Soba living

The Energy Harbinger suggested more content and pictures. So… more content, but I keep forgetting to take pictures. I will try to remember and have a bunch for the next post. Sometimes I feel that if I take pictures it kills the moment...

I am still in the midst of pre-service training, which means I am living with a host family in a village and attending Arabic classes 5 days a week. On Sundays and Mondays, we go into the city, Madaba, for technical training (on TEFL, international development, etc). This is when I have internet! We also had practicum at a school in our village, which ended last week. Pre-service training ends on January 15^th when we will be sworn in and then the day after, we move to our permanent sites.

There were a few December birthdays in our training group, so some people put together a small party. We sang Happy Birthday, ate strawberry shortcake, and had a few laughs. I think we have a diverse group of thoughtful, good people. I did, however, have a bout of homesickness on my birthday. I remembered how much fun I have with my friends and family in the States. I think I have been mostly in a daze here. It is slowly wearing off and there are those times when I feel overwhelmed by the fact that I am actually here. Those are the times that I look down and see that I am walking on some kind of holy ground. A few weeks ago, I visited Ishtafayna, the birthplace of the first Christian martyr Steven. I stayed with another volunteer and we walked to the remains of an old byzantine church on the hill, Mar Elias. The hill overlooks the town where the prophet Elijah (Elias) was said to have been born. Take a look at these old mosaics!

This is as far as I went. All I could think about was King Tut's cursed, tomb air. 

I found out that I will be living in Orjan, Ajloun for the next two years. I will be teaching English at a girls’ secondary school. Many have told me that this is probably the best site in Jordan. While that is debatable (there are too many beautiful places here), I feel way too lucky to be living in Orjan. It is in the mountains, with many, many trees. It is about 10 minutes from Ishtafayna, so you can kind of get an idea what it looks like from those pictures above.

I visited Orjan last week and stayed with my principal. Her family is Christian and it was kind of a culture shock to walk into their home and see a huge Christmas tree and decorations. Her house is in Ajloun, the nearest big city to Orjan (about 30 minutes away). We walked out into their backyard and picked pomelos, oranges, clementines, lemons, apricots, and kumkuats. Behind these trees I could see the city clinging to the sides of the valley that slopes into the town center. It's really, really beautiful. I will take pictures instead of trying to do it justice. What a life!

The weather has started to get pretty cold here when the sun is down and because the houses are not very insulated, we rely on small, gas (sometimes electric) heaters called sobas to heat the living room. We spend a lot more time together because all the heat is concentrated in one room. Hence, my stupid pun. 

As for the end o’ the world, it came and went. And now… I have to renew my driver’s license and finish my master’s degree. Damn.

I hope this blog finds you safe and moderately happy.