Coming Back From The Dead (Sea)

Yesterday, I was treated to a fantastic trip to the Dead Sea Moatisam and his family. We drove down (literally) to the Dead Sea and spent the day at the Crown Plaza resort. After a week of running non-stop, it was a great break!

Coolest Pool Ever!

Beating the Heat

We ate in a dining room with a panoramic view of the Dead Sea. Later, we watched some traditional Arabic musicians. We got back to Irbid at 2am, but it was worth it! The hospitality here is second to none!

Day Five - Last Day of Training

Today was the last day of training for the teachers before next week's English Camp. Still tons to do but everything is coming together. Made a quick visit to a local special needs center and had a great time with the kids. More pictures of that adventure to follow tomorrow. I met Nina's brother-in-law, Feras, and we had a good time hanging out with his friend Ahmed. To top things off, I found out there was a Yemeni restaurant at the foot of my hotel. And btw, had the best mahglooba of my life for dinner last night :)

I didn't eat all of this by myself, but I would have tried :)

When you know you are being photographed

The two men in the group are holding their own, but today they were tossed out of the group somehow. I told them it was good practice for marriage which led to new vocabulary - on the couch tonight, in the doghouse, etc

At the special needs center 

Couldn't resist the white hair I guess!

Day Four - Cooking With Gas

We really made some headway today in the workshop! We discussed the complex nature of creating our own classroom cultures and they understood and appreciated the concept. Heba is a superstar and she really makes a difference in the workshop. Today, she started adding her own perspective on things. The teachers are getting closer to finalizing their activities for next week's English Camp and we are all excited. I am visiting the special needs center tomorrow, and we are testing our SKYPE call for a possible call to B260 on Monday morning. After work, I was taken to dinner at Alaa's inlaws, then over to her parent's house for dessert. It turns out her father was an English teacher in Yemen at the same time I was!  We had a lot to chat about and I commissioned her younger sister to make cakes, cupcakes, and donuts for our celebration day. I am back in the apartment and I am beat :)

Getting them warmed up

The next door mosque

We are on the edge of town, lots of new construction in the area

Playing Heads or Tails (I told them the story about how Carmela almost won $500 with my suggestions until she missed the final signal on the final round)

And then there were two

Back to work

Last night's dessert - Kunafa

Mudeer Saghera and her little sister

The cover of our handouts

Pontificating after mahglooba

The mighty Amoura sisters

Alaa's father, my comrade in Yemen

Entertaining the kids with ancient parlor tricks

Still got skills (there was a ceiling fan involved too!)

Shorouq doing an activity today

Wurood and her box full of fun

Day Three

This will be a shorter post as I left my camera in a friend's car :(  We had a great day and the teachers are starting to conceptualize the whole process. The are getting more and more engaged and it is fun to see their personalities emerge from the haze of keeping up with my English! Tomorrow, I will visit a special needs facility, and I am very excited. Double pictures tomorrow, I promise.

Day Two

We had a very productive day today. The teachers are working hard and struggling with their tolerance for ambiguity, because there is a lot of ambiguity going around :)  As we say, many moving parts. I think they are slowly getting the idea of the English Camp next week and their roles in the activities. It is a bit messy now, but they are showing good faith. I am just about over my jet lag, and I had one of those dreams you have during a 5pm "nap" today. Somehow, I was involved in a bank robbery and it was apparent the police were closing in. This dream went on for quite some time. I woke up happy to be in a strange bed halfway across the world!
My digs here are very nice! I have a suite with four rooms and a great air conditioner, even though the weather hasn't been very bad at all.

My work space - The internet signal is very good here

Nice to have a small kitchen

The bathroom is fancier than I expected, and I am still trying to figure out all those knobs on the shower command center

I have a balcony overlooking University Circle here and there is no lack of activity outside

Today started the group work phase of the workshop and it went well:

The groups have named themselves the Challengers, Hope, Peace, Stars, and Sunshine :)

They are beginning to reach out to their mentors and I am looking forward to hearing about the interaction. 

*A few more pics:

Diving Right In

Today was the first day of the teaching workshop. True to form, when it was time to start (9am), I was the only one in the room. Once we figured things out, the teachers were all there and were very energetic. We had the talk about me being an American, and more importantly, a German-American, so they got the time issue straightened out. We had a wonderful day with lots of energy and questions.

Getting started in the morning - They warmed up quickly

Heba, our MVCC star, was in town and decided to come down and help out :)

Alaa, the principal (or mudeera saghera, "little boss") wading right into the sessions

We ended up with 25, a good number for the workshop

Since the workshop is about engaging students, Alaa engaged the teachers :)

Some of the day's take aways for the teachers. Back at in a few hours