Bakering

Hey family!!! Guess what? Hurray! I have finally found a job at a bakery. I don't know why I didn't pursue it earlier, but I really did this past week and it paid off. But first, some other things happened too!

We went to Habiba's. It's a dessert company that has delicious Middle Eastern food. We oftentimes will go to the one down in the city center in a quaint alley next to the bank, but this time we went to the mother of all Habiba's. It's like a big, fancy sit-down restaurant for just desserts. :) So we had a good time. In the picture you can see the fanciness of the setting in the background. In the foreground we have the stunning and delightfully curious Marc Jay, who never ceases to warm my heart with his smile, grace, and laughter. I love you roomie. You are loved and appreciated! By me. And by others, too. But especially by me! :)

[He went with the hairy kunaafa. I went with something else delicious , but I forgot his name.]

We also went to another festival at the King Hussein Gardens! This was quite a new experience. The Arabs in attendance were super Western—lots of uncovered hair, lots of hipsters, lots of free drinks, Western tunes, excellent English speakers, etc. It was to promote new ideas and business products and such, and it actually gave me lots of hope for Jordan's future! Some of the people I work with seem to be stuck in a rut of complacency because of harsh circumstances, which causes a lack of drive and efficiency and productivity plummet. I really do love all of the people around me at work, these are just some observations I've made. However, at this festival people were full of life and drive and excitement for the future. And they were all young, talented, educated, beautiful, wonderfully Jordanian people. So that was fun. I got my blood tested for free at one booth! They tested me and asked if I had drunk a Pepsi or eaten right before the test. I told them I had eaten a ton that day, the last time being about an hour prior. They told me I needed to go to a professional blood clinic and get a full check. They said my blood sugar and hemoglobin levels were totally wack. But then I explained that I had run 20 miles that morning for marathon training and that I had been eating a full meal every two hours for the entire day to reach a full recovery. And they looked relived and said I was probably fine and don't worry about it. My body was just trying recover. So I didn't worry about it! And I am fully recovered and healthy. No worries.

We also went to the King Hussein Mosque at the Gardens. I visited before, but this time we went in and got to witness the evening prayer. Very cool. We were walking toward the mosque as the sun was setting, and the call to prayer began. Soooooo beautiful. And then we made our way with the Muslims into the prayer room. The girls brought scarves to cover their heads this time so that we could all go in. We went to the men's area and the women to the women's. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Indescribable, really. 

[Markie Poo and Loagie Bear checking out the inscription on the Mosque wall. I love my roomies.]

[Purty, huh? I loved being there with so many people of faith. It really is a holy spot...]

The next item of business is my new dew / do / due. I guess it is "do" because that's how you spell hairdo? My hairs were getting really long and shaggy and my coworker kept asking me and asking me why I hadn't cut my hair yet. Like, really, I could tell he thought it was pretty horrendous. And then another coworker told me that my hair was ugly and made me look really old. He told me I should gel it straight back or cut it or something—just change it somehow. I told him that my mommy back in Arkansas likes long hair on boys and so that I'm used to long hair, cause that's what I had all growing up! That didn't help much. But it's true! And I love you mommy, so don't worry I fought as hard as I could. But in all truth, it was getting there, you know? Like pretty long. And if I were at the beach, I'd've kept it. But I'm in Amman. So I got it cut!!!!! And here's the proof. 

[Before. When I was "ugly and old."]

[After. When I'm "young and exactly like all the shabaab I see on the street." Convenient how that happened...]

Yeah, so that's the new me. The Arab me. All of the guys here have super gelled hair and short, tidy, cuts. So when I went to get a hair cut I told him to just take off a little bit everywhere but to keep pretty much the same look. And he just kept cutting and cutting and then he gelled my hair and parted it real fancy for me and gave me "the Italian swoop" as he called it (that's the cute flippy thing in the front, I guess). So yeah! Pretty new. I've never had that look, but I guess I fit in a lot better now. And people comment on how the good the change was for me. Like A LOT of people at work comment on how much better it is. And my boss said that with long shaggy hair (which he always calls "not nice") I look 24 or 25, but with this new cut, I look 18 or 19. So I guess that's good? I don't actually gel my hair every day, just the day that the dude cut it. So it actually looks pretty normal and not very short. It's a good cut and I like it. It was just funny to see the cultural differences!

Okay. Now onto the gooood stuff. Bread! I took some pictures of where I work. I have class two nights a week and then the Sabbath is Friday, so I usually can go in Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday nights and then Saturdays for a while when we don't take group trips to wonderful places around Jordan. I just showed up at a bakery and said that I want to learn how to make bread and viola! I was in like flint, or however that saying goes. The owner wasn't there, but they let me work with them and said they'd ask the owner if I could work for real at the bakery each day. He showed up two days later. His 13-yr-old son was one of the guys working so he had told him all about me—"Boolos" the American who wants to learn Arab bread so that he can actualize his dream of opening his own bakery in the States, cause that's what I told him. The boss came and watched us for a while and then pulled me aside and we had a good chat. He doesn't know a lick of English which is awesome for me. Actually none of the workers do, so I get to learn Arabic AND bread in one session. It's like heaven. Only hotter, kinda like hell. But not really because the bakery is a place of happiness and learning and laughter and delicious smells and tastes. Anyway, so we are talking and he asks me what I expect and want from working. All the workers want me to just quit at the Ministry and work with them all day, but I told them that I have to go to the Ministry because it's part of my schooling and I want to graduate and such. I think they wanted to pay me, too, but I told him that I honestly just wanted his knowledge and to get to use his equipment and so the boss told me I was welcome to work for him! He's a great guy. He also told me that his dream is to open an Arab bakery in the States. He told me we should go into business together. So yeah, he's a great guy and I love the bakery. I got a few shots that kinda outline the bakery.

[Das oven. The tanks of gas heat it. The round thing spins slowly in a big arc.]

[Fire. It gets very hot. Heated from below and above.]

[We form the balls of dough (on floor) and then put them through this machine to flatten them.]

[Then stack them in these trays. All the ones stacked on the left are full.]

[Then put them in das oven and let them do a full two rotations.]

[And then slide them off and stack them on racks to cool for a minute before baggin them in 2kg (4.4 pounds) bags. It's 50 JD cents which is about 71 US cents. So cheap!]

The young guy holding his hand out toward the majesty of the oven is Ahmad. He's the baker's son. We are tight. I love working at the bakery. It's good to just chat and work with the Arabs after a day of translating super technical government documents. The pictures show the normal pita bread, but we bake lots of other kinds as well. It's so tasty. There is an Egyptian, a Syrian, a Jordanian, an Iraqi, and an American guy (that's me) that work at the bakery. We are a pretty rag-tag bunch and each have our own story of how we got here, but we have fun. The Iraqi guy grew up his whole life in Baghdad and was 15 when America began the whole occupation business. He came here two years ago and has a wild story, but that's for another time...

Family, I will make us some of this good bread and we can have a nice Middle Eastern meal when I get back. I'm already excited! Tomorrow morning I'm meeting them at the bakery at 5am to start the mixing process for the dough! I'm pumped. And then we'll work a while and then I'll do my long Saturday run, then take a quick nap before we leave Amman at 12 for our trip to Ajloun and Umm al-Qais just a little ways north-east of here, I think. Not super sure, but it's supposed to be gorgeous. Life is just wonderful out here. Momma, I hope your marathon training is going well! I'm so impressed that my mommy is doing it with me! You are a pro and I hope I can keep up with you. I've never run that far in my life!

Well, I'm out. Stay safe family and I'll see you before you know it! Heidi, have a blast at BYU this summer and when I get there we'll party like no brother and sister have every partied. I love you guys!

My best selfie so far!

I have had so many incredible experiences in the past week! I really won't be able to even scratch the surface with this post, but I'll try and include lost of pictures. You can just use your  imaginations and make up funny stories with me in them. Just be creative and try and think like me and I'm sure you'll be able to fill in all of the dots!

Our journey starts with a wonderful trip to the Jordan River Baptismal Site, where Jesus was baptized (at least somewhere along the river). We had a wonderful morning on the bus and stopped at Mt. Nebo along the way. On a clear day from Mt. Nebo you can see Jerusalem, Jericho, and several other cool cities. Luckily we were there on a very clear day and saw all the cool sites. It's kind of a weird to see Israel from Jordan. We hear so much about Israel from the people around us each day and so to finally see it is somewhat like, Woah. Of course we hear a highly biased opinion, but I really like hearing the extremes on both sides to just try and get inside their shoes and see each point of view. That's one reason I like the BYU study abroad—we spent time on both sides of the border and with both people to learn both sides. But so far I've only heard the Muslim- Arab- Palestinian/Jordanian point of view. 

Anyway, it was really cool to see these ancient cities from afar and it make me want to go there! The baptismal site was cool. The picture shows our group members on the Jordanian side, just a few yards from Israel. We aren't allowed to communicate with people on the other side. It was pretty and warm and I loved it.

[Jordan River]

After the Jordan River we went to the Dead Sea and went to a resort thing. It was super posh and felt really weird after living in my apartment in Amman for a bit. But it was really really nice. We had a BUFFET which was sooo weird but delicious. So much food and it was really good. All middle eastern delights. Then we suited up and swam in the Dead Sea! It was so dead. And salty! And I floated on the water. It was so cool. I'm kinda skinny and so usually if I hold my breath and try and float in the water, I sink. But this time I could actually float on top! It was out of this world and I really really couldn't stop laughing. It was sooooo fun. Anyway, I loved it. Point made. 

Then we loaded up with that precious mud and scrubbed and exfoliated and became beautiful. It was like a dream. Putting mud on yourself and each other and it was socially acceptable. So wonderful. I let mine dry and I looked really good. Logan Tatham—you would be so proud of how manly we were. I needed you and your mate and your fancy clothing. Hopefully one day we'll do it together!

Then we swam in their fancy pools and woah, I just loved swimming. We had a blast and several of us got burned. I didn't thanks to Marc's SPF 85 sunscreen, which we applied to our bodies twice! Quite a day! A good break from the office translation work. Oh yeah, and then when we got home and about to eat dinner, Lindsay (an American here with another program) called Stefanie (a girl in my program) and asked if she wanted to go to a wedding in a city not far from Amman that I won't mention the name of. And Stefanie said a guy could come with her and so I got to go! A real Arab Muslim wedding. Super awesome. This family was a little more modern and chose to do the wedding mixed—both guys and girls in the same area. Traditional weddings separate men and women for dancing and fun and then bring them back together for a few key events. The bride and groom came down a stair case with disco lights, fireworks, and blaring music. There was so much energy in the air! And everyone was so happy! Many engagements last around a year, so the anticipation has been built up so much and everyone was very excited for this couple.

I got to dance all night with the people! They taught me some more belly dancing and even formed a circle for me to show off my moves. It was really just a load of fun. All of the girls had gotten all gussied up and had incredibly beautiful and snazzy hijabs and dresses. And since we were guests, they treated us like royalty. I got to witness several cool cultural things such as presented the bride with golden jewelry, giving the couple gifts of money, and the debka dance (it's for the dudes and very awesome. I got to jump in too). It was a beautiful end to a wonderful day. Long live marriage.

[Bride and Groom making their entrance!]

[Dancing! Notice the girls and guys together! But they only dance close is they are sisters and brothers, I'm pretty sure.]

[My best selfie. Selfie is a new english word I learned this week that means you take a picture of yourself. So I thought I'd include this one of me. From a bus ride.]

Then on saturday we went to Sahab for a classic Arab dinner with a family of Logan's Arab friend. We got there by a crazy chain of buses and taxis. We arrived at the home at around 5:15 and began the chatting. We chatted for about an hour and then they brought out drinks. Then we chatted for another hour. The Arabs recited some poetry for us and, of course, kept saying "ahlah w sahlan" every time the conversation died down. Then they sent someone out to buy food for dinner. Then we kept chatting. And chatting. Then we kept chatting for a while. It is they way they do things here. Go and chat and have drinks. And then around 9:15 they invited us into the sitting room for dinner! It was an awesome traditional sit-down-eat-a-million-dishes kind of meal. Great chicken seasoned with so many delicious herbs. I actually tasted a lot of cardemom, which I really haven't tasted since Finland. Sooo good. Chicken rice olives laban vegetables pasta bread fish... Just so much. And they just pile it on and pile it on for you. We ate for an hour and then went back to talking and more drinks. Then we all sang songs and more poetry. And then we ate a bunch of bananas and oranges for desert. And then we began the departure rituals, meaning we say we have to leave a few times and then an hour later we get to leave. I think it was 12:45 when we got home. Yep, just checked with Leigh. It was a late one. But I loved it. It was such an experience.

[Sitting down to feast.]

I also have started my Jordanian Colloquial class. We are six or so in the class and have a blast. Our instructor's name is Doctor Khaled and he is super funny and a great teacher. I've learned so many new words. It's also really nice to know the grammar and reasons behind the changes in Jordanian Arabic. Most of it I've heard before on the streets or from other readings, but I get to ask any questions I like and Dr. Khaled knows how to talk about linguistics, which is very rare among other Arabs I've met.

I love it!!!

[The celebrated and heralded ustaaz doctor khaled!]

[We got the lyrics to a song and then listened to it and had to put it in order! Just another fun day in class...]

Here is the link to the song. I really adore it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1jrS_3Mbw

You can skip forward a minute to hear the singing if you like, or you can listen to the beautiful Middle Eastern instruments!

So much is going on here! It's a blast. I'm still at the Ministry of Social Development doing translation projects and speaking with people in efforts to get better at Arabic (and of course to help develop Jordan socially). I also got to go to my boss's house to meet his rad son who is going to 'merica this week to finish his air force training at an American base. Very cool.

THEN...... I continued an amazing week by attending a conference at the Religious Institute of Inter-Faith Relations on how to use Social Media to promote good citizenship, move social development projects forward, and promote productive inter-faith dialogue. It lasted two days and was pretty sensational. We had some visitors come in from Lebanon. They were young, super hipster, tech-savy bosses. It was a blast and I became friends with a bundle of delightful young Arabs.

We were split up into several groups and picked topics to do a small project on. We had 24 hours to do it. Our group chose citizenship in Jordan. They have some problems with nationality and identity. Oftentimes you'll ask someone where they're from and they say, Palestine, or Kuwait, or Egypt. Sometimes these people really are immigrants from these countries and have just arrived. But most of the time, in my experience, they haven't even visited the country they say they're from— or maybe their family has lived here for several generations. And so they won't say they're Jordanian, despite being here for so long and having very few connections to other countries. This behavior hearkens back to the cultural and historical emphasis of family and tradition and heritage in the Middle East. So... the Jordanians in my group wanted to do a project to promote Jordanianness. So we made a facebook group and made a video, etc to promote it. You can check it our it you like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPrjnlRKGHA

[Train me, baby]

[Notice the hipsterness. Okay maybe not totally hipster, but pretty modern. Pretty cool.]

[Here we be.]

Well, I must be off now. This short description really can't do any justice to the experiences and magic in my life right now. LOVE

Action Plan?

 I got my assignment at the Ministry. They gave me an "Action Plan" that includes four areas. 1- Knowledge Management. I don't really know what that means, but they explained that I will be doing research and such in Arabic and giving them reports so they can make decisions. We'll see how that goes! 2- Translate this packet of Arabic stuff into English. It's 50 pages and explains all of the services provided by the Ministry. They plan to translate most of the website into English and this is my portion. 3- IT support. There are some IT guys on our floor and I told them that I want to go around and fix servers and computers and stuff with them. They seem like cool guys, younger, that I can get along with and learn some good Arabic. 4- I forgot this one but maybe I'll remember it as I write.

I love my coworkers. Pictured below is Emad (standing), the essence of Arab manhood. He likes to smoke and drink coffee all day. I've only seen him eat food once the whole time I've worked here. He was a little shocked I took the picture because he was unbuttoning his pants to retuck his shirt in. Haha. Sorry dude. But he is a great guy and teaches me Arab things. Seated by his desk is Muhammad who just graduated with an MBA from NY University satellite campus here in Amman. He is cool too! This pic is taken from my little desk. It's nice. We have pics of the Royal family in the background, of course. Every room has these pictures. The dead King Hussein on right (allah yarhamu), then the living King Abdullah II center, and the future King, Prince Hussein on right. 

[Hello sunshine]

They are wanting me to spend about two weeks on each of the 4 areas so that I have a nice, well-rounded experience. I'm quite happy with the setup. Sometimes I don't feel very useful to others here, but they explained that this whole experience is just to help me progress in the areas that I want. So, I'm feeling good. I translate in the morning, talk with coworkers, then go to the cafeteria for a sandwich or something. I've made a bunch of cool friends in the cafeteria. Sometimes I try and eat quick, but people keep wanting to meet me and talk to me and I just have to stay. But I don't feel bad because one can only translate government documents in all their jargony fusha for so long... so then I get some good speaking time in at lunch. I also teach several people around me little English lessons. Very few people that work around can speak English, so I teach little English lessons sometimes for them. They get really excited about it. It's really fun and I feel like I'm at the MTC again... only a slightly different crowd (all the Sisters are veiled and all the Elders are smoking, for example. so I guess the only common thing is that I'm teaching stuff to people. I guess it's not actually as close as I was envisioning it to be).

One of my friends from lunch invited me to hang out with him yesterday. Oh but first I should tell about Saturday. Saturday was my long run day for marathon training. I got up nice and earlyish at like 6 or something and ran 14 miles. It was good for me and I felt good the whole way. When I came home, though, I got fatigued and so I took a short nap! Then we had a great day and relaxed. In the evening we went to Rainbow street, a cool place in the city. Then my buddies from work called me and asked me to go on a walk with them. They go a few times a week and walk from the First Circle to the Seventh Circle. Amman is set up in a series of Circles, meaning big traffic circles, numbered One through Eight. I said I'd like to go. So they met me at Rainbow street at 9ish and we started. We got coffees first and falafel, of course. I had some juice. Then we walked to the Second Circle, just chatting away. Well, it turns out we stopped at almost every circle to get more food and drink. It took us about two and a half hours to get to the Seventh Circle. Boy was I pooped. Like tired, you know? I had run that day a lot and then we walked for two and a half hours! Dang. So we all sat down and kept talking and smoking. I mostly talked though. I haven't picked up smoking yet, despite its popularity. So as we're talking, they ask me if I'm tired and I tell them yes, I ran a bit today and I'm feeling tired (it's 11:30 and we all have work at 8:30 in the morning). So I ask them where their car is or if I should get a taxi, etc. They just say, Oh yeah it's still down there at the First Circle. And then I realized... oh wow, we are still going to walk all the way back! Oh my. I might die. They ask me if I'll make it and I say Yeah I think so (cause I did think so). Well we keep talking and then Tha'er is like, Hey should we grab some donuts before we head back? So what the heck, we went and got donuts. Just the three of us—Me, Tha'er, and Ismail. We got donuts and coffee and chatted it up until about 12 and then started walking back. Needless to say, 12 kilometers and two hours later I got home and went to bed. It was quite a night. But that is just normal Arab social life. They love hanging out super late and talking and drinking coffee and smoking. It was fun! But I was a tired pup the next day at work. 

So yesterday we started our Jordanian Amiyya class at the Qasid Institute! That means that I have class twice a week from 4:30-7 with some friends. We are learning Jordanian colloquial. It's the way people talk here. I studied fusha(it's like the fancy language that they write newspapers in and is understood across the Arab world) and amiyya (this is the spoken language for each country and it can be extremely different from other dialects, sometimes even unintelligible to other Arabic speakers). But at BYU we studied mostly Egyptian colloquial and not Jordanian. Since I've been here, I feel like I've picked up most of the differences between the languages, but this class will certainly help fill in the gaps and give me time to ask specific questions and practice.

Then we all went out and had Yemeni food—big plates of rice and chicken and crazy delicious bread. Then my friend Abu Faisal from work wanted to hang out and so he picked me up and the two of us drove around Amman and got coffees and ice cream and smoked a bunch of cigarettes. I wasn't very hungry for coffee or tobacco that night, but the ice cream was to die for. We chewed the fat for a while and talked about the political problems that affect Abu Faisal and he showed me pics from his Honeymoon in Thailand that he took last month. He got married about two years ago and has a kid, but the Honeymoons are delayed sometimes. Then we met up with some of his Christian friends and drank more coffees and slushies and inhaled more burned tobacco. After another hour or two of that, I got tired again and Abu Faisal took me home, telling how much of a shame it was that I was tired when they were just about to have fun by going to a restaurant and movie (fast and furious 6, of course) to cap off the night. Well, it was 11:15 and I just had to pass this time. Shucks. But he said that we'll do it Thursday night because Friday is no work! 

This is how I spend a lot of my time. Translate and talk all day, then run home and eat some foods and listen to some Western music or a film in English to ease my brain parts, then hang our with intern friends or Arab friends, learning new things all the time. I feel like I'm writing down new words and phrases constantly no matter what I'm doing or who I'm talking to. So much to learn! I have over 250 words of government jargon just from the last week in translating.  There's just too much to absorb at once! I'm like a little baby in Arabic... Ha ha! But I'm learning quickly.

To wrap up, two items for your viewing pleasure. Item the first is this lovely picture of me demonstrating how I can lead a large group in stretching exercises, if ever needed.

Item the second is some translation excitement! I know that all people don't get stoked about translating stuff like I do, but this is just to literally give you a picture of what I do all day. Hurray! I don't have a digital copy of the Arabic, so all you get is English. Darn. 

[Whoops! I'm a creepy stretcher]

Name of Service: Issuing grants of a development project for charitable organizations:

Locations for Obtaining Services:

-Department of Productivity Enhancement and Poverty Reduction at the Directorate of Social Development / in the field.

-The Office of Social Development Satellite Directorate / in the field.

Necessary Existing Conditions to Obtain the Service:

-Be a registered organization under the Ministry of Social Development.

-Have completed the registration of the organization in a period of not less than one year.

-The project must line up with the goals of the organization.
-The location of the intended project must be within the workspace of the organization.
-The organization must have the technical and administrative abilities that will enable the management of the project, its location, and continuance.

-The organization must not have failed in the management or implementation of a project in the last five years.

etc...etc...etc........

Yeah, so if that didn't push your buttons, don't worry. It's not the most intriguing reading I've done. Whelp, I'm out. There is a baker up the block and I'm gonna go ask if I can come make breads with him a couple times a week... I'll be his apprentice and then open up my bakery in Brovo when I return. "Wealth" is just around the corner, it seems!

Hangin out in the sharkles (the sharkle awsawts, of course)

Woah. So I was about to start writing this blog thing and I thought to myslef, "Self, let's be honest with us. We need some hummus and falafel if we are going to do this right." And so I walked 40 meters to the nearest shop and bought a pail of hummus, a bag of falafel, and a bag of fresh bread. $1.50. And then I came home and sat in front of this computer, telling myself that I would start writing any second, but just sitting and eating and eating instead. Shucks, there went half an hour... but a half hour well spent...

So I'm still just kickin it in the ME. I'm still loving it! Each day I'm here I realize how much less it is like the US. They do things quite differently here. And I'm just starting to figure out why... here comes a short story. I hope it doesn't just sound like I'm venting :)

About 3 months ago I turned in a CV, resume, and some other things to Kaiti, our program facilitator. She is in charge of setting things up for interns at the Ministry. She sent out these items to the Ministry for all the interns a few months ago. Each intern had studied the Ministry and picked a spot they wanted to work in. We had the assumption that we would start working the second week of May, as planned. Well, the Ministry didn't get back to Kaiti for a while. It turns out that by the time we got to Jordan they hadn't even opened our applications or read anything we sent them. So, we got here and they just told us to hang tight while they figured stuff out. We didn't set foot inside the Ministry for the first two weeks. Then we finally had a meeting in which they looked over our forms and told us where they were going to put us. Most people got places they wanted. I was planning on working outside the Ministry and the Institute for Diplomacy. I found out a week after I'd been here that they weren't taking any interns. So I came with the other interns to the Ministry to find a spot here. During our meeting, almost everyone got their position changed multiple times. It was really crazy. They told me I could maybe work here in the Ministry, but then a director lady came in and looked at me and said, "Oh no, you don't want to be here in the Ministry. You want to be out in the field with the people. Let's put him in the Juvenile detention center." And that was that. I got switched in the blink of an eye. They told Logan and me to be very careful at the Center because these were troubled teens ages 12-18 and we should be on our guard.

Picture break! I feel like this entry is really dense and long. So here is something cheery!

[Jethro Cedar Morrill with his father, Nikolai]

[My nephew Jet and his dad Nickypoo. I looked just like Jet when I was a baby, I bet.]

Well, Logan ended up getting switched by the end of the day to work in the Human Resource place. I found out after our meeting that I had actually been accepted as an intern at this other place called the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. So, I planned on working there. They had expected me to show up for work 2 days prior but forgot to tell me that. So they were wondering where I'd been. Well, I show up in the morning at the Institute and they don't really know what to do with me. I sit and chat with some of the employees for a while and then they give me some mint tea. They keep asking me what I want to do at the Institute. I was kinda taken aback because I thought I was their intern and they would have many tasks and projects for me to help with. But they didn't. I ended up thinking about it for a second and then told them that I wanted to improve my Arabic abilities. That was number one. The second was to understand the role of religion and the situation of Christian-Muslim relations in the ME and to help their institution to succeed. They said that they had some things I could that would only use my english abilities, which I wasn't too excited about. They told me that if I really wanted to learn Arabic that I should go to the streets and talk with the people and cab drivers and fruit salesmen, not be in a suit in an office. They also said that they didn't really have much that fitted my desires as an intern at their place. So that was weird. Maybe I just had different expectations. I thought that if they reviewed my stuff and accepted me as an intern that they would have stuff for me to do. They were extremely friendly and understanding of my situation, too, and offered many ways to help me out. I don't think they were being mean or anything like that. They were only interested in my success and said that they want this internship to help me with my goals of understanding the language and religions in the region. They put my wants above their institute's agenda, which I thought was very kind.

I met some cool people there, too. One lady is an Arab born-again Christian who confessed to me that she hasn't been praying recently like she should be, to which I agreed and said that she should be more diligent about it. The second lady was raised Greek Orthodox and spent some time in Lebanon. We sat and chatted for a while. Everyone found out super early that I was Mormon because of the tea and coffee thing. Then she said, "Hey, I think when I was living in Lebanon from '69-'75 that two young men in white shirts and ties just like you came to my door. They said they were doing a religious survey and came inside with this book, The Book of Mormon. My father wasn't religious but was very curious and invited them in. They came over several times a week and talked and talked. I was really skeptical back then so I didn't really pay attention. Huh, that's funny. I had forgotten about that whole thing until you came in..." Then she asked me what we believe and all sorts of things. Now, talking about the Church is touchy here. But she turned to me, closed her office door, and said, "I'm now talking to you as Mona, not as an employee here." And, since she was Christian, I was able to say a few things about the Church. We have been told specifically to not say anything about anything to Muslims, as the Church has legally agreed with Jordan and other sites in the ME. They let us do our studies and such and hold church meetings as long as we obey our little non-proselytizing contract. But she was Christian, so we were able to chat a little about the Book of Mormon and such.

Another man I met is a professor of Islam here at the University of Jordan. He is on a sabbatical leave right now and works with the Institute. He is really fascinated with Mormonism as well. Our discussion started off with him telling me all about Islam and about Israel and all kinds of other wonderful topics. I actually really like hearing all of the opinions people have. I asked him a question about why Muhammad was the last prophet, which he thought was a good question from a Mormon! He understands me a little, I guess. His answer included the principle of not being led in all things and instead learning to use your own agency, which I liked. I also asked him about religious tolerance in the ME and what happens when Muslims change religions. He told me that he had recently written a paper on the subject and said he'd share it with me. He wants to sit down with me for a couple hours and discuss these things—he'll bring some arabic material on Islam and I'll bring english material on Mormonism. It turns our that I actually can't do that because of the anti-proselytizing thingy, so I'll have to break that to him this week. Bummer.

What a cool bunch of people. One of the big wigs at the institute is named Abu Jaber, and he told me that he lectured at BYU a little while ago! Craziness. He is a cool older guy and invited to come to his farm for some festivities, which I actually couldn't do because we had other plans (elikkä a totally sick bike trip to Mt. Nebo. more to come on that). In the end, I arranged to meet with the Islam professor once a week and to also do a translation project of a newsletter for them. I'll probably be there twice a week. However, I didn't feel that I would be productive the whole week, so I went back to the Ministry to see if I could work there the other 3 days.

They threw me in with the group to meet the Minister himself and to get our assignments. When they read my name and where I'd be working, the older lady who was to be my supervisor beamed and waved at me. She seemed like a super fun lady. She is older and wears the hijab like a boss. When it came time to introduce herself to the interns, she made some comment about me being handsome or something (at least that what we, the interns, understood), all the other employees laughed. Then she called me her third son and said I would henceforth be a member of her family. Then she winked at me and didn't take her eyes off me for the rest of the meeting. So..... I could tell this was going to be exciting.
After the meeting we met up and she is probably the spunkiest Arab lady I've met. She kept introducing me as her third son and was just so happy I was there. She even cradled my arm when she was saying goodbye. She is half Lebanese and half Indian, I think is what she told me. Then we sipped mint tea together and she told me wild stories about her dead grandma. Wow. What a day.

I came back to the Ministry the next morning and they stuck me in an office. They told me to go to all of the different sectors, 4 in total, and spend a little time in each so that I could pick a good place to work for the summer. I went to a bunch of offices and asked people where they were from and what their duties were, etc. But no one had work for me. Literally no one. I kept asking people, "Hey I'm here to help! Do you have any cool projects to do today?" Then they'd say, "Hmmmm. Nope. Not really. Sometimes we have busy days, but today isn't one of those." So I told them to come get me if a computer breaks down or something exciting so that I could come help them fix it or do whatever other tasks they were in charge of. One sector does in-field evaluations of programs, and I might get to go out with them and do the evaluations! Cool. But so far, not much work. I sit in this office at a computer with one other guy, عماد. He is pretty cool. 30 years old. Computer engineer. Our computers face opposite directions and the first day of work he was clicking his mouse nonstop. Like a 200 clicks a minute or something. I thought to myself, "Holy cow, self, what kind of game do you think he's playing?" So today I asked went over and asked him. Ah. Happy farms. Never heard of it. But he was planting and harvesting flowers at like a million miles an hour. So that's our joke now, he takes care of the digital flowers while I'll take care of the work. But he promised next week that we'll start a project in designing a survey for all the employees, distribute it, and then analyze the results.

He doesn't really have any hobbies or ambitions, sadly. He says that there is nothing to do and nowhere to go so you just don't do anything too crazy. Just live life and spend time with your family and be happy. And that is kinda the mentality here—you were born into a certain situation, hardly anyone will make it big and get out of mediocrity so don't sweat it too much and just do as much as the next guy so that you can get by. And don't go too crazy ambitious in things like your work because you should just spend that energy in spending time with your family. So everyone comes to work at 8:30 and leaves at 3:30. Kinda nice. Some of the other interns have little projects to do, but some are still finding it really hard to stay busy the whole day. I spent most of the day studying arabic, reading reports and letters in arabic, and talking to عماد in arabic. No one around me knows english which is a blessing for my tongue. It loves arabic.

That's enough business stuff. I realized that I never just write a little blog update. It's usually a wild giant monster book rant instead. So now I'll talk about some adventures we've had...

Independence Day! Hurray! That was saturday. We went on a sick bike ride from Amman to Mt. Nebo. There are like a million pics of facebook if you want to see. We stopped at Mt. Nebo and had the most wonderful hummus falafel sandwiches. Here is one pic I had to include because it features the durable Kaiti Chatty McChatterson right after she passed out! Kaiti is in shape and loves exercise, but something about the combination of heat and riding and getting off the bike led to her fainting. She just went black and fell backward, her legs spasmed a little and she made this weird groaning noise and her eyes rolled back into her head. She might've even foamed a little. I thought she was going to have a seizure. Then a guy grabbed her legs to elevate them and Kaiti's eyes just popped open like two little eggs out of a chicken. And we were like, Oh my gosh Kaiti are you okay? And she's like, Yeah of course what are you talking about? And she tries to just get up like nothing happened. Well, the guy made her stay on the ground. The picture is about a minute after fainting. You can see Kaiti on the far right, just chilling on the ground with a weird happy smile. She was kinda out of it, I think. But she was totally fine like 5 minutes later, no worries. Weird.

[The first rest break. Kaiti on ground. Durable? Yes. Invincible? Perhaps not...]

When we stopped near this little village, these two little boys came out and I took a picture with them and they wanted to ride my bike so I tried to humor them while not letting them die. The big was way too big and the kid wanted to take it straight down the hill. So yeah.

After the bike ride we went to the King's Gardens or something! They are super nice. They had some traditional Arab music concert going on and thousands of people in cool Jordanian clothing everywhere. And sooo many kufiyyas. Those are the red checkered scarf things. I've never seen so many in one place (besides BYU campus, of course. go cougs. and go MESA). They had a bigger concert with cool modern Jordanian music and thousands of shabaab. And there were some women out in the crowds, too! Which was nice. We ended up dancing our little hearts out with the shabaab. They love holding hands and belly dancing with me. I maybe gave myself too much to the dancing when I should've been sticking closer to the girls that were with us (sorry ladies I'll be better in the future!). I'm still learning.

[The crowd parted enough for me to snap a good shot of the plane and super legit traditional Arabs]

[The most patriotic baby I saw]

[Dancing with my bros] 

[Some fountains and such at the gardens]

[The King's mosque. Super huge and beautiful. I'll get pics of the inside later, perhaps.]

Cockroaches. We have some in our apartment. We usually kill several each night, but don't tell the girls in the program because they don't like them. The most we've killed in one evening is 10, I think. Lots of smaller ones, like an inch big, but some bigger ones that are 3 inches. They are awful fast. I don't really mind them because they stay mostly in the kitchen or bathrooms. If they were in my bed I might have different thoughts. But we still kill them because it's not cool to have roaches, I guess.

I better wrap this one up. I'll try and do shorter more frequent entries. 

xXooxOoxXXo

The Holy Sabbath

I just got back from wonderful church. We have the sabbath on Fridays here in Jordan. The Arab branch meets at 9 for sacrament, then sunday school at 10:00 and priesthood meeting from 10:30-11. The branch is quite small, perhaps 5 natives and then a few more that live here for work or school and speak arabic. When interns are here for the summer, we add another 10 or 15. It is just wonderful. I'm learning all kinds of great words from church and I'm also studying and translating PMG to get what I need.

[Here I am last Friday at church with all that I brought into Jordan. I moved into the apartment right after church.]

I feel very much like a missionary again—I listen in church and write down words I don't know, then I give a prayer or answer a question poorly in the language, then ask more questions and try and try to communicate. I've found that I'm much less apprehensive about talking with people, though. Perhaps because the Finns are less open in public spaces and perhaps because I just got used to it as a missionary. After the Arab branch meets, the English branch comes in. It is more than double the size of the Arab branch, with Embassy workers, more interns, and other families serving in other jobs here or serving missions in the area. They have the same schedule as the Arab branch—two hours. We come to the Arab branch and then usually head out after the English sacrament meeting. This way we get to support the Arabs and learn the language in addition to getting the spiritual foods we ourselves need. Yum.

So, for my internship I have to write specific blurbs on stuff and things. I've decided to just kinda merge those into blog entries. So if you read some gibberish about development and culture and such, that is why. And I think it's super fascinating so hopefully you will too! Some cultural observations I've had while being here:

+Different parts of the body are considered sensual to many peoples in the ME. For example, your head hair. Because almost all women in Jordan wear some kind of head covering, men rarely see their hair. It is a sensual thing to them. I was people watching downtown the other day and three girls walked by—two veiled and one without. She had big dark wavy-curly hair that was long and nice. I saw a guy across the street see her and go berserk. He was so in love. He whistled to his friend across the street and then made some gestures to show his friend where the babe was, outlining with his hands the shape of her hair and then motioning for his friend to go make a move on them, which he didn't end up doing. Interesting. In the U.S. hair doesn't seem that crazy. You see it all the time. And yeah, it's nice, but not the way that it is nice here.

+Men are super close with each other. The lack of contact between the two sexes leads men to become super good friends with other men emotionally, physically, and socially. They will meet each other on the street and give each other several kisses on the cheek, sometimes just lingering and holding each other cheek to cheek for a minute. They also don't mind putting their hands on each other's legs / body / anywhere when they are talking with each other. When it's just two guys, they will also hold hands when they walk down the street . I've seen even older men, age 40s and 50s, doing it. And then little boys will do it when they walk home from school. Usually this hand holding isn't like full palm on palm or interlocking fingers, but rather just linking a few fingers together, kinda like when you do a pinkie promise. Or just a light hand hold. It's neat.

+Public space is usually messy and private space is usually clean. This perhaps has to do with the higher levels of poverty here. However, Jordan is considered an upper-middle class country. The streets usually have lots of trash on them, with dumpsters littered every few blocks. The concrete will be broken and torn, rocks will block the path, the sidewalk will have dead animal guts on it. They also burn piles of stuff, I think trash, on the sides of the road where I live. Practically no one uses the sidewalks. Everyone just walks on the street because it's more even and easier to walk on. And then you'll be walking in a worn-down street, but then when you turn into a gate toward an apartment, boom. Everything is super tidy. No rocks, no dust. Just clean. Then you get into an apartment and it's pristine. Nice tiles and stone, good doors and locks, and wonderful furnishings. It's like night and day. You can never really tell what a building will be like from the outside. It's like a new world when you walk into some of the buildings here.

[My friend took a picture of me when we were out on the town. I don't stick out much.]

We are here to develop this place socially. The Ministry of Social Development has several different facets. People from my group will be working in orphanages, battered women's shelters, an NGO evaluation office, Law Office (maybe), and I forget the rest. But I will, insha'allah, be working at the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. The goal of this program is to "provide a venue for the interdisciplinary study of intercultural and interreligious issues withe the aim of defusing tensions and promoting peace, regionally and globally" (riifhttp://www.riifs.org/about-riifs.html). We were supposed to start yesterday by having a big meeting at the Ministry, but it got postponed because somebody important had something come up and couldn't make it. But such is life in the ME. You just go with the flow. We went Jerash the day before last. It is a wonderful ancient city that is now just a bunch of ruins. It was Logan's birthday and so we went to Jerash for the day and did cool stuff and then we went to Baab Al-Yemen for delicious Yemeni food. They bring out large plates of rice and chicken with sauces and yoghurt and then you just all dig in and eat till you can't. They hadn't brought the bread yet in the picture, but they brought out baskets of giant flatbread that was sooooo good and you use it to eat. I ate sooooo and my body loved me. And I loved it. And the food and I made a powerful union. And then I gave my body delicious Turkish ice cream. Gorsh it was nice. It was sweet and sticky, phew! My body and I are getting along nicely now that jetlag has been vanquished. We are quite happy. And we go running every day on the Sports City trail.
Whelp. May the Lord bless you and keep you. He sure is being nice to me. I've been pondering often what He wants me to get out of this whole trip and experience. One important thing is that we aren't here on earth just to survive or to get by. And when I'm in the ME and can't attend a temple or be in a BYU-like environment, it's tempting to just say to yourself, "Self, let's just preserve our spirituality and make it out alive!" But that's not the gospel plan. It's about always becoming, not just surviving. I'm learning a lot, but boy do I have a ways to go...

[JERASH. So of course we had to climb on the ruins and jump around like crazy Americans.]

[Eatin that Yemeni delight.]

Hashim's and Taxis

I moved into my new apartment a few days ago. We cleaned it up a bit and unpacked. We haven't started our internships officially yet, but have a meeting on Thursday this week with the people at the Ministry where they will explain everything and then get us off to work! I will wear my finest suit! Because we don't have to be in for work for a few more days, we have taken the time to enjoy the food, people, and city! I have been suffering from the effects of jetlag... I don't feel that bad, it's just that I usually wake up around 2 am and can't sleep until 7 or 8 am, when I usually fall back asleep for a little bit before the day gets going. It's really weird and I've tried everything to be able to go back to sleep... reading, listening to music, just laying there, reviewing all the arabic I learned that day, etc. Nothing has worked. So two nights ago it happened again, despite my staying up till like 12 to try and get really tired. I got up at 2:30 am and wanted to exercise really bad. I didn't think it'd be wise to run out on the streets, so I went into the other room and did push-ups, situps, lunges, squats, and every other exercise I could think of until I was totally exhausted. That worked. I was pooped and slept from like 4:30 till 11. Wow that felt good. So then last night I decided to stay up until 2:30, when I usually wake up, in hopes of finally sleeping through the night. It worked! I slept till 9:30 الحمد الله. So right now I'm really trying to not fall asleep and make it to 11 or 12 tonight and hopefully sleep through the night!

[Cleansing the Citchen]

[The Front Porch... and interns. The two guys are my roomies, Mark and Logan l to r.]

Our apartment is wonderful. It took a little bit of cleaning, but it is very beautiful. We have to entry seating areas, one outdoor and one indoor. The indoor seating area has a beautiful table with a elaborate Qur'an in a special wooden case. We have some Qur'anic sayings on the walls and lots of tea cups and rugs. It's quite nice. We are on the first floor right next to a humongous school and a smaller supermarket and restaurant cluster. The girls live a 5-minute walk away. There is a gorgeous mosque 7 minutes away. The minaret lights up green at night. People crowded the mosque last Friday for their main worship and sermon. We can hear the call to prayer from several directions and sometimes we hear sermons that are played through the loudspeakers. It is really cool to see so many religious people unite like they do here. I really love the people I've met! And I want to be Arab in so many ways. They are hospitable and complimentary and charitable to strangers. I love the way they can quickly connect with you and make you feel happy and grateful about what you have in life. I am trying to adopt their good ways. In fact, today we were is the city center and went to this wonderful place called Hashim's for lunch. They serve and specialize in hummus and hummus-like dishes. It's really really good and kinda famous. When we got our table, we were seated next to this table of like 15 senior-aged tourists and I was just like, "Ugh, Americans..." Woah! I actually thought that. So did my roomie. Even though that is us too! It was weird how quickly that happened. But it's kinda true—I just want the original experience biduun all the foreigners... I am glad that I am here for the summer before the internship though. That way I can do fun touristy things and get to know the city so that I can focus on having real Arab experiences and making lasting Arab friends in the Fall. I want to get some close friends, both Christian and Arab, so that I can participate in things like weddings and parties and awesome cultural meals during holidays. That would be marvelous.

[Eating falafel and hummus for lunchies. Notice old Americans in backgroud. Sorry, Jordan, for polluting your beautiful country with our presence! I love you.]

We get around mostly by taxi and serviis. Some of these details might bore an Amman-savvy reader, so feel free to skip this part. You just hail a taxi like any normal city and tell them where you are going, etc. Since I am a guy and I'm usually traveling with some girls, I sit in the front seat next to the driver. Girls don't sit in the front with the driver if it can be avoided. The taxi rides are very fun. I usually make a good friend by the end of the trip. We talk about Jordan, the weather, politics, and his family, usually. I like asking questions. You have to be a little careful about what you ask and how personal you get, but most drivers are pretty open about a lot of things. Last night we met up with some Christian Arabs and hung out at some cool streets and shops for a while. Then we had some great Indian food with the Jordanian twist. After the meal, I needed something sweet. I realized that I hadn't eaten anything sweet since coming to Jordan. So we went to a shop. I ending up eating some crazy versions of Turkish delight. Then I asked one of the guys working there about Jordanian deserts. They had lots of British, French, and German chocolates and candies, but I didn't see any real Jordanian varieties. The guy told me that they don't have lots of those! They like their kunaafa and sweet and baked goods better. This guy talked a little different from most people, but was of course still super friendly. We got to talking and he told me that he was a refugee from Syria that had just arrived with his family. Tough stuff. The issues and conflicts of the Middle East really start to become important to you when you live here. The news stories have an added impact on you and you start to see how each story affects lives...

Oh yeah, taxis. So we hailed a taxi to go home and we tell the guy where we want to go and he says okay, asks a few questions to make sure exactly where we want to go. We start the trip and get to talking. He told us he wasn't able to go to school as a kid because of his money situation, but learned to read and write through other means. On the trip, he should've taken a right at this one road, but took a left instead. We realized that he was trying to take advantage of us because we weren't from Amman, so we called him out on it. He tried to cover and talk out of it, but we just decided to get out and get another taxi. He apologized and gave us 50 cents off the cost because he knew he wasn't being fair. That was a really nice gesture. But sometimes you meet people like that. You're in a big city and you can find all kinds here. He was still a really friendly guy and we enjoyed the conversation. I love Arabs of all kinds.

I also had a nice Arabic blunder yesterday that I won't forget. I was in the front seat again telling the driver where to go even though my two roomies were in the back seat (who are double Arabic majors and are here to do research and finish their degrees). I told him to "liff shamaal" at the next roundabout, which I thought meant "turn left" because that is what I learned it was in Egyptian Arabic. Well, he goes through the roundabout and turns all the way around so that we are going the opposite direction! I was like, "Dude? Uh... I thought you were gonna turn left back there?" He said that I told him to "liff shamaal" so that's what he did. My friends in the back realized what happened and redirected the driver. I guess that in Jordanian "liff" doesn't really mean the same thing! And they don't use shamaal as much, either. So that's why he turned around. Shamaal can also mean north, but in Egypt they use it for left all the time. I think most Jordanians get that we mean left if we say shamaal, but this guy didn't. That's what I gathered from my roomies, but my Arabic isn't that great so I could be wrong about some things. Anywho, I should've used yisaar for right, but now I know better. It was a good lesson that cost me an extra 20 cents in taxi fare, but a lesson that I would pay 20 cents for any day. Experiences like this really cement words and such into your brain.

Lastly, some pics from part of our little excursion today! We went to the Citadel in Amman. It's an old historic point with Roman and ancient Islamic Empire ruins and such. Much fun and beauty!

[Temple of Hercules from way back when]

[The whole gang. Minus 3 other girls who didn't come/haven't arrived yet.]

[Old Islamic building. The dome was rebuilt recently, but the rest is real old.]

On the way home we stopped at this guy's shop. He was making little mosaic things out of little shards of stone and glass. Cool guy.

[This was his little workbench. He went back to write his name and number on a paper so we can stay in touch.]

[Some finished product. Very cool. It says, "Ma shaa' allah. La qawwa illa  allah." = "What God has willed you. There is no power but God."]