The Jordanian Border حدد الأردني

For my final project I made a video on the local Arabic dialect in Jordan which you can view below. 

I asked the staff at SIT if they knew any important political figures in Jordan that I could interview, to learn more about Jordan and to practice my Arabic. A few days later, Deema, who is in charge of human resources at SIT, set up an interview for me with Dr. Jawad Al Anani. Below is a short Biography of Dr. Anani and the questions that I asked him. I will be uploading a video of our interview with English subtitles when I return to the U.S.

1.      What are your thoughts on the current issue of water in Jordan combined with the increasing amount of refugees moving to Jordan?

ما رأيك بقضية الماء الحالية في الأردن مع الاخذ بعين الاعتبار تدفق اللاجئين إليها؟

2.      

3.      Do you believe that the citizens living in the Badia and the Cities receive equal treatment? Why?

هل تعتقد بأن المواطنين الذين يعيشون في البادية والمُدُن يعاملون بمساواة في الأردن؟

4.      What are your thoughts on the New Al-Abdalli projects from the Saudi & Qatarian Investors? Will they be give jobs to Jordanians?

ما رأيك بالمشاريع الجديدة في العبدلي بتمويل من المستثمرين السعوديين والقطريين؟

في توفير فرص عمل للأردنيين؟

5.      

6.      I am currently reading the book Cities of Salt. Have you read it? If so what are your thoughts?

حالياً أنا أقرأ كتاب "مُدُن الملح"

هل قرأته؟

7.      Are you happy that Jordan does not depend on oil like many other Arab countries?

هل تشعر بالرضا لأن الأردن لا يملك النفط مثل كثير من الدول العربية الأخرى؟

Fun Questions

1.      What is the best advice you have for people visiting Jordan?

  ما أفضلُ نصيحة تقدمها لزوار الأُردن من حيث:

a.       Places to go?

أماكن للزيارة؟

b.      People to meet?

أشخاص يقابلونهم؟

c.       The best restaurants to go to?

أفضل طعام؟

d.      How can they plug into the culture?

كيف يمكنهم الاندماج مع الثقافة؟

  

Here is a link to learn more about Dr. Al Anani http://www.senate.jo/node/358

My friend Basheer, the program Director's brother, who came to visit for a couple weeks this summer. 

He is an Engineer form Sudan and loves photography. I really enjoyed getting to know him during the short time he was here. 

My friend Muna, who spends a couple hours a day, a couple days a week helping me learn to vocabulary. 

This is a small church I went to last week. It was really interesting singing hymns in Arabic that are older than a lot of the songs in American churches today. 

A tattoo that one of my classmates got last week

This is my friend Mohammad on the left and his brother on the right from Egypt 

Mohammad is a handyman at SIT. 

After working here for a year, Mohammad hadn't learned very much English. Last week, I spent about 20 minutes a day, teaching him English, which helped me practice Arabic. This is a picture of an Iftar we had together, which is the meal you eat after a day of fasting during Ramadan. 

My friend Joseph and I took a two and a half hour bus ride to Umm Qyas, a city in North Eastern Jordan. It is known for it's roman ruins, and a black amphitheater made out of volcanic rock. Shortly after we arrived, we realized that we were only five kilometers away from Syria and the area of Palestine, as well as  Lake Tiberius بحيرة الطبرية/ the Sea of Galilee. 

In this video to the right is Syria

The left is the area of Palestine

The purple and red dots are Umm Qyas

There was no one at the Museum in Umm Qyas because it was Friday and during Ramadan, which seemed odd at first, but we ended up meeting some other tourists at a Cafe built into one of the old ruins. 

Here is the sunset on the way back from Umm Qyas to Amman.

It only took 2 JD's to get to Umm Qyas, but since it was Friday all the buses stopped at 4 pm. We didn't leave until 6 pm, so we had to pay 15 JD for someone to drive us back to Amman. The drive back took half the time because our drive was going over 100 mph most of the way. It was pretty fun!

Our driver, حسان Hassan

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks again to everyone who supported me coming here.

If Speaking is Silver then Silence is Gold اذا كان الكلام من فضى فالسكوت من ذهب

This past week I had the pleasure of staying with a Bedouin family in the Middle Badia about an hour outside of Jordan's capital, Amman for 4 days. Before leaving, I was expecting to live in a pretty primitive house out in the middle of the desert, but it was more like small olive tree farm town in the country . 

The word Badia and Bedoiun comes from Abda which means to start. The people who live here are called Bedouin because they live more like the original Arab people than people in cities. 

While I was there I heard the phrase    اذا كان الكلام من فضى فالسكوت من ذهب a lot, which means "If Speaking is Silver then Silence is Gold". Upon my return from the Badia, I decided to break my old commitment of making sure to speak 2 hours of Arabic a day while around my English speaking classmates with a new commitment to speak Arabic %100 of the time. 

My class went to the Dead Sea after school the first day back from the Badia, and I didn't speak any English until the ride back. It not only helped me practice Arabic more, but it felt good to not always speak when I had something to say. If you have spent a little bit of time with me, you probably know  that I love talking and I often speak the majority the conversation, but this forced me to listen more. I can truly say that I enjoyed my conversations more and want to continue listen more now and in the future.

As usual, I have pictures and brief commentary's below. Thank you all for helping me get here.

 Enjoy! 

Some camels that my Badia host brother's cousin owned.

The Alpha Camel

Floating in the Dead Sea near Sunset

Our first meal at in the Badia. 

All of our meals were on the floor with tea, usually followed by a 3 hour nap. 

Breakfast and dinner are usually small meals, while lunch is the  main meal of the day.

One of the female camels

My favorite meal in the Badia, next to Mansef which is the traditional Jordanian dish.

Some kids that lived next door to my Badia host family

Some camels eating dinner in our back yard

Some coffee before sunrise on the second day of Rammadon.

An old church we visited in the city of Madaba on our way to the Dead Sea

A 20 foot pillar at Mount Nebo which is one of the tallest mountains in Jordan. 

I was able to sea, Amman and the Dead Sea from here.

We had class on one of the balconies because the air-conditioning wasn't working for a couple days. 

I was hoping they wouldn't fix it so we could keep having class outside haha.

Thanks again for reading my Blog!

The Ancient Agricultural Town of Al Salt السالط

This past week has passed very quickly. I have been spending a lot of my time with my host family after school. I have two brothers; one is 15 and one is 13. When they're not helping me memorize new vocabulary words or checking the spelling on my homework, I go with them to the Sook سوق (market) to buy food or help them prepare for dinner. Almost every other night my host mom and brothers spend around 3 to 4 hours preparing for our dinner. After dinner we will have some sort of fruit for dessert and then tea to seal of our stomachs. 

I love spending time here because it is pretty common to come home to the house full of neighbors and relatives. I am able to practice my Arabic constantly, and it reminds me of the way my parents house is and has always been. I can truly say I feel right at home in Jordan! 

As usual, I have included commentaries at the bottom of each picture. Thanks again to everyone who played a part in me being here, you are all amazing! 

A retired Jordanian who comes to the center of Al Salt ( a city about 30 minutes from Amman) daily to played board games with his friends. 

The Hashemite Kings of Jordan

A memorial above the grave of Jethro, the father in-law of Moses. After Moses left Egypt around the age of 40, he came here and worked for the father of two daughters. He ended up marrying one of the daugters. 

The Mosque that the memorial was in

Another mosque in Al Salt

This is a memorial for Joshua ( the man who took over leadership of Isreal after Moses died)

They weren't sure where he was buried, so they made a memorial 8 meters long

The Shekh شخ at the Mosque

On top of a high hill in Al Salt

The director of the program, Dr. Yassir Hamed and one of the volunteer language partners ( Basheer)

Handstand outside of Basheer's house on his family's farm. We stopped here on our way to Al Salt. 

Some friends in the program. 

Ian on the left and Brad on the right. 

On the roof Museum in Al Salt

Handstand! 

My friend Martha is pretty skilled with the ball

One of the teachers in the Program, Reema ريما which means Gazelle

My friend Nora, in a Sook in Al Salt

Inside the oldest church in Al Salt

The well where Muslims clean their feet and faces before prayer at a Mosque in Al Salt

Handstand!

Sunset مغرب on top of the tallest hill in Al Salt. 

Tomorrow, I am going to stay with a Bedouin family in the desert for three nights. The next blog should be pretty interesting because I will be going deep into the culture and roots of the Arab people!