The Credits - Family and Friends

This is a quick post thanking the people who made my trip to Jordan possible, and so worthwhile:

My Jordanian Host Family and Roommates:

From L-R: Me, Sittii (Host Grandma, aka "Mama"), Sahel (Host Brother), 

Matt (Roommate #2), and Hala (Host Mom)

Here's one with Hala, me, Sittii, and Chris (Roommate #1)

Here's Me, Anna (Our Family's Housekeeper), and Matt

My host family and roommates were great.  In the case of my host family, they were welcoming and went over and beyond what I had expected, and helped mightily in introducing me to Arab culture and food, and the Arabic language.

• Hala - is my host mom.  She is gracious, outgoing, and worldly, with a bit of sass (the good kind).  She isn't afraid to say what she thinks, and always went the extra mile to accommodate Chris, Matt and I.  She is currently working part time as an office manager, and enjoys travelling and meeting people.  She has traveled to much of Europe, Australia, and all over the US.

• Sittii, or as the family calls her, Mama - is Hala's and Sahel's mom, and is our host grandma.  She is extremely nice, a fantastic cook, expert Sheddeh (card game, similar to gin rummy) player, and is the matriarch of the part of the family that lives in Amman (the family's roots are in Karak, in southern Jordan).  

• Sahel - is our host brother.  He enjoys talking about life and cars, and joking around with Chris, Matt, and I.  He is a fan of Bollywood and action movies (not mutually exclusive categories), and discovered a love of karaoke during the summer.  His background is in hotel management, but he currently works in marketing/inventory management at a high-end housewares company down the road.

• Anna - is our housekeeper.  She is from Indonesia and has been living with the family for about two years.  She is trying to learn English and Arabic.

• Abeer - is Hala's and Sahel's sister.  She is married to Khalil and is the mom of Sandra and Sara.  Abeer is also very nice, and took an interest in my studies and attempts to progress in my Arabic proficiency.  She also is the mom of 12 year-old Sandra and 7 year-old Sara, which led to one interesting conversation in particular about whether kids appreciate what their parents do for them (a conversation that I've certainly heard before in the US).  I think the answer is, yes, but they won't admit it to you (or themselves) until they are a lot older.  Khalil is a cool guy, and he taught me about feeling "zain" (although I still prefer Orange...).  Sandra is a champion swimmer, and an avid reader of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Sara is a pretty typical cute 7-year old. 

From time to time, other friends and family would drop by to catch up and/or play some Sheddeh.  It was great meeting all of them.

• Chris and Matt - were my roommates for the first and second months of the summer.  They were both cool and great to be around.  Known for his trademark "yaanii...heh heh" catchphrase, Chris lives in Brooklyn and worked at the Arab-American Association in NYC.  Therefore, he was probably the closest to fluent among the students in the program.  He is beginning doctoral studies on Arab reformist thinkers from the beginning of the 20th Century.  Matt is a rising sophomore at Northeastern University (go CAA), majoring in Chemistry with sub-specialties in Physics AND Arabic (ouch).  Matt threw himself into learning about the culture and language in Jordan and is a good kid (despite letting the cabbies get away with a few scams).

Aziz and His Family:

Me, Aziz, and the hubbly bubbly

• Aziz - is my language exchange partner.  He is around the same age as I and is studying English at AMIDEAST, where he is at the top of his class.  He is an accountant, but is interested in studying abroad, either in the US or Australia, with the eventual goal of teaching.  Aziz is very gracious and family-oriented, and was nice enough to treat me as part of his family despite the fact we only met a few times.  He has a delightful young daughter, Huda.  He lives southeast of Abdali (I believe), near the Saqr Mosque.

AMIDEAST Instructors:

The instructors at AMIDEAST, on loan from the Qasid Institute, were top-notch.

Me, Brian, and Ustaadh Amer - 

matching outfits and matching thoughts of smoking chicken in Honolulu

Ustaadha Bayan and her class (minus Maddie) -

What's with the lighting?  I look like I'm part of a cult (the cult of Bad Shabaab)

• Ustaadh Amer - was responsible for the grammar lectures in our MSA classes.  He knows his stuff and is very responsive to student requests.  He also liked to laugh a lot and found humor in many things, such as smoked chickens and the stampede scene in The Lion King, and he has a dream of visiting Honolulu someday.  I used to like to try to think of outrageous things to say to see if it would set him off.

• Ustaadha Bayan - was primarily responsible for the language lab exercises in our MSA classes.  This summer was her first summer teaching American students and it took some time for she and us to find a rapport, but things worked out in the end.  I think the other students tended to identify with her the most as she was close to their ages.  We tried to make it a point to nurture the internal Gangsta' (or Bad Shabaab) she had locked inside of her conservative exterior.

• Duktuur Ali - taught the Colloquial Arabic course during our second month.  His classroom style is to be very animated, and he was a walking Arabic iTunes library, given how often he'd break out a song lyric in class.

AMIDEAST Staff:

We had a terrific staff in Amman that made things flow quite smoothly for us.  Hala was our mother hen, always there for advice.  Subhi was the suavest jack-of-all-trades that you could find. Mohammed was the go-to fix-it guy, and did heroic duty trying to save my camera, which died on my second day in Jordan.  Nagwan was always there to lend a hand as well.  Thanks all for all you did.

AMIDEAST Students:

It was fun, y'all (even if none of you understood the true scope of my work).  Good luck in the future.  Don't be bad shabaab.

Others:

In no particular order, thanks as well to all of the people I met during the summer, including Ranim Elborai (I need to try that ice cream sometime); the cops at the Public Security Directorate down the road on Mukhabarat Street, for the time spent BS'ing; the crew at Titanic Tours, in particular our tour bus driver and tour guide on our Petra/Wadi Rum/Aqaba weekend; Ammun and the rest of the conflict resolution students; Samuel and my other friends from the Hash; John at the Cafe Paris karaoke nights, even if you never found a version of "Friday" that we could sing; the guys at Ward & Kebab and Lebnani Snack; Creepy Kwifiyyeh Guy; the people on the party buses; the guys at Tropical Desert Tours for a great time in Wadi Hasa; Saneh the barber for a great haircut; the security guards and rest of the staff at AMIDEAST; the lady at the school supply store off of Wakalat Street who kept breaking my 50 JD bills; the relatives and friends of my host family who were nice enough to try to converse with me despite my beginner-level Arabic; the vendors I met in Jabal Hussein; the rest of Aziz' family and the fruit vendor we visited; the cabbies; and last but not least, Iman Maiki and Marwa Elborai, who first pointed me in the direction of Jordan for my study abroad.