Syria

Though this article from The Guardian is quite long, I think it does a nice job of describing the ins and outs of just how messy the situation in Syria is right now.

Syria: beyond the wall of fear, a state in slow-motion collapse

Fortunately for me, Jordan has yet to be affected significantly by the events in Syria.

News Brief

This post includes links to several news articles as well as a few of my comments pertaining to each one:

1. Though I currently reside in my permanent village and spend most of my days hanging out, drinking tea, playing cards, or playing soccer with local community members and local teachers, I have not officially started teaching at my school as all Jordanian Ministry of Education (public) Schools are currently on their winter break after first semester exams ended a couple weeks ago.  Typically the second semester starts the first Sunday (the work week is Sunday to Thursday in Jordan) in February, but this year that day happens to fall on February 5th which is the Prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) birthday and is a national holiday; therefore, the first day of second semester is schedule for February 6th.  Unfortunately, however, I may not be able to start working on February 6th as teachers across the country have announced their decision to strike for the second time in 3 years in opposition to the current salary restructuring plan set to go in effect at the commencement of the second semester.
2. Last weekend about 12 current TEFL (Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) PCV's attended a conference in Amman sponsored by the American Language Center entitled Shaping the Way We Teach:  Successful Practices Conference.  The majority of attendees were Jordanian English teachers from throughout the Kingdom.  There was also quite a contingent of international attendees and presenters from throughout the Arab world and North America, including a group of US State Department sponsored English Language Fellows who are currently teaching English at posts throughout the Middle East and North Africa.  The highlight for many however, was the fact that the keynote speaker was none other than Eid Dahiyat the Jordanian Minister of Education and current Acting Prime Minister of the country.  (I say acting because Jordanians only have national elections once every several years, but the all Ministers and Members of Parliament are all fired once every 9-12 months and Mr. Dahiyat is currently serving as Prime Minister until the next round of national elections).
3. Thirdly, in my time here in Jordan, I have been struck by the kindness, generosity, and peacefulness of all Jordanians.  When Jordanians watch the news and hear about people dying; be it Syria, Palestine, Egypt, or other places; Jordanians are truly sad and hopeful for a peaceful end to conflict.  That being said, Jordan is a country with scant natural resources a very high unemployment rate among young men (the unemployment rate for women isn't officially as high, but that is primarily because most women do not look for a job outside of the home).  Almost all men that I have met in Jordan have one of five jobs:  teacher, soldier, fire fighter, merchant, or driver.  As a side-note, I should also point out that many of these men, especially teachers, have a second job as merchants.  In the desert villages where I have spent most of time since my arrival in October, there honestly aren't many job prospects other than those that I mentioned.  For many Jordanians who want a secure and steady job, the best option often times is to join the army.  When you add this to the fact that King Abdullah was a highly decorated Special Forces Commander in the Jordanian Army before even being named Crown Prince by his father King Hussein and is quite supportive of the army, you find that Jordan, though peaceful and one of only two Arab countries to have a peace treaty with Israel, all of sudden becomes one of the most militarized countries in the world.  If you look at the article, you will also notice that of the top ten, seven are in this Eastern Mediterranean/Arab region with Israel being the world's number one most militarized country.
4. Finally, this article proves that it gets very cold and it even snows in Jordan.

MPI Summer Internship

If anybody is looking for something to do this summer, this is a great opportunity:



And here is a link to more information.

Swearing-In Ceremony (Part II)

Hi folks,

I got internet in my house today.  The instructions said I had to put the modem next to the window, but the power cord is pretty short and my only outlet is on the wall opposite the window so it's unclear how consistent my internet will end up being; for now, however, I appear to have my entire room arranged in a way that it seems to be working all right.  Let's hope I can keep it that way...

Anyways, here are some more links to things related to our Swearing-In Ceremony:

• This first link is a news article from AmmonNews.
• This second link is from Peace Corps FB page announcing our Swearing-In.
• This third link includes some of my pictures from the Swearing-In Ceremony.

Additionally, here's a link to some pictures from the Roman ruins at Jerash (Gerasa).
Lastly, this link has nothing to do with Jordan, but it does discuss some interesting development and investment strategies that Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is currently undertaking.

Enjoy!

Swearing-In Ceremony

The Swearing-In Ceremony of January 4^th, 2012 marked the end of PST and the commencement of our lives as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV’s) in Jordan.  I honestly had no idea how big of an event this would until it actually happened.  I was always under the impression that we would get together at the Training Center and be given little certificates stating that we had successfully completed Pre-Service Training and were now authorized to serve as Peace Corps Volunteers.  I could not have been more wrong:  Not only did we not receive certificates (unheard of in the Peace Corps world), but the event was a gallant affair held in the luxurious performance hall of the university, attended by some of Jordan’s elite, and televised live on national television.  A few of the distinguished guests and speakers included the Peace Corps Jordan Country Director, the United States Ambassador to Jordan, the Mafraq Minister of Education, the national Minister of Youth, and the President of Al-Al Bayt University.

Honestly, however, I was less impressed by the attendance of these guests as I was by my more personal guests.  I was honored by the presence of my PST host-family as well as several teachers from both the school where I worked during PST and the school where I will work as a PCV.  Though the ceremony was well structured and the speakers all appeared to be quite appreciative of Peace Corps in general and each of us specifically as Peace Corps Volunteers, I found more enjoyment from the time before and after the ceremony in which I was able to converse with my new friends, both Jordanian and American alike.  Many of these people, whom I consider to be very close friends of mine, I will not be able to see but on a limited and sporadic basis over the next two years.  For me, the best part of the Swearing-In Ceremony was celebrating with and being with the people I consider closest to me in Jordan.

Counterpart Conference and Permanent Site Visit

Last week the J15 PCT’s (the fifteenth group of Peace Corps Trainees in Jordan) had another important milestone on our road to Swearing-In and becoming Peace Corps Volunteers (on January 3^rd!):  The Counterpart Conference and Permanent Site Visit.  All the TEFL (English Teacher) Trainees, as the YD (Youth Development) and SE (Special Education) Trainees had gone the week prior, hopped on a bus together and took the hour and a half long ride into Amman where we were met at the hotel by all of our future principals.  This two-day long Counterpart Conference was a very exciting time for us as none of us had had the opportunity to meet anyone from our school, or really anyone from our village for that matter.

After the initial get-to-know-you conversations, which actually provided me with a great opportunity to practice my Arabic in context, the first activity that we did was a team-building activity.  Each pair of principal and trainee was given 100 straws, 2 meters of tape, and 20 minutes to plan and build the most stable and tallest tower.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well my principal and I worked together.  After drawing out an initial model of what our tower might look like we went to work constructing our tower.  After a couple false-starts we had what we believed to be a good solid base and were ready to start building up.  We quickly discovered, however, that I am terrible at taping straws together (though I was better at connecting straws together without tape).  What pleased me most was that we both recognized the strengths and weaknesses in the other and were happy to work together to support and enhance the strengths of the other so that our end project was significantly better than either of us could have done alone.  In fact, our tower was so good that the judges deemed it second best and awarded us with a box of yummy chocolates.  I believe this to be an important metaphor for our future work at the school site and I hope that my relationship with my principal and English teachers continues to develop as it started in Amman.

Also during the Counterpart Conference, the PCT’s and the principals broke off into two groups to develop a pair of lists of expectations.  Both groups developed lists of what they believed the other could expect from them, as well as what they were currently expecting from the other.  I thank Peace Corps for providing us with this opportunity to vocalize our needs and expectations from the very beginning, and also for giving us the opportunity to see what the principals were expecting of us.  More importantly, however, it was wonderful to see how closely aligned were our expectations and those of the principals.  This conference was certainly a great first step towards developing relationships and doing our work in our schools and communities throughout Jordan.

Following the Counterpart Conference, rather than the PCT’s getting on the bus together, we each got into a car with our principal and took off to our permanent site for a two-day site visit.  Now my principal does not actually live in my village, rather he lives in the nearby city, so I only was able to spend one day in my village.  The day I spent in the city with my principal and his family, however, was wonderful as they all went out of their way to make me feel welcome and really a part of the family.  They took me on a tour of the city, cooked some fabulous kebsa (a slightly spicy dish [literally, one big dish that we all eat out of] of rice, chicken, lentils, veggies, and almonds), and even offered me one of their beds to sleep in at night.

I am not even sure how this last part came about, but they even insisted that I sing five Christmas carols to them.  As I am sure you all know, I am a terrible singer, but fortunately for me Arab music has almost no connection to Western music (their notes aren’t even based on an octave, rather there are something like 13 notes in one scale), they have no ability to distinguish good Western music from bad Western music (just as I have no ability to distinguish between good and bad Arab music), and they seemed to love listening to my Christmas carols.

The next day we went into my village (قريتي) to check out the sites and school in town.  We started at the boys’ school, where I’ll be working, and I spent most of first period meeting many of the 27 other male teachers.  I spent most of second and third periods with the principal and one of the English teachers getting a tour of school, which included the teachers’ lounge, computer lab, kitchen, beautifully decorated hallways, and every single classroom.  In Jordan, like most countries of the world, the students stay together in the same classroom all day and it is the teachers who rotate from class to class.  This system certainly has its advantages and disadvantages when compared to the American secondary school system, but it afforded me the opportunity to see every single (male) student in the school in only two periods.

I really appreciated how my principal was willing to take the time to introduce me to all the students in the school.  I also appreciated how he emphasized the facts that I will be a teacher just like all the other teachers in the school, that I will work with them for a full two years, and that I will not be merely an English teacher but rather a community volunteer for the entire village.  Now that effectively every male from the village between the ages of 6 and 18 has had the opportunity to meet me, and even hear me speak a little Arabic, I am much more confident in my ability to forge relationships, teach English, and serve in my community.

Finally, I spent the rest of the day touring the village.  I was lucky enough to visit the local health center and meet the doctor and nurses, visit the post office and meet the postman, and meet a couple of the local shopkeepers.  The last site I visited in town was my new (huge) house.  My house is about a ten minute walk from my school on the edge of town with a deck overlooking the countryside.  I have two big bedrooms, an entry way, two huge living rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen.  I can’t imagine how I will fill up my whole house all by myself, especially considering how cold it is right now.  I imagine for the next couple of months I will confine myself primarily to the kitchen, bathroom, and one of the bedrooms where I will keep my heater.  Maybe in April or May when the weather starts warming up I might start exploring the rest of my house, but for now I imagine I will just hunker down in my bedroom and try to stay warm.

Lastly, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and happy New Year.  Peace Corps was nice enough to bring us all together on Christmas where we were able to celebrate with an American Christmas dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and root beer floats.  Though I apologize that I do not have any pictures from this celebration, I do have some photos from my site visit available here.