Welcome blog -- Lena

Welcome to the official blog of the UYC Jordan crew. Our names are Lewis VanAusdle, Lena VanAusdle, Zack Smith, Emily Smith, and Tine Banda. We arrived in our new home almost 2 weeks ago now. It really does feel like home, despite only having been here for 12 days. This is Lena, and I am a volunteer at the YMWA school for special education. I have spent the last two weeks visiting all the different areas of the school to figure out which group I would like to be in. Emily works at the same school, but I'll allow her to post her impressions. Its been challenging, but it helps to have good friends to remind us of the big picture, and the fact that we have amazing support from UCG helps as well. Being so far from other brethren can feel a little isolated, but having the support and encouragement from our friends and family (including our church family) makes a huge difference. We have done a little exploring of our new country, but we know there is much more ahead. We have made the trek to downtown Amman, which is a treat if you like shopping, fruits and vegetables, sweets, or people watching, or history (the ruins are spectacular). Lewis and I have met some locals, and made some wonderful friends already. They call us their son and daughter, and they've taken us to places a little off the beaten track (Palestinian refugee camp, anyone?). We've just started to get into a routine, 1.5 hours on the bus to school, 5 hours at school, 1.5 hours on the bus home...but Ramadan starts next week, so our schedule will change a bit...we will only be at the school for 4 hours, they have early release since everyone will be fasting (no food, water, cigarettes, etc... from sunrise to sunset) during that time. It will be interesting to see how this goes, plus Sanna (my Jordanian mother) is going to teach me how to make Ramadan treats, including kanafeh...if someone ever offers you this, take it...its amazing. We welcome you to leave us comments, either just to say hello, to give us your impressions, or anything else...we'd love to hear from you. Below you will find a picture of Kanafeh, Mine and Lewis's apartment, and some of the ruins in downtown Amman.