Friday, March 27, 2009

Overdue update

I've become quite busy and distracted that updating my blog has become rather difficult. Here is a brief account of what I've been up to and what the future might be looking like.

School has been keeping me busy, although the University of Jordan Language Center has really become a major disappointment. Last semester I enjoyed level 3 much more than I do this semester. The teachers were nice and enthusiastic and since there was a book it was much more structured. For level 5 I have three teachers, only one of which (Hanan) I really enjoy. She keeps the class interested and actually has a personality, making some jokes or humorous comments; she is a lot more capable of explaining things in different ways. Our teacher for media and listening is quite lazy and does not bring too useful content to study (save for a few articles for the one media Arabic lesson we have a week). She also does not really do a lot of teaching and has us students come up to write out new words that we don't know and sits down while telling us it was written wrong on the board (while one might think it is a teaching method, it is clear that it isn't a method). The third teacher we have for reading/writing and whatever else the class is supposed to entail has improved a little since the beginning. He is still very poor at explaining confusing words or concepts, speaks a mixture of both formal Arabic and a very strong "rural" spoken Arabic. He's become a little less critical of us in terms of "where we learned Arabic" and when we don't know something that in his opinion we should know (which in the beginning was very insulting the way he spoke to us), but he still has a weak personality.

My internship is going great. One of our program managers, an Iraqi refugee status who was waiting for his resettlement date, recently learned he can leave April 9th. This actually opens up a huge door for me, as my previous Head of Mission and her replacement both would like to keep me. I might have good news in the next few days! It will be sad to lose him, he was very friendly, funny and sounded like a great employee, but I am very happy to hear he finally is able to be resettled. The previous Head of Mission's mother actually offered and will be hosting him. I can't begin to imagine what it is like to be in his position...imagine being relatively well to do in your country and then having politics really turn your country upside down to the point that the security situation forces you to leave in order to stay alive, making a life in the other country for a few years and then being one of the few who are accepted and approved to be resettled, even more so to the country that initiated the process from the beginning. Not that this reflects any politics in terms of my thoughts on the war, as they are mixed, but I hope anyone reading this can try to put themselves in that perspective, especially if/when you meet a refugee (particularly an Iraqi).

I went to Ramallah for a meeting with the UN Education Cluster group for Gaza. My Head of Mission wanted me to go in person and to talk to the major organizations to help find out some logistical information on the project I've been working on developing for Gaza. The trip itself was alright, except for the really rainy, windy and cold weather that started last Monday night when I got there until I came home the next day. The meeting turned out not to be incredibly productive and we basically found that the cluster group has a lot of internal coordination issues to work out; many of the big time INGOs and UN Agencies didn't even show up, which would have been a lot more helpful as well. The little information that was there to find out was at least a little helpful though, and if nothing else it was a nice experience. If I remember to come back to it in another blog entry, I will cover the complexities of going into Israel, as the security is quite high.

I arrive home June 11th and am quite excited. I've been having a lot of dreams about it actually, and I think subconsciously I'm a lot more excited than I feel on the surface. I'm sure that will change. I do look forward to going to Bahrain with the Rotaractors and then visiting Germany for 6 days with one of my best friends in the U.S. before coming home. As time continues to fly by I'm sure I'll only keep getting more excited...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Culture الثقافة: Food!

A fun topic, since I enjoy cooking and appreciate unique tasting food, I decided I'd mention the food here. I didn't take pictures of food but uploaded some photos of some of the below-mentioned dishes.

Jordan does not claim many unique dishes, however there is the number one national dish worth mentioning: Mansef. For the nationalistic Jordanian, Mansef is national symbol, held close to the heart. It consists of rice topped with pine nuts and/or almonds, parsley or other green garnish, lamb cooked in It is often eaten traditionally the Bedouin style, with the men standing around the tray, one hand behind their back and the other to grab a chunk of meat and rice, made into a ball and with the tip of the thumb 'popped' in the mouth. In Bedouin tradition, it is common to sacrifice a sheep especially for the guest. Also, as a gesture of honor to the guest, the guest might be offered the head of the sheep, including the brain, eyes, tongue and any other part (cooked of course). In all of my experiences in modern-Amman I have not seen or heard of such situations. However, if I'm lucky someday I will get to visit a more traditional Bedouin family.

Another major dish in Jordan (as a result of the major Palestinian population)is the dessert Knaffe (Kanafa). It originates from Nablus. It baked mixture of either fine or rough flour/water mixture with a lot of butter or oil with sweet cheese in the middle with a very sweet sugar-rose water syrup on top. Many people enjoy to tell you where you can find "the best Knaffe", although in my experience it all is very tasty.

Other traditional Arabic food that you will find throughout the region are: hummus (ground chickpeas, tahina/sesame paste, oil and sometimes other stuff), foul (pronounced 'fool', which is ground up falava beans with oil, lemon and other stuff), tabouleh (parsley salad with lemon juice), falafel (friend ground up chickpeas and spices). You can also get all sorts of fast food items such as burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, french fries and of course the Western Fast Food places are located all over. Amman will be getting a Chili's soon and already has major names such as: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Popeyes Chicken, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Papa John's and many more.

No matter what food