ُToday started with high hopes and trepidation, and ended in frustration and a lot of laughter. Such is the life of a westerner visiting Jordan.
Today was supposed to be the first day of my internship and the start of our manual labor out in Iraq Il-Ameer. We were told that we should meet our director, Ali, at the eighth circle at 9:00 AM and he would take care of the rest. So we get to the circle at right about 9:00 AM and Ali tells us that he will be there in a half our to pick us up. At a little after 10:00 AM we are honked at and picked up by someone that we faintly recognized from the Center and took the half-hour drive to hopefully begin our work.
Upon arriving at the center we had the obligatory sit and chat time for about 45 minutes to an hour. They asked us what we wanted to drink and we told them water, so they brought out black tea instead. After another hour of sitting and talking they asked us why we didn't drink the tea which led to a very interesting broken conversation about how Muslims don't drink Alcohol and we do not drink tea, coffee, or alcohol (among other things). We explained it twice in the center within Iraq il-Ameer and would later explain it to another person in another office. It was quite interesting and also funny to hear every time we explained that it was 'haram' or religiously forbidden we would immediately be asked, "Why?" It was quite an interesting conversation to say the least.
After sitting in the office Ali finally led us into the building where we thought we would begin work on renovating the site itself. Well, like most of our hopes in JOrdan this is not to be. Ali explained to us that the center was being worked on and painted and should be finished in 4 days (insha allah=hopefully) but that since this was Jordan to expect 2 weeks. He told us that we weren't supposed to work in the paint and dirt and that we could call him and come back in two weeks! Finally, after a lot of conversation we told him we wanted to work in the dirt and that we would come back and clean up the playground so the kids had somewhere to play during the day that was shaded and safe. So he said we could come back on Wednesday as long as we brought a pair of clothes to change into (Jordanians would never think to travel in or on public transportation in grubby clothes they had done manual labor in). After some more broken english conversation we said goodbye and Ali directed us into his car for what we thought would be our ride home for the day. LIttle did we know our day was only half over.
Ali asked us to ride with him and on the way he helped me to lear Arabic while I helped him to learn English. We soon arrived at the Regional Office for the Department of Social Development where we were introduced to the Assistant-Director who was an amazingly nice man. We once again had to explain our issue with coffee but had a wonderful talk with him, mainly in Fusha or formal Arabic which was much easier to understand. He also spoke slowly and clearly which made comprehension a clearer task. The interesting part of it all is that about 15 minutes into our visit Ali, our director, left us for about 45 minutes to who knows where while we talked with his boss. It was pretty awkward and a very typical cultural experience from what I know of Jordan. After finally being called down to pick us up from the Assistant-Director's Office, Ali dropped us off for a while in the directors office who was a marvelous lady. It was extremely awkward to be there but once we got her talking about herself she really lightened up and we had a great time speaking with her although we could see Ali just down the hall sitting on a couch doing nothing. Culturally, for them, that is alright and expected but for Westerners it seems terribly wasteful and inefficient. Although it was awkward and extremely long it was a wonderful lesson in the Arabic language and the "red tape" or bureaucracy of Jordanian (which is extremely frustrating for Westerners). Our visit to the regional manager's office ended with 10 minutes of flurried speaking and the decision that Ali had waited around for two-to-three hours for, finally being made against him. What an exhausting process, it's no wonder that the Arab people aren't extremely active in their governments they are worse to deal with than our own and Jordan is probably one of the best! Anyway, although it was extremely frustrating and we don't really know what we are going to be doing tomorrow for work except exploring and translating English, it was an awesome cultural experience and helped me to see just how important relationships and hospitality are to the Arab people as well as some of the issues that may come when one is attempting to deal with Arab businesses or governments, definitely an experience that will pay great dividends in the future.
Also, today we had horrible weather in Jordan, it was either a dust storm (which I am hoping it was) or the smog was so bad that it cut of visibility and made it look as if it was raining like in the picture below. Hopefully the first of the two because it already was nasty just thinking of it as dust and trash. Anyway, life is good here and tomorrow I'll try to be productive and probably watch a movie or something with our neighbors in the evening. Anyway, I'll continue to keep you updating and if you wanna know more, as always just email me or facebook me or something... it's always great to hear from my loved ones in America!
Today was supposed to be the first day of my internship and the start of our manual labor out in Iraq Il-Ameer. We were told that we should meet our director, Ali, at the eighth circle at 9:00 AM and he would take care of the rest. So we get to the circle at right about 9:00 AM and Ali tells us that he will be there in a half our to pick us up. At a little after 10:00 AM we are honked at and picked up by someone that we faintly recognized from the Center and took the half-hour drive to hopefully begin our work.
Upon arriving at the center we had the obligatory sit and chat time for about 45 minutes to an hour. They asked us what we wanted to drink and we told them water, so they brought out black tea instead. After another hour of sitting and talking they asked us why we didn't drink the tea which led to a very interesting broken conversation about how Muslims don't drink Alcohol and we do not drink tea, coffee, or alcohol (among other things). We explained it twice in the center within Iraq il-Ameer and would later explain it to another person in another office. It was quite interesting and also funny to hear every time we explained that it was 'haram' or religiously forbidden we would immediately be asked, "Why?" It was quite an interesting conversation to say the least.
After sitting in the office Ali finally led us into the building where we thought we would begin work on renovating the site itself. Well, like most of our hopes in JOrdan this is not to be. Ali explained to us that the center was being worked on and painted and should be finished in 4 days (insha allah=hopefully) but that since this was Jordan to expect 2 weeks. He told us that we weren't supposed to work in the paint and dirt and that we could call him and come back in two weeks! Finally, after a lot of conversation we told him we wanted to work in the dirt and that we would come back and clean up the playground so the kids had somewhere to play during the day that was shaded and safe. So he said we could come back on Wednesday as long as we brought a pair of clothes to change into (Jordanians would never think to travel in or on public transportation in grubby clothes they had done manual labor in). After some more broken english conversation we said goodbye and Ali directed us into his car for what we thought would be our ride home for the day. LIttle did we know our day was only half over.
Ali asked us to ride with him and on the way he helped me to lear Arabic while I helped him to learn English. We soon arrived at the Regional Office for the Department of Social Development where we were introduced to the Assistant-Director who was an amazingly nice man. We once again had to explain our issue with coffee but had a wonderful talk with him, mainly in Fusha or formal Arabic which was much easier to understand. He also spoke slowly and clearly which made comprehension a clearer task. The interesting part of it all is that about 15 minutes into our visit Ali, our director, left us for about 45 minutes to who knows where while we talked with his boss. It was pretty awkward and a very typical cultural experience from what I know of Jordan. After finally being called down to pick us up from the Assistant-Director's Office, Ali dropped us off for a while in the directors office who was a marvelous lady. It was extremely awkward to be there but once we got her talking about herself she really lightened up and we had a great time speaking with her although we could see Ali just down the hall sitting on a couch doing nothing. Culturally, for them, that is alright and expected but for Westerners it seems terribly wasteful and inefficient. Although it was awkward and extremely long it was a wonderful lesson in the Arabic language and the "red tape" or bureaucracy of Jordanian (which is extremely frustrating for Westerners). Our visit to the regional manager's office ended with 10 minutes of flurried speaking and the decision that Ali had waited around for two-to-three hours for, finally being made against him. What an exhausting process, it's no wonder that the Arab people aren't extremely active in their governments they are worse to deal with than our own and Jordan is probably one of the best! Anyway, although it was extremely frustrating and we don't really know what we are going to be doing tomorrow for work except exploring and translating English, it was an awesome cultural experience and helped me to see just how important relationships and hospitality are to the Arab people as well as some of the issues that may come when one is attempting to deal with Arab businesses or governments, definitely an experience that will pay great dividends in the future.
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| That isn't rain you see, it's either dust or pollution... nasty |
Also, today we had horrible weather in Jordan, it was either a dust storm (which I am hoping it was) or the smog was so bad that it cut of visibility and made it look as if it was raining like in the picture below. Hopefully the first of the two because it already was nasty just thinking of it as dust and trash. Anyway, life is good here and tomorrow I'll try to be productive and probably watch a movie or something with our neighbors in the evening. Anyway, I'll continue to keep you updating and if you wanna know more, as always just email me or facebook me or something... it's always great to hear from my loved ones in America!
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