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January 29, 2005
Welcome
I would like to welcome all of you who received my e-mail this morning and invite you to read the previous posts which will offer some interesting background about my trip. I hope you enjoy it.
Tonight I leave Boston on an 8:10pm flight to Paris where I will meet two other people from my program and hop on a flight to Amman. I will not get into Amman until late Sunday night (Amman time) so it will be a long trip. I have stocked up on good snacks though and hope that I can just relax before my crazy semester begins. Amman is 7 hours ahead of Boston time and 8 hours ahead of Minnesota time so I will hopefully not be fighting jet lag when I get there.
Hope to hear from everyone soon!
Posted by rcollins at 10:31 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 19, 2005
Some Background
I am leaving Minnesota tomorrow morning so I asked my brother if he wanted me to bring him back a kaffiyeh from Jordan. When I asked him this, he stared at me blankly because he had no idea what a kaffiyeh is. A kaffiyeh is the traditional head garb worn by Arab men, especially in the Palestinian and Jordan areas. While looking for an explanation and a picture of the kaffiyeh, I came across the above site. The site explains the different turban that men wear, including the Kaffiyeh. Although the Kaffiyeh is not actually a turban, it is included in the list.
It is really interesting to see all of the head garb together and compare the pictures. Make sure to check it out.
Posted by rcollins at 9:23 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 15, 2005
Some notes on the conflict.
The Other Side of the Tracks: A Family Dinner in East Amman
This article was passed along to me and I really thought it gave a great explanation of the turmoil in the region. It makes me excited to understand these feelings for myself. When I say I am going to Jordan, many people don't really understand why I would choose to go to a region that seems so dangerous. I, however, think that it is personal experiences like the one in this article that can actually give insite into how to end the violence. Anyways, just read the article for yourself.
Posted by rcollins at 3:35 PM | TrackBack
January 14, 2005
Jordan: The Soundtrack
I decided that before I go to Jordan I should brush up on my Arabic music. I found some songs that seem to be popular music but they are just gibberish to me. Of course they are very catchy and get stuck in my head as I'm trying to fall asleep at night. Especially this one particular song so I thought maybe I would understand it better if I saw the lyrics written. So that is when I found this:
Allah 3aleek ya sidi
Albak dab fi eedy 2x
Albak nawili maksuf yinadili
Wi shta' tiyawili wi shou ramaani
3ainak fi 3ainy matulshi nasini
Da'nta ya muna3ini maghlu 3ashani 2x
Yeah, that is even more confusing. But at least now I can follow along with the gibberish! Let's hope that this gets easier to understand when I get to Jordan.
I read yesterday that when I arrive in Jordan I will immediately begin three weeks of intensive Arabic training. I'm a little nervous about this because I feel like I am in a weird place with my Arabic training. I have enough to be familiar with the language but I am not fluent. And from looking at the list of participants it seems like there are some who are of Arab descent and then the rest are like me. However, it is impossible to know how much Arabic these people have had. I spoke with a former participant and she went in knowing nothing! I can't even imagine how nervous I would be if I didn't know anything. Well, I guess all I can do is wait and brush up on what I do know. Better go back to studying. . .
Posted by rcollins at 1:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
That's it, I'm moving!
'95% of citizens to be covered by health insurance within 2 years'
So now, not only do nice Scandinavian countries have universal heathcare, but backwards Middle Eastern countries do too. It's so hard for me to understand why Americans don't want universal healthcare while so much of the rest of the world makes healthcare a priority. Everybody else seems to understand that it is important. . .
My libertarian friends would tell me that the quality of healthcare suffers under programs like this and yet Jordan has the best medical care in the region. Yes, I know it is the Middle East and that Iraq is not much for competition, however, Jordan's facilities are still amazing. I recently found out that the Mayo clinic has had international telemedicine projects with Jordan. This means that one of the best American medical facilities trusts them and partners with them! How can that be 'lower quality' healthcare?
Anyways, I really found this article interesting because Jordan is by no means a rich country and yet it prioritizes health care. It might also be interesting to think about the fact that Jordan has about 25 AIDS cases in the entire country and yet they see that number much too large. It seems to me that even though the Jordanian government isn't perfect according to the United States's standards, it still manages to care for its people. Some days, that is more than I can say about the United States government. . . and yet we are still so adament about exporting our form of Democracy.
Posted by rcollins at 7:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 10, 2005
A little more educational entertainment.
While I'm at home I have been brushing up on some of my Arabic vocabulary. I have take three semesters of Arabic and feel pretty confident most days that I will be able to understand limited conversations. I do have some holes in my vocabulary though because the stories about Maha and Khalled that are included in my Arabic textbook seem to use really weird vocabulary. I can tell you how to dump your girlfriend in Arabic so you can date an engineer but I couldn't tell you the months of the year.
Anyways, I found this great song while I was looking for an on-line Arabic dictionary. If you study it long enough you may be able to learn the Arabic alphabet. (make sure you are not in a silent computer lab or you may have to explain that odd noise comimg from your computer) Have fun!
Posted by rcollins at 11:29 PM | TrackBack
Some fun while we are waiting.
While looking for pictures of camels to entertain us all, I came across this. Also, check out this site dedicated only to camels. Have fun!
Posted by rcollins at 1:12 AM | TrackBack
January 7, 2005
What to wear?
So one of the most interesting problems I have run into while deciding what to pack is what I am expected to wear while in Jordan. There are some general guidelines that the program gives but I am beginning to believe that they just aren't specific enough.
I mean, I know that I can't wear shorts and skirts need to be past my knees but the idea of "short sleeves" is a little abiguous. I have been looking for photos of people in Jordan but they are really hard to find. So far, the most promising photos show girls with some t-shirts on but mostly they have at least 3/4 length slevees on.
Today I went to look at clothing possibilities that the local shops had to offer and was a little dissapointed. Everything is either short sleeve or tight fitting. One of the guidelines is that it should be "loose fitting" clothing which is almost impossible to find in any section but the grandma section.
Hopefully, with a little patience I will be able to find some stuff that will work. And hopefully I don't offend anyone's religious views. That would be a very bad thing.
Posted by rcollins at 8:57 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 4, 2005
All the Comforts of Amman
His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday receives US Senator John Kerry
at the Royal Court. (Photo by Yousef Allan)
Since pictures of King Abdullah are supposed to be everywhere in Jordan (think Stalinist Russia), I figured that my blog needed one as well. And I particularly like this one. :)
Posted by rcollins at 9:40 PM | TrackBack
All the Comforts of Home
'From bean to cup': Starbucks has arrived!
My daily reading the the Jordan Times (the largest English language newspaper in Jordan) led me to the above article. I enjoyed this article for two reasons: first, is it comforting that I will be able to pretend I'm in America if things get too crazy while abroad but the second reason is because I also found the article absolutely hysterical.
Jordan is in the unique position of trying to balance between the Western world and the Arab world. I know this doesn't actually sound unique because it seems as if every developing nation has this struggle, but Jordan isn't just bargining for aid money. Jordan actually has political power at this point and has the desire to use it. This means that the government simultaneously kisses up to America and Syria, a balancing act that is very dangerous to do.
This is the reason that the article is so funny. After the general information that the first half of the article offers, the second half of the article deals with the controversy that starting a Starbucks in Amman created. It talks about how Starbucks is westernizing a very traditional culture surounding coffee consumption in the Middle East and about the labor problems that Starbucks has had in California. However, none of that really matters because "it (Starbucks) withdrew all of its outlets from Israel in April 2003". So in other words, yes it is destroying our culture but at least it isn't dealing with those darn Jews.
And that right there is what makes me so excited to experience this region from the other side for a while. Yes, I find it kind of silly that someone would actually print that but I also know that it is a symptom of a deeper problem or misunderstanding. Their (the Jordanian's) priorities seem so different that I am a bit scared of what I could find out. Yet, I know that the only way we can ever live peacefully is to eliminate the need for these dangerous balancing acts that have arisen by truly understanding their place in international diplomacy. Hopefully I will be able to bring back a small piece of that understanding.
Posted by rcollins at 9:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack