A Night of Cultural Exchange

Last Thursday, the end of the work week, I just wanted to go home from school and do nothing. It had been a very long week due to lack of teachers at my school, resulting in daily chaos. However, after running down to my local ducan (little neighborhood store) to buy a few things, my ducan lady reminded me that I had promised her that I would teach her how to make Koosa Cake, otherwise known as zuchinni bread. She was very presistent. I gave in. So I went home, rested a bit, then gathered up all the necessary cooking items and ingredients and headed down to her house. She and her family were very excited to learn about this American style cake (they don't really have bread here). Aunties and cousins slowly started peeking their heads in the kitchen door. But beofre we could get started, the ducan lady, or Om Eisa, felt it necessary to feed me dinner first. I had just eaten before I came. Sigh, how to fit all that food in. So, an hour later, she had finished making dinner....dinner just for me, and the family sat around watching me eat. A bit awkward, but they were all smiles because they were happy that I was there, eating, in their company.

So after I finished dinner, we started making the zuchinni cake. Curious heads popped over my shoulders as I taught Om Eisa and her eldest daughter what ingredients to mix together. It was a fairly simple recipe so it only took a few minutes to prepare before putting it in the oven. Then, as we waited the hour for the cake to finish, we went into the family room and watched TV. The eldest daughter was trying to be a good host and find a show in English. She was pleased when she found one, but it happened to be an infomercial on light bulbs. Not terribly entertaining. So I had her continue to channel surf until she came upon the movie The Rocketeer, a movie I remember watching as a kid. It is a WWII fictional period drama about the invention of a rocket pack that would enable soldiers to fly. In the movie, there was a fictional black and white Nazi propaganda film with soldiers fighting and shooting guns. Om Eisa and her daughter's turned to me and asked if it was Israel fighting in the movie. I was surpised and not surprised. I told them it was before Israel, but they kept asking and seemed confused. (I later asked around if the WWII curriculum and the Holocost was taught in schools here, as I know some Arab muslim countries refuse to teach it in fear of Jewish sympathy.  I was told it (the Holocost) was taught, but literally as just a sidenote and that the number of Jews killed was exagerated; Only 300,000 to MAYBE 3 million killed, not 6 million. Interesting, to say the least).

Anyway, the family got bored with the American film and changed the channel to watch the second most popular sport in Jordan besides soccer, WWE wrestling with John Cena!!! Yep, I was in the presence of all women, cheering and laughing and enjoying the drama of WWE wrestling. Fun times:) Then, after they got tired of that, we watched So You Think You Can Dance. A nice change from WWE and one of my favorite shows to watch.

The Koosa Cake was finally finished and it turned out really yummy and was a hit with the family. A fun little experience. As we were eating, one of the little boys was falling asleep. Om Eisa began to sing him an Arabic lullaby and then asked if Americans sang songs to their children to help them fall asleep. I confirmed we did. Then she and the family wanted me to sing one. I sang the first one that popped into my head and one of my favorites, Goodnight, My Someone from the musical The Music Man.  They were mesmerized by it. They had me sing it about 15 times! They all went quiet and said it was a beautiful song.  It was a sweet moment and a nice way to end the night. I was so glad I didn't spend the evening by myself. I would have missed out on such a unique and special moment.

A couple days later, as I stopped at the ducan to buy a few things, the ducan lady greeted me with a big smile and sang "Goodnight.......!"

The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or of the Peace Corps

The End and The Beginning

Well Ramadan came to an end, on the 29th of August, to be exact. The day after Ramadan is called Eide (which means a holiday) and it is a day(s) of celebration....well, mostly eating....a lot. I decided to spend that time with a close Peace Corps volunteer friend of mine. Her village is several hours south of mine and we are not able to see a lot of each other, so I thought it would be a good time to visit for a couple of days before the school year began.

The first night in my friend's village we visited a friendly and outgoing family. My friend and I helped make Ma'moul (Date filled cookies), a common treat during all major Jordanian holidays. Then we spent several hours socializing with the family and their extended family that came up from Aquaba to visit. We ate Kebsa, a traditional Jordanian rice dish served with lamb. I must say that it was the best lamb I have ever had. Of course when I told that to the family, they kept putting more and more lamb in front of me to eat. I love meat, but there is a limit. The extended family also had a cute little boy with Down Syndrome. They were impressed that I knew what his disability was and I had a nice chat with the mother about additional things she could do to help his development. All in all, a nice visit.

The next couple of days my friend and I spent getting caught up, trying to fix my dying computer (now fixed), visiting other villagers and attempting to cook American dishes. We tried to make a peach crumble/cobbler and then chocolate cake in my friends creative make-shift oven. Meaning, putting a small cake pan in a large pot on top of the stove, and covering it to trap the heat...hence a make-shift oven. It worked pretty good, except our peach crumble wasn't so crumbly, it was more....soggy (I think I used too much butter). But both dishes tasted really yummy, in addition to the coconut curry and fried rice my friend also made. A nice visit.

But all good things must come to an end (why must they, really?). And now school has started. I had such high hopes of things going perfectly, but apparently I forgot the wisdom passed on to me from previous volunteers "Things will NEVER go as planned or expected in this country! Plan on that and you'll do just fine."

The first day of school was very chaotic, and stressful. We had students, but no actual teachers. So here is the background as to why we have no teachers. Last spring I was told that the director wanted to fire all the teachers at our center because they didn't have special education degrees (although they were great teachers, in my opinion). So by the end of the year my mudeera (principal) and the director had hired 4 new teachers and I had met 3 of them. I was fully expecting to come to the first day of school seeing the new teachers and just jumping right in to change the world. I was told there would be no new teachers for at least a week and maybe two weeks (most likely). My mudeera and director were supposed to submit paperwork for the new teachers to the Ministry of Social Development in order for the teachers to be registered and get paid. Well, since it was Ramadan during August, the paperwork was never submitted.

When I arrived at school the first day there were 18 students and 4 adults. The adult/student ratio sounds very reasonable, right? So wrong.  My mudeera attended to "administrative" duties (questionable) and the other two ladies were volunteers who came to see how our center works and what services we provide. They in turn will help get the word out to the surrounding 10 villages to inform families with children with disabilities that services are available for their children. With that said, there were no ACTUAL teachers at our center. The two volunteer ladies and myself attempted to try to teach ( but with limited resources and they have no actual teaching experience and never worked with this population before) and also corral certain behavior-challenged students away from each other to prevent injury and more chaos. It was such a long 6 hour day. Today was worse and I had a bit of a private meltdown. I finally called the director of our center (the big boss that comes to visit every once and a while) and told him of my concerns. He was good to talk to and very understanding. I suggested to the director that perhaps it may be wise not to have school until we have teachers....he said he'd think about it....hmmm? We'll see what happens. I really want things to get going and also for the kiddos to have  a positive environment to come to each day, not the recent chaos. Here's hoping that happens soon.

The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or of the Peace Corps