Lately

Well, it’s been a while.  All of the sudden work picked up, Arabic got more intense, I developed some good friends and relationships, and I had no free time!  March went by in a blur with lots going on at work and many excursions out of Amman for hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities with my friends from the Dead2Red.  Regardless, it was great month and I can’t believe that I only have a few more weeks here!

Work has gotten pretty crazy as the situation in Syria continues to get worse.  The training I wrote has been postponed as project proposals and grants have taken more of everyone’s time.  I know that the training will be used eventually, so I am still happy with that project and that I was able to create something that will hopefully be useful to other IMC posts.  I’ve starting providing support to a psychologist who is working up at the Syrian border with Syrian refugees, which has been a bit intimidating but a great experience for me.  I’m also contributing to the inter-agency coordination efforts that are happening between the agencies working on mental health and psychosocial support issues here in Jordan, which has been an interesting process as well.  Needless to say, I’ve been learning a lot and have been able to get quite the range of experience while here!

After a bit of a crazy month, I was rewarded last week with Matt coming to visit!!!  He was on his break from classes and I was able to take the time to do a bit of traveling around Jordan, which was absolutely wonderful.  We spent a few days around Amman, visited Petra (one of the Seven Wonders of the World!), camped with the Bedouins in the desert of Wadi Rum, and spent a couple days in Tala Bay on the Red Sea.  It was an amazing and really fun visit and while I was sad to see him go, I felt recharged after heading down the road to burnout in March.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The first is from the first view of the Treasury!

Eating lunch overlooking the monastery:

The spectacular Wadi Rum:

Wadi Rum again:

And one more…

We stopped by the Dead Sea for a quick dip on the way home:

Amman:

What an Adventure…

So, the Dead2Red!!!  What an amazing weekend.  There was a bit of scrambling with two weeks to go to reorganize the team and although it was a bit stressful at the time, I could not be happier that the new team was formed.  By the time we got to the starting line we had 10 runners and 2 drivers to make up ‘majaneen on the loose,’ or ‘crazies on the loose.’  We had a pretty diverse team with 4 nationalities between the 10 runners: Jordanian, German, Syrian, and a few people from the US.  We had already designed a strategy and allocated many kilometers, while keeping in mind that we had room to be flexible and make adjustments as needed.

Despite all of our preparations, however, there was nothing we could do to be prepared for the weather.  The race started Thursday afternoon and on Wednesday it was cold, started to snow, and was completely yellow outside (maybe a sandstorm but I don’t even know what that was from).  By Wednesday night when we gathered for our spaghetti dinner there was snow on the ground and on Thursday morning when we were making our final preparations, there was snow all over Amman and the city looked like it had completely shut down.  We were already feeling a little crazy, just the start of our team name feeling appropriate, and despite almost everyone calling each other to see if we were still in to run, we met at our allocated meeting spot and took off for the Dead Sea.

Once we got to the starting line at the Dead Sea the weather wasn’t too bad.  Maybe it was just a test to see who was tough enough to get to the starting line, I’m not sure.  Regardless, after a couple hours of nervous energy at the Dead Sea bridge, 4pm hit and the first runners were off!  My team was distributed into two vans, I was in the second.  Everyone in the first van had a leg to run before those of us in the second van started, so we watched for a bit then pulled ahead to our starting point.

The starting point for van 2 was right at the entrance to a little village.  It was still light out and there were lots of villagers out and about getting ready for the runners.  In unfortunate timing and due to nerves that I always get before I run in a race, I had to go to the bathroom.  I looked around, saw just one bush, and asked my teammate Ania to come with me to provide a little bit of coverage.  She agreed since she had to go as well, but when we got to the one and only bush we discovered that it was a thorn bush.  What to do?  Well, when you’ve gotta go you’ve gotta go, so we took turns getting as deep in the thorn bush as possible to hide without getting too scratched up.  Needless to say, I don’t think that going to the bathroom out in public while wearing running clothes in a small village in Jordan is quite the culturally appropriate thing to do…  By the way, as luck would have it this turned out to be the only village along the road during the entire 242k.

After dealing with this conundrum, it was finally my turn to run!  My first leg was a 6k and the entire stretch was through the village (or through a series of villages).  There were tons of people lining the highway, kids chasing after me, and the general chaos one would expect from a town that is used to seeing runners only once a year.  I ran with a reflective vest and glowstick as a baton, as required by the officials, and was excited to pass the baton when my teammate’s turn came.

After my run I hopped back in the van after a short bit of stretching outside.  It felt good to have my first run out of the way and I could settle back to eating one of my many peanut butter and jellies, a snickers bar, and to cheering on my teammates.

After many more kilometers and somewhere between 9pm and 10pm, I was ready for my second leg!  It was another 6k stretch with a 4k hill that was rumored to be somewhere around my leg.  We had decided to do shorter legs up the hill so that it wouldn’t tire one person out as much and so we wouldn’t lose as much time, and we just decided that I would run until I thought the hill was starting, signal to the van, then we would start the rotations on the way up.  After about 3k I could tell the hill was starting.  There were cars driving slowly along the road with their teams, so I could also see the hill coming from the taillights ahead of me.  I started up the hill, signaled to the driver, then helped out with a few short legs up the hill.  Once we got to the top, I still had to finish the rest of my run!  I think that might have been the most painful 3k I’ve done and I had to call on my teammate Ania to start a little earlier…

Once everyone in my van was done with their second legs, we pulled ahead 26k to wait for the other van and runners to catch up.  Ostensibly, this was to allow us with some rest but with all the wind outside, the cold inside the van, and me worrying that I wouldn’t hear from my teammates in time to get ready for my next leg, I didn’t get any sleep.  Once I got the phone call that they were 3k away from us, I listened to a little pump up music (at 2am I needed a little adrenaline boost, after all), and bundled up to run 6 more kilometers through the dark and windy desert.  Now, keep in mind that I’ve only been running once or twice a week and this is a lot more miles than I’ve done in quite a while.  For this third leg I was feeling pretty good for a couple kilometers, then started to look at my watch constantly in the hopes that it was time for my teammate to take over.  I must admit that I was pretty happy when the van pulled ahead of me to let out the next runner.

By this time it was 3 in the morning and I was getting a bit tired.  I plopped myself in the backseat of the van, hogging it all to myself, and laid down, telling my teammates I was going to sleep.  I of course kept trying to stay involved in everyone else’s business and running order until my vanmates finally all finished.  We drove ahead several more kilometers and I finally got an hour and a half of sleep.

I was woken up at 5:30 by my teammate in the other van wondering where we were.  I don’t know, somewhere in the middle of the desert?  I don’t even think I knew what my name was at that point.  We figured it out, more or less (probably less since they had to run a few extra kilometers to reach us) and once they caught up to us we were ready to go again!  My fourth leg was only 4k, thank goodness, because I was getting pretty tired.  It felt good to go shorter, especially knowing that once I finished my leg we were only 80km from Aqaba!

At this point we were all a little tired and sleep deprived, so we decided that it would be a good idea to shorten the legs and just run 1k each.  That lasted about 15k, until we realized that several teams weren’t that far ahead of us.  Ignoring the gentle reminders of some teammates that we were out there for fun and to enjoy it, the decision was made to start sprinting.  Real sprints.  200m sprints.  For 60 more kilometers.  We were tired and wanted to get there as soon as possible, so off we went!!

As soon as we started sprinting, the team spirits were lifted and the adrenaline that had worn off during the night came surging back.  Music was blasting, the vans were driving together and leap frogging, icy hot was being passed around like a drug, we were driving with the sliding doors open so we could easily hop in and out, and we charged past 5 teams.  The best part of it was, one of the teams was a team of MARINES!!!  They got really upset when they saw us catching up and put all of their cars side by side so that we couldn’t get around them.  That lasted just about as long as it took our runner to overtake and annihilate theirs and I will never forget the look on my teammate Revda’s face when she realized it was her who passed a marine.  We sprinted to the finish line, yelling and cheering the whole way.

Participating in this relay was an unforgettable experience.  Many of us were strangers when we started and we came away from the weekend as one giant majaneen family.  We couldn’t get enough of each other and were the only team who spent the day together at the beach the next day.  What an incredible way to experience the Red Sea for the first time and to run my first race since my last race on the track in a UCLA uniform.  No matter where we all go, I know that this group will forever by my majaneen family.

Oh Amman

I think I may have fallen a little bit in love with Amman today.  I had a great Saturday with some good rest, a run to get ready for the Dead to Red next weekend, then a fun outing with friends.  We walked through the downtown to do a little jewelry shopping, then back up the next hill to Jebel Amman and the ‘trendy’ area around Rainbow street.  Before scouting out some more jewelry shops we had lunch at a cafe called Wild Jordan.  They had fresh, organic food, which I haven’t had since I left the US!  It was delicious and some of the profits even go to supporting wildlife reserves around Jordan.  The restaurant was on the side of a hill and had glass walls, so there were amazing views of the city.  While looking around, I had three ‘aha’ moments where I think I finally figured out the orientation of some of the hills!  Amman is so confusing and I’m sure that I will continue to have some difficulties, but I finally figured out where my neighborhood hill is in relation to the downtown, Jebel Amman, the neighborhood I work in, and a few of the others.  I have to admit, I was quite proud of myself and it made me really excited to be here.

Yesterday I went to some of the desert castles in the East, heading towards Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  It definitely looked like desert and one of the castles used to be the headquarters for Lawrence of Arabia!!

A view of inside the castle above…..

A view of inside the next castle we saw – Castle Umyaad, a UNESCO site!

After two of the castles, we went to the Azraq Nature Preserve.  I have to admit that it made me appreciate the National Parks of the US a little more…   See the rainbow?

Some water!!  There were even some ducks!

Here’s the last castle we went to.  This is the one that Lawrence of Arabia camped out in!

Work Projects, Taxis, and a Chocolate Cake Experience

Things here are going well.  I’m getting more comfortable, my Arabic vocabulary is growing exponentially, and I am getting the hang of things at work.  My project right now is to focus on writing the training for the case managers that I mentioned in an earlier post.  My supervisor and I will conduct the training starting on March 18, so before then I have to write the facilitator’s guide/lesson plan for a week-long training with enough detail for it to be replicated in other countries (once completed it will probably be sent to the IMC programs in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Libya, and Iraq).  I also have to write a reference guide for the case managers to use during the training and for their work, and write all of the pre- and post-tests to evaluate the training.  Needless to say, I had a bit of a freak out last week and was feeling extremely overwhelmed by all the work I have to do.  I had a great meeting with my supervisor on Thursday though and realized that I’ve made some good progress already.  I also made a work plan for myself so that I can feel accomplished each day.  So far, two days into the work plan, I’ve been able to stick with it.

In addition to the successful work meeting last Thursday, I also had a very interesting taxi ride to work.  I think I could dedicate an entire blog to my taxi experiences here!  A few minutes into the ride, heading through part of the downtown, we pull over at the side of the road and my driver shouts at a guy across the street.  I obviously could not understand him but since a cab driver took a detour the day before to hand some money to a friend, I was learning to expect this behavior.  Anyway, a few minutes later out come two plastic cups filled with boiling hot Arabic coffee.  The driver takes one and hands the other to me.  Um, okay, not what I was expecting, but I’ll take it.  We then take off flying, careening over the potholes, while I’m trying to drink some coffee so it doesn’t spill and simultaneously try not to burn my tongue.  Needless to say, I was wide awake when I got in (late) to work.

My crazy Thursday does not end there.  No, the taxi ride was just the beginning.  By now you must be wondering what this ‘chocolate cake experience’ is.  Well, the week ended with an Anti-Valentine party put on by the Hash (running) group that I’m a part of at a fancy Amman hotel.  Yes, Anti-Valentine.  We got all dressed up, had dinner at the hotel, then lots of dancing to Arabic and English music.  I love the way people dance here, either all together in a loud circle or pretty much doing any kind of move with the arms up.  It was great.  There were some great decorations, like dead cupids hanging off the ceiling, and then a magnificent cake.  Oh, the cake….  It was chocolate (so black instead of traditional Valentine red) and in the shape of a heart that was broken down the middle.  It was wheeled out onto the dance floor then the wait staff lit the ‘candles.’  FYI, Jordanian candles are actually small firecrackers.  Seriously.  So there we are, the chocolate cake with exploding sparklers on top, when the music starts and everyone gets up and starts to dance.  A line starts forming around the cake and as it turns into a circle, the wait staff hands out forks to people when they go by in the line.  Finally, everyone has a fork and we were all dancing and singing in a circle around the cake with the forks in the air.  It was crazy.  Then, the music stopped and everyone dove in.  No plates, no napkins, just 40-50 people taking bites out of the cake with their forks.  I wish I had a video of it, it was the most hilarious/crazy thing I’ve ever seen!!!  I actually don’t even think it was a Jordanian tradition, just some weird thing that happened somehow.  Not sure how something like that just happens though…..

The rest of the weekend was restful and not nearly as exciting.  The Dead To Red relay race is in a week and half though, so I will hopefully have some more good stories soon!!!

Weekend Adventures

Over the weekend my friends and I rented a car and decided to head outside of Amman!  We’d all had pretty long weeks, so the first stop was Ma’In hot springs past the Dead Sea.  On the way we were surprised with a wonderful view of the Dead Sea….

When we got to the hot springs we decided to visit the ones located at the spa instead of the public hot springs.  We decided a few extra JD (Jordanian Dinar) were worth a more comfortable environment.  Somehow after a long week we just weren’t up for the stares we would get being four Western women not wearing burkinis (full body coverage swimsuits).  This was the result!

We even had the women’s only pool to ourselves and got to use a natural cave sauna.  After relaxing at the hot springs, we headed towards the Dead Sea and took pictures and ate lunch at the Dead Sea panorama.

It was a little surreal to know that I was looking at Israel and the West Bank just right on the other side of the water.

Finally, here’s another picture of me!

And this last picture of the Dead Sea has some Bedouin men in the background.  Many men around Jordan, even in Amman, dress like this.  It is the typical dress of Bedouins, or the tribes of the desert.

After the Dead Sea panorama, we made our way back home to Amman.  It’s really nice that everything is so close and that Jordan is a relatively small country because we were able to sleep at home in between excursions!  The next day the same group went plus my friend Revda, who is a Palestinian Jordanian.  Our first stop on Saturday was Mt. Nebo.  Here’s a view from the top:

Me again (obviously)

On top of Mt. Nebo there was a plaque showing the distances of various cities from Mt. Nebo.  As you can see, a lot of famous places are within really close distance and I would have been able to see them had the air not been so dusty.  When I was looking out towards the Dead Sea, Revda came up to me and told me that she was from Bethlehem.  It isn’t even that far away, but again, because she is Palestinian she is unable to even visit.  She tried to get a visa a few years back but was rejected.  She may have had a better chance than most because she’s from Bethlehem and could probably try for a visa since it’s a pilgrimage  site and she’s Christian, but no luck.

Here is the famous cross atop Mt. Nebo:

After Mt. Nebo we drove to the nearby town of Madaba.  Madaba is famous for mosaics in the area’s churches.  While Islam was spreading throughout the Middle East, Christians were still allowed to practice their religion, they just had to pay a tax to the government (unlike the people of other faiths who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition).  They were also allowed to pictorially represent their God even when it was forbidden in Islam.  As a result, there are many churches in the area that have beautiful mosaics that have been preserved in the floors.  At the church in Madaba that I visited, there is a huge mosaic that is actually a map of the region.  It covers modern day Egypt and the Sinai all the way to modern day Syria.  It was impressive (and a little difficult to read).

While in Madaba we also stopped to eat at a delicious restaurant.  I am really enjoying the food here even though I can’t remember all the names of everything.  When I’m out with other people I usually try to have them order because that way I am discovering some new favorites.  I am also downing all the mint lemonade that I can while I’m here.  It’s absolutely delicious and I need to find a good recipe so I can make some when I get home!

It was a wonderful weekend and great to see some more of the area.  On the way home on Saturday night (after going to Mt. Nebo and Madaba) we hit a pothole and got a flat tire in the outskirts of Amman.  While some men were close enough that we sent Revda to ask for help, being a group of only (unveiled) women in that area of East Amman is not something that I would recommend.  Luckily they helped us pretty quickly and we didn’t have to worry about standing on the side of the highway to change a tire.  I can’t even imagine the stares and reaction we would have gotten if we’d changed the tire ourselves…..

All in all, a wonderful weekend!

What a Week

So I know I promised pictures from last weekend, but it turns out that my friends and I weren’t organized enough to rent a car to head out of Amman last weekend.  That ended up working out well because I had a nice Friday exploring coffee shops and jewelry shops downtown and then I actually had to work on Saturday.  There’s been some craziness at work this week trying to get a report that analyzes the findings of our needs assessment with the Syrian refugees finished, so we all needed to get a jump start on that over the weekend.

In addition to lots of work this week, I also started Arabic lessons!!!!  My roommate and I got a private tutor who comes to our apartment to teach us Arabic four hours per week.  I’ve really enjoyed it so far and I’m desperate to learn Arabic, but I have to admit that my brain actually hurt after that first lesson on Sunday…  Anyway, I’m trying to use some of my new vocabulary and hope to fit some studying in this weekend.

I’m so excited for the weekend and I have to say that my week ended on a good note.  After getting ripped off by a taxi driver this morning who rigged the meter, I was a little wary to get in a taxi to head home.  The driver spoke English, however, and told me that he was Palestinian (just like 90% of this country according to his estimate).  We got into a great conversation about Palestine, Israel, and Western intervention (or lack there-of) in this part of the world.  He wanted to make it very clear that what he thought about the US presidents did not necessarily reflect what he thought of me or Americans in general, a sentiment that I do not often find expressed when hearing something negative about the United States.  He has been living in Jordan for almost 50 years and his children were born here.  He told me that he has no idea why he can’t go back to his country and is unable to look his children in the eye when they ask him about going home.  He was also hurt and confused by the fact that foreigners, like me, can go to Palestine when people who are from there cannot.  It was a respectful and insightful conversation, and he wanted me to know that his main message is that he wants to be able to look his children in the eye when they ask him about going home and he wants Americans to know that all he wants is peace and the ability to return home.

When he dropped me off at my stop I reached forward to pay him the fare and he told me it was free.  That never happens.  He wanted me to tell other Americans that Palestinians just want peace and to go home.  As I was getting out of the car he said, “In sha’ allah we will meet again in Palestine.”

In sha’ allah.

This is how I will pay my fare.

Yes, I do work

Although so far my blog has been almost exclusively dedicated to the fun activities I have participated in during my almost three weeks in Amman, I am actually working.  I know many of you are curious to know what I’m doing here and now that I finally have a better idea of what IMC’s projects entail and what I will actually be doing, I figured that it would be a good time for an update.  The basic goal behind the work that IMC does internationally is to improve the quality of health care in emergency situations.  While Jordan is not necessarily facing a current emergency, it has been classified as an emergency setting by the international humanitarian community as a result of the influx of Iraqi refugees following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.  Here in Jordan IMC staffs and operates four primary health care clinics, two in Amman, one in the northern city of Irbid, and one in the city of Zarqa, which operates next to the IMC-run community center Byat Al Kol (Home for All).  I am a part of the mental health and psychosocial support team, which has primarily focused on integrating mental health services into the primary health care clinics.  This way someone who suffers from stress or some sort of mental disorder can seek help without facing the stigma that would likely arise if they visited a specialized mental health clinic.  We have psychiatrists and psychologists at each of the clinics, as well as several case managers at each clinic who are in charge of managing treatment/therapy and the care plan.

The main project I will be working on while in Amman involves the case managers.  They have a lot of work and most have not received a formal social work education.  I am currently developing a treatment protocol for case managers to use in the four main complaints that bring people into the clinic for mental health reasons: depression, suicide, developmental disorders, and psychosomatic or other complaints.  The treatment protocol, once completed, will serve as a guide to tell the case managers what the minimum and recommended course of action is depending on the severity of the person who is seeking services.  When I have finished that, I will develop and implement a training on how to use the guide and on the recommended procedures for case management from intake (getting a new client) to discharge (sending them on their way once they have successfully completed treatment).  I will be creating some type of manual or workbook to go along with the training that IMC will then be able to use for future reference and to hopefully conduct the training with other IMC programs in the region such as Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, or Libya.  It seems like a ton of work for a couple months, but I’m really excited to have this opportunity and to be trusted with something so significant only two weeks into working here.

The other significant project I will be involved in concerns the Syrians who have been coming to Jordan in recent months.  There has been extensive monitoring of Syrians entering the country since the conflict started and UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) is both registering Syrians and closely monitoring the situation.  It seems to be becoming a more significant issue, one that could potentially be turned into a huge funding opportunity for organizations operating in Jordan.  I know that the ‘correct, humanitarian’ way to look at the issue is to be concerned with the Syrians, but it seems to me that a lot of agencies see dollar signs when looking at this situation.  Digression aside, it is definitely becoming more of an issue, and the Syrians who are entering Jordan are in need of security – both in terms of livelihood as well as protection.  IMC has been receiving more and more Syrians as walk-ins in the health clinics, so I am also involved in examining the reports and data to come up with various programs that we can implement to better meet their needs.  I am starting to look at the IASC (Inter-Agency Standing Committee) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and use those to adapt or tailor existing programs to provide appropriate services for the Syrians.  Participating in this project is giving me a very unique perspective on international work and international humanitarian work in particular, and I am very interested to see how the situation develops in the next few months.  If you would like to read more about the guidelines and mental health work in emergencies, you can look at the guidelines here:

Click to access guidelines_iasc_mental_health_psychosocial_june_2007.pdf

Finally, the last project I will be involved with is not as large or as exciting (to me at least).  IMC chairs the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Working Group in Jordan.  This is a collaborative effort among all the agencies that are working in the area of mental health and psychosocial support in Jordan, particularly with Iraqi refugees (since that’s where the money is).  IMC conducts a mapping activity each year to track the services each agency provides so that we can better collaborate and try not to deliver the same services among many different agencies.  This year we are trying to involve the Ministry of Health funded clinics, so I will be adapting the mapping tool so that it better reflects the type of work the MOH is conducting (and so that it reflects their tracking/monitoring cycle).

So, that’s how I am spending five days a week here in Jordan!  As for this weekend, I will be taking a day trip out of Amman (destination to be decided) with my roommate and two other girls that live in my building.  It should be fun and I will take my camera so I can post more pictures.

Happy February!

Running in Jordan

So it seems like I have some sort of adventure running anytime I’m living in a new country.  I went on my first run in Jordan on Monday and while it was definitely different than running in the US, it was also extremely different than any of the ‘runs’ I went on in Honduras.

I was invited to join a hashing group (which you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) by a girl from Portland who lives in my building.  I was a little nervous about proper attire, running around the streets of Amman, etc., but I ended up having a blast.  My clothes weren’t too big of a deal and I was plenty covered since it was cold, but it was also dark, which was nice.  There was a group of 20 or so people running so I also didn’t have to worry about being the crazy gringa (or Arab equivalent) and was instead just a part of a crazy group of people running around.  We definitely got a lot of stares since I haven’t seen anyone else out running.  We ran through a few neighborhoods and even got police permission to run past the prime ministry (which we had to keep getting each time we ran into a set of armed guards)!  I had a great time and am hoping to run with this group each Monday evening.

After the run I sort of got talked into participating in a relay race.  You know, the kind like Hood to Coast where a team runs from one location to another?  Well, this one is across the desert starting at the Dead Sea and ending at the Red Sea.  Keep in mind, I’ve barely run in two months and am currently on track to run once per week-ish.  It’s 150 miles total and we’ll have somewhere between 5 and 10 people on the team.  Okay, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really have to get talked into it, it was more like I jumped at the chance to do something this cool while I’m here, in shape or not 🙂  The race is on March 1 so I suppose I’d better get running…..

Home

First Weekend in Amman!

I have now spent my first weekend in Amman!  Work ended for the week last Thursday (since Friday is the holy day here), so I celebrated the end of my first week with a trip out to Rainbow Street, one of the most popular bar and restaurant destinations in the city.  It has a nice set of restaurants and I went to a somewhat Italian place with some friends for some pizza and wine.  Although religion mandates abstaining from alcohol, I can definitely say that at least some people here drink…. it just may be only within certain groups of friends.  Either way, I had some delicious pizza and wine followed with some ice cream, so it was a good night for me.

A view of Amman

On Friday my roommate had signed up for a cooking class and invited me to join.  The cooking school ended up being just around the corner from our apartment and the woman in charge had a beautiful set up for us on a balcony overlooking some of the city.  There was a large group of us, a mix of international folk and Jordanians, and it was really fun.  We learned how to cook three main dishes (two lamb dishes and one chicken), four appetizers/dips, two salads (tabbouleh and fattoush) and a dessert.  All of the food was delicious!

Roasting the eggplants for the mutabal

Another view of the city from the balcony

The finished eggplants – roasted long enough to give a nice smoky flavor!  And I still look pretty tired and jet-lagged at this point….

The mutabal on the left (eggplant dip) and muhamara on the right (delicious red bell pepper and walnut dip).  These were my two favorites.

Here we have the main dishes – siniyet kafta – both lamb but in different sauces and one with potatoes, one with tomatoes

My lunch!  With a little bit of everything…

Needless to say, it was a wonderful afternoon.  I got to continue my exploring on Saturday with a visit to downtown.  There were a lot of street vendors and food markets, it was fun to just walk around and explore a little bit.  I went with my roommate and a Dutch girl who lives in my building and after we had walked around for a while, we stopped to get a snack in a popular restaurant downtown.  We shared some lebeneh (strained yogurt) and some delicious sauce with eggplant in it (lots of eggplant here) while watching people smoke the nageelah, known as hookah in the US.  It was a really fun outing and I think I got a good dose of the city in my first weekend here.

My work projects should be finalized this week, so I’ll be able to update soon about that as well.  Hope the winter at home isn’t too bad!

Working with International Medical Corps

Has it really only been five days?  It feels like I’ve been here for awhile already and I can’t believe it was less than a week ago when I left.    I got to take advantage of my first day here to get unpacked and get settled into my apartment, in addition to trying to get some rest.  On Monday I went to the IMC office for the first time to go through some trainings, briefings, and to meet everyone at the office.  Everyone so far is really nice, which I’m not surprised since I’d heard wonderful things about Jordanians, and very welcoming.  I’m really excited to have the opportunity to complete my internship with IMC.

My first week was great.  I’ve been pretty busy trying to catch up on all the programs the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing team runs (the team that I’m a part of) in addition to the extra work the organization has taken on.  There is a a mental health working group (collaboration activity between all the organizations – NGOs and UN agencies – who are working on mental health initiatives) that meets once a week and I got to attend my first meeting this week.  It was really interesting to go and see what different agencies have to say, particularly on some issues that I may be working on later.

I met with my supervisor this week about possible projects for me to work on while I’m here.  They’re all pretty exciting, but nothing has been finalized yet.  I’ll spend next week doing some more shadowing and visiting a couple of the clinics that IMC operates, then meet with my supervisor again at the end of next week to set my work plan.  I’ll let everyone know what I’ll be working on when that gets figured out.

After spending so much time in Latin America, it’s a little weird not being able to speak the language.  I’ve picked up a couple words here and there and know how to tell a taxi driver to take me to work and home, but I really want to learn some more Arabic. I will hopefully be taking some Arabic classes soon, so I’ll let you know how that progresses.

The apartment situation is great.  I’m having fun getting to know my roommate and my place is really comfortable.  Here are a  few pictures: 

My room!  I have a wardrobe that you can’t see, but have decorated my wals with some nice pictures that I brought from home!  The next picture is from my front door.  It’s a little dark, but you can see the kitchen and the view I have out the window.

 

Finally, the last picture is directly out the window in the kitchen.  It’s not the best view of Amman, but I have some better ones that I will be putting up soon….