So yes, as the title suggests, this past week was freaking hot. Luckily it's cooling down and we're back in the 90's, but towards the beginning of the week it was hot as, well, ya know... Thank GOODNESS for my fan. Not only does it keep mosquitos from draining all of my blood as I sleep, but it keeps things [semi]-cool. When people in Sabha hear that I only have a fan, they tell me I'm crazy 'cuz it doesn't do much (It just blows hot air!). But then I tell them that it's better than nothing, and they shrug their agreement.
So on Monday I was kind of a hermit for a few hours after work. I was tired, and it was HOT; I didn't want to leave the comfort of my fan. However, I eventually determined to stop being lame and go outside. As I left, Shlash was walking by, so he talked to me for a while to see what I've been up to. Then he decided he wanted me to meet someone, and so I got in his car and we drove over to his friend Reyada's home. Reyada works for the Ministry of Education, and apparently has the hookups when it comes to English education. I went to his office and met with him on Tuesday. And by "met with him", what I really mean is that I sat in his office, politely declined tea and had to explain why, made small talk, sat awkwardly for forever, talked about work for 5 minutes, and then left. That's how all business is done here. I'm not going to be able to have a direct conversation to save my life once I'm home. I'll sit down with someone, they'll start talking, and I'll be like, "Ahem, aren't you supposed to be offering me tea or something? And will you please ask me how I'm doing, what's new, how's my health, how am I doing, how's my family, how's work, how am I doing, Welcome to Jordan." Anyhoo... he has a great idea, which I plan on implementing. Rather than trying to meet with each English teacher, we'll send out a questionnaire through the Ministry to all of the English teachers in the Badia. That way we can plan our future involvement better.
My tawjihi class on Tuesday went OK. I read them the story of the dog choking on human fingers. Oh yeah... Then I tried to teach them about adverbs and verb tenses. I'm gonna confess, I think I'm sucking at this whole English grammar teaching. Part of it is that I don't know grammar that well anyways (and I'm an English major! I know, I know, shame on me, spare me the ridicule...), and another part of it is that I don't really have any materials. So, I'm trying to teach what I don't really know by winging it. And they want me to do that for 2 hours twice a week. Sooooo... we'll see how this keeps going.
So I have a profound cultural observation to make. Prepare yourself. I believe that it may be the root of why Arab culture and Western culture have clashed so much. Americans tend be blunt in areas that Arabs dance around the subject. The opposite is also true, Arabs can be cuttingly blunt in areas where Americans would rather not go. A few examples:
- If someone asks a favor of you, you never say "no". It's more rude to say "no" than to not follow through. So, you answer vaguely. "If God wills it" or "After a while" or "I'll call you" all work, and most Arabs I've met get the point.
- When talking about money, Arabs have no qualms about talking about how much something cost, which would be rude in American culture. I've had a few friends get a new phone or a new computer, and they tell me right away how much it cost and how expensive it was. Also, everyone asks me what my salary is here (my answer shocks them: zip!) and what an average American's salary is. Anyone that sees my laptop or my iPhone asks how much it cost.
- When Arabs have come to visit me, when they're done they're done and they make it known. Usually after 20-30 minutes of sitting with me in my apt, they say "I want to go now", and then go. It's actually quite refreshing. In American culture we come up with a reason "Oh I really do have a ton of HW. I'd love to stay, but we'll catch up later", which we all know translates to "I am so done with being here. See ya!"
And now for the experience that brings this observation on. Remember the story I told last time about my friend who wants my iPod shuffle? When he was at my house he kept picking it up to examine it quite dramatically (for my sake, I'm sure) and talking about how beautiful it is. That is the cue in Arabic culture for me to offer it to him, whether or not I want to. However, since I am not an Arab, I didn't. Since that experience he's been quite persistent. The next day he told me that he'd had a dream that I'd given him my iPod. I understood perfectly, but I pretended to have no clue what he was saying (which is quite believable, since it happens all the time) and then changed the subject. Then yesterday I was walking with him and he said that he wanted to talk to me. He reminded me that he'd given me a ring a few days before (which he had since taken back and broken) and wanted to know when I would give him a present. [Thus, the observation of how Arabs can be blunt] Then he specifically told me that he wanted my iPod. He kind of made it an ultimatum; he asked me "yes or no?" I told him no, reassured him that I would give him something (albeit non-iPod-ish) before I left, and told him to stop asking me. That's another difference in our cultures, in terms of gift giving: Arabs give you something which they own, American go out and buy something for you.
Last night my friend Farah picked me up and took me to dinner. It was at the home of the mechanic (named Mohammed) who fixed his car last week. He lives in a town (I can't remember what it's called) right outside of Irbid, which is a good hour drive away. Farah had not met Mohammed before getting his car fixed, so we'd both had the same amount of contact with him (although Farah definitely had the upper hand, him being fluent in Arabic and all that jazz). I'm pretty sure he invited us because he wanted to talk to me about getting help immigrating to the United States. (This has so far been my only experience where someone invited me to their home exclusively to ask a favor from me) When it became clear that my poor student non-connected self would be useless in that endeavor, the hospitality took a nose dive. He talked some politics with me (with Farah translating), although we disagreed on quite a bit. He was was the first Arab I've spoken to that had anything bad to say about Obama. (Everyone here loves Obama and hates Bush, which is not entirely surprising) Of course he disliked Bush, blaming him for the Iraq war which was devastated the economy. But he also disliked Obama. I asked him why, and he started listing off a bunch of things that have gone wrong under his presidency: "Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, etc.". I was feeling a bit bold, and told him that he couldn't blame Obama or America for every single thing that goes wrong in the world. I explained how everything he had listed had happened on it's own, even if some (namely Libya) had eventually produced a US response. He just changed the subject, which was probably for the best. And by change the subject, I mean that he spent the next two hours talking on the phone while Farah played with my pen and notebook and I played Bounce on my phone. I was so bored I just wanted to kick a parakeet. However, we eventually (at 11pm... we arrived ay 7) did eat dinner: mansaf, which made everything worth it! ;) After dinner a neighbor came in and started arguing with him, so Farah and I took that as our cue to leave. We had an uneventful ride home; Farah kept asking me the names of each village we drove through, and teased me for not remembering them all. ("Ummm, excuse me, but they're weird names in Arabic. I can't remember") Occasionally we'd pass a sign with the village name on it so I could escape his jests.
And now I'm in Amman! It's been a great day thus far; as I was walking to the bus this morning a friend bought me a sandwich and a Mountain Dew, and I listened to some wonderful podcasts on the way here. I'm pretty excited for this weekend; we're visiting Jerash and Um Qais. Um Qais is in the Golan Heights and overlooks the Sea of Galilee, which is my favorite place on earth. A large part of my heart still resides in my memories of being there. So, we're going for my birthday. Be excited. And with that, I'm-a-gunna-let you go! See ya!
يرمي
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