week in the village...

so this week my sister had a pc conference in amman so instead of leaving me with friends or taking me to Amman, she dropped me off in a rural village with another pcvolunteer (and we were the only ones who spoke english in the whole village...)

Most people were really really friendly in the village, and they like to try their few English words they know. But the "shebab" (boys) were not too hospitable... they followed us one day for about 10 minutes. Another day they threw rocks at us... yeah that was fun. The other volunteer works at a special education center, where all the children were really sweet. They varied from 6-14 and they had ALL sorts of disabiities (mostly cognitive, a few physical). I really enjoyed working with the children and formed bonds with many of them, but I was surprised that the teachers sit around and drink tea, while 20-something children run around unsupervised. Granted, it's great that the kids have a sense of family, but every child needs attention, and I noticed that their parents are apt to spend more attention to their "normal" children, so I was a little disturbed by the behavior of the teachers.

Met one villager who didn't know any English until he met a PC volunteer in another village, and now I can have decent conversations with him. But the real thing that impressed me is that he is the ONLY Jordanian I have met with enough initiative to plan unselfish projects. He is currently working on making a soccer field for his school, and he's trying to get the volunteer I was staying with, to work with another woman to get a different project done. It doesn't really make sense written down, but the fact is: there's Peace Corps money just sitting in Amman waiting to be used for special projects and this guy is coming up with awesome ways to use it for the community. It's people like that who should be the political leaders of Jordan, not just a gym teacher.

Made some friends at the University, I guess, because I went to a Graham Oasis type place yesterday and ran into two people I knew, one of whom we just finished having lunch with. I told Katie, how can you be bored with so many friendly people all of the time, but she said that they wait for her to plan their social lives. The fact that I am visiting is kind of a break from their social monotony, and they feel like it's their opportunity to show me the "real Jordan."

Also, last Sunday, one of my sister's Palestinian friends invited us over for dinner (which was incredibly delicious) and we watched satillite (!) tv with her. This girl is so good at English but mostly because she watches so much American tv. We had to break the fact that many American actors are Jewish, which she was a little disappointed about, but she says that will not change what she watches. We also sang the Adam Sandler Hannukah song, lol.

The Arab interpretation of American TV and music is very interesting. They have shows like Buffy, Charmed, etc, but they also LOVE Dr. Phil and Oprah! Music-wise they do play a lot of top forty hits, but they are SOOO obsessed with olderbands like Whitesnake and Bryan Adams (i gotta say i do love myself a little bit of "summer of '69"). They also still haven't gotten over the boy band craze, as they love Backstreet Boys and O-Town (HUH?).

Going on a special trip this week, will write more when I get back.