What the world needs now....--Lena

I'm sure that I've said this before, but if I haven't, here it is: I am so thankful to be here in Jordan, and to be working with the students that I work with. This week we conducted a camp at our school. 9 of our students, and about 30 students from other centers came to participate in the El Hassan Youth Award. This is a program began by Prince Hassan (one of our kindly patrons here in Jordan) 25 years ago, to help promote service (they are required to do some kind of volunteering) and self sufficiency in the youth of Jordan, this self-sufficiency usually includes some physically taxing event. They call them expeditions. The locations for these events vary, sometimes the factors are economical (some of the rich kids go to Africa for their expeditions), social (some of the girls that participate do so close to home because their parents don't like the idea of their daughters out in the world without them), and physical (our special needs students aren't capable of doing the rigorous military training "boot camp" style exercises). Therefore our camp took place at our center and consisted of 2 days of activities. The first day the students walked 18K (or 11.18 miles). I won't lie, I was dreading this activity, I'm a bit of shlub and the idea of shlepping 11 miles in a day didn't appeal to me, but it wasn't so bad. We stopped for several rest breaks, lunch, an ice cream break, and a bathroom break (but only for me, how I was the only one that needed a bathroom break I will never know). That night the students slept REALLY well. The next day we were supposed to walk another 6K (3.78 miles), but some of the students were very tired so we only did about 3K. The very proud students claimed their t-shirts and their certificate that proclaims them bronze medal El Hassan Youth Award participants, it was a great day.
Now to the best part. We had 2 students that, quite frankly, I doubted would be able to accomplish the 18K. Their names are Nasser and Ghassan. They are 2 of my favorite students. I love them both very much. These two young men are a bit on the "portly" side, and I just didn't see it. They had a van that followed us in case it became too much for any of the students. Nasser made a valiant attempt, but having not stretched before we left he had a leg cramp as we started the climb up the first hill. He was also very winded, so we put him on a bus and back to the center he went. Ghassan on the other hand just plodded his way through. He took a brief stint in the van, but he refused to give up. He was about to, but we were only a block from our final destination, so we wouldn't let him.
The next day as we began our trek I decided to walk with Nasser. He was very energetic and optimistic about the day, he was going to do it. We were bringing up the rear, and one of my fellow teachers and friends said, "come on Lena, walk with us, hurry up." I said no, I would walk with Nasser. You see, I was pretty useless at this camp. The amount of Arabic that I know is a travesty. My pronunciation of the little Arabic I do know is pure butchery of a rather beautiful language. I could only have superficial conversations with the students. I couldn't tell anyone where to go or what to do. I was completely divorced from the planning process. I felt like an ornament. As I often do at my center, I wondered..."what am I doing here? I'm useless here!" That morning as I slowly walked up that hill with Nasser, and then with Ghassan when Nasser became too winded and went back in the van, I can give them love. Sadly love isn't something that is practiced much in the world today. You hear, I that this person, I hate that person, I hate this place, I hate this food, hate hate hate, it fills the air like smog on a hot windless day in Mexico City. While I'm sure that many of the teachers from the other centers who participated thought I was pretty useless and probably wondered why I was there, at least Nasser and Ghassan knew why I was there. I'm not always as loving as I should be, but hopefully people will remember the times that I do get it right, and won't hold those other times against me.










Ghassan and I after the award ceremony.








Nasser after receiving his certificate.

Their Ideal World --- Lewis

A bit of time to focus on the negative light of things:

I have teenage boys with raging hormones who enjoy seeing me cringe and get angry when they say something profane. I have a class full of preteens who can't listen quietly for more than five seconds at a time. There is another class I have full of teenagers who can't seem to stay inside the classroom for the whole 20 minutes of class first thing in the morning; in particular I have one boy who is constantly thirsty and enjoys grabbing my tie and trying to get away with slapping me on the back; he also likes asking how my mother is doing for kicks. Another student in the class, a girl, always has to use the bathroom (usually twice) and half the time doesn't return to class and still asks why I don't let her go. I have students who don't take me seriously in all the grades I teach. They think I'm a joke and that it's not important if I tell them to do something. I also have a preteen girl in one of my classes who probably thinks that it is my daily task to make her life a little bit harder by giving her homework when I'm not supposed to and by trying to get her to do her work and enjoy class. The others in the class (who can't sit still for five seconds) don't always get all the information I try to convey to them and don't understand why I can't answer their immediate questions when there are 15 other kids calling out my name and shouting to each other all at exactly the same moment. On top of all that, I'm trying to follow the correct curriculum, documentation, rules, and general "way of doing things" in a school that I was recently very unfamiliar with.

Needless to say, at times I am overwhelmed with little things. What makes it a touch worse is the fact that I have probably the worst short/long term memory of anyone that I know, although I can't say for sure as I probably have forgotten about any others worse than myself.

And now for the good stuff:

One day, at the very beginning (this is during the class with the teens who can't stay in the classroom for more than 20 minutes)there was an activity for them to do. The morning activities before the start of the actual school day are supposed to help get the creative juices flowing so the students have a better chance of retaining all that new information the teachers are trying to stuff into their heads. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This particular activity was a decent one. The students were presented with the questions, "What would the perfect world be like?" They were to make a list of all the things that they thought should be in the ideal world, first as individuals, later on in small groups, and eventually as a whole class. Most of the students wrote downs things like peace, a clean environment, equality, love, prosperity, etc. There wasn't too much argument on what would make an ideal world. We had some discussion about what each of these items on their list actually meant, including the fact that there is a need for rules and laws in order for there to be a perfect world.



One of the students, most likely trying to get a chuckle out of his friends at first (and perhaps to be on the good side of his teacher), said that in his perfect world everyone would be like Mr. Lewis (that's what my students call me). I was slightly sceptical, but nonetheless flattered as the other students quickly jumped on the "Mr. Lewis" bandwagon.

It's easy to say that these, generally upper class kids who could care less about the rest of the world, don't really appreciate what others do for them. It's easy to say that they don't hear the words that I say to them when I am explaining something important. It's easy to say that they think I'm a joke and don't give me the respect that I deserve as a teacher. But every once in a while there is a little spark of hope and appreciation out there. Sometimes there is a "Thank you Mr. Lewis" or a polite listening student, attentive and hanging on every word that comes out of my mouth. It doesn't happen every day, but it makes me think that I might be doing something right. Perhaps something will rub off on a few here and there.

As I heard these words of appreciation coming from my classroom, I had to pause and remember the reasons that I came to Jordan to teach. I didn't come here to teach Design Technology. I didn't come here to help a few students with their homework. I came to portray a positive attitude. I came to show others that there are caring people out there who want to do a good job and who want to encourage others to reach their potential. I came here to, hopefully, promote a world that is better than the one we live in, in which there will be peace, prosperity, a clean environment, and most importantly, love! I may not be shouting from the rooftops, but hopefully I am saying something by what I do. A student of mine just the other day ask me if I was some kind of missionary (knowing that I am a part of a church group). I told him that I'm not. I'm just here to try to do some good.