My new home

So today I finally arrived at my home for the next three months.  After saying goodbye to my Jordanian brothers: Ahmed and Mahmoud, I left with my director (sorta) Loren, his brother, and a local guy that I'll be working with a lot named Shlash.  We drove for a while, probably 2 hours.  We stopped in Zarka for some sweets, and ended up on the road to Baghdad.  Yeah, it was pretty cool to have the road signs say "Syria" and "Iraq" on them.  (Don't worry mom, I'm safe in a good town).  The town I'm in is called Sab'ha, and it is tinee-tiny.  I have my own apt, which is weird, but cool.  The amenities are a bit different: my bed is so far my only piece of furniture, I have a squatter toilet with a water jar instead of toilet paper, and I'm definitely gonna have to invest in some roach traps.  But nonetheless, it's home sweet home, and I look forward to being here for the next 3 months.  Once I got dropped off I had about an hour to kill before dinner, so I just wandered around the village and talked to some people.  People's English here is very limited, so I'm definitely gonna have to start swimming in terms of Arabic.  The dialect is, once again, quite different, even from what's spoken in Amman.  I'm sure I'm quite the spectacle: random blue-eyed American in a tiny bedouin village who speaks only enough Arabic to introduce himself.  Then once they (naturally) expect a conversation, I've got nothing.  So I just say "sorry" and they just laugh.  But seriously, I am very excited about my time here.  The people here are very nice and welcoming.  For dinner I went with Loren and his brother to Shlash's home, where we had mansef, which is DELICIOUS chicken and rice with a sauce on it.  They showed me how to eat it with my hands, which I did semi-successfully (although I made a total mess).  Then afterwards we just chilled.  Sigh... this is the life.  Arabs are sooo laid back, at least about schedules.  One can choose to fight it and remain frustrated, or embrace it and relax.  So... here's to 3 months of productively relaxing.  Ma'salama!

يرمي