First Rain in a Desert Country -- Lewis

I bet you thought this post would come from Lena. I sure did. She has been hoping and praying for rain since the day we arrived. For the longest time the skies were clear and every day a sunny day. While sunshine is lovely, as weather goes, there is something comforting about the rainfall, especially in the desert. The past summer was strange for the weather in Amman, with a relatively mild August and a rather sweltering, and at times even humid, September. Every other day it seemed that I heard someone complain about the weather not usually being like this. One of our neighbors said that the weather came from India. Some days would cool down a little and I would put on a jacket before heading out the door to work, but usually by nine or ten o'clock my jacket would be hanging on the back of my chair and sweat would again be dripping off my brow. Some of my coworkers claimed that the weather was changing, but then it would change right back and be hotter than it was before. What a strange Fall to be having in the desert. "I miss my Jordanian weather," our friend from upstairs had said on multiple occasions. Crazy stuff. But yesterday morning, early, as we were all busy sleeping in and having our weekly day of rest, the strangest thing began to happen. The clouds were darker than we had seen and they spanned the extent of the city skyline in view of our window. Rain had actually begun to fall in Amman for the first time since we showed up. Lena and I quickly put our shoes on and ran up to the rooftop to enjoy the cool breeze and the scent of fresh rain on the dust of the city. The rainfall was remarkable, although brief and very light. We have been told that the olives on the trees would be ripe when the rains come and today was the second day of rain, although again it was brief and light. The clouds seem to return in the early morning and then slowly drift off by noon.
We're still hoping for more rain to quench the thirst of the local foliage and of the locals. And to reassure ourselves that we will in fact not go without water; a thought that is in the back of the minds of those who dwell in a desert climate.

A hurting heart -- Lena

Emily and I had a heart wrenching day on Wednesday, and it had started out with such promise. It was my first day back at school after a bout with a nasty stomach flu. It was so wonderful to see my co-workers and the students again. I was greeted with smiles, hugs, and rejoicing at my recovery (Jordanians are a demonstrative bunch). Emily and I were told that we would be going with 23 students to get new clothes for the Eid (the celebration at the end of Ramadan). It was wonderful to see how happy the students were, and even the teachers taking them were in good spirits. We took a 30 minute bus ride to a shop downtown. It was a small shop so only a couple of students at a time could go in. Emily, myself, and the bus driver stayed on the bus with the remaining students. They were singing songs, clapping their hands and chatting it up. It was a big party. After we had been there about an hour and a half the energy levels dropped and most of the students were sitting fairly quiet, talking to us and each other. Around this time some small school children started passing by our bus (during Ramadan schools are let out quite early). Initially they would just look on in curiosity at our bus, but then the curiosity changed.
It brings tears to my eyes thinking of it even now. These small kids, ranging from 5 to 15 were staring, teasing, taunting, and ridiculing our students as they sat on the bus, or when they walked between the bus and the store. I would chase them off, and they would be replaced by more kids doing the same thing. Although our students are mentally handicapped, they understood what was going on. Seeing the hurt in their eyes made it all the worse. I wanted to take each and every one of those kids and introduce them to the human beings that they were treating so cruelly, to show them that my students, my friends are people; wonderful, kind, and loving people. People that, sadly, live in a culture that hasn't yet learned to treat them with the respect that they deserve. We long for the day that this reality will be no more. Honestly we long for the day when they will be healed of their infirmities, but until that day comes, we have schools like the Bunyat that are striving to make this world a better place. They give skills and dignity to the students that they teach and bring understanding to the culture around them. I'm proud, for the short time I will be here, to be a part of something so wonderful.

Special Iftar Event at the YMWA - Emily

Last Thursday marked the event that students and teachers look forward to all year at the YMWA. The student Iftar! After school, the students in the vocational section headed to the gym area to enjoy the special evening of games and fun. Students from weaving, ceramics, agriculture and wood-working joined together, with some graduated students from previous years, to enjoy an afternoon of activities. It all began with the students gathering together in the gym area, and teachers preparing for the event. Before we knew it, there was music and dancing, clapping and smiles. They watched a video from the year before, and pictures from the Youth Corps camp they had this past summer. Next came relay races and the football toss. Soon after things were underway, Tine, Lewis and Zach arrived to find themselves thrown into an intense relay race. Determined to get the gold, Tine came to a diving halt at the end of the race. (She's still recovering from her hand injury!) After the games, Lena challenged her arm-wrestling buddy Nasar to a match. Next thing we knew, it had grown to an arm-wresting tournament, with pairs of wrestlers spread across the room! From the smiles on their faces, we could tell the students were having a blast! It made our hearts glad to see them all having fun and enjoying themselves! After the activites, we piled into the buses and headed to a special place to eat the iftar meal. When our stomachs were full, we settled back onto the bus and headed home. We were sad to see the event come to an end, but were so happy to see the students have such a great time!

Our popcorn experiment...Tine

Research Question: Can the microwaves transmitted from 3 cell phones pop a few kernels of popcorn? Hypothesis: Yes. Method: (1)Place 3 cellphones around a few kernels of popcorn. (2) Call the cellphones (skype is a good way to do this). (3) Wait for the cellphones to ring out. (4)Observe whether the kernels are popping/have popped.(5) Throw away your microwave. Results: The Kernels did not pop. Conclusion: No, the microwaves transmitted from 3 cellphones cannot pop a few kernels of popcorn. Evaluation: A dumb experiment overall. UPDATE: Lewis later informed us that the whole thing was a hoax (which despite our limited scientifc knowledge, we should have figured out). It was still entertaining though...

My Assignment...Tine

I am deployed to the Regional Human Security Centre (RHSC) at the Royal Scientific Society in Amman. The RHSC is a research institute that engages with the emerging paradigm of “human security” in the Middle Eastern region. I wear many hats but if I were to distill it, I’d say my role is essentially 3 pronged; I am a research fellow, a trainer and a supervisor. As a fellow, I lead a research cluster and I am responsible for the dry but obligatory minutiae of research work (literature surveys, agenda building etc) I also have publishing and conference commitments. As a trainer, my role is more dynamic. I will co-teach a training course aimed at introducing Jordanian government officials to the concept of human security. I am also in the process of designing a course-“the philosophical underpinnings of human security”, which I plan to teach as an elective at the University of Jordan next semester. As a supervisor, I have 2 research assistants and oversee the center’s interns, assigning and evaluating their tasks. This triple combo works well for me because the research component gives an outlet to my nerdy and technical side, while the training and supervising aspects feed the more sociable part of me that loves working with people. Life at the centre is not as precise as my description may lead you to believe. Some days things can be rather sporadic; I may be called away to an unanticipated meeting or have to host an unexpected “guest” ( a little intrigue for your enjoyment dear reader…) I also find myself doing things that do not fall within (um how shall I say this?)…my precise purview of expertise (like looking at budgets…and trying to interpret those annoying little symbols). However because the centre needs to run on the backs of a relatively small team, I have quickly had to become au fait with a plethora of tasks.

Even though my assignment is somewhat atypical,the point is not so much what we do but how we do it. Do we serve with character and industry? Are we setting a superior example in how we handle conflict and disagreements? Are our lights extinguished under stress and duress? Are we really invested in what we are doing, or are these just day jobs? Do we treat people with outgoing concern, using the way we would like to be treated as the appropriate benchmark? I find it revealing that whenever I am unsure about how to handle a challenging individual, mentally substituting that person with myself almost always yields clarity(…“Self’ is never unsure about how it wants to be handled).

Knowing the standard does not mean we always meet it. I know I certainly fall short in a myriad of ways. This does not mean we quit striving for the gold. Being here is a big enough responsibility, but when you compound that with all the responsibilities we have on the job, it can get a bit overwhelming at times. In many ways, this is a 10 month leadership training course; we serve to today to lead tomorrow.

Keeping The 7th Day

Being across the seas and away from our congregations, our church families as well as our family families, we can't meet our brethren for church each week. It gets a little lonely sometimes. We are used to singing with a whole chorale of voices and seeing and hearing the speaker in real time. It's nice to be able to call up a minister for an anointing and have him come into your home, oil in hand, to pray over your ailments. It's also nice to have a live pianist to play the hymns. We have none of these things here in the Hashemite Kingdom. But what we do have is internet access. The internet is our gateway to letters to and from our loved ones, online sermons, and phone calls to far off lands. Where would we be without the internet? In Islamic countries the weekly holiday is on Friday. This makes for a different weekend than we are used to. It's like having Sunday first and then Saturday for us. The Sabbath always feels a little different because we already had a day to rest the day before. But still we try to make it special. The five of us gather together for special meals and always make extra desserts. In the morning we read our emails from friends and family and our weekly Sabbath note and choose a sermon from the internet to listen to. Sometimes we sing the hymns from the recordings if there are any. On other weeks we sing hymns of our own choice. Sometimes Zach and I practice leading songs even though there is no pianist to lead. It makes good practice for the coming Feast of Tabernacles. Sometime in the near future we are going to practice our sermonettes we are working on for the Feast. We have our opening prayer and then begin the sermonette and sermon. Mostly we listen to messages from the home office, but there are plenty of options. One Sabbath we listened to a recording from my old stomping grounds, the Great Northwest. It is different having such a small congregation that meets together, but it helps us grow closer as both friends and family. I know I speak for the others when I say that I miss actually going to church every week and seeing all of the friendly faces that greet me. I miss the handshakes and the congregation in voice. I miss serving, passing out hymnals, the children running about, and everything else that happens at church services. God has called us to congregate weekly so we can be together and so we can learn from each other. For us in Jordan, being such a small and isolated congregation, the Feast of Tabernacles will mean a whole lot more than it would have just a month before. Lewis

Rise and Shine!

A new page has been turned in the book of Emily. As long as I can remember, sleeping in has been an important part of my day. Getting up early is not a skill I have ever learned before. But coming to Jordan has brought many new experiences for me. Who would think that seeing the sunrise would be such an exciting experience? This morning at 5:30 I awoke to the sound of our alarm. I wasn't sure what to do... should I get up? Or go back to sleep? So I got up and poured myself a drink of water to wake myself up a bit. Then it happened. I saw something from the window. My eyes were drawn to something orange and pink covering the horizon. It was the sunrise! I've seen a million sunsets, but this was different. Intead of everything getting darker as the sun goes down, everything started getting brighter as the sun came up!Maybe the beautiful sunrise is just what I need to want to get out of bed so early in the morning!

Lessons from an Event -- Lena

As those of you who have been following the blog may know, it is currently Ramadan. There are some interesting customs during Ramadan. The most obvious is the fasting; it lasts from sun up to sunset, which means most people are up for the 4:30 call to prayer, and immediately start cooking a giant feast for the breakfast, usually followed by a half day of school or work (its much too tiring to stay at work that whole time -- that, and many people in Jordan smoke, and if you've ever been around a smoker that can't smoke, you can understand the crankiness). And then an iftar at sunset, which is another giant feast. We've had the opportunity to attend an iftar, and we thoroughly enjoyed all of the food. This past week the YMWA (where Emily and I work), was sponsoring an event at the Four Seasons hotel. It was a fundraiser/promotional/thank you event for many of the donors at the school, without which the school couldn't survive. Since this event took place during Ramadan, it had to take place after the iftar, the iftar is approximately 7:05ish, and the event began at 9pm, and didn't end until well after midnight. It was a wonderful event, full of good food, excellent apricot juice, beautiful Arabic music, and good company (and all for a good cause!!!). Besides the wonderful memories created that night, I also learned some valuable lessons:
1. Patience, not everything happens at the exact time you expect it to.
2. Pace yourself (you never know whats coming next)
3. Sit back and enjoy the show (you'll appreciate it a lot more that way)
and MOST IMPORTANTLY
4. NAP!

Aaah nuptials...Tine

The Jordan crew convened at my apartment to honor the day the VanAusdles were united in holy matrimony. It was a spectacular affair--soft background music, dimmed lights, shimmering “appled candles”--thanks to Zach’s last minute innovation--“Hey Tine, what if we drill the top of these 2 apples and stick candles in them?” (Dear Reader, although the apples were meant for my work lunch the next day, I did not have the heart to stifle Zach’s ingenuity, and so marked the demise of the apple as victuals, and the rebirth of the apple as ornament)




Per the menu, I made a creamy (instead of tangy) lamb mensaf ("a la Tine") and a mango cocktail. For desert, Zach and Em made a fantabulous peanut delight. At first the happy (and ravenous) couple were overwhelmed, in the end they were just stuffed (and lay immobile on my couch for half an hour...he he)

Lewis and Lena (my “Double L”) you are one year old now. Mabrrok!! Thank you for being the mom and pop of our new family.

My past life...Tine

In my last blog I wrote about “past lives”, and thought I would share a snippet of my past life with you, dear reader.

I made a quiet debut on the 4th of April 1983 at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia (home to the Victoria Falls--one of the 7 natural wonders of the world). My legal name is “Tinenenji”, directly translated to mean “what can/shall we say?”(My folks were either exhilarated or resigned--I prefer to think it was the former) The only girl in a family of 4 boys, I was the butt of many jokes, the victim of some not so funny pranks, a tree climber, a soccer dribbler, and a pillow fighter. On the up side, I had my own room, never had to change a light bulb, and had a personal team of exterminators at my service day or night. Looking back now, I see that my life growing up was one of deep contrasts; I lived in a racially and culturally homogenous country, but attended a school with kids from over 50 different countries; I lived in a high density neighborhood where the prevalent after school activity was itinerant street roaming, but coming from a strict and conservative family, I was always indoors reading or doing chores; I lived in a modern home in a fairly urbanized city, but frequently made trips to see my grandmother in Petauke, a village that is the quintessential depiction of rural African life; I lived in a country where girls were routinely passed over for education in favor of boys, and yet I was encouraged to pursue education in all its various forms and consequently cultivated a penchant for learning and scholarship.

I attended the International School of Lusaka by day. By night however, my father was my true educator, making me substantiate my opinions and listen to the evening news. He schooled me in doctrine, and solicited my childish “advice” on a myriad of issues. My favorite childhood activity was our nightly ritual, a write up of the “news of my day” which my father vetted for clarity and analytical rigor. I realize now that my life would have read very differently had it not been for my father’s guidance and influence, and so my life is a tribute to the man I call Daddy. After obtaining my Baccalaureate Diploma, the “executive” decision that I should leave Zambia to attend the University of Cape Town in South Africa, was made. I cried at the airport. That day signaled the end of an era and I knew it. Initially drawn to a career in journalism but dissuaded of this on several fronts, I turned to a more traditional and black letter career, law, which I studied first at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, and then at Cornell Law School in New York.

…and then I enlisted with UYC Jordan, and the 3 weeks I have been here have been eventful to say the least! In my next blog I will begin to speak specifically about this. Till then dear reader, so long.

All things work together...

September 2- I just had to stop today and write this down. We are so blessed to be here. I was sitting at my desk planning my 3rd grade lesson for tomorrow. I was feeling kind of stressed from the lesson I had this morning. I had 35 minutes with 2nd graders—not too bad, but we have to walk down to the gym and back up to class within that time too. It took the kids 15 minutes to walk down the giant hill the school sits on, and 10 more to walk up, so my lesson was only 10 minutes long. In that 10 minutes I also have to take registration and line the kids back up at the end and individually assess them on effort and cooperation for the day. So basically I had about 7 minutes for my lesson today. Anyway, I was thinking about this and trying to plan my other lessons—doing all of these day to day things that a teacher has to do that can be quite stressful and then it hit me. The thought just popped in my head, “You are so lucky to be here.” Even with all of the challenges and occasional frustrations of living in a new country, not understanding the native language, trying to fall into place at a new job, and the array of other things going on, I feel really lucky—really blessed to be here. Challenges are good. Hard times make you stronger. The fact that I’m here at all is more than I deserve. If the next ten months are filled with hard days and frustrations, I won’t regret coming to Jordan . I’ve already learned so much, and I’m looking forward to what the rest of our time here has to offer. We will have many fun and amazing experiences here in Jordan; I have no doubt about that. It might not all be fun and laughter, but it will all be for a purpose. "All things work together for good." -Zach

Anniversaries and such

So tomorrow is mine and Lews 1 year anniversary. We had our dinner tonight, since tomorrow evening will be spent with our fellow Jordan '08 crew. It's been a tremendous year, with this year shaping up to be pretty impressive as well. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful "partner in crime". God has richly blessed us.
We've pretty much settled into a routine, waking at 5, getting ready and going to work. In some ways our lives are much the same as they were back home. The day to day is still the day to day. We have dishes to do, floors to sweep, and groceries to buy. In our marriage I've found the adventures come from doing it together, and making time for the extraordinary; whether we be in the states, and take a hike or a road trip, or we be in Jordan, and try and make our way across the city to buy groceries, or visiting ancient ruins in the still of a cool evening. I wouldn't trade this past year for anything, and I look forward to as many more as God will allow us. Us on our wedding day, and us a year later.

Ants and Dates and Ant Updates

The food in Jordan is really good, in my opinion. There are all kinds of new foods for all of us. We are even venturing out and making some new foods. The other day I tried to make some hommos (hummus is the same thing) from scratch. The recipe calls for a blender, some garbanzo beans, olive oil, tahini sauce, garlic, and a few other items. I had all the ingredients except a blender. The blender is very key in all of this because smooth hommos is good hommos. So I made some nice chunky hommos. It tastes okay, I guess. Sometimes we try some new foods from the grocery store like fresh dates which are quite different from dry dates. I like them both. The fresh fruits are amazing and I love seeing olive trees and fig trees everywhere. The olives aren't quite ready yet and I don't think they taste very good straight off the tree. Someday I would like to press some olives and make some olive oil. If only I had a press. The ants have been tasting a lot of our food after we've had a chance with it. They like to clean our dirty plates and pick up the crumbs off the floor, or at least they DID! Tine and I went on a wild goose chase for a container of white powder that would supposedly make the ants never want to come back. Along the way we saw every shop but the one we were looking for. But then, there it was, a little shop on the side of the road selling all kinds of plants. The man in charge had exactly the powder we were looking for. I powdered the kitchen and the ants ate that too, and haven't come back. I know it's only been a day, but I am hopeful. And home feels a bit more like home now that there are no pests to watch out for. Finally we can enjoy our food in peace.


Lewis

ANTS!!!!

So Lewis and I have had for the past week or so an annoying problem. One morning we woke up to ANTS on our counter, so we killed them. We went to work, and that evening, ants again, and of course the next morning, MORE ANTS! We kill them with various methods, poison, boiling water (my personal favorite), and as Lewis said, "I'd kill 'em with my shoe, but it doesn't work, there are gaps in my shoe, but there are no gaps in my fist), as he proceeded to smash them with his fist. We took the baseboard off to try and find the source...to no avail. Once the hardware store re-opens we will find some actual ant poison. I'll give them one thing, they are a tenacious species. Enjoy the pictures of the few that have survived our ant massacre.

Big Hearts - Emily

As Lena mentioned earlier, I am volunteering at the YMWA for special education. Our first day we got a tour of the facilities, and met some of the teachers. The students arrived the next day, so we got to jump right into helping out at the school. A bit overwhelmed, I tried to take in the experience as a new person in an unfamiliar place. Even though I know just a few words of Arabic, the students were not shy about trying to talk to me. One student in particular caught my attention right away. She's a tiny girl, but she has the biggest eyes and the brightest smile. It didn't matter that we spoke completely different languages, she was so excited to share whatever she was doing with me. Everytime I think about her, I smile. For such a small girl, she has the biggest heart. She isn't able to do many of the things other kids her age can do, but that doesn't stop her from giving it her all. If she is struggling with something, she doesn't give up, she just keeps trying until she gets it right. Coming to a new country with only a few familiar faces has been quite challenging. But seeing such friendliness from people that I can barely communicate with has definitely made things easier. When I see the students succeeding in activities that seem very challenging, it reminds me that we all have challenges we face everyday. Sometimes they seem too overwhelming for me to handle, but with a positive attitude and the help from God's Spirit, we can overcome any obstacle that comes our way!

Lewis in Amman

Since we've been in the country we haven't traveled too far and seen a whole lot just yet, but we did make it downtown with the help of one of the friendly neighborhood bus drivers along as our tour guide. Kamal showed us every single famous spot that he could remember including the sweets shop, the juice stand, the first market downtown, the oldest townhouse in Amman, a very old mosque, and some ancient Roman ruins.

There is some excellent shopping downtown. Shops selling spices, fresh fruits, meats, you name it and you can probably buy it. We had thought we were going to spend perhaps an hour or so down there just seeing some sights. We ended up staying for quite some time, even on into the night. Our guide got us into the area of the citadel up on the hill at night after hours so we got a chance to look around at some neat ruins under spot light. One of my favorite sights was peering out over the city at night from on top of the hill. The city was alive and lit up. Cars were moving and people were out and about, talking, yelling, honking their horns. Another of my favorites were the ruins. People had constructed these fountains and amphitheaters and archways and some of them were still standing and we were walking around among them. We walked in ancient foot steps. I felt like I was walking through history for at least a few moments.

Tine on past lives...

Speaking of poems, it was Paul Valerie that said “A poem is never finished…only abandoned”. I think the same can be said about a past life. It is never finished, only abandoned in pursuit of some other alternative, hopefully something better. I had a past life before Jordan, we all did. That life was abandoned for Jordan. Whether that was a better alternative will be determined by the sum total of several discrete choices we will have to make during our tenure. I was hoping to say a little more, but it is getting late and a chaotic life (and mind) must be organized in preparation for a new day…and a new opportunity.

Marhaba! That means hi...

It's hard to believe that we have been here for almost two weeks, but it's also kind of creepy that it feels so homey already. Emily, Lena and Tine have a week and a half of school/work under their belts already, and Lewis and I had our first day of school with the students today. Oh what a crazy day it was. I was late for the first day of school because the bus forgot to pick me up. It was nice to meet all of the students though. They definitely had a summer's worth of energy built up and waiting to explode, but I met a lot of nice students. We haven't had the chance to travel much yet, but our neighborhoods are starting to look more familiar at least. The first few days we had no idea where to go. Taxi and bus drivers would ask us where to go and we would stare at them blankly and finally have to say, "I don't know where I live." That definitely takes some getting used too. Another big change is the Sunday to Thursday work week. It has its benefits, but it is really weird when you've had Sundays off all of your life. We are slowly learning some Arabic...slowly. I feel like we are going to learn so much in these next ten months. We've already had a lot of unique experiences that have caused us to really stop and think about things that actually matter. When you are in an unfamiliar place where you don't no anyone it really forces you to rely on the only Help that you can truly count on. Ahh...life in a foreign country. What will it bring next? Zach (with an H)

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.