(Ch)
So one of the most common misconceptions about the middle east (I feel) is the role of women here. At least when I thought of women here I pictured fully covered (head covering and veil), moderately oppressed women with no rights whatsoever. All of their choices are limited, they are forced to live at home to cook and clean for the men - they can't go out, they can't do anything. Now being here for a month, I obviously don't really know all that much, but I'll report what I see and hear.
Like all generalizations, this misconception is sometimes true and more likely false. First of all, at least in Jordan, there are many women walking around without any sort of head covering. There are many Filipinos working housekeepers, many foreigners from other countries, and many Christians (Catholic) who do not cover at all. These women are not looked down on because they come from different backgrounds where they do not cover - and that's alright. If they are not from a Muslim background, they are not expected to be covered.
Besides that, it's even alright for Muslim women to go uncovered as well - it all depends on the family. Some families are very conservative and some are very liberal. Depending the family, it determines how much a women will cover (hair and face) or how much they won't. Women can, of course, choose to cover more if they want - but not less than what is standard for the family.
In terms of a woman's life, I really don't know that much but I'll venture my guess. Girls grow up here and go to school, often will go to university and get jobs - just like men. Of course there are restrictions, girls go to separate schools than men (most of the time). Likely they'll work for awhile then get married - the marrying age here is later (usually around 30). Once they get married, they usually quit their jobs and take care of the home.
Now in a western view, this seems very restrictive and (for lack of a better word) bad. The society seems to force women to work at home and do nothing else - even if she wants to. But what we have to understand that here (and I made mention of this in the previous blog) choice is not something they value as much as we do. Here, one of the primary values is honor. To be honorable is the most important thing.
So, as a woman, what can you do to bring the most honor to your family? To live and work in the house. This shows honor because it means that your husband makes enough money to provide for you. It shows honor because you don't have to "work" (at least in the business sense), you can stay at home. You honor your husband and your family by serving him while he's at home.
Now before people get all up in arms about this, let's consider the male perspective. As a man, the most honorable thing you can do is earn a lot of money and provide for your family. So what do you do? You study and work in the highest paying job you can possibly achieve given your grades (I wrote about this earlier). If you can be a doctor, you be a doctor - not because you like it, not because you want to help people (though you might), but because it's the highest paying job around - and that brings the most honor.
Ironically, men here are almost just as "trapped" in terms of their jobs as women are. They work the highest paying job that they can possible take - regardless of how they feel about it. They have no real choice in what they do. Many of my students dislike what they do, but they do it because it provides the most money they can possibly make.
We might feel this to be terrible, an injustice - a society that takes away choice. But remember, you're a westerner, your view on what is valuable is different than theirs. I'm not saying this society is right or even good but we have to understand that it's completely different than ours. What we feel as injustice, they might find to be right. If we're trying to impose our ideas - that freedom and choice are the most valuable things in this world - we should stop and catch ourselves.
Ok, there are some more things I feel like I can say on a woman's role here, but I'll leave them to later since this is really long.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Visa Vi
(Ch)
When coming into Jordan they only give you a thirty day visa, which means you have to get it renewed at the police station sometime before that. Well, for us that time was Sunday (the work week starts here on Sunday - Friday and Saturday are the weekends). This we decided to do all by ourselves, since it should be easy.
It wasn't that easy. We took a cab there (it's how we get around the city, they're pretty cheap) that dropped us off at the main door. After we got inside, we asked around to find out where to get visas and were directed over to a counter. Of course there was a "line" that we had to wait in, which took a little bit of time (I say "line" because there aren't any lines in Jordan, just clusters of people - those who muscle in next after someone leaves is served next). When it was finally our turn, the guy said we were in the wrong building and directed around the back of the building.
Once there, we found a guy who was at least handling visas of some sort, of course had to wait in a short "line" there too. Unfortunately this guy didn't speak any English (ironic since most people in Jordan speak passable English - EXCEPT the guy who's helping foreigners get their visas) so he had to have someone else in line translate for us. The only question he really asked was, "Where do you live?" - which we didn't know the answer to. There aren't really addresses here in Jordan, so it's difficult to know. Since we know how to walk to our place from a major landmark, we always just direct taxis that direction. Anyway, we had to call our roommate who was at least able to give us the street we lived on.
Great. But they require that we give them a photocopy of our passport for their records... Unfortunately the nearest copier was down the street at some store people called a "library". Well, luckily for us some people helped us out and we followed a guy to the store (which sold cell phones, it wasn't a library). We did that, got back into the visa place and waited again.
Finally after some hesitation he stamped us our passports (in my mind as he was looking over stuff I was thinking, "JUST STAMP IT"). Sweet. He motioned us out of the building and that was that.
We hoped. We weren't sure that was all, so we called our friend and asked if someone else was supposed to happen after that - apparently a director is supposed to sign it. So, at our friend's direction we wander into a room where we see some guy get his passport signed - great. As we approach to get ours signed, the director takes 3 other guys there and leaves without a word.
So we sit down and wait - we have no idea how long he's going to be gone or where he went. Other poke their heads into the room looking for him and leave. A woman sat down who had and American passport so we started talking to her. Turns out she's from Seattle! So we had a nice conversation, she's originally from Jordan but went over there with her husband (for some reason we've met a lot of people from the Pacific Northwest while over here).
Anyway, he came back fairly quickly (thankfully only 10 minutes or so), though he was on the phone. While talking, he managed to sign and stamp all three of our passports and we got out of there.
Who-ho! Looks like we're good for another 1 and a 1/2 months!
When coming into Jordan they only give you a thirty day visa, which means you have to get it renewed at the police station sometime before that. Well, for us that time was Sunday (the work week starts here on Sunday - Friday and Saturday are the weekends). This we decided to do all by ourselves, since it should be easy.
It wasn't that easy. We took a cab there (it's how we get around the city, they're pretty cheap) that dropped us off at the main door. After we got inside, we asked around to find out where to get visas and were directed over to a counter. Of course there was a "line" that we had to wait in, which took a little bit of time (I say "line" because there aren't any lines in Jordan, just clusters of people - those who muscle in next after someone leaves is served next). When it was finally our turn, the guy said we were in the wrong building and directed around the back of the building.
Once there, we found a guy who was at least handling visas of some sort, of course had to wait in a short "line" there too. Unfortunately this guy didn't speak any English (ironic since most people in Jordan speak passable English - EXCEPT the guy who's helping foreigners get their visas) so he had to have someone else in line translate for us. The only question he really asked was, "Where do you live?" - which we didn't know the answer to. There aren't really addresses here in Jordan, so it's difficult to know. Since we know how to walk to our place from a major landmark, we always just direct taxis that direction. Anyway, we had to call our roommate who was at least able to give us the street we lived on.
Great. But they require that we give them a photocopy of our passport for their records... Unfortunately the nearest copier was down the street at some store people called a "library". Well, luckily for us some people helped us out and we followed a guy to the store (which sold cell phones, it wasn't a library). We did that, got back into the visa place and waited again.
Finally after some hesitation he stamped us our passports (in my mind as he was looking over stuff I was thinking, "JUST STAMP IT"). Sweet. He motioned us out of the building and that was that.
We hoped. We weren't sure that was all, so we called our friend and asked if someone else was supposed to happen after that - apparently a director is supposed to sign it. So, at our friend's direction we wander into a room where we see some guy get his passport signed - great. As we approach to get ours signed, the director takes 3 other guys there and leaves without a word.
So we sit down and wait - we have no idea how long he's going to be gone or where he went. Other poke their heads into the room looking for him and leave. A woman sat down who had and American passport so we started talking to her. Turns out she's from Seattle! So we had a nice conversation, she's originally from Jordan but went over there with her husband (for some reason we've met a lot of people from the Pacific Northwest while over here).
Anyway, he came back fairly quickly (thankfully only 10 minutes or so), though he was on the phone. While talking, he managed to sign and stamp all three of our passports and we got out of there.
Who-ho! Looks like we're good for another 1 and a 1/2 months!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Not Weird, Different.
(Ch)
So I'm going to write a little bit about the culture here, hopefully over several blog posts - but this will be the start. As we meet up with our friends here, we're learning so much about Arab and Jordanian culture, it's all very interesting.
One thing I've noticed about this culture is that there seems to be a lack of choices. I freely admit that, as a westerner, I value choice and freedom perhaps too much. I think it's a very western idea to hold our freedoms in such high regard - that they are worth dying for. Definitely we prize our choice as a key value in our society.
That said, I still feel there is a huge lack of choices here in Jordan. As an example, we might think of some of the huge decisions that we make during our lives - we choose our religion, our politics, our careers, and our spouses. But here in Jordan, the vast majority of the decisions are already made for people.
For religion, everything is decided by your family. What your family believes, you also believe. This goes for seemingly all the religions in this area, whether you are Christian or Muslim. In this country, it is perfectly fine to be any religion you like - so long as that is the religion that your family belongs to. However, if you want to switch religions, to choose one, then you're going to run into a lot of problems. If you ask people here why they believe what they believe, it will almost always go back to, "Well that's what my family is." There is no personal choice.
For politics, there isn't all that much choice either. Granted, people here love the king and would not want to remove him or anything, but there isn't much in the way of choice. I believe they elect one house of parliament and the other is appointed by the king.
For careers, everything is determined by your marks. Here, your tests and grades determine what jobs you can and can't do. For instance, those who score 95 or higher at the end of high school can become doctors, those who score 80 or higher engineers, etc... If you don't make the grade, universities here will not accept you into their programs. While someone who scores 95 or higher can technically do any of the jobs below, they will always choose doctor because it makes the most money. There is no personal choice.
For spouses, there can be some choice involved. Depending the family, there may be arranged marriages or not - so this varies.
The point of this is simply to say that the culture here does not allow people to make many choices for their lives. The results of this play out in many different ways - at least as I see it. For example, I think that there is a very fatalistic view of life here. If everything is determined and decided for you, there is a sense of being trapped and "stuck" - there is little hope for the future. Of course that's a much more complicated issue, there are a lot of other things in this culture that contribute to it.
So I'm going to write a little bit about the culture here, hopefully over several blog posts - but this will be the start. As we meet up with our friends here, we're learning so much about Arab and Jordanian culture, it's all very interesting.
One thing I've noticed about this culture is that there seems to be a lack of choices. I freely admit that, as a westerner, I value choice and freedom perhaps too much. I think it's a very western idea to hold our freedoms in such high regard - that they are worth dying for. Definitely we prize our choice as a key value in our society.
That said, I still feel there is a huge lack of choices here in Jordan. As an example, we might think of some of the huge decisions that we make during our lives - we choose our religion, our politics, our careers, and our spouses. But here in Jordan, the vast majority of the decisions are already made for people.
For religion, everything is decided by your family. What your family believes, you also believe. This goes for seemingly all the religions in this area, whether you are Christian or Muslim. In this country, it is perfectly fine to be any religion you like - so long as that is the religion that your family belongs to. However, if you want to switch religions, to choose one, then you're going to run into a lot of problems. If you ask people here why they believe what they believe, it will almost always go back to, "Well that's what my family is." There is no personal choice.
For politics, there isn't all that much choice either. Granted, people here love the king and would not want to remove him or anything, but there isn't much in the way of choice. I believe they elect one house of parliament and the other is appointed by the king.
For careers, everything is determined by your marks. Here, your tests and grades determine what jobs you can and can't do. For instance, those who score 95 or higher at the end of high school can become doctors, those who score 80 or higher engineers, etc... If you don't make the grade, universities here will not accept you into their programs. While someone who scores 95 or higher can technically do any of the jobs below, they will always choose doctor because it makes the most money. There is no personal choice.
For spouses, there can be some choice involved. Depending the family, there may be arranged marriages or not - so this varies.
The point of this is simply to say that the culture here does not allow people to make many choices for their lives. The results of this play out in many different ways - at least as I see it. For example, I think that there is a very fatalistic view of life here. If everything is determined and decided for you, there is a sense of being trapped and "stuck" - there is little hope for the future. Of course that's a much more complicated issue, there are a lot of other things in this culture that contribute to it.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Open for Business
(Ch)
Clarke didn't write anything about how the coffee shop went last week, so I thought I'd drop a quick note about it.
The coffee shop went well last week. There actually weren't as many people as we'd hoped there would be (roughly 15 students and 5 "teachers"), but it was good. The goal of the time is simply to build relationships and practice English, which would be difficult to do with many more than 15 people anyway.
We had some good food and some good talks, then played a "game" of Catch Phrase. Really it wasn't much of a "game" because we didn't use the timer, we just went around and each person took as much time as they needed to get the word. But it was fun just struggling through the words with the students.
We've also posted a lot of new pictures over at our photobucket, so you can look those up if you like!
Clarke didn't write anything about how the coffee shop went last week, so I thought I'd drop a quick note about it.
The coffee shop went well last week. There actually weren't as many people as we'd hoped there would be (roughly 15 students and 5 "teachers"), but it was good. The goal of the time is simply to build relationships and practice English, which would be difficult to do with many more than 15 people anyway.
We had some good food and some good talks, then played a "game" of Catch Phrase. Really it wasn't much of a "game" because we didn't use the timer, we just went around and each person took as much time as they needed to get the word. But it was fun just struggling through the words with the students.
We've also posted a lot of new pictures over at our photobucket, so you can look those up if you like!
Planning for Evacuation
(Cl)
Now that I have your attention...
Actually, we attended a team meeting with our worker friends as they planned for evacuation (in the event that sometime in the future such a thing might be necessary), which turned out to be quite the hilarious meeting.
Anyways, at the young adults group last Saturday, the youth leader asked one of us to speak in front of the group. After much deliberation in the back of the room, I decided I would share. I started speaking right away. The translator stopped me, explaining I needed to speak slower and in intervals. All in all, it went over well.
Then on Sunday, we traveled to Petra. We went with Al and Dorene Holland (Matt Boda's in-laws), who are staying in Jordan to help teach ESL along with some other tasks. We took off early Sunday morning, around 6, on a tourist bus. It took about 3 hours of travel to make it to Petra, and after a little confusion (Once off the bus, no one tells you how to actually "Enter" Petra), we started making our way through the narrow canyon walls that lead to the famous structure called the Treasury (you might remember it from Indiana Jones 3, in the scene where they enter the city carved into the hillside at the end of the movie). It was, in the words of some of my friends, pretty much amazing. There are some pictures up on the photobucket of our adventure to say much more than I could with words. Al and Dorene were kind enough to offer to pay for our lunch at the restraurant, which turned out to be a delicious buffet. Unfortunately, we took on the most ambitious leg of our trek after the gargantuan feast. We made our way up about 1000 steps to the monastery at one of the highest points at Petra. It definitely helped us sleep on the way back. Despite the fact that we were seated above the wheel, where we were obnoxiously rocked the whole way back.
Tonight we had a meal with the LeTexiers and some other friends. It was delicious! Tomorrow we will spend the day getting ready for Coffee Shop, where we are sending off one of the teachers who is getting married back in the States.
Wish us luck!
Now that I have your attention...
Actually, we attended a team meeting with our worker friends as they planned for evacuation (in the event that sometime in the future such a thing might be necessary), which turned out to be quite the hilarious meeting.
Anyways, at the young adults group last Saturday, the youth leader asked one of us to speak in front of the group. After much deliberation in the back of the room, I decided I would share. I started speaking right away. The translator stopped me, explaining I needed to speak slower and in intervals. All in all, it went over well.
Then on Sunday, we traveled to Petra. We went with Al and Dorene Holland (Matt Boda's in-laws), who are staying in Jordan to help teach ESL along with some other tasks. We took off early Sunday morning, around 6, on a tourist bus. It took about 3 hours of travel to make it to Petra, and after a little confusion (Once off the bus, no one tells you how to actually "Enter" Petra), we started making our way through the narrow canyon walls that lead to the famous structure called the Treasury (you might remember it from Indiana Jones 3, in the scene where they enter the city carved into the hillside at the end of the movie). It was, in the words of some of my friends, pretty much amazing. There are some pictures up on the photobucket of our adventure to say much more than I could with words. Al and Dorene were kind enough to offer to pay for our lunch at the restraurant, which turned out to be a delicious buffet. Unfortunately, we took on the most ambitious leg of our trek after the gargantuan feast. We made our way up about 1000 steps to the monastery at one of the highest points at Petra. It definitely helped us sleep on the way back. Despite the fact that we were seated above the wheel, where we were obnoxiously rocked the whole way back.
Tonight we had a meal with the LeTexiers and some other friends. It was delicious! Tomorrow we will spend the day getting ready for Coffee Shop, where we are sending off one of the teachers who is getting married back in the States.
Wish us luck!
Friday, October 17, 2008
1000's of Words
(Ch)
Well, if pictures are really worth that much...
http://photobucket.com/ccinjd
Coffee shop in a few hours.
Petra on Sunday!
Well, if pictures are really worth that much...
http://photobucket.com/ccinjd
Coffee shop in a few hours.
Petra on Sunday!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Rhythm
(Ch)
So, we've been here for about two weeks now (actually, exactly two weeks as of 10:30 AM this morning) and things are starting to settle into a routine. Previously, everything was a little sporadic - meeting up with people, registering students for ESL, etc...
Anyway, so here is a basic idea of what we'll be doing while we're over here.
First is teaching ESL. Like I mentioned before, we teach on Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 PM till 9:00 PM. We prepare our lessons from the curriculum that the center uses.
In the same vein, we meet up with students individually to practice English and just have conversations with them. This is student driven - they initiate meeting up with us. Since we're relatively free during the week, it's not too hard to find a time. Already we have both scheduled to meet up with some students on our classes.
We will also be running a coffee shop on Friday, with the similar goal of helping students practice their English in conversations. Basically this is a time when the students of the school can interact with teachers (and other English speakers) in an informal, public setting. We'll use conversation as well as games (such as Catch Phrase and Taboo Junior) to help the students practice.
Other than that we meet up with Matt (our friend), who teaches us about Arab culture, politics, and religion on Monday mornings. We meet with Gene to talk about various things and do some training on Thursday mornings. Saturday and Wednesday mornings we spend an hour with an Arabic tutor who is helping learn some basics of the language while we're here.
We also attend service here at the church on Saturdays (there is a young adult service), and occasionally other times. We recently went to a baptismal service which was eerily similar to SCAC's (down to singing "Happy Day" after each time!).
The rest of what we do is fairly random. For instance, the last few days we've been helping the church community center here with their computer lab (one machine had about 3165 viruses, Trojans, worms, etc...). And hopefully we'll be able to volunteer and help out more here.
So that's an idea of what we do.
As a personal update, my class on Monday went better I think. I'm making an effort to memorize people's names, and even took pictures of every person to help me remember (as Kim suggested!). Although it's still difficult for me to slow down and watch my words, I'm working on it.
Thanks for all your support and prayers!
Thanks for all your support and prayers!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Impressions Of The Here And Now.
(Cl)
So there are 2 things that I really wanted to share. One being my first expierence teaching english and a Coffee Shop night that Chris and I are getting to be in charge of.
For me, teaching was so much fun! The first class with Chris is great becuase since he teaches it twice, I don't have to prepare the lesson. I enjoy being in the background to answer questions or just write what Chris is going over on the board to help the students engage better. I feel the same way as Chris does about the professions of our students. How ironic that we are teaching teachers, at least for the most part. But I really enjoyed even more than co-teaching the class, is my second class.
The class that I teach with Chris is level 3, and for the second class I get to teach an advanced english class called Pasages 1. This class consists of 5 students, 4 men and 1 woman. The majority of them are older than I am, but I felt well received by my students, which was encouraging. Both Chris and I going to try to be open for our students to practice english outside of class as much as possible. Another option though, that we are both excited for is the Coffee Shop night.
Starting next friday, at the community center, we are opening the doors for our students and others to come practice their english through various events, in a friendly atmosphere with drinks and for this first one, free food. We are still brainstorming, so hopefully we will post some details in a few days. At this moment though, we are really excited and kind of frightened with the thought of running by ourselves. Fortunetly, we will have other teachers and hopefully some people who will help in other facets.
So there are 2 things that I really wanted to share. One being my first expierence teaching english and a Coffee Shop night that Chris and I are getting to be in charge of.
For me, teaching was so much fun! The first class with Chris is great becuase since he teaches it twice, I don't have to prepare the lesson. I enjoy being in the background to answer questions or just write what Chris is going over on the board to help the students engage better. I feel the same way as Chris does about the professions of our students. How ironic that we are teaching teachers, at least for the most part. But I really enjoyed even more than co-teaching the class, is my second class.
The class that I teach with Chris is level 3, and for the second class I get to teach an advanced english class called Pasages 1. This class consists of 5 students, 4 men and 1 woman. The majority of them are older than I am, but I felt well received by my students, which was encouraging. Both Chris and I going to try to be open for our students to practice english outside of class as much as possible. Another option though, that we are both excited for is the Coffee Shop night.
Starting next friday, at the community center, we are opening the doors for our students and others to come practice their english through various events, in a friendly atmosphere with drinks and for this first one, free food. We are still brainstorming, so hopefully we will post some details in a few days. At this moment though, we are really excited and kind of frightened with the thought of running by ourselves. Fortunetly, we will have other teachers and hopefully some people who will help in other facets.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
It Begins...
(Ch)
Sorry for the slow updates, somehow our blog got labeled as "spam" by Google, so I'm not sure that anyone is even reading this! Oh well.
Anyway, yesterday (Wednesday) was our first day of teaching English classes. Due to the way that registration went, Clarke and I are co-teaching one class (5 - 7 PM) and teaching our own classes (7 - 9 PM). The four hours straight is pretty trying.
Our first class together went well, we had about 10 men there, most of who are older than us. It's funny because many of the students who're taking classes are teachers (biology, physics, etc...) in their own right - and now we're teaching them!
The second class was different... Clarke will write more about his own experience later, I'll write a little about mine.
My class was large, about 18 people. Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped. As usual, I tend to speak a little too fast (although I was making a deliberate attempt to slow down), and I feel that I lost some students. Also, I'm having a hard time engaging all of them - since I don't know their names (the difficulty is amplified since they're all Arabic names)! In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm letting them down and failing them as a teacher - even after only one lesson.
In general it was a pretty rough night. But God is faithful. Today, through my quiet times I did hear a word... "Who are you doing this for? 18 Arabs? Or Audience of one?
Sorry for the slow updates, somehow our blog got labeled as "spam" by Google, so I'm not sure that anyone is even reading this! Oh well.
Anyway, yesterday (Wednesday) was our first day of teaching English classes. Due to the way that registration went, Clarke and I are co-teaching one class (5 - 7 PM) and teaching our own classes (7 - 9 PM). The four hours straight is pretty trying.
Our first class together went well, we had about 10 men there, most of who are older than us. It's funny because many of the students who're taking classes are teachers (biology, physics, etc...) in their own right - and now we're teaching them!
The second class was different... Clarke will write more about his own experience later, I'll write a little about mine.
My class was large, about 18 people. Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped. As usual, I tend to speak a little too fast (although I was making a deliberate attempt to slow down), and I feel that I lost some students. Also, I'm having a hard time engaging all of them - since I don't know their names (the difficulty is amplified since they're all Arabic names)! In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm letting them down and failing them as a teacher - even after only one lesson.
In general it was a pretty rough night. But God is faithful. Today, through my quiet times I did hear a word... "Who are you doing this for? 18 Arabs? Or Audience of one?
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Jordan!
(Ch)
Hey everyone!
So, after a long delay, we've finally established our blog for our time in Jordan. There is limited internet access here, so we hadn't taken the time to set something up until now. Also, just FYI - the (Ch) means Chris is writing while the (Cl) will indicate Clarke.
We've been in Jordan now for about 6 days (arrived Tuesday at 10:30 AM). Things have been going well, we've been getting the lay of the town and settling down some. We met up with our friends Matt Clason and Gene Wolske, and have been seeing Gene regularly the last few days. We'll start teaching English on Wednesday next week, after doing student registrations on Monday and Tuesday.
This is a shot of our apartment (at least the dining room/living room part of it), where we'll be staying for the next 2.5 months. We also have a roommate named Jeremiah, who is studying Arabic at a school here. He's actually a northwest native, so it's perfect.
In addition to these rooms, we've got a full kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms (Jeremiah is in one and we share the other), a large balcony with an incredible view, and our own washing machine. Yeah, I know we're really roughing it out here :)
In terms activities, things have been pretty lax for now. We've had a few sessions with Gene and Matt, helping us learn the culture here and giving us some crash course lessons in teaching ESL. We visited a church picnic/lunch, and went to a church youth sevice last night. We've been around town quite a bit, learning how to shop, take the bus, and generally live life here. (This picture is a partial view from our balcony).
In general, we've been having a great time. Our real classes start next week, so please remember us in your prayers!
Hey everyone!
So, after a long delay, we've finally established our blog for our time in Jordan. There is limited internet access here, so we hadn't taken the time to set something up until now. Also, just FYI - the (Ch) means Chris is writing while the (Cl) will indicate Clarke.
We've been in Jordan now for about 6 days (arrived Tuesday at 10:30 AM). Things have been going well, we've been getting the lay of the town and settling down some. We met up with our friends Matt Clason and Gene Wolske, and have been seeing Gene regularly the last few days. We'll start teaching English on Wednesday next week, after doing student registrations on Monday and Tuesday.
This is a shot of our apartment (at least the dining room/living room part of it), where we'll be staying for the next 2.5 months. We also have a roommate named Jeremiah, who is studying Arabic at a school here. He's actually a northwest native, so it's perfect.In addition to these rooms, we've got a full kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms (Jeremiah is in one and we share the other), a large balcony with an incredible view, and our own washing machine. Yeah, I know we're really roughing it out here :)
In terms activities, things have been pretty lax for now. We've had a few sessions with Gene and Matt, helping us learn the culture here and giving us some crash course lessons in teaching ESL. We visited a church picnic/lunch, and went to a church youth sevice last night. We've been around town quite a bit, learning how to shop, take the bus, and generally live life here. (This picture is a partial view from our balcony).In general, we've been having a great time. Our real classes start next week, so please remember us in your prayers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)