Pictures are worth a thousand words

Time is flying by. The past several weeks I have been busy working at the school, studying Arabic, exploring Madaba and the surrounding areas a bit, finding out where my future site will be (!), playing with the kiddos, eating too much sugar, and learning to cook all sorts of things.

My host family and I dining in Madaba

I learned to make duwali!!(beef and rice stuffed grape leaves)

Cooking is a family effort

The crew making some sabanekh

Sabanekh! Spinach and onions and spices in doughy goodness. (I rolled the ones that are slightly burnt and awkward looking) 

Showing off.

Last week, I found out where I will be permanently living, beginning January 15th. I will be working in a k-9 all girls school in a town in the governate of Ajloun. The town is about 25,000 people and everyone has been telling me how beautiful it is there. There are lots of trees, perhaps not by my Seattle standards, but by Jordanian standards yes.

I'm about 75 km away from Amman.

My Peace Corps supervisors on our site announcement day! 

In Jordan, the semester is winding down and exams have begun which means there are no regular classes. My month of teaching in Ma'in has come to a close, and we finished with an all staff Mansef lunch celebration.

Myself, Georgina and Elenoire, 4 of the English teachers and our Mudira (principle) on the right.

I have gotten to explore Madaba a bit.

Downtown Madaba- wonderful cake shop on the right and the Cap (not a typo) on the left.

Sunset over Madaba, taken from my Host-Grandma's home.

Journey from Madaba to Ma'in

From my village you can see the Dead Sea. We drove to the viewpoint after a long day in Madaba. This is the closest I've gotten so far but will get down there for a float before long.

Sunset over the Dead Sea.