(no subject)
let me tell you about a typical day in the life of me, village, Jordan.
i usually get up about 6:30, and it takes a while. maybe i exercise a bit. maybe. but probably not. i get ready for work and try to organize my day. usually i'll eat some fruit or something and a PBJ (yes, i even manage to eat those here, although they're on the flatbread). Then i walk up the hill to get to work at 8.
the kids are on the small sand playground already, and i say hi to them and shake their hands, except for the older girls. my personal rule of thumb is, if they're wearing hijab, don't initiate handshakes. i say hi to the teachers and take this one kid, who is pretty hyperactive and probably autistic, to bounce on an excercise ball for about 15 min. then the kids all line up, recite a short prayer, sing songs, and do what might be termed calesthenics, if there were more of it. this all takes about 5 minutes. then everybody goes inside for class. i go in to say hi to the mudiira (director of the center) and whoever's in the office, and then go in to one of the classrooms to do a few activities with the teacher and the kids. there are 4 teachers here, and they're all pretty good. one of them really impresses me, and i think she's got her master's degree in special ed.
break is from 10:00 to 10:30, and all the kids together in one room eat sandwiches and snacks (not healthy snacks) and drink juice (not healthy juice). the teachers are in the room across the hall or the little kitchen usually, with one teacher watching the kids, and they drink tea and/or coffee and schmooz for half an hour. sometimes i talk with them, sometimes with the guests and important people in the mudiira's office, sometimes i work on activities or programs for the kids. then after the break, it's more of the same, except everyone's taking it easier. the first buses come around 12:30 to take the kids home, and i hang out with the teachers or the kids on the playground until one, trying to make sure there's no really serious fights (the boys fight constantly). then i go to the "e-village" and write a blog post about what i do every day. then i go home.
at home, i'll cook something and read or study arabic or play the concertina for a while, or do one of the hundred things that i've had to do for moving in. during Ramadan, this was the time that i would nap for like 3 hours, since i was fasting with the jordanians. but that's over.
around 5 i try to take a walk, maybe meet some new people or something, maybe talk on the phone with another PCV. after dark i usually either get some chores done (my place is amazingly clean, if compared to any other place i've lived since my parents') or go hang out with people at someone's house or in front of a dukkan (little convenience store). i will be given tea and/or coffee and/or juice at peoples houses. at the dukkan, someone will buy me a bubsi ("pepsi", which, like "coke" in the south, can mean any carbonated beverage), and then someone else will try to buy me one, and i usually refuse, and i might go walking with some guys around town (up and down the half-mile main drag).
then i go home, maybe eat a little something, like a soft-cheese sandwich, brush my teeth, write in my journal, and go to bed. i usually check for creatures in the bed, though. i actually found a tiny little scorpion under my sleeping bag when i got back from a short trip i took a couple days ago, to karak, where i saw kerak castle, which is pretty cool, more than i expected. i think the scorpion might have been the more poisonous kind, since he was yellow, but he was really tiny, so he maybe could have been a baby of either kind. unfortunately for him, i do not at all appreciate poisonous monsters in or near my bed, but his body has been preserved for posterity. then i go to sleep, and sometimes i sleep on the roof, but there's dew there and usually more mosquitos than inside.
and the next day, i do it again. i've pretty much got my routine down at this point, except there's always something that doesn't go as planned. in jordan, this is 'adi (normal). anyway, i'm doing pretty well, getting stuff done, making a little progress, having fun sometimes, so life is pretty good.
Love
Shane