So the past 2 days have been wonderful. But the beginning of my story is not so. After I blogged, my computer was dead. So I determined to go to bed. And my pajama pants were red. If you hit me in the head, then I will be dead. ANYHOO... enough rhyming. That first night was miserable. It was hot, my pillows are hard, mosquitos were divebombing my ears, my neighbors were talking loud and the outside hallway is very echoey, my mattress wasn't quite thick enough for me to not feel the 2x4s holding me up. I needed to go to the bathroom but the lights in there didn't work and there were cockroaches all around the squatter. And there were dogs who sounded like hyenas outside. Sooo... basically, I couldn't get to sleep. After a few hours of lying there unable to get to sleep, I determined that I'd find something to do for a bit. My computer was dead, so I pulled out my iPhone and played a game for about 5 minutes before THAT battery went dead. Then I went to see what games were on my program cellphone, and there was one but it was really lame. And the light wasn't good enough to read in. So I sat there, perturbed, for probably an hour, then I decided to try sleeping again, this time placing a tshirt over my head in the hopes of avoiding kamikaze mosquitoes. FYI: that doesn't work. So I still couldn't get to sleep. 4am hit and the call to prayer started. That has probably been the only time that I was mad about hearing it. It woke up all the animals (there's a farm behind my apt) and they made sure to let me know they were awake. About an hour later the roosters decided it was time to wake up, and they hollered for what felt like forever. (Author's note: I now realize it wasn't all as terrible and dramatic as I perceived it to be in my misery... so I'm trying to express how angry I was last night... I've gotten over it since. In my tiredness I was a drama queen about it, plus it sounds more interesting that way). It started to get light. And the more light it got, the more mad I got about still not having slept at all. I tried the cell phone game again... just to be sure it was still as lame as it had been a few hours before. It was. I decided I'd try the other side of the bed, since it was 2 twins smashed together. It ended up that the other end was more comfortable, which made me wish I'd tried it before. So I finally dozed off for a bit, until my bed broke. It freaking broke! So it woke me up as my butt hit the ground. And a cockroach ran off... just for good effect. I may or may not have sworn as the rest of my bed proceeded to fall apart with it. I looked at the clock, I'd been asleep for maybe an hour, from 6-7am. So I meandered back to the uncomfy yet stable side of the bed, where I slumbered for another little bit until Loren came at 9 to pick me up. Sigh...
So that was my first night. But remember, I said that things are wonderful. So let me tell you what happened after I woke up. I went with Loren and Shlash to visit the school I'll be doing a lot of work at. The owners name is Dr. Faisal, and his family is a pretty big deal here in the area. His brother-in-law is a highly respected Sheikh of one of the many tribes here in Jordan. But more importantly, his family is wonderfully hospitable and kind. I also met two other interns working with Zaytoon, which is an NGO. Their names are Kevin and Carissa, they're from BYU, they're married, and they shall from henceforth be referred to as K&C. I'll be working with them a lot, which is sweet because they're really cool people. Loren and Shlash had some business to attend to, so I just hung around with K&C... for the next 36 hours. Talk about making friends fast, right? We sat in on an English class, and then stuck around to talk with the teachers, all of whom are women. They're all way nice and cool, and I can tell that I will enjoy working with them. After school we went home with Dr. Faisal's wife, Umm Munthr, where there was a big lunch. It was DELICIOUS!!! Grape leaves, and squash stuffed with rice, as well as chicken and rice. These people know how to eat! And I think I'm picking up on a few more cultural nuances. They give you a ton of food, but you're not supposed to be able to eat it all, so it's OK. Reason being... it's an expression of their immense hospitality, and an indication of their wealth. So, it would be embarrassing for them if I cleaned my plate. We stuck around to talk for a while, and then excused ourselves to go nap. K&C have a saWEET living setup. Dr. Faisal has some family who mostly live in Saudi Arabia, but have a home here as well for when they come to visit. So K&C have this whole HUGE house to themselves. The Saudi family is coming back in July after K&C leave... otherwise I'd just move in there! Anyhoo... it felt wonderful to nap after the aforementioned night's lack of sleep. Afterwards we talked and got to know each other some more before we headed off to a dinner at the Sheik's home. Yeah, I had dinner with the Sheik, and it was so cool. Kevin and I were in a room with the men (the men and women usually hang out/eat separately for these big events... and some small ones). The group started out small but every few minutes someone new came in. Each time somebody new came in everybody would stand, and the newcomer would go around the room to greet everyone, shaking their hand and often kissing him on the cheek. We just sat and talked for a while... Arabs have dinner pretty late. Oh, and we drank LOTS of tea. They drink lots of tea and coffee here, but they respect us when we tell them it's part of our religion that we don't drink it. So everyone's been making lots of herbal tea. I've never been much of a tea kinda guy... but I LOVE it; probably because they put in lots of sugar. Chamomile is good, but my new favorite is oregano tea. Mmm mmm good. We finally ate at around 10:30 or 11, but it was definitely worth the wait. We had mansef, like we had the night before at beyt Shlash (Shash's house), but it was different. I'm pretty sure that this time it was lamb. And I was taught the appropriate way to sit this time (cross-legged). Afterwards we retired back to the parlor for tea, fruit, more tea, cake, and... you guessed it: tea. The general conversation was obviously in Arabic, and it was pretty fast, but I was able to generally follow the gist. However, as I got more and more tired, my ability (and desire) to enter and participate in the conversation dissipated. I let Kevin do most of that. But one of the men there (Badr, who picked me up from the airport, and his brother) speak pretty good English; we talked to them for a bit about some of the politics of Jordan. It was interesting to get there take on what I've heard a bit of before. After a while we left, and I crashed at beyt K&C for the night.
I slept WONDERFULLY last night, in my own room, which was one of the parlor's of the house K&C are staying in. This morning we went in to town to buy a few things, and then we came back to the house for a cleaning party. I helped them clean and fix their place up, and tomorrow we're gonna have a cleaning party at my place! We chilled for a while with Loren and his brother. I really like the people that I'm working with. We were able to talk for a while today about a lot of things: spiritual, political, philosophical, random, etc. and I can tell that this summer is going to be great. We wandered around for a bit, checked out the roman ruins that just so happen to be down the street (how freaking awesome is THAT?!). Loren and his bro left, and K&C and I headed over to a neighbor's home for dinner. It was, once again, DELICIOUS! Everything here is amazing. We had chicken and rice (you'd think that combination would get old, but each one tastes different yet awesome). This time we (men & women) all ate together, and we tried diligently to have a fantastic Arabic conversation. The TV was on (also quite normal here... it's usually the news). Al-Jazeera was on talking about the events in Syria. Our host is in the army and works at the Jordan/Syrian border, so it was interesting to get his take on it. I couldn't say much, other than shake my head and say how terrible it was. Their kids were very cute, and some of their other family members were wandering in and out throughout dinner. One was a young woman who my host suggested I should marry. (He actually said that I should "husband" her, but I got the point). Haha. She was pretty, but I still think I'm gonna hold out a bit longer.
And now, I'm back in my apt. My bed is fixed, I have a table, and I'm excited for my cleaning party tomorrow. I also bought some cockroach spray and went on a rampage. Bwa ha ha! Now the last thing to figure out is the mosquitos. They mostly stay up by the light, but every once in a while one comes down to pick a fight. I've picked up on the ritual: first they buzz my ear, then they flee to the wall, then I smoosh them. As I've been writing this, that dance has been repeated at least five times. And with that, my friends, I will leave you. I look forward to another day tomorrow, in bedouin paradise. Love ya!
يرمي
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