THEY DID IT!!

Amman, Jordan

I never wanted to be in Egypt more than I do right now! History is being made, and I could have gotten on a plane to Cairo this morning and been there to celebrate with my latest host country right now. Hosni Mubarak is out, and Omar Suleiman seems to be, too. The fraudulently elected Parliament has been dissolved. The cabinet has been dismissed.

The regime is half fallen!

But as much as I want to celebrate with the Egyptians, I'm worried. What we basically have in Egypt now is a military coup. Egypt doesn't have a good history with military coups. Everything hinges now on the limits of Tantawi's ambitions. Does he think of himself as the next Nasser? Because then things will get ugly fast!

Best case scenario, Egypt goes the way of Turkey: the military takes control for a few months, until a new government can be democratically elected, and then steps aside until democracy is threatened again. But only time will tell.

The regime is only half fallen.

Proletariat Rising!

Amman, Jordan

In Egypt on Wednesday, the revolution was gaining even greater popular momentum. Workers began striking all over the country, demonstrating a much broader base of support among Egypt’s lower classes. It’s true that the crowds on Tahrir Square include protesters from all walks of Egyptian life; I’ve seen them myself. The protests in Cairo, though, have been attended by a disproportionately large share of young intellectuals, and until Wednesday it was hard to know if they really represented the majority of their countrymen.

Workers’ strikes shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been watching Egypt over the last several years. Strikes, sit-ins and work slowdowns in Egypt’s factories have been a sporadic nuisance to the business interests of both military and civilian employers for some time. Workers have even been able to gain some concessions in recent years, but Wednesday proved that those concessions were not nearly enough.

That’s why virtually everyone I know, in Egypt, Jordan and America, was certain that Hosni Mubarak would relinquish the presidency in his speech Thursday night. It’s increasingly clear that what’s happening in Egypt is not an intellectual exercise, or a mere youth movement. My roommate confirms that at least three young junior officers of the army have also joined protesters on Tahrir Square, and perhaps as many as fifteen. The military brass may have other plans, but the rank and file are beginning to show their sympathy for the protesters and their own desire for freedom and democracy.

Even as a youth movement, it had power. More than half of Egypt’s population is under 35 years old, and most of them unemployed or underemployed, unable to marry, and with little hope for the future before 25 January. With the working class joining demonstrations, it seems inevitable that the old regime must fall. It seems that only the regime hasn’t yet recognized its fate.

The Not-Egypt

or, Jordan Is Approaching Modern and Entirely Stable

Amman, Jordan

I've been having the same conversation over and over again in the last few days ... no, in the last few weeks, in fact! I've had it with Returned Peace Corps/Jordan Volunteers, with Jordanians, with Egyptians, with Americans. While everyone in the media is calling Jordan "the next Egypt" and expecting Jordan's imminent collapse in its own revolution, my friends and I are talking about what a mistake it is to consider Jordan and Egypt even remotely in the same category.

As Peace Corps/Jordan Volunteers, we thought we were living in a really poor country. That's what Peace Corps Volunteers do, after all. And I don't mean to suggest that Jordan isn't a place with pervasive, urgent problems of poverty, unemployment, corruption, education and infrastructure. But those of us, Peace Corps Volunteers and Jordanians, who have been to Egypt have a very different view now. Jordan is not a Third World country anymore; it's solidly Second World, on its way to the First World. Poverty, education, corruption and infrastructure in Egypt are in a completely different category.

The degree of despair and hopelessness in Egypt was, until last week, an oppressive weight on me nearly everywhere I went in my daily life in Egypt. When you asked Egyptians about their future, they generally shrugged hopelessly and invoked God. "As God wills," or "It's in God's hands." It's not that you don't see such fatalism in Jordan, but it's not so nearly universal as it seemed to be in Egypt.

I think it's why there's so much more harassment in Egypt. Everywhere we girls go in Cairo, almost every young man we pass shouts "Ya muzza [banana]!" or "Ya buTTa [duck]!" or "Ya 3assal [honey]!" or one of a hundred other variations on "Hey, baby!" These are young men who probably hold a Bachelor's degree, but are likely unemployed or underemployed. They can't expect to marry before 40, or even have a girlfriend. They're socially, economically, sexually and emotionally frustrated. With no hope in sight, they amuse themselves by harassing passing women - not just foreigners, but Egyptian women, too, both with and without the hijab. You get a little of that in Jordan, but again, not on the same scale.

Since I returned to Egypt on Jan 27, though, I only heard these variations on "Hey, baby!" twice, and both times from pro-Mubarak thugs. For the first time Egyptians are feeling like they have some hope, some agency in their own futures. Jordanians have been developing that sense of agency for many years, and don't show the kind of hopelessness and despair I'm accustomed to in Egypt. A Bachelor's degree means something in Jordan; not as much as it means in America, but something. Men can expect to marry in their late 20s and early 30s. The job market is not as tight. An entrepreneurial Jordanian, especially among the increasing number with computer and English skills, can hope to make something of himself or herself that's better than what his or her father could achieve.

The country has a long way to go, but it's definitely going there. King Abdullah II's school reforms have transformed education in the Kingdom, and I watched it happen first hand as a Peace Corps Volunteer. University reforms are still necessary, but as today's schoolkids enter university, that change is inevitable. There are now computers in 99% of Jordanian schools, and more and more Jordanian families are acquiring computers and Internet access. From school reforms, the culture of the whole country is changing, becoming more aware of the greater world, learning more critical thinking skills, and becoming more politically active at home.

What's essential to understand about Jordan is that, though things are in need of significant improvement, you can see that improvement happening, bit by bit, around the country. The Jordanian standard of living is slowly going up, and the people know that their king, for all that he's controversial, has had a lot to do with how the country has improved. He has pushed for economic, educational and social reform. While many Jordanians may feel that he and his wife are more Westernized than Jordanian, they still see the tangible benefits of modernization, of conforming to the international standards of the Western, developed nations. Though privately they complain about this or that the king is doing, I still believe that most Jordanians are proud of their king.

You could see this clearly by comparing the massive protests in Egypt to the small demonstrations in Jordan. On Friday, 28 January, Egyptians came into the streets by the millions demanding "the fall of the system," i.e. of the whole government leadership, and the resignation of Pres. Mubarak. In contrast, a couple hundred Jordanians came out to ask for certain laws to be repealed. The Egyptian police responded with teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets, but the Jordanian police brought Pepsi and sandwiches to the demonstrators. On Friday, 4 January, millions of Egyptians came out again, demanding freedom of expression and the fall of the government. In Jordan, about 50 Communists gathered to chant a few slogans in the most desultory, bored fashion you could imagine for a demonstration. Even the sensationalists at CNN, when they went around downtown Amman, Jordan, looking for revolutionaries, couldn't find anyone who even wanted to protest, let along overthrow the government.

The Sad Consequences
Knowing what I know about Jordan, and what my American and Jordanian friends see on the streets here, I know that Jordan is still the safest place I've ever lived in the world. I've heard that hundreds of tourists have canceled their plans to vacation in Jordan, because it's an inch away from Cairo on a map, or because of the media's attempt to portray Jordan as the next powderkeg. Jordan depends heavily on those tourists and their money, and this will be a blow for Jordan's already shaky economy. But Jordan has been through this before, with 9/11, the War in Iraq, the Amman hotel bombings in 2005, and the economic crisis of 2008. Every time it seems that Jordan's tourism sector is finally stable, some global event sends it into a tailspin. Every time Jordan comes back, though, they come back stronger. In the long term, I think Jordan and Jordanians will find themselves in an even better position than ever: more foreign aid, more foreign investment, and more tourism, as Jordan becomes ever better known as the most stable nation on the Red Sea or in the Arab World entirely.

Done, Not Forgotten

Amman, Jordan

This is it. Officially resigned from Bell Amman, beginning to pack for my move to Jordan, already starting the rounds of farewell dinners, brunches, drinks and a party. Only 2 more days to enjoy Jordan before being dropped in the melee of Cairo!

I'm pretty certain that I'll be back. I've got the whole month of August off from the CASA program, and I expect I'll grab the opportunity to teach for part of Bell Amman's Young Learner Program. I wrote the course for the IB / IGCSE Program, fully expecting to teach it and very excited about the idea. Every time it was put off again was a huge disappointment. Now, though, it turns out I might be able to teach a part of it after all. (Also, the money isn't bad!)

Nevertheless, it's odd to think that I'm leaving after all this time! I'm really gonna miss this country and my friends here!

Inside the Middle East

Aqaba, Jordan

Aside from rather dubious statement that "Amman, Jordan, is one of the oldest cities in the Fertile Crescent," considering that it was a negligibly tiny village for most of history, this week's Inside the Middle East on CNN told the story of the West Amman that I'm really going to miss. Featuring Duinde Gallery and a fairly candid discussion with Jordan University students, I found it quite enjoyable.

I also liked the stories about the Muslim comic book series "The 99" and the Tuareg Saharan blues band Tinariwen.

Ready ... Set ...

... Just One More Thing Before You Go....

Amman, Jordan

I suppose I've been in Jordan long enough that it shouldn't surprise me. I suppose that I should be used to the last-minute flurry of changes to every program we've ever done at Bell Amman. I probably should have even expected it. But I don't think I will every like it. I'm the daughter of a woman with a color-coded agenda, a woman who always has a plan and a back-up plan. We can fly by the seat of our pants with great success, sometimes even aplomb, but by nature (or by nurture?) we plan.

Of course, I arrived at work today to find that plans had changed again for Aqaba, the project I'm starting on Sunday. The client wanted more hours, different hours. The issue of Internet access was still unresolved (aside from a vague assurance that I could have one hour of access a day at the client's site). I found myself racing around to collect more materials, more options ... and consequently forgetting several of the things that had already been on my list.

I'll be so glad when this program has been settled and started! I always feel so much better about these kinds of things once I start teaching. Maybe Mom's right. Maybe I really am meant to be a teacher. It's certainly where I've found the most calm and equilibrium in the last few years!

Maryah On the Cutting Edge

of Corporate Social Responsibility In Jordan

Mel picked up a March edition of Jordan Business, and I've been reading it over breakfast. I found an article related to this article by Nas of the Black Iris about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a movement I've recently become more and more aware of. This is the principle behind such organizations as the Ford Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the idea that corporations have a moral obligation to give back to the community, and moreover, that such "charitable" acts can actually improve their brand image and increase their market share. For example, by donating computer labs to schools all over Jordan, the Gates Foundation has assured that when Jordanians do buy computers, they are most likely to buy Windows (or pirate it, if it's only for personal use!), because that's what Jordanians are familiar with.

I recently learned from Sameh that Ruwwad, where I volunteer on Saturdays, was established by Aramex (the Arab version of Fed Ex). They are one of the organizations featured in the Jordan Business article. Although you surely noticed that I'm somewhat cynical about CSR, I also believe very strongly in Ruwwad's mission, and I can see clearly how it has improved life in Jabal Nathif. Whatever their motivations, Aramex is doing excellent work in the community. Besides, let's face it, corporations are inherently selfish, beholden to their stockholders and their profit margins, and unlikely to do anything that doesn't enhance their long-term profits and market share. I'm just pleased to see them thinking beyond the next fiscal year!

Also in the magazine article was Questscope, an amazing organization empowering Iraqi refugees and poor Jordanians to work to improve their own communities. I did some work with them a year ago, and was really excited about the possibility (ultimately unfulfilled) of maybe getting a contract for full-time work with them.

So there I was, delighted to find that I had serendipitously fallen in with two of the most progressive CSR programs in Jordan without even knowing it.

When It's Time To Go

Amman, Jordan

It's best to leave a country while you're still happy there, while you can still look forward to returning. It's so easy for daily frustrations to morph into racist generalizations. I feel myself in danger of it sometimes, and it's an ugly side of myself I don't want to explore. I admire Abby for being brave enough to face double-digit unemployment in America to keep her love of Jordan alive.

Jordan is a difficult place to work. Management styles in both the public and private sectors tend towards micromanagement, Kafka-esque bureaucracy and shouting. lots of shouting and high emotion. At least so it seems to Americans like Abby and I, though we spent a lot of time this evening talking about how this is often a cultural misunderstanding. Then there's dawam.

Dawam is a word ubiquitous in Jordanian English because its translation, working hours, completely fails to convey its nuances. Dawam is completely inflexible. Big companies are now installing complex biometric systems to enforce dawam. I have to submit my right handprint to a scan to record the exact minute I arrive or leave. If I arrive 5 minutes late or leave 5 minutes early, it can be deducted from my pay. (If I were a Jordanian, it would be deducted from my pay.) If I stay an extra hour, though, it makes no difference. It won't even negate the 5 minutes I was late to arrive.

But what I do within the hours of my dawam is of far less importance. By my nature, I do my job and a half ... and then get in trouble with my boss for making others look bad. But teachers in my company have been known to miss entire classes and suffer no consequences, because at least she signed in and out at the right time.

It's turning me into the kind of employee I despise, the kind that does the bare minimum and nothing more, the kind that obsesses over what I'm owed at the expense of productivity. I'm starting to not like myself, and I envy Abby, with the gumption to couchsurf across America for as long as it takes to find a job.

I'm also just gonna miss her!

No Honor Among Teachers

Marj al-Hamam, suburban Amman, Jordan

I find all my conversations turning to education in Jordan recently. Perhaps it's partly Nas's recent posts on education and the long comments I left on this one. As Jordan slips further into recession, and slips on the Freedom House scale from "partly free" to "not free," reforms of all sorts seem more important and elusive than ever. It may just be because I'm a teacher, but I feel very strongly that none of these reforms are possible without a foundation of education reform.

King Abdullah II's Jordan First and National Agenda programs both included comprehensive education reforms, and the Amman Message also calls for more critical thinking in religious and civic curricula. There have been significant (though hardly sufficient) improvements made to the national curriculum and teacher training, both in universities and in-service training (for those teachers who can actually attend). But none of that means anything if teachers aren't appropriately compensated.

The average public school teacher makes less than $350 a month, and is technically forbidden by the Ministry of Education from holding another job. In practice, of course, most male teachers are also doing private tutoring or teaching at after-school centers, as salaries are well below the cost of living for most people.

The student who comes most regularly to Bell's free Conversation Club on Thursdays is a physics teacher, Firas. Today he explained to me that he has 3 jobs and works an average of 18-20 hours per day, sleeping an average of 3 hours a night. In addition, he's taking English classes in hopes of being able to get a higher-paying job, perhaps $500 a month, teaching at a private school. He's also taking an International Computer Driving License course, a U.N. certification he will have to obtain to keep his teaching job with the Ministry.

Teachers in the U.S. or Europe would have gone on strike 5 years ago, when wages had already been stagnant for 8 years, and the cost of living suddenly doubled as a result of the Iraq War. As far as I can tell, though, there's no teachers' union in Jordan. Teachers have been voicing their discontent, but the government's response has been less than encouraging.

A prime example is this week's announcement by the Minister of Education. In response to teachers' complaints about wages, he made a statement on public television. Perhaps, he opined, if teachers shaved in the morning and ironed their clothes, it might be worth giving them a raise. He said this on public television.

As a result of this and other abuses, teachers feel undervalued and unsupported. They work 7:40-2:00, and whatever can't be finished in that time doesn't get done. They never take grading or lesson planning home. In fact, where lesson planning goes, after their first year of teaching, they just copy last year's lesson plans into this year's notebook. Any education reform, no matter how well-intentioned or theoretically sound, is doomed to failure in the face of completely understandable teacher apathy.

Firas was telling me of his and his friends' attempts to marry. When his friends have gone to meet the fathers of the girls they're hoping to marry, of course they are asked about their jobs. They are all teachers. Fathers say, "I've even had taxi drivers want to marry my daughter and turned them away!" Even as cheap as taxi fare is here, and as high as the overhead is in that industry, taxi drivers can still make 2 or 3 times as much as a teacher.

It's a real shame, given the history of the Arab world. Students would come from the very ends of the known earth - China, Morocco, Tanzania, Zanzibar - to study with the great Arab masters in Kufa, Basra and Andalusia. Abbassid Baghdad was a Mecca of great learning. Teachers and scholars garnered the highest respect in that world. How different the world would have been if they hadn't been able to preserve all the masterpieces of the Classical world? That kind of respect inspired greatness. JD150 a month inspires apathy. Can you blame them?

Spring Resolution

Amman, Jordan

I'm spending way too much time on the Internet, and I think it's making me stupid. In fact, I've been reading and watching PBS Frontline videos on the Internet about how Internet makes us stupid.... The irony is not lost on me.

Jason and others have been pushing me to start writing again, but I've been wallowing in my rejections: manuscript rejections, resume rejections, vacation request rejections.... I'm also using that as an excuse not to study Arabic; it seems entirely useless when the only work I seem able to get is teaching English, anyway! Mel keeps giving me books to read, and I've got a stack of poli sci and Mid East history books sitting around courtesy of Ryan and Lowen, but I've been watching episode after episode of bad sci fi on the Internet instead.

But that's going to change. The weather is improving, so there's less and less reason to be curled up under the covers in bed. Shauna's book contract and her wonderfully lyrical blog have inspired me to start writing again. My tightening pants are giving new urgency to the desire to get more exercise, which would be much cheaper than a new wardrobe!

I'm hoping that my impending move to Aqaba will help to push me into a change of lifestyle, too. I'll be teaching down on the Red Sea for 5 (maybe 10) weeks starting a week from tomorrow. It's an awesome responsibility, with the potential for huge contracts resting on my performance down there, but for the moment I'm more excited than nervous.

Best of all for my resolution, my Internet in Aqaba will be pay-as-you-go, not a monthly plan like I've got in Amman. I'm hoping this will restrict my Internet consumption, and get me to diversify my private life a little. I want to do yoga 3 days a week. I want to cook again. I want to swim as much as possible. I want to get back to writing. If I've got satellite in Aqaba, I want to watch "itijah al-mu3akis" on Al-Jazeera Arabic every week. I want to walk regularly at dusk. Flat as Aqaba is, I almost wish I had a bike.

I know that if I can do just 3 of those things on a regular basis, I will feel much better, physically and mentally. And I'm hoping that, by putting it on my blog, I'll feel like I'm accountable to someone for whether I keep my resolution or not. Wish me luck!

Friends With Cars

Jordan's Eastern desert

From Venturing East

It's good to have friends with cars. I can't be stuck in the city indefinitely, and neither can my roommate Mel. We need frequent doses of nature, of broad vistas, of goats and camels and other things that make this Jordan, and if we're lucky, a bit of green. We got all that and more today.

Mel's friend A is afraid that his students will find his pictures on the Web, so I won't mention his name. He's got a car, though, and today's trip was his excellent idea. When Mel said they were going to Azraq, I was really jealous. Much as I love my teaching job at Ruwwad, Saturday afternoons can be an inconvenient time. But unexpectedly, my class was cancelled and I was able to go after all.

From Venturing East

Of course, though our destination was Azraq Oasis, that didn't keep us from making a few stops along the way. I mean, when you see Qasr Harranah rise up out of the desert, how could you not stop? With our residence permits, it cost the four of us no more than one dinar to see three castles, and as Mel pointed out, the stone was so photogenic. For the details, click on any of these photos to check out my Web album on Picasa, and don't forget to read the captions!

From Venturing East

Half way to Qasr Amra, we stumbled across this herd of camels along the roadway, including the most strikingly adorable babies. The one to the far right in this picture was just two days old, and could barely keep his balance on his little feet. We spent almost half an hour following them around taking pictures.

From Venturing East

Next on our tour, the deceptively simple little Qasr Amra. This little pleasure retreat built by an Ummayad caliph to escape the intrigues of the Damascus court was probably a hunting lodge, judging by the scenes of hunting in its amazing frescoes. But that's not all that happened there, with it's Roman-style baths and, well....

From Venturing East

Our Muslim friends had a little difficulty believing that this was actually an Islamic building, insisting that it must have been built by the Romans or the Byzantines, maybe even the Greeks, because a Muslim leader would never paint such things on his walls. But, after all, the Abbasids did justify their toppling of the Ummayyad Caliphate with claims that the caliphs in Damascus had strayed too far from their duties and obligations as good Muslim leaders! And Islamic philosophy certainly holds that kings are inevitably corrupted by the power of their positions.

But we moved on...

From Venturing East

...to beautiful Azraq Oasis! Well, ordinarily it's beautiful. Unfortunately, it was ravaged by a fire, perhaps deliberately set, last October, and the marshlands have barely begun to recover. The blackened trees did make stunning photography, though!

From Venturing East

And I thought it was worth it just for the stroll through the exhibit at the visitors' center. Jordan is a country where criticism of the government is approached with great caution, but the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature seems to have a free pass in Azraq. After showing the fascinating diversity of the region at the beginning of last century, including how water buffalos brought by Chechan refugees actually made the oasis a more hospitable place for migrating birds, they then proceeded to pan the Jordanian government for agreeing to protect Azraq Oasis, and then draining it of unsustainable amounts of water for the faucets of Irbid and Amman. But I loved their take-away lesson: There will be enough water to help sustain people indefinitely if we leave enough water in Azraq to sustain the native and migrating birds like this one:

From Venturing East

Then we made our way back via A's friend's farm in Mafraq for some sunset shots and a delicious little supper of labnah, homemade olive oil and eggs with bread.

From Venturing East

I only wish Ryan were still here. We'd been talking for months about renting a car and doing this same trip....

World Day Against Cyber Censorship

Amman, Jordan

Today has been declared World Day Against Cyber Censorship by Reporters Without Borders. I'm responding to a call by Black Iris for the Jordanian blogosphere to voice their concerns about the future of Internet press freedom in Jordan. Reporters Without Borders reports some reasons for concern in Jordan. While I am not Jordanian myself, I am less likely to be harassed by potentially restricting legislation. Nonetheless, I still feel great kinship to the Jordanian blogosphere, and many of the writers in My Blog List on the right could definitely have their feet held to the fire. I know that some of them already have.

I'd also like to point out that, while Jordan may make an appearance on the "under surveillance" list published by Reporters Without Borders today, there are many other countries who will appear on the far more troubling "Internet Enemies" list. Their netizens also deserve our strong support.

End of an Era!

Amman, Jordan


"This is the downside of our job," said Melanie after the taxi had departed. "You're always saying goodbye."
"Yes," I said, "but usually you have a couple months to get used to the idea!"

I've had many roommates over the past two years: Keri, Megan, Kitty, Hannah, Claire, Martha and Melanie. One person, though, has always been constant: Ryan. And I thought I would have two or three more months to enjoy his company before his contract was up with the Modern American School and he went back to the friends and family he so adores back in Detroit. Just now, with the weather warming up, I was looking forward to more rental car adventures, more Marxist house parties, and more trips with Tareef.

I've said again and again that one of Ryan's most endearing qualities, one of the many qualities that made him such an excellent roommate, is that he never takes anything personally. I should know better than to say "never." As my friends followed my example and left the Modern American School one after another, we always figured that Ryan would stay. The kids loved him and he loved them, which made the parents love him, which kept the administration pretty much out of his way. Though he was repeatedly promised and then denied his residency permit and work permit, both of which an employer is obligated by Jordanian labor law to provide, Ryan persisted. Even though he had the same spoiled, unruly, disrespectful kids that the rest of us taught and the same lack of disciplinary support from the school's administration, Ryan persisted. He's helped three people get job offers there, three damned good teachers, two of whom were worn away by the administration's abuses much faster than Ryan. His friends and coworkers fled the company, even fled the country, one after another, and still Ryan persisted.

It was when the administration insisted on a much harder midterm than in previous years, and then when too many students failed it, fixed their grades in such a clumsy manner that the worst students came away with better grades than the most competent and diligent. That was when the first cracks started to show. It wasn't just the grade fixing. Because it was so clumsy and blatant, and after the students had already been shown their actual grades, teachers lost all credibility in the classroom. Student discipline and even attendance completely disintegrated. Then Ryan's paychecks from last summer, which the school makes a policy (an illegal one) of withholding for 6 months for first time teachers, were delayed another 2 months.

Quite suddenly it was personal. He started talking about leaving a week ago, decided on Friday, and bought his plane ticket on Saturday. Now it's Tuesday, and he's gone. I am really gonna miss that guy. This old apartment just won't be the same!

Jordan In the Headlines

In A Good Way, This Time!

Amman – 8/3/2010 – “If I could also just thank (…) the people of Jordan who were so hospitable to us when we were shooting,” said Kathryn Bigelow yesterday evening as she accepted the Academy Award for Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker. The critically- acclaimed film also reaped the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Film Editing.

With this multiple win, The Hurt Locker makes cinematic history and yet again – the first time was with “Lawrence of Arabia” in 1963 - puts Jordan, where the film was shot, on the world film map. Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman ever to win an Oscar for best directing in 82 years of the awards’ history. As an independent picture, The Hurt Locker was able against all odds to obtain most major prizes on its way to the Academy Awards ceremony.

Jordan, and The Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC), have reason to share in the joy and pride of this cinematic feat: The Hurt Locker was shot in the Kingdom almost entirely for approximately two months in the summer of 2007. The local geography, settings and demographics played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the shoot. To that, Bigelow announced: “You could look 360 degrees in any given day of the shoot and it would be perfect.” But Jordan was more than a location; the American crew worked closely with the local cast and crew, collaborating with some 70 Jordanian film professionals and some 150 local actors and extras. In addition to Bigelow’s recognition, Ray Becket - who won the Best Sound Mixing Award - thanked his team in Jordan during his acceptance speech, namely Baha Othman, the Jordanian instructor who heads the Sound Department at the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Aqaba (Jordan).

According to Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali, member of the RFC’s Board of Commissioners, the RFC has been praised for ensuring a high level of professionalism and for reducing bureaucratic hassles to a minimum. She added: “The flexibility with which foreign crews can work here and use their imagination to make some places in Jordan look like some others in a different country is very appealing.”

On that, Bigelow has also said that “shooting in Jordan was a great experience. It’s very cosmopolitan; they have a very rich film school and a young film infrastructure.” Since its establishment in 2003, the RFC has committed itself to providing support to Jordan’s upcoming film professionals. According to George David, General Manager of the RFC: “At the end of the day, it’s the talent and the skills of the people that make the difference.”

Princess Rym highlighted the positive impact of attracting international film productions, saying: “Aside from its economic value, it is a learning experience to those who come from outside to film in Jordan and plays an important role in helping foreigners to get to know our people, the Middle East and appreciate who we are,” adding “it’s not only about leaving our mark internationally but also about establishing our stories, owning them and making sure we have a cultural legacy to pass onto our future generations through film.”

(This article came to me through the Royal Film Commission's Facebook page, where it was not attributed to its author.)

Longest Work Day Ever!

Amman & Aqaba, Jordan

We started before 6am, didn't get home till half past 11 at night, and spent 10 of those hours on a very uncomfortable bus!

Somewhere in the middle we gave placement tests to about 90 bank employees. I'll be heading back to Aqaba in a couple weeks to spend a month or two teaching about 60 of those bankers, so stay tuned for posts from the beach!

I'm really looking forward to these classes, and the opportunity to strut myself as something of a free agent. I've learned a lot in the last year at Bell Amman. As I kept saying during our inspection last week by Bell Cambridge, I'm a completely different teacher than when I started a year ago.

Without Nina and Rula's belief in me after the professional and psychological abuse I suffered at the Modern American School (more on this to come), I might never have had the confidence to teach again.
Without the CELTA that Nina, Rula and Rebecca fought tooth and nail to get the Luminus Group to pay for, I wouldn't have recognized how good my instincts as a teacher already were, or be putting nearly as much thought into lesson frameworks and unifying lesson objectives.
Without Peter and Rebecca's teacher training and phenomenal support, I wouldn't have known about task-based teaching, or have had the guts or imagination to try it in an ESL setting, and this methodology has completely transformed my classroom in the best ways.
I've learned a great deal from full-time and part-time teachers, and others at Bell.
My extensive involvement in the months of preparation for inspection also taught me a lot about the big picture elements of education and curriculum design.

In the next two months, I'll be putting the new "Teacher Maryah" to the test in Aqaba, and I can hardly wait to begin!

Rainy Bliss

Amman, Jordan

From A Rainy Day In

I love rainy weekends. Not just because Jordan so badly needs the rain. I love the sound of the rain. I love being snuggled up in my bed listening to it out the window. Despite the cold, I've got my window cracked open so I can hear it better.

I like the rain as an excuse to sleep in, relax, catch up on my blogging, my emails, my job apps, my reading, my PBS Frontline and Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! episodes, my cross-stitching, my scrapbooking, my creative writing. It gives me an excuse to not get dressed, not leave the house, not speak to anyone but my roommates, without feeling too terribly like a hermit.

I think it's time I revived Introvert Days. It was something I discovered the first time I was in Jordan, and that got me through grad school. Once a week, I would stay home, in my pajamas, and do things purely for myself, by myself. It took a long time to convince my neighbors in the village that this was a good thing. Arabs are generally terrified to be alone, and so they assumed that I was, too, and it took me a long time to convince them not to send their daughters over to my house to keep me company on Friday afternoons. But it was a necessary psychological defense.

These days, with Bell Amman growing by leaps and bounds, I think I need that refuge again. We've got full schedules, and most of our part-time teachers teaching full schedules, too. When I go to Aqaba to teach this intensive course, it's hard to say just what we're going to do to cover my classes. All of this is a good thing. It means that we might start to turn a profit sometime soon. In some ways, though, it makes work more stressful than ever, and regular Introvert Days more necessary.

Plus, check out the cool photos I got of an impressive thunder and hail storm:

From A Rainy Day In

Meanwhile, my roommates Ryan and Melanie had a very different idea of how to spend their rainy day:

From A Rainy Day In

Taxi Drama

Amman, Jordan

I have, as my mother pointed out, been having a rash of blog-worthy taxi encounters recently. This is pretty unusual for me these days in Jordan. When I was here as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I must've had a more American accent or look, because people would immediately pick me out as a foreigner, and I had a lot of both interesting and uncomfortable encounters with taxi drivers. Now, though they may still think I look like a foreigner, the moment I speak Arabic with my heavy Bedouin accent, I guess people assume I must be Jordanian, or at least married to one. For taxi drivers, I think this means they don't speak to me anymore because they're afraid of what my family might do to them if they do.

Before I left with the Peace Corps, my mother said to me, "In Jordan, people will never mistake you for a native like they did in Switzerland." And maybe, at first glance, that's true. But it's more than a family joke that Jordan is the Switzerland of the Peace Corps, or the Switzerland of the Middle East. Just as the Swiss don't seem to believe that Swiss German can be learned as a second language, it also doesn't seem to occur to most Jordanians that I might have learned Bedouin dialect as a second language. Most foreigners only speak fuS7a, what you might call Al-Jazeera Arabic, which isn't anyone's native language.) They're so confused, they just treat me like an Arab.

Most of the time. Then occasionally I get taxi drivers like this morning. I get in the cab and tell him where I want to go. He starts to drive away, and then says, "Five dinar, right?" It rarely costs me more than JD 1.75.
"No!" I say in outrage. "By the meter, or you can let me out right here!"
"But you'll give me a half dinar tip, right?" Though not quite illegal, tipping is strongly discouraged by the Jordanian government. Still, I earn a very lucrative salary by Jordanian standards, and while it's just enough to cover my student loans back home, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer in me feels guilty, and I usually tip generously. Unless taxi drivers try to rip me off, in which case I hardly feel that a penny extra is warranted! So I say, "Of course not! I come and go this route every day by the meter!"
And then, inevitably, the guy's got no clue where he's going, but when I give him directions, he either sneers at me in the rearview or tells me I'm wrong....

How Cool Are Their Parents?

Especially the Parents of the Girls....


Amman, Jordan

I went to this really cool show sponsored by the American Embassy for African American History Month, featuring a hip hop crew from Houston, TX, called HaviKoro, and this really awesome group from Jordan called 962 Street. (962 is the telephone country code for Jordan.) There was this great combination of popping, beat-boxing, break-dancing, and choreographed studio hip hop.

I think we're so distracted by Hollywood billionaire rappers and the images of the inner city you find in HBO's The Wire that we often forget that hip hop culture started as a social justice movement, a pop culture parallel to Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam calling for an equal say in their government. Here in the Arab world, though, I think hip hop culture is exactly that.

Still, with all the imagery around us that links hip hop culture to violence, vandalism, crime, drugs and misogyny, how cool are these kids' parents that they not only let them participate in these hip hop classes and events, but that they were right there in the audience cheering their kids on? I mean, most of these kids were under 16, and one couldn't have been older than 8. Most of the choreographed studio pieces were quite sexual in tone, too, as is often the case in hip hop dance, and in this Arab culture, you would think that kind of thing would be very taboo. It was a very cool event.

And How Cool Is The Job Of Cultural Attache?

First of all, let me say that the Cultural Attache at the American Embassy here in Amman speaks incredibly good Arabic! And what a cool job he has, that he gets paid to go out and explore these fun things that are happening in Jordanian youth culture, and then put them on stage at the King Hussein Cultural Center for all of us to enjoy!

...And Now I Love Israel!

Amman, Jordan

I had another fascinating conversation with a taxi driver this morning. Almost immediately he announced that he was Palestinian. This isn't surprising, as most taxi drivers are.

Then he told me he'd been recently kicked out of Israel/Palestine, and would have to stay away for 6 years. I didn't ask why. I mean, what do you say to that kind of statement? ...smile and nod...

Then he told me that his daughter was in the hospital. This I do know how to respond to! Allah yasa3adha! (God help her!)

Then the real drama began. When his daughter was well enough to go home, the hospital announced that he owed them 1,000 dinar for her care and stay at the hospital. He was a taxi drive, so of course he didn't have JD1,000, but he offered all he had, and promised to return with the rest within a week to 10 days. Not good enough, said the hospital; they refused to release his daughter until his bill was paid, while adding to his bill for every day she stayed in the hospital. Can you believe it? Holding his own daughter as collateral? And charging him for it. At a hospital! It took him another 2 days to beg and borrow the money from friends and family, at who knows what additional cost to him.

Now, this is the good part: Here's a Palestinian who's been kicked out of his home by the Israeli government, forced to move his whole family to Jordan and build a new life for himself. And yet he said to me, "As much as I suffer at the hands of the Israeli government, the people of Israel are so much nicer than the Jordanians. In Israel, I wouldn't have paid a cent for that hospital stay; the Israeli government would have paid for the whole ordeal automatically. I wish I were back in Israel. I love Israel!"

And as I was telling this story, I was thinking how like America this is. In fact, I mentioned that to him: that Americans are talking a lot back home about how many people go bankrupt from healthcare costs. He knew exactly what I was talking about, too.

NHS Bliss
On a similar note, there's been much scrutiny of the details of our company healthcare policy in the office this week, and British Melanie is appalled at the things that are not covered. Every time she brings it up, I think, It looks like a pretty good policy to me. Just like your average American healthcare policy....

Taxi Talk

Amman, Jordan

On my way to my English conversation class in the refugee camp this afternoon, I had a fabulous, unexpected conversation with a taxi driver.

Recently, as my Arabic gets better, taxi drivers are less and less likely to speak to me. I think this is because of my Bedouin accent. People often now mistake me for actually being Bedouin, and I imagine taxi drivers are afraid of what my brothers and cousins will do to them if they strike up a conversation with me.

This taxi driver, though, when he found out that I was going to Jebel Nathif, where he himself lives, did strike up a conversation. He asked me how long I'd been in Jordan, and when I said almost 4 years, he said, "It must be for love." This is pretty common. People often think the only reason to want to live in Jordan is because you've married a Jordanian. When I explained that it was actually for Arabic, he asked, "Don't you like Arab men?"

Now, this is a tricky question. I'm friends with many Arab men, and in any case, I wouldn't want to paint a whole group of people with just one brush. Still, I find it difficult to become romantically interested in Arab men, and today something made me want to be brutally honest. "I spent too much time in the Irbid bus station to want much to do with most Arab men."

This really got him started, and not in the way I expected. "It's true," he said. "Most Arab men want something from foreign women, something they can buy all over the city, as I'm sure you know. If it's not that, then they want something else, like a Green Card or some other way out of Jordan or a woman who can support them financially."

Now, if I say this to most Jordanians, they'll agree, but I can't remember a Jordanian ever volunteering this information unprompted before. In fact, it was such an interesting conversation, I didn't even mind that he missed his turn and had to take me around the block to get me to my destination!