A Stranger at Home

This last week was Thanksgiving, such as it was. On Wednesday, all the Fulbrighters and some other American citizens living in Amman gathered at the Fulbright House for a potluck style Thanksgiving dinner. There was a frenzy at our neighbors’ and our apartments here to cook mashed potatoes, brownies, and broccoli. I made a sweet potato souffle, which happily turned out to be edible (and rather tasty even). We socialized at the dinner and stuffed ourselves with 3 plates of food (making us feel adequately ill to mark Thanksgiving).

The Thanksgiving plate

I have never put much stock into Thanksgiving or Christmas – they were minimally celebrated in my family. However, “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as they say. Being away from my family (especially while many other Fulbrighters went home for the holiday) was more difficult than I imaged. The first of December marks three and a half months that I’ve been away (about a third of my grant). As I watched the effusive Thanksgiving posts scroll by on Facebook, I realized two things: I really am thankful for my family, for their health, for my relationship with each of them; and it still doesn’t keep you from feeling like crying yourself to sleep on Thanksgiving night while you’re 6,000 miles away from them. Being thankful doesn’t mean you have to be happy about the circumstances. I am disheartened by the distance, but it really helps me realize how much I love the people I am far from and I’m thankful for that.

Ironically, earlier this week I was thinking of how accustomed to being here I have become. For instance, a few of us ran out of internet (3G) on our phones, and whereas previously, when we didn’t know our way around the city, we would have considered this a problem, it didn’t really phase us. I guess you know you’re “home” when you don’t mind disconnecting and fending for yourself.

So, this week has really been mixed for me – I am at home, yet I am not at home. So, I settled on being a stranger at home.

Teaching

Last week, I introduced many of my students to the concept of the essay. Some had already learned how to write essays, but the majority had not. I gave them a template so they could understand the construction, and talked about my expectations for the assignment. While they worked to fill in the template, I helped the students who raised their hands.

Everything was going well until a large number of students began to finish their first two paragraphs. They tried raising their hands, but I wasn’t quick enough for their liking since so many of them wanted help at the same time. It ended up with me in the center of the room with a crowd of around 6-10 students around me demanding that I read their paragraphs to make sure they were good.

On Tuesday, the King of Jordan visited my university to inaugurate the new Engineering school building. All the students were gathered around in the parking lot from 8:00 in the morning until when I arrived at 1:00. Apparently, he had come at 11:00, and a lot of students had acquired white roses from some part of the celebration. One student shyly presented me with one, and now it’s on my desk near my laptop as I work.

Students gathered in the parking lot after the King visited

The rose given by one of my students

Institute for Family Health

I finished up on the early marriage grant proposal to the Swiss Development Cooperative this week. It was much less painful than the EU grant, but I’m still glad the process is over. After finishing on Thursday, I stayed for a training about domestic violence and counseling. Most of the attendees were doctors or nurses who deal directly with survivors of domestic violence and abuse. The presenters spoke in Arabic about the laws and mechanisms in place, how to approach counseling or interview sessions with survivors, and how to discern via body language whether the person is lying while responding to the questions.

One key issue that comes up is that the husband often accompanies the woman and children to the clinic, and he responds on behalf of his wife. This is fairly normal whether or not domestic violence has occurred, but it adds a hefty obstacle to finding out if one of the spouses has been abused.

I asked myself the other day, since this month marks me finishing a third of my grant, whether I will leave here in 6 months with a feeling of fulfillment if I keep doing the things I’m doing. I think I will.

I also met with the UNFPA personnel who are working on oversight for the project I compiled the many reports for. I was given this lovely bracelet since November is the “UNite against gender-based violence” month in the UN.

The bracelet from UNFPA

In Other News…

The olives I’m curing are changing color into a nice purple-ish red. They are less bitter, so I’m hoping they will be edible in another week or so. I diligently change their salt water every few days. They are teaching me patience…sort of. I bought a can of olives I could eat immediately the other day, but I am patiently waiting for these I guess.