Well, this week has absolutely flown by! I mean, every week goes by fast, but this week feels like a blur. It’s funny that I should begin my review of the week with a review of the past weekend, but since I’m updating this blog at the beginning of each new weekend that is just the way it has to be.
So, first, last weekend was amazing. We spent Friday in Amman just touring downtown with Nadia and her sister, Wedad. Of course, food was included in the excursion. We ate some delicious falafel and a chicken wrap that reminded me of a mega-sized McDonald’s snack wrap (infinitely more tasty as well, of course). After gallivanting about the city, we all (Rachel, Wedad, Aaron, Aaron, John, Brandon, and I) piled into Wedad’s small car to go to a church that Rachel attends in Amman. That was an interesting ride, to say the least. With little Aaron (sorry for calling you that Aaron, but I’ve yet to come up with a better way of distinguishing between the two) on top of the other three guy teachers in the back seat, me on Rachel’s lap in the front seat, and Wedad speeding in and out of the traffic, we were quite a sight to behold…I have grown accustomed to being something akin to an American exhibit when we are out in public, but this was quite the display, especially when we all spilled out of the car in the parking garage at Cosmo (the mall we drove to in the same fashion after church).
On Saturday, we went from visiting some beautiful old churches in the city of Madaba to exploring Mt. Nebo where Moses died before the children of Israel crossed over into the promised land to driving down the steepest, windiest decent to reach the Dead Sea. The latter excursion left me feeling quite nauseated and frightened but I made it to the Dead Sea in one piece, and we took a different route home to my great delight. To my dismay, girls are not encouraged to swim in the Dead Sea at the public beaches (unless they swim in their clothes, which I was not too anxious to do), so I resigned to the beach where I took pictures of the guys’ dead sea experience and watched George and Mark play with some trash amidst the abundant collection of trash littered along the shore. On a side note, the amount of trash just thrown about here is quite disturbing. I suppose it’s one of those things where it seems too big of a problem to tackle. However, considering how incredibly clean the Jordanians keep their homes, I cannot understand why they permit such littering in public places. The churches in Madaba were lovely, and while we were in Madaba, I bought a really pretty cross necklace made from olive wood. The view from Mt. Nebo was amazingly beautiful. We could even see the Dead Sea and a very distant Israel from the top of the mountain. I thought it was especially neat that we had just heard a sermon on the life of Moses at a church we visited in Amman with Rachel. The day was full but not to be finished until we ate some delicious shawarma from Rachel’s favorite place in Amman. It was a spectacular day.
The school week went by so quickly. I played bingo with the kids on Tuesday to help them practice recognizing their numbers, and they made paper number chains on Monday. Wednesday and Thursday I graded all four classes’ math books, which was quite a daunting task, but I finished by the end of the day on Thursday thanks to some assistance from the other teachers. I decided to grade one class per day after school in the future. I was both encouraged and disheartened by the math books. Some of the kids are really getting it, but I still have a few that are really struggling. I think the most difficult task is finding a way to reach those who are really struggling without boring to death the ones who have already mastered the concepts. I need lots of wisdom. All in all, it was a terrific week. The only down side to the week is that by Wednesday, I had almost completely lost my voice. It is still slowly returning to me. I am not sure if this is really such a bad thing though. Anyone who knows me, knows that being forced to be quite for a few days could be very good for me, lol.
I ended my Thursday night eating Nori’s delicious lentil soup with the other American teachers, that unbeknownst to us was filled with little black lentil bugs…oh my. Yes, we ate the soup before this realization occurred. However, I am quite sure that after boiling for over an hour, the bugs only gave us a little extra protein and no life threatening disease J I am still in awe that I ate two bowels of soup full of bugs though…not sure I will ever get over that. Black dots in my food will never be treated in the same manner again. I will forever be skeptical of unknown objects in my food.
I will wrap up this post by saying that each day in Jordan is a blessing, and I am very thankful for the time I have been given here. However long that time may be is yet to be seen, but I will keep cherishing the moments I have here and keep you posted.
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