Winter Ups and Down

Well, it snowed in Jordan!

I can’t help but feel constant ups and downs about the early start to winter.

I’ll share some of them in attempts of explanation..

1) Being snowed in for an all-night Christmas party at Dan’s house.

2) Watching little kids building a snowman in a neighborhood of Homs in Syria – which has been blockaded by the regime for 500, thus left to face the early winter storm with no gas or electricty.

As the citizen journalist describes the dire situation in the neighborhood, the kids interrupt, talking amongst themselves “Now put the eyes! Yeah, just use the snow.”

More at: Syria Direct

3) Venturing out in the snow to gather the necessary supplies for 3 days of movies, hot chocolate and kahlua, and snuggling.

4) Thinking of friends in Zaatari sitting in caravans, or worse, in tents without heaters or winter clothes as strong winds and heavy rain rips through the camp.

More at: Syria Direct

5) Arriving in Boston, happy to be home for a White Christmas.

6) Reading about refugees in Lebanon, who are all the more worse off from snowfall and lack of resources.

A flock of small boys trotted by. “Bring us clothes!” one shouted. “We are cold!” called another.

More at: NY Times

I guess its inevitable that I couldn’t be happier or sadder that winter is finally here. It seems appropriate to return back to some favorite lines from Mahmoud Darwish, Think of Others:

As you return home, to your home, think of others
(do not forget the people of the camps).

As you sleep and count the stars, think of others
(those who have nowhere to sleep).

One of my favorites from Zaatari wearing his new winter hat – which he chose himself during our distribution of over 4,000 donated hats.

He was pretty happy with himself and, needless to say, warm.

You can donate to the UN emergency response here

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.

Jackie in Jordan

 

Jackie has graced Jordan with her presence for a month…

She ate at Jafra, Al Quds, Habibeh, and Hashems, visited Petra and Wadi Rum, floated in the Dead Sea, taught a Language Club at the OWA summer camp, experienced long Ramadan days, broke fast with the OWA students, spent a long weekend in Palestine, and ate 5 servings of Maqlubeh at Wael’s house.

Needless to say, she did it all.

Yet.. I STILL WISH SHE STAYED!!!

Biff and Julie & Ban and Jeelan

I feel like I haven’t written anything personal lately. I hear Katy in my head laughing at how many news/political/humanitarian tinged things I have posted on this blog – thus I figured I’d take a minute to talk about two of my favorite – and smallest – friends in Jordan.

In Baqa’a, Biff and I have found a home with our friend Wael and his family. In particular, his two nieces, Ban and Jeelan, have become like our little sisters.

Jeelan is two years old, and over the year we’ve known the family, she’s literally grown up right before our eyes. Now she’s talking and sassing us left and right. Seen below, she demonstrates every possible use of a telephone. If you can imagine her little high pitched voice in the last photo, alo? meen ma3ee? 

Ban, her older sister, just turned 5. Yet from the way she talks, you’d think she’s much older. We die laughing when she tells us stories — she always begins with, “Lemma ana kunt sagrera… When I was little…” — BAN you’re FIVE!

Nonetheless sometimes we do forget how small she is because she’s so smart. She loves to learn, and everyone is always teaching her something new. Often Biff and I will be sitting talking and Ban will walk up to us “Darrisuunee ingleezee!… Teach me English!” She’s even starting tossing English into her sentences when she talks.

A few weeks ago, we were all at the mall and Ban’s dad wanted her to stay in the car with him so we could shop quickly. Ban, who knows exactly how to get what she wants, looked at me pleadingly.. “Miss Julie, ma biddi adul bil CAR….. Miss Julie, I don’t want to stay in the CAR!”

The best part of this is that the two girls consider us to be their friends. Ban introduces me to her cousin: “This is my friend… Miss Julie.”

The girls sit and play with us during our whole visit, distracting us from adult conversation (“Mom, she is MY friend.”) with games, songs, and drawings. And of course, Biff and I love it. In fact we’ve learned loads of great Arabic games from the two girls… ikabaruu! … see below at the Children’s museum.

Who would have thought two of our best new friends in Jordan would be under the age of five? And the rest of them would consist of 100 six to fifteen year olds at the Orphan Welfare Association?

Oh well, at least we have each other! See attractive teaching photo below.

As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness.

We need others physically, emotionally, intellectually;

we need them if we are to know anything,

even ourselves.

– CS Lewis

Girl Talk is my small game.

You all know Nadine in some way or the other. I’ve either rambled about her in stories over skype or posted her videos and quotes on various social media plaforms. Nadine has officially filled many roles in my life: confidante, roommate, best friend. Sometimes I feel like if I think something, and I don’t say it out loud to Nadine, its almost like I didn’t think it.

Most recently, we added a new relationship to the list: colleagues! Yes, that’s right – we now work together too. In fact for the last 2 months, we both shared one desk because office space was tight. Really, the best way to illustrate our relationship would be the following story: Nadine, skyping with a friend from home, introduces me. “This is Julie. She’s…..(my friend? my roommate? my colleague?)…..She’s like my arm.”

Anyway, al muhim is that Nadine has so many wise words – I could start a whole other blog cataloguing all of them. She’s a self proclaimed sap ( “Its ok to feel.” ) and has the biggest heart of anyone I know.

And as mentioned above, girl talk is her small game. I figured I would share one of her best quotes – the one she always tosses out as we deal with the ups and downs of life abroad – relationships – work – decisions – and of course, the future.

 

 

 

 

 

You can read more wise words from Nadine here:  http://theviewfromamman.wordpress.com/

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?

Boston, you’re my home

I hate that I’m here, far away, when tragedy strikes at home. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the news. Don’t you all worry about me? I live in the Middle East. Now I worry about you… Its not supposed to be this other way around, and I hardly even knew how to think about it. I’m so thankful I could talk to you all and al hamdulileh everyone is safe.

As we worried and refreshed online news pages, all Nadine and I kept muttering to each other was wow, the world is a terrible place. There is so much sadness and violence and war burdening this region that we are constantly reminded of. Then from home, a supposedly safe place, these random acts of destruction and terrorism occur. Again, our hearts ache.

Outside of that thought, there wasn’t much to say. Yet as almost an afterthought we reflected, god I hope it wasn’t an Arab. 

I’ve seen that sentiment tossed up on different twitter feeds and newsites, please don’t be an Arab or a Muslim, and as I hear stories like the Saudi student who was tackled fleeing the explosion or the two man escorted off the airplane after speaking in Arabic, the hope is even stronger.

The next step was to hope that the perpetrator was not a lunatic who would become the new face of a billion people. Not a murderer who would further fan the flames of Islamophobia.

 

Not an animal who would obstruct the ability of thousands of students to complete their educations in the United States. Not an extremist who would maim and hurt the very people who were still recovering from the pain of Sept. 11.

 

President Obama and Gov. Deval L. Patrick have shown great restraint in their words and have been careful not to accuse an entire people for what one madman may have done. But others might not be so kind.

– NY Times

 

Whoever did this was a monster. I don’t want to “hope” anything about them. Maybe a better way to say this, I am sad and angry. I hope whoever did this gets caught, gets punished, and gets everything that is coming to him/her for this terrible act. But I hope we don’t fall back on fear, hate, or stereotyping because of our anger and sadness.

 

To close, a more positive note. I was surprised by the outpouring of love from friends here this week. You know, when I introduce myself here, I always tell people I’m from Boston. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got calls, messages, and texts on Tuesday from my local friends… they were checking in, seeing if kul shay tamam – making sure my family/friends are safe, expressing condolences, seeing if I needed anything or wanted to talk.

Solidarity is a beautiful thing. I guess its something that contradicts the feeling Nadine and I couldn’t shake Monday night.. the world is a terrible place.

But as Nadine later reflected, I guess all we can do is keep trying to do good by each other – and hope that we all feel for each other and can take care of each other when tragedy does strike.

“We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago. So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think,

The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

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

 

 

 

The Best Part of my Fulbright Experience

I talk and write a lot about “my kids,” by which I mean the young students I teach every weekend at the Orphan Welfare Association (OWA) of Baqa’a refugee camp. Its really been the cornerstone of my Fulbright experience so far.

I am there every Friday, leading a program for four to nine year olds, and every Saturday, managing and teaching four English classes; even over the kids’ school vacation, I chaperoned their overnight Winter Camp.

The OWA is where that I launched my cultural exchange projects, connecting my young students with a 6th grade class in the Bronx, NY (taught by one of my best friends, Alyssa) and my high school students with a 9th grade class in Acton, MA (taught at my former high school!).

Its also where I have made my best friends. Nisreen and I spend every Friday together now, “Baqa’a day” is synonomous for “our day.” Both my Fulbright friends (Biff, Lisa, Maria, Thawab, and Maya) and my Petra University students have all joined me as regular volunteers. And to make it all the better, I gained new friends from the local community, as the Baqa’a residents welcomed me into their lives with open arms.

And to make it all the better, my roommate NADINE made the OWA a short video. So now, finally, I get to show a piece of this experience to you.

IN THE EVENT you were toying with the notion of getting me a birthday gift.. take a minute to donate to this organization to help us continue serving and supporting “our kids” :)

Our Fundraising Page:

http://fundly.com/orphan-welfare-association