Peace Corps Family

Making gravy

At a time of the year when it is often difficult for Peace Corps Volunteers to be away from their family, their friends, and their country, I wanted to talk briefly about the people and experiences that have come to form my de facto family here in Jordan.


As many of you know, in 2007 and 2008 I served as a Volunteer Program Director with Manna Project International in Ecuador (MPI-E).  Like Peace Corps Volunteers, MPI Volunteers are immersed in the local language and culture and engage in community development activities from a wide-range of sectors including education, agriculture, public health, and business development to name a few.  There are, however, two significant differences between Peace Corps and MPI which I believe bear explanation as they both result in profoundly different experiences for the volunteer.  I want it to make it very clear that I am absolutely not promoting one over the other as they are definite benefits and drawbacks to both; rather, I would just like to highlight some of the differences and their impact on the volunteer.


The first of these is that MPI Volunteers live and work together every day.  Although volunteers spend every day in the local community, speaking the local language, partnering with local community leaders, and learning about the local culture, at the end of the day volunteers come home together to a mini-America.  As I have come to realize lately, this home life of American volunteers is a vital support system for MPI Volunteers that does not exist for most Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide.

Living in Jordan is the first time in my life that I have lived alone.  One becomes especially aware of the isolation from family and friends when sitting alone in a cold and dark house at 12:11 AM on Christmas Eve.

PCV's giving thanks

The second difference is that MPI requires a 13-month commitment whereas Peace Corps requires a 27-month commitment.  As I have now been in Jordan for approximately 14 months, I cannot imagine leaving already.  While a year sometimes feels like a long time, when it comes to grass-roots community development it is but the blink of eye.  So much of international community development is (or at least should be) grounded in relationship building and community partnering.  I absolutely never would have been able to succeed in any project that I have attempted here in Jordan had it not been for my local community partners managing and running the programs and activities with me.  Likewise, I never would have been able successfully work with my local community partners had I not taken the time to intentionally build relationships with them.

Community development should be driven by the community, not by the outsider.  My goal in Jordan is not to impose my ideas as to what I believe is best, as much as I may want to at times, but rather to support my students, colleagues, partners, and friends to grow and develop themselves and their community, as well as make progress towards their goals, as they so desire.  From supporting one friend in applying for a Ph.D. program in Germany, to helping another friend with a Master's in tourism with his English so he can work as a bilingual tour-operator, to sharing teaching strategies and techniques with other English and non-English teachers, to providing opportunities for adolescent boys to understand and develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, my work is still very much in progress.  After taking the time to build relationships and learn as much as possible from the people I work with, I am absolutely not ready to abandon my work and my relationships with Jordanians.


On the other hand, 27 months with little to no personal contact with friends and family outside of Jordan is not an effective relationship-building strategy.  It may sound trite that it takes being alone at Christmas for me to tell you all that I miss you and your friendship and I regret how out of touch I have been, but it needs to be said.  Given how much effort I put into building new relationships, I have never been good at maintaining friendships from afar.  Nevertheless, I do truly value my friends and family throughout the world.

Thanksgiving dinner

I am not, fortunately, isolated and alone.  As I described above, I have many strong and rewarding relationships with Jordanians in my community, but furthermore I am lucky enough to have a strong family of other Peace Corps Volunteers here in Jordan.  While my friends are spread out throughout the Kingdom, Jordan really is not all that large as there are 38 states in the United States with a greater area than Jordan and 14 states with a population greater than Jordan, so it is relatively easy for us to meet up once a month or so in the northern cities of Amman, Irbid, and Mafraq or in the southern tourist destinations of Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba.

One such event is the annual Peace Corps Christmas Party at the US Embassy.  Peace Corps and Embassy staff go all out to provide us an amazing Christmas dinner and desert.  While we haven't yet had this year's Christmas party, I have fond memories of food, friendship, and family from last year's event.

Also this year, two separate groups of volunteers put on pot-luck Thanksgiving dinners on consecutive days. While these two Thanksgivings were four governorates apart, I managed to attend both.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  In fact, due to my 27-month commitment , I will actually end up spending three consecutive Thanksgivings in Jordan.  I even told my evening adult conversation classes that the one thing that makes me the saddest about living in Jordan is the fact that I have to spend three Thanksgivings in a row away from my family.  Nevertheless, Thanksgiving this year was absolutely the best I could ask for in Jordan.  Not only did everyone contribute an incredible amount of wonderfully tasting entrees, appetizers, side dishes, and desserts, but we were together as a Peace Corps Volunteer family.

Jordan at times can be quite the difficult place for an American to live, but I owe a lot of my success and happiness in Jordan to the support and friendships offered by the other Peace Corps Volunteers here in Jordan.


On the topic of other Peace Corps Volunteers, the J14's have for the most part left Jordan (sad!) and the J16's trainees are coming close to finishing their training and being sworn-in as Volunteers (exciting!).  I was lucky enough to lead a session on teaching English to the trainees a couple weeks ago and I must say that I was very impressed by the new group.  They are a quite talented and diverse group and it will be fun to see what they accomplish in their two years as Volunteers.  I wish them the best of luck.


Happy Holidays!

Fuel Riots

Nine months ago I wrote a post about the wave of protests that rocked the world, and changed the Arab world, in 2011.  The past two days have seen the most widespread and most violent protests and riots that Jordan has experienced in years.  As a condition of an International Monetary Fund loan, the Jordanian government has lifted all subsidies on fossil fuels.  The price of gasoline is set to increase by 14%.  Bus fares are set to increase by 11%.  And the price of home heating and cooking is set to increase by 43%.

Citizens have responded by taking to the streets, blocking traffic, attacking police officers, and setting tires on fire.


In my village, people complain about the price increases, but they would much rather go on living their lives than violently taking to the streets.  I can assure that I see no signs of disturbance or insecurity in my life in my village.  In Jordan, as in every other place I have lived from Oregon to North Carolina to the Dominican Republic to Ecuador to Oakland, ordinary citizens want health and happiness for themselves and their families.

Throughout my time in Jordan, protests have come to be a regular occurrence.  I'm curious to see whether the protest movement will gain strength or finally begin to dissipate after the January 23, 2013 parliamentary elections.


Or perhaps it won't change, as many of the strongest political parties in Jordan have vowed to boycott the elections.

Vote

Today!

3 Links

I can honestly and without hesitation assure you that I feel quite safe in my life in Jordan; however,

• Attacks Continue During Failed Holiday Truce in Syria - The New York Times (29 Oct. 2012)
• Al Qaeda leader calls for kidnapping of Westerners - CNN  (29 Oct. 2012)

Furthermore, while many of you may have seen King Abdullah II's recent interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, this critique attempts to shed a different light on the topics discussed:  Jon Stewart's Theater of the Absurd - Jadaliyya (2 Oct. 2012).

Summer Living (Video and Pictures)

On the occasion of first day of fall, I wanted to share a video and some pictures of the places that I have been this past summer.  Firstly, the interior of my house has gone through several changes since the last video of my house.  The primary impetus for these changes has been the fact that the room that I was living in has a nice sun window which is great for warming the room.  Having a warm room is wonderful in the winter, but in the summer in Jordan you want to keep things as cool as possible.  So, as you'll see in the video, I bought a ceiling fan and transformed an interior room without windows into my primary living and sleeping room for the summer time.  I do imagine, nonetheless, that I'll move back into my winter room sometime within the next couple of months.

The mattress you see on the floor in the video, however, is not the only place that I have slept in the last few months as I have taken several vacations throughout the summer.  My first vacation was across the River Jordan to visit my good friends Zach and Lindsay and other friends from my time in Charlotte.

At the beach with Old Jaffa in the background

While I hadn't seen Zach or Lindsay since their wedding a year ago, it was really great to reconnect to with these friends with whom I spent two years in Charlotte.

Dome of the Rock Mosque, Mount of Olives, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa Mosque, City of David

Staying across the river, I then met up with some Peace Corps friends in Jerusalem.  I've been to some pretty spectacular places in my lifetime, but I  must say that there is no other place on Earth quite like Jerusalem.

At the site of Jesus' Crucifixion, inside
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Regardless of your feelings on the veracity of any or all of the three monotheistic religions, one cannot deny the historical significance and the holiness of Jerusalem.  Never have I have been to place where so much history and so many cultures have been built right next to and right on top of each other like in Jerusalem.  The world's third holiest site for Muslims, Al-Aqsa Mosque where Mohammed ascended to Heaven, is literally built on top of the world's holiest site for Jews: the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.  Not to mention the fact that the northern border of the Temple Mount is the Via Dolorosa: the road on which Jesus Christ carried his cross from the Garden of Gethsemane to the site of his Crucifixion and Resurrection.  Built on top of this site now is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is the world's holiest site for Christians.

Dome of the Rock Mosque

What's amazing is that many of these holy historical events happened centuries apart in the exact same place and the different cultures and religions continue to intermingle and confront one another to this day.

Pictures from both these cities can be seen here.

Returning to the East Bank of the River Jordan, I immediately headed south towards Petra and Aqaba where I worked a one-day and a three-day English camp.  Information on these camps can be found at this link.  This post, however, is not about work, but rather about vacation and I definitely took advantage of my work in the South to take some vacation.  Petra is an absolutely spectacular place that I would definitely recommend to anyone.  I spent two full days hiking through the grounds; thirteen hours on day one and nine hours on day two, and I still couldn't get enough of it.  A recurring thought throughout my two days at Petra was how it is not quite as cool as the Grand Canyon in Arizona and not quite as cool as Machu Picchu in Peru.  What's shocking, however, is that I never would have thought to compare the Grand Canyon to Machu Picchu and that this place is almost as cool as both just makes it unbelievable.

To give you a taste of just how awesome it is, here are a few pictures:

The first glimpse of the Treasury from the Siq

The Treasury

Petra City Center

The Monastery

The Monastery and the End of the World

The Palace Tomb and the Corinthian Tomb

If you enjoyed those, more from Petra can be seen by clicking here.

While in Aqaba, I went SCUBA diving for the first time.

I stood on a sunken ship 11 meters below the surface

My next trip took me out of the Middle East for the first time since October of last year.  One of my best friends, Mark Hand, was living in Mumbai, India and I decided to go visit him and travel around India for a few days.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, Mark was no longer there so I had to travel around on my own.  Nevertheless, I had a fabulous time on my own visiting the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, and Udaipur.

From Mumbai:

City Bus

Gandhi

From Delhi:

Red Fort

Tomb of Humayun

From Agra (Taj Mahal):

From Udaipur:

Saheliyon-ki-Bari Garden

Lake Fatehsagra and Udaipur City

Since returning from India, I haven't left Jordan again, but I have traveled within country a couple more times, including an amazing hike through the Wadi Dana Nature Reserve with a couple Peace Corps buddies.

Wadi Guweir

Wadi Hamra

Finally, I visited a Peace Corps friend at his site near the city of Madaba and took in some of the churches and spectacular Byzantine and Roman mosaics that has made Madaba famous.

The oldest surviving map of Jerusalem

Same mosaic map with the River Jordan, Jericho, and the Dead Sea

Help me get a t-shirt

My friends at Manna Project International - Guatemala are trying to build a four-classroom edition to their school out of plastic bottles stuffed with trash.  Not only will this project significantly reduce the amount of unsightly trash in their community, but it will also provide space to educate up to 200 more students.

To raise funds for this project, they are selling t-shirts at $25 each ($17 of which goes directly to the Bottle School Project).  Unfortunately, however, their partner organization is requiring that they sell at least 200 shirts before printing any shirts or receiving any funds.  So far, they have sold 47 shirts, including one that I reserved, and have to sell the remaining 153 shirts in the next THREE DAYS.

Here is what the shirt looks like:

If they are unable to sell 153 more shirts by Friday then they won't receive any money from this fund-raiser and I won't get my shirt.  So please, help me get my shirt by ordering one for yourself:

http://teespring.com/mpigbottleschool

Reading in Jordan

After reading this article on the 14th Annual Amman International Book Fair, I got to thinking about reading in Jordan: both the reading that I do and the reading that I observe around me.  I've come to the realization that I have never once seen a Jordanian read for pleasure.  In my 11 months in Jordan I have only ever seen Jordanians read three things: The Holy Qur'an, textbooks, and the occasional newspaper (though I must admit that I see newspapers used more often as tablecloths than as reading material).

While my personal experience in conservative and rural Jordan may not be fully accurate, there is no denying this quote from The Economist:

The Middle East has a bad reputation when it comes to books; nowhere else do so few people read them.

Why could this be?

This Israeli study claims that the minute differences that exist between several groups of letters in written Arabic cause extra strain on the left brain, thereby inhibiting the right brain from becoming involved in the act of reading.  Though one cannot discount that there is very likely an obvious bias against all things Arab by the researchers, in my personal experience reading Arabic is incredibly difficult.  Though I can now speak and listen about familiar topics fairly fluently in Arabic, my reading and writing skills are still quite low.  I would even venture to say that, after being immersed in Arab culture for 11 months and studying Arabic for 15 months, I can write in Arabic more quickly than I can read even my own writing.

Is this why Arabs don't read for pleasure, because reading is "hard for the brain" and disengages the right brain?  If the script were different would the right brain be more activated and Arabs would find more pleasure in reading?

That may well be a factor, but another factor which I cannot seem to find anyone talking about is the fact that the languages spoken by native Arabic speakers and the language of written Arabic are not the same languages.  Written Arabic has changed very little in the 1500 years that have passed since Allah revealed the Qur'an through Archangel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed in Arabic.  Between the years 610 CE and 632 CE Allah revealed the Qur'an to Mohammed in Arabic.  This remains today one of the things that Arabs take the greatest pride in:  The fact that Allah speaks Arabic.

Throughout the Arab world there continues to this day to be a strong force to keep alive the 7th Century Arabic of Allah; however, there does not exist a language on Earth that has not undergone changes in the past 1500 years.  Arabic is no exception.  In Jordan alone, a country of only 7 million, there are at least seven distinct accents or dialects of Arabic.  When you consider the fact that there are 22 Arab countries and approximately 300 million Arabic speakers you can imagine how many different dialects of Arabic have evolved over the last millennium and a half.  Many of these "dialects" are mutually incomprehensible, i.e. Jordanian Arabs cannot understand when a Moroccan Arab or a Tunisian Arab speaks his or her native language.

To give you some context, Beowulf was written in English not long after the Qur'an was revealed.  I don't know about you, but when I was asked to read Beowulf I barely understood the story and certainly took no pleasure from the experience.  If I continually tried to read things like Beowulf, I too would lose interest in reading.  Nevertheless, all Arab countries insist upon 7th Century Qur'anic written Arabic to maintain their ties to each other and to Allah, despite the fact that almost no young Arab can fluently and accurately speak, let alone read, Qur'anic Arabic.

The insistence among Arabs to maintain Qur'anic Arabic has resulted in an educational system where literature has no place.  While American students read novels and poetry and the like in "English" class, when the boys at my school go to "Arabic" class, they are in effect learning a foreign language, and the class is taught as foreign languages have traditionally been taught.  Students focus primarily on grammar, secondly on vocabulary (as a large percentage of "Standard Arabic" vocabulary is not used in my students' home language), and finally on pronunciation:  One of the beauties of the Qur'an is that, in 7th Century Arabic, it is incredibly lyrical.  One of the only culturally acceptable forms of music are a cappella recitations of Qur'anic scripture. However, if someone were to recite the Qur'an in any one of the Arabic dialects of today, not only would it be blasphemous, but it would lose all of its musical and poetic qualities.

My hypothesis, therefore, is that reading in Arabic is not "hard for the brain" primarily because the letters look alike, but rather because reading in Arabic, for Arabs, is akin to reading in a foreign language.

As long as written Arabic and the dialects of spoken Arabic continue to grow further and further apart, I see little hope for encouraging reading for pleasure among Arabs.

I, on the other hand, like my buddy Mark McCann in China, have done a significant amount of reading in the year plus that has passed since I accepted my invitation to join Peace Corps Jordan.  The remainder of this post may very well be of no interest to many of you, but all this talk about reading has inspired me to compile a list of the reading that I have done in, and in preparation, for Jordan.  If you're curious what a 29-year-old Peace Corps English Teacher Volunteer reads in Jordan, then scroll down and take a look:

• I'll start with non-fiction books about Arab history and culture:

 

T.E. Lawrence - The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

King Abdullah II - Our Last Best Chance

Margaret K. Nydell - Understanding Arabs:  A Guide for Modern Times

Philip Robins - A History of Jordan

Raphael Patai - The Arab Mind

Milton Viorst - Sandcastles:  The Arabs in Search of the Modern World

Albert Hourani - A History of the Arab Peoples

• Next, I'll move to novels:

Jack London - White Fang

Jack London - The Call of the Wild

Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

• Here we have three, quite different, non-fiction pieces:

Warren St. John - Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto

• Here are two books that I tried to read and couldn't finish (I'm sure you'll understand why):

 James Joyce - Ulysses

Alfred Lord Tennyson - Idylls of the King

• Next, these are the guidebooks and Arabic language books that I am still making my way through:

Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi - Al-Kitaab

Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer - Complete Arabic

Jenny Walker and Matthew D Firestone - Lonely Planet Jordan

Di Taylor and Tony Howard - Jordan: Walks, Treks, Caves, Climbs & Canyons

• Finally, here are the three books that I am reading right now:

Sir Richard Burton (Translator) - Arabian Nights: The Book of A Thousand Nights and A Night

Mark Allen - Arabs

Dante Alighieri - Divine Comedy: Inferno

• In addition to these books I regularly read The Jordan Times and The Economist's Middle East and Africa page, read Time Magazine and National Geographic when I have the opportunity, have completed 132 lessons and mastered 591 vocabulary words on ArabicPod101.com, and have taken the following online courses:

The Economics of Energy and the Environment

(completed)

Elixir:  A History of Water and Humans

(completed)

Introduction to Conflict Analysis

(completed)

Brazil for Beginners

(in progress)

Introduction to Sustainability

(in progress)