Baa baa black sheep have you on the moon

During the first 3 months of Peace Corps, known as Pre-service training (PST), we live with a host family, have about 25 hours/week of formal Arabic class, co-teach English classes twice a week, and spend Sundays and Mondays in Madaba at “the center” with Peace Corps Volunteers and staff. It's busy but good. I may still be in what some call the honeymoon phase, but I can honestly say that I love just about everyone I have met so far- volunteers, staff, and locals.

Today was another long day at “the center” in Madaba where Peace Corps trains volunteers on just about everything imaginable- different styles of teaching, how to teach along side Jordanians, cultural norms, how to use a Turkish toilet (really), safety, health, and so on. We are taught how to integrate ourselves as effectively as possible into a new culture.

And here I am, week 3 of living on the opposite side of the world, immersed in a lifestyle that I perceived would be so different from my own. There are a lot of differences I have noticed, some I anticipated, some not, and it is really nice to have Peace Corps’ support to discuss these. But more importantly I have learned that although cultures and traditions and languages differ from place to place, people are people. We socialize over good food, awe at cute babies, cheer when we kill the mosquito that has been flying around the room for the past hour with a single clap, eat sweets, yawn a lot in the morning, feel better after a cup or 3 of coffee, practically pull teeth to get kids up and ready for school on time, ignore 2 year old tantrums, laugh a lot, visit, feel sad saying goodbyes, and love our families and friends more than anything. We just don’t see that stuff on the news. We read about the bad stuff and create this skewed idea of “the other”.

Center days are from about 8am-6pm so by the time I got home today (home being a village about 10 km Southwest of Madaba), I was hoping to nap/read/study Arabic. However, today being a particularly windy and rainy day, the power went out which causes extra excitement and pandemonium in a house full of kids (8, 5, and 2). I got out my headlamp and we lit candles and made shadow puppets on the wall, forts out of blankets, ate popcorn on the kitchen floor, and tried to keep Khalad (age 2) from knocking down candles and potentially burning the house down. It’s probably been my favorite night so far. Jana evidently just learned the song baa baa black sheep at school and sings it ALL THE TIME but her rendition goes something like “baa baa black sheep have you on the moon, yessir yessir tree tree tree…”. Her and her older sister Noor are 2 of my favorite people ever.

Alhamdulillah(thank God), everything is going wonderfully. I feel so very blessed to be here!