The Last Day

I’ve got less than 24 hours left here in Amman. I am very excited to come home.

Thank you for reading my blog this summer. I’m glad to have had this tool to connect with my family and friends even though I’m thousands of miles away. Thanks for supporting me with so much encouragement. It’s meant a lot to me.

I’m flying to Vienna, Austria tomorrow morning, where I have a two night layover. I’ll be back in the good ol’ USA on Saturday. I hope to see you all very soon!

With Love,

Chris

P.S. If you want, check back here in a week or so to see some pictures of Vienna and some other pictures of Jordan that I wasn’t able to put up yet.

Almost Done!

I just have three more nights of teaching English before I leave on Thursday. I’m busy saying goodbye to friends, teaching, having debriefing meetings, cleaning my apartment, buying gifts, and packing up all my junk.

I have a two night layover in Vienna, Austria, and then I’ll be back in the States on Saturday. I’m looking forward to sipping cappuccinos at a quaint little café in Vienna and walking along the Danube River. And of course, I am even more excited to get home and see my friends and family.

I’ll see you all soon! Thanks for reading this summer!

Chris

It’s Hot Again

On Sunday here in Amman it got up to 109˚. It was miserable, especially at night. Today it’s 90˚ and it feels like a refrigerator.

I’ve got a day off teaching today because of a public holiday for Amman’s municipal elections. It’s been a nice, relaxing day so far.

Ready to Come Home

Well, I’ve got a week and a half left to go here in Jordan and it’s proving quite difficult to keep my head “in the game” here. I teach English until the day before I leave so I have a lot of work left to do. I’m am very excited to come home, see my family and friends, and eat some good ol’ American food. In addition, I really cannot wait to see forests and lakes. The desert was nice for a time, but I’m ready to see some green now.

I went to visit one of my students last week at the watch store he manages in downtown Amman. He first had me try on a 3,000 JD ($5,500) watch just for fun. Then he put a much more modest but still classy looking watch on my wrist. He told me it was a gift from him to me. Of course I didn’t want to take the watch from him. I know the guy doesn’t make a lot of money. But I knew it would offend him if I didn’t accept his gift. I thanked him profusely and walked away with a new watch. This is yet another example of the enormous generosity of Jordanians. Sometimes I think they would give me their kidney after meeting me just once.

Here I am at the beginning of the end. I’ve got two weeks left here in Amman. I am getting more and more excited to go home and see my family and friends. Though there have been quite a few challenges along the way, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I have learned a lot about culture, language, NGOs, international organizations, justice, injustice, peace, and myself, among other things.

I have learned that living in a different country and among people of a different culture is very difficult but at the same time, very fulfilling. I’ve learned that I might have what it takes to do it.  I could go on and on.

I hope you enjoy some new pictures from Amman, Aqaba, and Jordan. Comment if you’d like. I changed the setting so even people who don’t have gmail can comment.

I’ll see you all soon!

With love,

Chris

From the last few days of the kid’s camp I worked with. Noor is the cute little girl second from the right. She was one of my favorites.

The next few shots are from my mini-vacation to Jerusalem. This is a Russian Orthodox Church on the side of the Mount of Olives.

The Garden of Gethsemane

A spice shop in the Muslim quarter of the Old City. This sculpture is made completely from spices. I have no idea how it doesn’t blow away.

The following shots are from my short trip to a town named Aqaba, on the shore of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. From the beach you can see Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and of course, Jordan. Walking along the beach at night was very nice. I camped at a hotel across the road from a public beach. What looked like thousands of families covered the public beaches, camping, swimming, and barbequeing. I saw quite a few women swimming while they were covered in a burka (full Islamic veil from head to toes). It was fascinating.

It’s easy in situations like that, as an observer, to only notice and point out the differences from the culture I’m visiting to my own. But I couldn’t help but stop and wonder at how similar these families were to mine. Of course, there are some obvious differences (the burka, for one), but so much of what these families were doing was just like what American families do when they are camping or on vacation.

This may like a “well…duh” point to make, but it was somewhat of a profound thought to me as I walked along the beach that night. There is so much separating our two cultures. There is quite a bit of misunderstanding on both sides. To a certain extent, both our cultures have painted a sort of caricature of the other. Americans tend to paint Muslims are bomb-toting terrorists bent on destroyed freedom. Muslims tend to paint Americans as wealthy-beyond-measure, immoral, arrogant, neo-colonialists who want nothing more than world domination under the guise of freedom.

But transcending all of those pre-judgments is a very fine connection. On the outside, there are all sorts of things separating us. But when it comes to family, love, and joy, overall, we are all very similar. If people from different cultures can’t connect on any other level, it’s likely they’ll connect as they talk about their love for their children and family. Or it’s likely that kids from completely different backgrounds will have no problem playing in the Red Sea together.

Such were my thoughts as I walked along the beach in Aqaba.

The sunset from the hotel I camped at. It was great. I paid 4 Dinars (about 6 dollars) and I slept in a tent. That included breakfast! It was a bit hot, though…

The sign says, “No Sleeping!”

Jordan recieved this land in a land swap with Saudi Arabia a few decades ago. It serves as both a popular tourist destination and a very lucrative trading port. You can see the huge transport ship in the background.