More Teaching, More Hospitality

We had a very full day today! Jeff, Carmela, and I taught several lessons, the Girls Empowerment Group team started planning the workshop, and Jeff and Carmela got to visit the ancient city of Jerash.

Carmela volunteered to do a lesson on shopping with help from Jeff and Rawan

Jeff helped Captain Duaa warm the kids up in the morning

Jeff was back in his element with the young boys

The planning team for the Girls Empowerment Workshop (left to right)

Rawan, Maria,  Alaa, and Carmela

I had some fun too!

Jerash is and incredible place - Once again Fufu proved to be the Hostess With The Mostest

We will be back at it bright and early tomorrow morning. I am really excited about the connections we are making with the kids. The school continues to evolve and so will MVCC's partnership with Arar.

Measuring Up

Today was day two at the English Camp for us. We are a still bit jet-lagged but we are slowly finding our feet. Jeff, Carmela, and I are teaching more and more sessions each day and the kids are getting used to us. We worked on asking questions with one group, counting with rulers with another (with minimal sword play), and Jeff got called of to do another session. The kids have a lot of energy, and we are doing our best. After the sessions, we went for lunch at a nice cafe. From there, I returned to the hotel and Jeff and Carmela went off with Fufu and two Romanian (Jeff thinks they are Lithuanian) guests to the northern city of Umm Qais to visit the Roman ruins and to look out over the Jordan River Valley into Syria. It has been a very good day and Jeff and Carmela will be exhausted if they ever get back....

Jeff started out with body parts

Working on questioning

We started counting with the rulers then went about the school measuring stuff

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Oops, forgot the yardstick!

Some of the kids showing the principal their work

My lunch

Carmela, Jeff, Fufu, and friends at Umm Qais - magical place

We Are Here!

We made it! Kipp drove us to the airport in rush hour with plenty of time for our flight which was as good as any 13 hour flight in coach can be I suppose. I don't think any of us got much sleep, but we managed the ordeal well

They grew less happy when the guy sitting between them came back when he tried to snag a window seat. On the plus side, I saw about 4 movies I never would have watched :)

We arrived around 5pm and were greated (greated greatly) by Alaa and Mohammed. Thankfully, the 100+ degree weather had subsided

We stopped in a nice suburb of Amman (Abdoun) and had a nice dinner

Jeff and Carmela going straight to the heavy-duty cultural stuff by stopping at Habiba, the most famous dessert place in the country where they enjoyed fantastic Kunafa

Mohammed giving us our Kunafa. You stand outside in an alley and order, then go inside this very small room to get the magic stuff

We took a nice stroll downtown then made our way up to Irbid in northern Jordan

No rest for the wicked - we were up early the next day doing English lessons with the kids

Practicing introductions

How old are you?

Jeff diving in with the older kids

Alaa is happy with Nina's gift - she doesn't know yet that Nina bought out all the candy in the school's bookstore and had me shlep it over to Alaa

Only the second day and they add another notch to their belts (and maybe a few inches) by trying Manif, the national dish

Jeff holding court

Captain Duaa and Suad (Carmela's mentee)

Suad's creation that didn't last long

Jordan is not run by the government, nor is it run by tribes. It is run by groups of sisters - in the north, it is the Amoura sisters, seven strong. This is Alaa on the left and Fawzia (Fufu) on the right who generally looks at me this way

We capped off our evening at my favorite Yemini place. We started with biryani and  moved on to foole (pictures to come)

It has been a great start to our trip! I was reunited with many good people, and Jeff and Carmela hit the ground running. More to come :)

T Minus One

We are a little over one day from departure to Jordan. Lots of planning, packing, and scheduling happening all at once. Christian, Lauren, and Patrick have been a big help on the packing end, particularly since I am taking lots of books and school supplies. Nina lent me a big suitcase, and I think I am about set. We will hit the ground running when we get there - We will get into Irbid late Saturday night then be at the school the next morning by 8am ready for some English fun! We are taking a direct flight this time and it will be approximately 13 hours (14 hours coming back fighting the jet stream). I am excited as this trip will be more of a collaboration between several educators than has been the case in the past. I have learned to expect fluidity, and I am sure everything will be fine. Stay tuned.

Back to Arar :)

I am very excited, as we are heading back to the Arar Academy Schools in Irbid, Jordan this week. My school, Moraine Valley Community College, has continued to partner with Arar and is even sending two colleagues with me this trip! We will be assisting with the Summer English Camp they are hosting as well as a Girls Empowerment Workshop that we will hold a a nearby nature reserve. I am so fortunate to return to Arar to continue our work. Beginning this Friday, there will be daily posts on our adventure :)

A Fan

I was over at Hazem's shop tonight. He has agreed to rent the back of the shop to me so I can have a semi-permanent workshop space. For the past seven years, I have been dragging my tools around to other places to work on my projects. Loading the truck, unloading the truck, setting up, working for several hours, cleaning up, taking it down, reloading the truck, then unloading it every time I work is tiresome. I am happy to have this new space to say the least.
In the back of the shop, there is a large garage door with a row of windows in it. It is handy because I can back up to the door to unload lumber. Tonight, after Hazem left, I was working on some more bottle carriers for the upcoming gala. We will auction them for student scholarships. It was just before sundown and I was working hard on the carriers. At one point, I had a very strange feeling and I looked up and over at the windows in the door. There was a young man (perhaps 30) staring intently at me. It didn't startle me, but it was awkward for a few moments. He smiled broadly, pointed at the bench where I was working, then gave me a big thumbs up. I thought maybe he was developmentally delayed as he just continued to watch me with that funny grin. I turned back to my work, but he stayed at the window. I could feel his presence behind me, but it didn't bother me. If it were my shop, I would have opened the door and invited him in. After about 30 minutes, I heard a light tap on the window and I turned to see him smiling and waving goodbye. I smile too and waved.
As I get older, I appreciate these brief communions with their simple gestures. It makes me feel human.

Scholarships

I was thirty-two before I managed any sort of academic achievement. While in graduate school, I received a small scholarship of $500 that meant the world to me. I am not sure if I deserved it; it might have been a kind gesture from a few of my wonderful professors. All I know is that it changed me. Overnight I became a confident, efficacious student, and it was just the beginning of my educational acceleration. When I finished my Master's degree, the department asked me to start teaching graduate courses. That sudden, sustained burst was instilled by an act of kindness and good faith. I know the power of such actions firsthand.
Tonight, I attended the Arab Student Union's scholarship dinner. It was a very nice event, as always, and I enjoyed myself. I listened as we were told of the impact these new scholarships were having on students two generations removed from my experience. I could see the same sort of synergy and excitement that was planted by modest and generous awards alike. The recipients knew that there were people who trusted and believed in them, and I sensed the same sort of responsibility I felt nearly thirty years ago. I was also very thrilled to learn that my Learning Assistant, Arwah, had received a scholarship tonight as well. She is a returning student from Yemen who works very hard at her job and at her studies. I couldn't have been prouder.

I was also thrilled to accept a beautiful award thanking our department, Learning Enrichment and College Readiness, for its support of these students. We are on track to providing another scholarship this year :)

I can't express how energizing it is to work hard, but to also do so in the company of a great team, school and community! Nina and Sara have done a wonderful job leading the ASU this year, and you can see it in the confidence and grace of the students. As an added treat, Zain, on of our student assistants, was the featured entertainment at the end of the program. He has an amazing voice.

I don't know many people who grew up as I did, but I do know that there are probably thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, who have no idea of their academic or professional potential. Providing scholarship and recognition to these dreamers has immeasurable effect. I hope you donate to scholarships and similar academic support measures as someone who understands the power of faith and personal investment. That ancient scholarship changed my life and I mean to help change a thousand more......