-"Excellent. Are you married?"
Katie- "No"
End of conversation.
Now this doesn't mean that Jordanian taxi drivers are all looking to marry young American girls or are perverts. Marriage in this culture is the norm for young women and there is defiantly a connotation if the women is married or not. While these connotations are different from those in American, they are still social norms that I try to understand and respect.
I'm sure I will get the hang of taxis and have many more interesting conversations in the future.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Chilly Friday
So in Amman Friday is the beginning of the weekend. Friday and Saturday are weekends and then classes and work start on Sunday. On Fridays most of the stores are closed except for stores that sell food. There aren't many grocery stores or supermarkets like in America. The neighborhoods have individual stores for specific food- one for meat, one for dairy, one for produce, etc.
I went to bed last night at 10pm which is the earliest I've gone to sleep in a long, long time. Surprisingly, once my feet warmed up, I didn't have trouble sleeping. And magically this morning I woke up at 9am and was wide awake. Amman is giving my sleeping schedule and Circadian rhythm a makeover! Around 10am, my host mom, sisters and I went to visit my host mom's sisters and mother. On the way we stopped by some stores to pick up bread (hubas) and hummus for breakfast. The grandma's house was in downtown Jordan. We had breakfast there which was followed by coffee. Coffee here is different from American coffee- it's more like espresso with lots of sugar and lots of drudge on the bottom. I'm not a coffee fan but I made my way through it. Once you get to the bottom, you pour out the drudge and let some dry in the bottom of the cup. Once it dries, you can "read your fortune" in the cup. The aunt read mine and she had quite a lot to say. According to the aunt, I had left a boy in the states that I think about a lot and they think about me. They're tall and have a cute baby face but it's a nice face. (I'm not sure who exactly this is that I'm supposidly thinking about) I have a lot of things that make me sad and I think about these things a lot. (Not sure where this came from considering I think of myself as a fairly happy person) And I will have a good economic standing in the future (I will have money) and this will be because of my career not because I marry into money. So I wouldn't say this was overly accurate but it was still interesting to hear. Maybe if we go back next weekend my fortune will be totally different.
I went to bed last night at 10pm which is the earliest I've gone to sleep in a long, long time. Surprisingly, once my feet warmed up, I didn't have trouble sleeping. And magically this morning I woke up at 9am and was wide awake. Amman is giving my sleeping schedule and Circadian rhythm a makeover! Around 10am, my host mom, sisters and I went to visit my host mom's sisters and mother. On the way we stopped by some stores to pick up bread (hubas) and hummus for breakfast. The grandma's house was in downtown Jordan. We had breakfast there which was followed by coffee. Coffee here is different from American coffee- it's more like espresso with lots of sugar and lots of drudge on the bottom. I'm not a coffee fan but I made my way through it. Once you get to the bottom, you pour out the drudge and let some dry in the bottom of the cup. Once it dries, you can "read your fortune" in the cup. The aunt read mine and she had quite a lot to say. According to the aunt, I had left a boy in the states that I think about a lot and they think about me. They're tall and have a cute baby face but it's a nice face. (I'm not sure who exactly this is that I'm supposidly thinking about) I have a lot of things that make me sad and I think about these things a lot. (Not sure where this came from considering I think of myself as a fairly happy person) And I will have a good economic standing in the future (I will have money) and this will be because of my career not because I marry into money. So I wouldn't say this was overly accurate but it was still interesting to hear. Maybe if we go back next weekend my fortune will be totally different.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Host Family
So I got picked up by my host family today! Everything is going well so far. There are 3 sisters- 24, 20 and 17. And one brother- 23. I'm not postive of what exactly their names are yet...that's something I should probably figure out asap. The family keeps throwing around nicknames so I'm never really sure who is who and what to call people. Two of the sisters and the brother speak English fairly well so they are my translators. The mom and dad are very nice, I know for sure the dad's name is Hani. He's a smoker but thankfully it doesn't smell like a smoker's house. Their house is pretty big and I'm sharing a room with the 20 year old. They've already fed me lunch which was a great combo of rice, chicken and yogurt sauce. I haven't been able to unpack my things yet. Anytime I leave the room for more then a few minutes they start yelling my name and want me to come back. Right now it's unusually cold and super windy! The house is up on a hill and there are lots of big windows so the wind and rain sound horrible flying against the windows. There are marble floors all over the house and not many carpets so that doesn't help the cold issue. On the upside, there are space heaters but there's an open flame so I'm a bit nervous. I've been told you can see Jerusalem from the living room window but it's been so foggy I haven't had a good view. I believe that is all for now. More updates later :-)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
First Post!
Hello from Jordan!
I made it safely through the Dullas and JFK airports and finally landed in Jordan after an 11 hour flight and a lot of turbulence. From the airport near Amman I met up with a few from the SIT group and we all went to the Ambassador Hotel. It was an interesting parade of Americans and our numerous bags of luggage holding up traffic while we crossed the street.
These past few days have been program orientation which has included how to stay healthy, how to handle culture shock, a few cultural tips, getting cell phones and splitting up into “committees”. I am on the “excursions” committee. My job is to help organize and supervise weekend trips to Petra, Wadi Rum, Bedouin villages, etc. For those of you who went on the DR trip, you will know this is a fitting job. I assign numbers so we can count off for attendance, make sure everyone is on time, keep the group together…it’s my “mom” and organizing skills combined!
Today we during the day we did “drop-offs”. This is when the program directors make teams and write up little scavenger hunt for each team. So then you get a taxi and make your way to your locations, ask your questions, learn about the location, etc. My team was assigned to one place named JARA which after a cup of tea and a hookah finally discovered that it is the oldest neighborhood in Jordan. The owner then showed us a room full of old photos documenting the first families that lived in Amman and the city before it was developed. For lunch we stumbled upon the only Egyptian restaurant that makes fatatri. After we ordered, we discovered that this looks like a pizza but the dough is super thin, almost like a pastry and covers both sides. Then you choose what kind of filling you would like- mine was called Kiri and had cheese, olives and other unknown but tasty ingredients. On the way back to the SIT center, we had a great taxi driver who had learned English just from listening to his conversations in his taxi and watching American movies. He was very patient with my questions and helping me with Arabic. My key words for today are- left (yesar), right (yemeen), cheap (rakhees), expensive (ghali) and circle (duar).
Tomorrow our homestay families pick us up from the SIT center. Everyone is meeting one on one with the homestay director and of course I’m last because I’m a Z. So far everyone has come out of their meeting raving about how they have their own bedroom and/or bathroom, WiFi, a young couple for parents…pretty much everything anyone could want in a homestay family. I’m worried I’ll be stuck with the smelly cat lady with an outhouse for a bathroom and no electricity. I wouldn’t mind this is everyone else in the group was in a similar situation but there would be a different dynamic if I was the only one in this type of environment…it would be quite a challenge. But I’m hoping for the best and God will take care of things
So I believe those are all the updates I have for now. I’ll hopefully be posting pictures soon. The weather has been very nice (in comparison with Ithaca), “cold” here is maybe 35-40 degrees. It would be great to hear from all of you. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love always,
Katie
I made it safely through the Dullas and JFK airports and finally landed in Jordan after an 11 hour flight and a lot of turbulence. From the airport near Amman I met up with a few from the SIT group and we all went to the Ambassador Hotel. It was an interesting parade of Americans and our numerous bags of luggage holding up traffic while we crossed the street.
These past few days have been program orientation which has included how to stay healthy, how to handle culture shock, a few cultural tips, getting cell phones and splitting up into “committees”. I am on the “excursions” committee. My job is to help organize and supervise weekend trips to Petra, Wadi Rum, Bedouin villages, etc. For those of you who went on the DR trip, you will know this is a fitting job. I assign numbers so we can count off for attendance, make sure everyone is on time, keep the group together…it’s my “mom” and organizing skills combined!
Today we during the day we did “drop-offs”. This is when the program directors make teams and write up little scavenger hunt for each team. So then you get a taxi and make your way to your locations, ask your questions, learn about the location, etc. My team was assigned to one place named JARA which after a cup of tea and a hookah finally discovered that it is the oldest neighborhood in Jordan. The owner then showed us a room full of old photos documenting the first families that lived in Amman and the city before it was developed. For lunch we stumbled upon the only Egyptian restaurant that makes fatatri. After we ordered, we discovered that this looks like a pizza but the dough is super thin, almost like a pastry and covers both sides. Then you choose what kind of filling you would like- mine was called Kiri and had cheese, olives and other unknown but tasty ingredients. On the way back to the SIT center, we had a great taxi driver who had learned English just from listening to his conversations in his taxi and watching American movies. He was very patient with my questions and helping me with Arabic. My key words for today are- left (yesar), right (yemeen), cheap (rakhees), expensive (ghali) and circle (duar).
Tomorrow our homestay families pick us up from the SIT center. Everyone is meeting one on one with the homestay director and of course I’m last because I’m a Z. So far everyone has come out of their meeting raving about how they have their own bedroom and/or bathroom, WiFi, a young couple for parents…pretty much everything anyone could want in a homestay family. I’m worried I’ll be stuck with the smelly cat lady with an outhouse for a bathroom and no electricity. I wouldn’t mind this is everyone else in the group was in a similar situation but there would be a different dynamic if I was the only one in this type of environment…it would be quite a challenge. But I’m hoping for the best and God will take care of things
So I believe those are all the updates I have for now. I’ll hopefully be posting pictures soon. The weather has been very nice (in comparison with Ithaca), “cold” here is maybe 35-40 degrees. It would be great to hear from all of you. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love always,
Katie
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