Female Slam Poetry in Jordan

Nadine, as per usual, writes a compelling piece about Jordanian women in Amman’s Spoken Word scene.

Its further proof of Jordan’s confusing identity; the reality of so many different types of people and lifestyles darting across this region that make it impossible to speak about Jordan – the Middle East – or Arabs in any sweeping generalizations.

As tonight’s poetry reading draws to a close, Aysha speaks her own manifesto of youth. The emotion is raw, but no one looks away as her piece crescendos.

“It was my friends who hugged their canvases and wept for brothers killed in the doom of Arab revolution, and guilted over the fire exit of their breath,” she raps, her words echo within the narrow walls.

“But I still have my dictators falling, as the Arab Spring fireworks into a festive autumn. So for all I care me and my friends are the sunrise.”

Read all here —> Jordan’s Underground Female Slam Poetry Scene

No one feels the pain, except he who is injured

Well, its clear how much I love Reem and Shadi’s family … as I am compelled to write another post about them. The two fell in love and married, despite families’ misgivings, when they were 19 and 20 respectively. Now they have their own beautiful family with two small girls and a little boy all under age 4.

If its true what they say about one’s real character showing under adversity – well, then I’d imagine its hard to find better people than Reem and Shadi. There’s a lot that could keep them sad or bitter.. but you never heard a bad word from them, instead they are constantly buried in work serving the community.

The other day, I gave Shadi some permanent markers to use to decorate his caravan. I came back today and my heart melted – two messages with such simple honesty that made me happy.. and sad.

An expression of love..

Shadi — “Every beat of my heart says I love you” — Reem

Paired with a sad truth…

Don’t complain to people of your injuries

No one feels the pain, except he who is injured

Even the strongest of families in Zaatari have been injured. One thing I’ve learned from working there … you rarely find something happy without being reminded of something sad.

By Shada and Zeid

 

Finally, some happy pictures from younger sister and older (slightly) brother.

By Abdullah, age 10

Palestine, my name is Palestine.

I carved my name on all the places.

The letters of my name talk to me and call me free.

And my name is letters, and letters are my name.

– Palestinian song, I am Palestine

“Yeah.. its my nightlight”

Here’s a cool time lapse video of Amman…

…of particular note is the Le Royal Hotel, which changes color at night and appears in 50% of the shots in this short clip.

Biff can see it from her window in Webdeh.. she calls it her nightlight.

We can also see it from our Sudanese students’ apartment in Webdeh. This came in handy when we were teaching extra English lessons for them in their home. We studied the colors, then stared out the window: RED … GREEN … BLUE .. PURPLE

The Baqa’a Times

I’ve been so bad about blogging lately.. its actually unreal. Have I mentioned yet that I started a student blog for the Orphan Welfare Association in Baqaa? Anyway, check it out (I’ve been decent about blogging on that platform)… http://thebaqaatimes.wordpress.com/

 

The Baqa’a Times is our OWA student blog. It has students’ writings (English and Arabic) and photos. The idea is to empower the students – giving them a platform to present their work, their Association, and their community. I also occasionally contribute stories about our activities. For example, the most recent post on “Rap and Graffiti” … our latest Friday program :)

If you get a chance, peruse the site. The OWA (and Baqa’a in general) remains to be my favorite place in Jordan.. and a big piece of my heart.

I feel like a proud mom when I think about it (I hate that I even just wrote that, gosh I’m old)… but really I can’t help but think: look, look, see powerfully Selselbeel wrote about her family? Look, look see what insights Hashem captured with his photos? Look, look can you believe little Ban memorized poetry about Palestine? Look, look how big are they smiling?

Radiant

Radiant.

That’s actually the only word to describe how absolutely beautiful Nisreen was at her engagement party last weekend.

It was an amazing evening.. and she looked so happy with her fiance, Musa – who I met for the first time (aside from Skype hellos) last week. He is a great guy and they are adorable together.

Above, posing for the camera –>  “i7na bidna eyaha… wa hou bidu eyaha”

Below, me and Marah – easily one of my best new friends from this year in Jordan. “My student” turned friend :)

This was a really special engagement party because Nisreen is one of my best friends.. I’ve been to a handful of engagement parties/weddings in Jordan and in the States; yet this is the first one for a best friend. It is of course, all the more beautiful.

Plus, this time I had responsibilities! Responsibilities that I would have never imagined undertaking in any other circumstance.. Really, it was comical to have Nisreen turn to me as an “engagement party planner” – ba3rifish! – i actually can’t imagine someone who knows less about these things than me. YET, for her.. I said yes to everything.

Really, it just follows that general trend where I do random things here … and usually receive great compliments … even though in general these things are the OPPOSITE of “who I am” in the States. ( example: Julie! You are such a good dancer. …. Julie! You have a beautiful voice ). It just goes to show if you do things with enough confidence/gusto… people just believe that you must be good at. ( Well, she is singing in front of the class.. she MUST have a good voice ).

So anyway, here were the two big / random contributions…

1) Can you make a unique guest book for me?

—> Of course! I am so creative… #thingsineverthoughtiddoinamman

2) Can you choreograph and perform a dance for me?

—> Of course! That sounds easy and right up my alley. #thingsineverthoughtiddoinamman

See below clip of 1/2 of our dance. If you were wondering, yes we did dance to Pit Bull. And yes, we did pull her cousins onto the dance floor. And yes, the freestyle bit of the song was later done with a strobe light.

#thingsineverthoughtiddoinamman

Mother’s Day in Jordan

 

Did you know Jordan has Mother’s Day at a different time than us? This year Eid al Um  was Thursday, March 28th. At the jama3ia we celebrated by having a “family holiday,” where the children made cards for any woman in their life that they loved.

I planned the program and brought in the supplies to make “Family Day Cards” … the best part of all this being that almost all the arts and craft supplies came from MY mom in America (courtesy of Michael’s!)

The kids loved making their cards and showing them off to us. I got some cards too, with every possible spelling of “Miss Julie” you could imagine (Juli, Jolie, Joli, Jooli, Joly).

In the end it was a great day.. and made me miss MY mom a ton. <3