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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :-)

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