Let the games begin!

One of the things that I brought with me on this trip was a bag full of school supplies. Once my host family realized this they started looking to see what I had. I bought a bunch of games to play with my class. Of course all educational. One in particular that they really liked was Rummikub. I think part of the reasoning is that it is numbers which are much easier to translate taking away one part of the difficulty of speaking a different language as your first language. Dont get me wrong my whole host family speaks amazing English, just when you are playing a game you probably do not want to play Scrabble.

Every night now everyone wants to play Rummikub and they get really into it and very competitive. It is really fun and I can play it totally in Arabic now which is always helpful. As one of my host sisters said after we played the first time this game is very very very very very nice! Even the youngest has fun and tries to play usually she needs help but she is not bad either. I love the fact that this culture is so focused on family that the entire family can come around the table and play the same game day after day.

While I am waiting

So while I am waiting for my visa I found something to do. My host Mom is a pricipal at a preschool/ kindergarten I went there when I was here before. I went today with 26 little people and 4 adults in a bus (more like a van) to a kids play area. I ended up teaching the class most of the day. Then I got asked if I could cover for a lead teacher tomorrow. Wow these jobs just jump at me. Can you imagine being able to just walk into a daycare in the US? Or any place that kids are then taking care of them the next day by yourself when you do not even speak their language. It is ok though cause my 9 year old host sister can translate :P Should be an interesting day. I wish I had pictures but my camera is harban (still not working/ no charger) Sorry you will just have to imagine kids pilled on top of each other. The play area was much like a play area at a McDonalds in the states.

I'll keep you posted :)

Observations...

It is interesting coming back to a country that I have been to before. How quickly you think things are normal and the things that you forget about being different. Some of the differences that I forgot about are:

• Toilet paper is a luxury.


• There is not enough water to take a shower every day.


• When you go out you dress up even just to go to the store.


• Cars will not stop for you so you better run!


• People really want you to be able to speak Arabic and will help any way they can.


• Time is an interesting concept: yes the party starts at 6, no we will not leave till about 6:30.


• Street signs are just for looks and no one knows what you are talking about when you say some street name.


• When there is no school you stay up till about 3am and wake up around noon.

Other cultural differences make more sense to me now. I am more willing to dress even more modestly then before, maybe because there are not as many Americans that I am hanging out with. You do not go out at night you stay in and spend time with the family.

It is wierd though everyone still tells me welcome to the country or "Ahlan wa Sahlan" I am wondering at what point I will not look so American or if I can do that...

I tried wearing hijab or head covering the other day and my host sister said that maybe I should not wear hijab. I am too white :) gotta get working on that tan...

Address

I also have an address now email me if you would like to get it jrazey@gmail.com.

Visa

As of now I do not have a visa to get into Africa as you can imagine this was an unforseen complication. Today I postponned my plane ticket indefinitely which was very easy to do. I will know more later and hope to find out when I will finally make it to Africa.

Jordan

I made it to Jordan after a very long three days kind of. Wednesday did not really exist for me we chased the sun across the sky and then it was Thursday. Germany was good, but not a place I would want to spend a lot of time partly because of the jet lag and partly because I realized just how little German I actually speak...

Flying into Jordan in the middle of the night was gorgeous, there was a clear sky so I could see the stars and the city lights from the plane. Plus the plane was basically empty so I got a whole row to myself for some much needed sleep.

It is still Thursday and I am at the University of Jordan just trying to get out and do some stuff today so that I can adjust to new time zone. When I was getting off the plane I asked another American what day it was apparently I still thought it was Tuesday. This week just flew by!

Leaving

I leave the country tomorrow, so for the next week I will be traveling and then setting up my classroom. All in all it will be a whirlwind of probably the next couple of months as life settles into the new normal. My updates in my blog should be posted onto facebook, which I will not be using for the first couple of months of my time in Africa. If you would like to contact me please email me or post on my blog :) Thank you you guys are amazing!