Friday, June 27, 2008

The Circle's the Thing

Jerash, Umm Qais and Irbid, Jordan

Today was our group excursion to the ruins at Jerash and Umm Qais. Not much has changed about Jerash since I left, though there are new police guard towers all around the archaeological park, and a lot more Tourist Police than I've ever seen before.

But are traffic patterns in Irbid ever changing! The north end of the Amman Bus Station where the "service taxis" to the University waited has been razed to make room for a traffic circle, and they're putting in more traffic circles at all the major intersections along that road down to Yarmouk University. The university itself has a new auto bridge onto campus from the south end, though it escapes me why such a thing is necessary.

Then, on the road out to Harima, there are several new traffic circles, and a bright, baby blue footbridge over the main road in the middle of Bait Ras, and a couple more new traffic circles on the road West of Harima towards Umm Qais.

I wish we'd had more time in Umm Qais. It would have been nice to wander around a little and enjoy the breeze, or at least sit in the restaurant for a bit and have a cold drink. It was unbearably hot today, even for Jordan, it seemed, and Umm Qais is just over the Yarmouk River valley, too, so it was pretty humid (for Jordan, anyway!).

We came back home along University Street in Irbid, and that, at least, is pretty much the same, with the addition of a Burger King and Popeyes south of the Pizza Hut. Speed2 Internet Cafe is still there, where we whiled away many an hour, and lots of little restaurants that brought back fond memories of our Peace Corps days.

At times, I have to say, it's pretty weird to be back here, and pretty surreal. It feels simultaneously like I'm in Jordan, and like I'm seeing Jordan from this little tourist bubble that I never wore before....

Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Art of Anticipation

Amman, Jordan

I did some shopping today at the local souq, for juice glasses and a notebook, fruits and vegetables, and a plug converter (which I failed to find). As Yvonne and Alice and I were walking up, up, up and down, down, down the steep hill behind ACOR to get to the souq, I was reminded of something I thought a lot about in Peace Corps Pre-Service Training, which is that living in Jordan is a constant exercise in the art of anticipation:

  • Where should I step on and off the high, uneven sidewalks that I will expose the least amount of leg beneath my skirt?
  • Should I keep my long sleeve 'abaia next to me in case someone knocks on my door while I'm in this tanktop?
  • If I purchase food here, where will I eat it so that I'm not eating in the street?
  • What's the most efficient order in which to buy these supplies so that I walk (and therefore sweat) the least?
  • I must be sure to have that drink of water before I leave the shop, because I can't drink it in the street!
In some ways there's less of the art of anticipation this time. I'm in Amman, where the rules are not as strict. I'm potentially only here for two months, so I don't really need to think so far into the future as last time. And perhaps most significant of all, I'm here for myself this time, not to do for others, which makes it far less necessary to be more Arab than the Arabs, because this time I'm not asking anyone to trust me with the security and honor of their children.

Nevertheless, the imperative to be not only respectful of the culture but to hold myself to local standards of propriety is deeply ingrained in me. I don't know whether to blame it on Rotary or Peace Corps or Fakhria's influence on the way my mother thinks about the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world. In any case, I have this strong feeling that I am an ambassador of my country, that everything I wear and do reflects on how people see America and Americans. I know that Jordanians have an extraordinary and admirable ability to distinguish between individual Americans, American pop culture and American politics, and I know that most Jordanians don't paint all Americans with the same brush, be it good or bad. Still, I can't help myself from thinking about ... anticipating what impact my dress, actions and words might have on others' perception of America and Americans.

Worse, I can't seem to stop myself from judging others in this group of students by my own extremely and perhaps even unreasonably high standards. I'm trying very hard not to offer my opinion unless asked first, but it's a struggle.

Wish you were here....

Amman, Jordan

Today we took a bus tour of Amman, including a tour of the Amman Citadel. Very little seems to have changed outwardly in the city, though I've heard through the program and from Jennifer that inflation is incredibly high in almost all sectors of life, and poverty levels are rising rapidly. It was a little weird to be here in this big group of Americans who hadn't yet had any of the cultural training that we got in Peace Corps Pre-Service Training, who have mostly been to the big cities of the Middle East before, and many of them to Amman itself, but have not been prepared for village life, dress and propriety like we had been by the time the J7s got our bus ride around Amman.

But probably the weirdest thing was just being there on the Amman Citadel, in such familiar surroundings, without the familiar faces I'd been there with before. No Jennifer, no Naureen, Jeremy or Audra, no Sultan or Samiir.... Perhaps it was because I spent all that time last week (was it just last week?) trying to make prints of Auntie Viv and Oren's pictures of the Amman Citadel, but it seemed that all I could think about as I wandered around up there was when I had been to the Amman Citadel with the two of them. I would look around me and think, That's where Auntie Viv took that picture of Oren and I that I love so much, or That's where Oren took that picture of our shadows, or If I just went around that corner, I'd find the medeival squatter toilet Auntie Viv photographed me on, or That's the relief on the floor that Oren took that really neat, artsy photo of. It's funny, really, that Auntie Viv took much clearer pictures, and I had a lot of them in mind, but it was more Oren's pictures I remembered, the grainy, unfocussed shots made with his PDA. Maybe you're right, Oren, and the candid shots, the unplanned moments are the best.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Made it!

Amman, Jordan

Well, after a grueling eleven hours in the air and thirteen of layover in Frankfurt, we all made it safe and sound to Amman, Jordan! We're on our way out to do placement tests today, so you'll have to wait for further updates, but I'm hoping to get things posted here every two or three days, so keep in touch!