What I've been up to for the past two years...

Below you will find a detailed summary of my 27 months in Jordan:

My Last Semester

I will be leaving Jordan in January.  Due to my imminent departure, I have made quite an effort to appreciate all that I can in Jordan during my last semester here.  I still continue to have a full teaching load at my school:  This semester I'm teaching 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 6th grade, and 8th grade with my local Jordanian counterparts.  Nevertheless, I have not spent a full weekend in my community since the semester started.  The other Peace Corps Volunteers here in Jordan are some of the most incredible people I have ever met, and this semester I have taken advantage of every opportunity to see them in Amman, Irbid, and Aqaba.  I'm especially looking forward to our Thanksgiving celebration this weekend.  For a preview of what that may look like, I encourage you to read my post about last year's Thanksgiving.

Last month the volunteers and staff got together as an entire group for the last time at our Close of Service (COS) Conference in Madaba.  In addition to offering advice related to how to leave our communities and how to find jobs upon our return to the US, the Peace Corps staff provided us with plenty of opportunities to celebrate each other and our services to Jordan.  I continue to be amazed by my fellow volunteers and genuinely enjoyed hearing about all of their successes.

J15 Close of Service with Country Director 

Close of Service Certificate with Country Director and US Ambassador to Jordan Stuart Jones

Another fun event I attended was the FIFA World Cup Intercontinental Qualifier between Jordan and Uruguay,

where I took a video of the fans signing the national anthem:

I've also gone hiking multiple times this fall, including an absolutely amazing three-day trek through the Rajef Inselbergs,

As well as visits to Ajloun , Wadi bin Hammad and the Desert Castles.

Rasoun, Ajloun

Wadi bin Hammad, Karak

Qusayr Amra, Mafraq

Inside Qusayr Amra

In case you missed them, here are some pictures from my trips to Eastern Europe and Turkey last summer:

Bucharest, Romania

These two are getting married on December 4th!

Budapest, Hungary

Olympos, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Antalya, Turkey

If you like my pictures, follow my Instagram.

From the Huffington Post

"I believe it will be in our own self-interest...to distance ourselves from this over-reliance on military might and the insistence on our own exceptionalism."

-Mario Machado in "Service as Diplomacy: The Faces of the US Abroad"

http://huff.to/1ewbxjr

Watch Jon Stewart's return to The Daily Show

He talks a lot about Jordan and Syria and even says several words in Jordanian Arabic:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-september-3-2013-andrew-harper
http://www.hulu.com/watch/529157#i0,p4,d0

Happy Birthday Manna Project International

Happy 10th MPI!

http://mannaproject.org/

My computer will be joining you in 4 months as a double-digiter!

In the news this week

• Syria's war:  If this isn't a red line, what is? - The Economist Aug 24th 2013

"THE horrors of Syria’s civil war have become so routine and relentless that recent massacres have barely been aired in the world press. But if it can be verified that on August 21st hundreds of people, most of them civilians, were killed by chemical weapons fired by President Bashar Assad’s forces, a new level of atrocity will have been reached that may persuade Western governments to change their policy of military non-intervention..."

• Egypt's turmoil:  The army tightens its grip - The Economist Aug 24th 2013

"IN THIS bitterly divided country, a disturbing number of conversations now start with the exclamation, 'Sons of bitches!' Then comes the delicate task of discerning to whom this insult refers..."

• Bombings in Iraq:  Bloodier than ever - The Economist Aug 24th 2013

"IN A country inured to violence, the scale and scope of recent attacks have shaken even the most hardened Iraqis. More than 500 have been killed in bombings this month, after some 1,000 perished violently in July—the highest number since civil strife tailed off five years ago..."

• Blast rock Israel as rockets fired from Lebanon - The Jordan Times Aug 22nd 2013

"Explosions were heard near Israel's border with Lebanon on Thursday, witnesses and AFP correspondents said, as Lebanese security sources said militants had fired four rockets at Israel..."

Additionally, a spate of tribal violence this past week has left five Jordanians dead in Mafraq.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on in this part of the world...

**********************

In more uplifting news:

• Four boys from my village, including one Syrian refugee, attended the world's first ever Peace Corps Camp BRO (Boys Respecting Others) in northwest Jordan this past week;
• Four girls from my village attended Peace Corps Jordan's Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World).  To quote one of the counselors: My "GLOW girls are the best"; and
• I will be published on August 26th in The Places We've Been:  Field Reports from Travelers Under 35.  Get your copy here!

Hopeless Wanderer

Tired of sitting amidst iPhone engrossed travelers in Istanbul I reached for the first piece of print material I could find under the broken coffee table and came across the following special report from The Economist on the Arab Spring:

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21580624-spring-proved-fickle-arabs-are-still-yearning-it-says-max-rodenbeck

The report consists of a series articles addressing issues ranging from Islam to constitution-building to youth involvement in society.  The first article in the report offers a cautiously optimistic tone:

"In short, the scorecard for the Arab spring so far looks overwhelmingly negative. But this special report will argue that such an assessment is premature. Rather than having reached a sorry end-point, the wave of change may have only just begun. Judging by experience elsewhere, such transitions take not months but years, even decades. 

"Further unrest and almost certainly further bloodshed lie in store. But this may well be unavoidable in a part of the world where bewildering social change, including extremely rapid population growth and urbanisation, for so long went woefully unmatched by any evolution in politics. Debate on such crucial issues as the relationship between state and religion, central authority and local demands, and individual and collective rights could not be indefinitely stifled. Something had to give."

Whereas the concluding article appears to reinforce caution and patience:

"Faleh Abdel Jabbar, an Iraqi sociologist, gives warning that for now in most Arab countries 'all the elements that theory says should build democracy are absent, and all those that should prevent it are present.' The middle classes are weak, clannishness prevails, and oil-soaked states see no need for consent from citizens they do not need to tax. That equation is changing, but it will take time."

On a lighter note, thanks to Megan and Emily, I also stumbled across this music video while in Turkey.  Enjoy:

Finally, you can find several pictures from Turkey on my Instagram @smithcraigandrew.

Eastern Europe

I recently took a break from Jordan to visit my family on a Danube River cruise through six Eastern and Central European countries.  Below I describe the number one highlight from each day of our vacation.

Day 1:  Seeing my mom for the first time since October 2011 and giving her a hug for her birthday in Romania.

The whole family in Bucharest, Romania

Day 2:  Teaching my cousin Lilly the word for "insignificant" in Arabic on the bus while looking out the window at seas of sunflowers in Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Day 3:  Climbing to the top of Belogradchik, Bulgaria Rock Formations.

Belogradchik, Bulgaria

Day 4:  Games, games, games!  Playing Shuffleboard and Bridge and Phase10 and Banagrams on the boat with my mom, dad, sister, almost brother-in-law, aunt, uncle, and cousin.

Iron Gate, between Romania and Serbia

Day 5:  Watching my mom be the subject of the Tesla human electricity conduction experiment in Serbia.

Old Fortress at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers, Belgrade, Serbia

Day 6:  Biking through a flooded park with my cousin Lilly in Croatia.

Vukovar, Croatia

Day 7:  Meeting a pig with the hair of a poodle in Hungary.

Hungarian Horseman

Day 8:  Relaxing in the 11 medicinal hot springs baths in Budapest, Hungary.

City Park, Budapest, Hungary

Day 9:  Walking across the Chain Bridge, which separates Buda from Pest, at night.

Chain Bridge and Buda as seen from atop Pest, Hungary.

Day 10:  Sharing a Spanish paella with Keith and Lucas in Austria.

Lisa and Lucas in the Imperial Rose Garden, Vienna, Austria

Day 11:  Getting lost for hours at the Helnwein Retrospective exhibit at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.

The whole family in Vienna, Austria

Day 12:  Taking over the Mezzanine of the Hilton to play Bridge and Phase10 and make our own beverages.

Vienna as seen from atop St. Stephen's Cathedral, Austria

In addition, more pictures can be found by clicking on the following links:

• Eastern Europe
• Teaching Girls in Jordan
• Spring Break Jordan

Neighbors

Another new family moved in down the street today.

Like most of the families that have moved into my village over the past year, this family is Syrian. 

When I moved into my village 16 months ago, I was the only foreigner on my block. Not only was I the only foreigner, but I was also the only non-East Bank Jordanian, only non-member of the Beni Hassan tribe, and only non-member of the local clan.

Today, of the 12 residences on my block, one is uninhabited, one is mine, five are inhabited by people born and raised in this community, and five residences are currently housing Syrians.

Considering the fact that rental rates in Mafraq, along with the prices of everything else, have skyrocketed recently, the average Syrian home in Mafraq houses significantly more people/families than the average Jordanian home.

This means that my block, which less than a year and a half ago was 100% local, is now primarily Syrian. 

Girls Leading Our World

For the first time ever, 4 girls from my village have been accepted to attend Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), a summer leadership and English immersion camp for high school girls at a university in southern Jordan.

Read about it here from one of the volunteers in charge of the camp:

http://27monthswithoutpeanutbutter.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/thegirlwhostoodup/

Consider supporting the camp here; this is the last week to make donations:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-440-001

Arabic and English are different

One day last week the second grade teacher was absent from school. As per the norm, the second grade students wanted to leave school when they realized their teacher was not present. One of the students asked me and I attempted to make the following statement to our assistant principal:

.طلاب الصف الثاني قالو بدهم يروحو

In transliteration, this sentence is pronounced as

Tolaab as-suf ath-thaanii gaaluu bedhom yarowhu.

Effectively this sentence means

The second grade students said they want to leave.

However, when you directly translate this sentence word-for-word, it comes out as follows:

Students the grade the second said they desire their go they.



Nevertheless, the dialect of Arabic that I speak is not considered to be Standard Arabic and therefore is not a written language. For this reason, it really is inappropriate for me to type the sentence in Arabic above as I did. It would have been more appropriate for me to type the following sentence (which has the exact same meaning as the original sentence):

.طلاب الصف الثاني تكلموا إنهم يريدون أن يغادرون

In transliteration, this sentence is pronounced as

Tolaab as-suf ath-thaanii takelamuu innahum yuriiduun an yadhhabuun.

However, when you directly translate this sentence word-for-word, it comes out as follows:

Students the grade the second said they that to them want they to go they.



My hope in sharing this post is to give you just a small glimpse into how different are the two Arabic languages that I am learning here, as well as how different both are from English.

"Syria is the worst humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the end of the cold war."

The above statement comes from the head of the UN's High Commission for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, who was quoted in the following Economist article:

Syria's civil war:  Yet another massacre

In a second Economist article, Chemical weapons in Syria:  Crossing a red line, Israeli and British and French intelligence services have claimed that Bashar al-Assad has already used chemical weapons on his own people on more than one occasion.  The Obama administration has said time and again that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would absolutely not be tolerated.

In response to these reports, Barack Obama, has said that if these reports are true it would be a "game-changer", but that American intelligence has not yet confirmed their validity.  (Obama:  proof of Syrian chemical weapons would be 'game-changer'.)

What this means for Syria, for the United States, and for me as a Peace Corps Volunteer living with sight of Syria remains unclear.

Social Development

Unlike many other international volunteer organizations, Peace Corps does not require a financial commitment from the volunteer.  Many international organizations require volunteers to provide some sort of funding to support both their stay and the organization with which they are volunteering.  Not only are these organizations unable to provide the financial support to their volunteers that Peace Corps does, but they are also unable to provide many of the other government benefits afforded by Peace Corps.  For example, Peace Corps provides significant language, cross-cultural, and technical training to all volunteers in-country before they begin their service as volunteers, not to mention the continuing training offered to volunteers throughout their two years of service.  Furthermore, Peace Corps is able to ensure the health and safety of all volunteers by offering full medical coverage and security support from the US Embassy in country.  Nevertheless, it goes without saying that an organization that is able to offer such a wide range of support and benefits will also place certain requirements and expectations upon and the behavior and work of its volunteers.  You would be hard pressed to find another international volunteer organization that places such specific and comprehensive expectations upon volunteer service as Peace Corps does with its 10 Core Expectations.

While Peace Corps’ requirements and expectations can at times be a bit overwhelming, I would argue that the benefits provided by Peace Corps outweigh the restrictions afforded by Peace Corps’ expectations.  One such benefit is the volunteer access to the Small Project Assistance (SPA) granting program provided in conjunction with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) .  The SPA program is able to provide many benefits to volunteers and the communities in which they work.  Through the SPA program, volunteers together with their community counterparts are able to obtain funds to support a project in their community provided that they use effective Project Design and Management (PDM) techniques in the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of their project.

Before

After

Last summer, two of my community counterparts and I designed one such project and submitted a proposal to the SPA program here in Jordan.  We developed the vision, as a stated desire from the community, to improve the overall English language skills of the members of our community.  After attending a Peace Corps sponsored PDM training we developed this vision from merely a desirable goal to a concrete action plan of steps that would improve English language skills and confidence in the community.  We conducted meetings with influential community leaders to promote our project and refine our ideas and then submitted our plan in the form of a project proposal to the SPA program.

Before

After

Installing the projector screen

Our project plan was approved and we received a grant totaling 3,404 Jordanian Dinars ($4,807.91 USD) to implement our plan to improve the English language skills and confidence in our community.  We partnered with the local branch of the Jordanian Ministry of Social Development, an organization that has offered little more than preschool classes to the community since its inception over thirty years ago.  The director of the Society for Social Development in our community offered us a large and disgusting room to use for our project.  Our initial goal was to renovate this room to provide an effective space with appropriate materials and equipment for English language teaching and learning.  While the community did provide many hours of labor, as well as equipment, supplies, and cash, the majority of our project funds from SPA were spent during this initial phase of renovating and stocking our English classroom.

Working on the room

By the early part of the Fall Semester of the school year, our classroom was ready for use and our classes commenced.  We were able to offer a full slate of courses ranging from students age 10 through adult.  I was tasked with teaching Adult Conversational English.  Like all our courses, my classes were three hours per week and segregated by gender. The majority of the students in the adult classes were in their twenties or early thirties, and teaching these courses provided me with a wonderful opportunity to develop relationships in my community and make, separately, both male and female friends.

I, however, would prefer not to talk about what I did, but rather I would like to focus on the support provided, and the skills gained, by the members of my community.  As I stated above, SPA granted us 3,404 JOD, but I believe it is significant to note that our total project cost was over 7,400 JOD (approximately $10,500) meaning that the community donated 54% of the total cost of this project.  One of the biggest donations came from two Jordanian community members, who were not involved in the initial project design and planning, and who each volunteered to teach nine hours of youth English classes every week for the semester.  In addition to working as full-time teachers at schools in Mafraq City, each of these volunteers returned to our community in the afternoons and evenings to teach three separate English classes every week.  When you add their excellent volunteer efforts to my Adult Conversation classes, then we provided a regular offering of 24 hours of English classes every week.

Before

After

While our attendance in our male classes was not as high as we had hoped, our female classes remained full throughout the semester and we did even have a small core group of males in regular attendance in our classes.  We are confident that these students have benefited from these English courses not only from their continued presence and participation in our courses, but also from conversations with their parents.  Almost every week a parent would come to thank us and inform us that he or she, as well as his or her child’s primary English teacher at school, has noticed significant improvement in his or her child’s English skills and English confidence.

Before

After

The greatest change, however, that came out of this project, in my opinion, is not the English skills and confidence that our students gained, but rather the local Society for Social Development’s increased capacity to provide quality programming and services for the community.  As I mentioned above, before I began to work with Society for Social Development in my community they had, for decades, offered little more than preschool programs for local youth.  The current director of the Society is younger than I am, has worked for the Society for a shorter period of time than I have been in Jordan, and, aside from being a public school teacher, had no prior experience working in community or social development.  Despite his youth and inexperience, he proved to be a fabulous counterpart who was fully committed to both our English project and to development of the Society as a whole.  Unlike many Jordanians, he consistently demonstrated the leadership and management attributes of initiative, effective time-management, an eagerness to learn, regular communication, and timely follow-through.

In fact, during the course of this project, he independently was able to secure a second grant from a different international development organization to improve the facilities in the rest of the center and offer improved access and services to students with disabilities.  He has told me on numerous occasions that through our work together on our English project he has gained the capacity to design and manage projects and obtain funding for these projects for the benefit of the Society and the community as a whole.  Without the skills gained in our project together, he never would have secured the second grant from the other independent organization.

Before

After

I’ve talked in previous posts how essential my local relationships and counterparts are to my ability to achieve success in my projects and I cannot emphasize enough how lucky I am to be in a community where I am valued and supported by my local counterparts.  In reality, my work in Jordan is quite fun and relatively easy thanks to the people with whom I work.  The director of the local Society for Social Development epitomizes this concept of an ideal counterpart.  Not only is he one of my best Jordanian friends but he is also a man who is committed to learning the appropriate knowledge, skills, and strategies to do whatever it takes to develop our community.

Before

After

Obama

Today I shook hands with President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Ambassador Stuart Jones