What is Jordan?

The territory encompassed by the modern nation of Jordan has been inhabited by humans for about 250,000 years, including the civilizations of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans and Ottoman Turks. The area of the capital, Amman, has been settled since around 8500 BC. The first week we were here we took a field trip down from the hotel to the Citadel, an ancient fortress site, and ate falafel and shwarma on some relatively recent Roman ruins (built around 170 AD). [edit: see pics below!] The site of the oldest church in the world, dating from around 33 AD, is at Rihab 40km south of Amman.

The country’s western border is the Jordan River, which flows from the mountains in Lebanon and Syria to the north down to the Red Sea. Iraq and Saudi Arabia are to the east. Across the river is the West Bank and Israel. Overlooking the Jordan Valley south of Amman is Mount Nebo, in the biblical land of Moab, where Moses showed the promised land of Canaan to the Israelites. We’ll take some pictures of the view and post them when we get to visit later on.

Obviously there’s a little too much history here for one blog post. More recently, during World War I, Faisal, the ruler of Mecca, and his brother Abdullah led Arab fighters in revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was fighting alongside Germany against the Allies. TE Lawrence (“of Arabia”) helped the Arabs in a campaign that ended with Arab control of the area that is now Jordan, the Arabian Peninsula and southern Syria.

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 the Allies gave the territory of Iraq to Faisal and the area from Iraq west to the Jordan River to Abdullah. Abdullah made Amman the capital of the new state of Trans-Jordan, which became fully independent from Britain in 1946, with Abdullah ruling as king.

In the aftermath of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, King Abdullah gained control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The king proclaimed a new state within the enlarged territory, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

King Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951, and his 17-year-old grandson, Hussein, became king. After the Six Day War, in 1967, Jordan lost control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Over the next 25 years, King Hussein became known for skillful diplomacy, moderation and successful governance of the young nation, culminating in a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. After Hussein’s death in 1999, his son Abdullah took the throne. King Abdullah II’s commitment to continuing his father’s work in developing Jordan into a thriving modern state includes partnering with the Peace Corps in projects to improve the lives of his people, which is where Anne and I come in. More about the specifics of that later.

amman citadel

While in Amman, Peace Corps staff treated us to a bus ride through town, to the Amman Citadel. We enjoyed looking out over the city, seeing some amazing archeological finds like some Dead Sea scrolls (?!?!!), and ending with a sunset picnic of the world’s best falafel & shwarma.

For more information, on the Amman Citadel, clicky clicky: here & here

{did you know amman was once called philadelphia?}

{a’sallameowlakum}

{amman}

{amman citadel}

{not too shabby}

{feeling very wes anderson}

{foreshadowing of many questions to come}

{coliseum}

{lookin out over the city}

{youth developer}

{special educator}

{history}

{tradition}

{one of many youngster peace corps trainees}

{sunset picnic}

{you may say i’m a dreamer}

{wish you were here}

amman

We were able to sleep in a little the first day, which was nice because even though most of us were exhausted, we had trouble sleeping due to being extremely excited. Dave & I thought we would be a little nervous to be so far away and in a new place, but we are happy to report feeling very welcomed, safe, and happy! AND WELL FED! We have to do a whole separate entry about food.

Our group of Peace Corps trainees is about 40 strong. While there are definitely more female volunteers, it really is a diverse group that we think pretty fairly represents the U.S. Included in the group are African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Dave the 1/2 Mexican-American, and some 1st and 2nd generation Americans. There are 4 married couples, and we think we have been married the longest and are the oldest, but not by much. There seem to be many people in their 20’s but a third of the trainees are over 50- one woman served in the 1st group that went to Ghana in 1961, which is really amazing & comforting! Another woman has a daughter who is currently serving in Peace Corps Bulgaria. A few people already speak Arabic but most of us are just starting out. We have a three people who just completed service in other countries.

After an brief initial orientation in Amman, we each moved in with host families. Because of the gender separation, it is more difficult to place men, so all of them are paired and live in apartments attached to the family homes. These apartments will soon be used by sons who will marry and bring their brides home. We are in the north and from the road out of Anne’s village you can often see signs for the Syrian & Iraqi borders. There are a handful of trainees and a language/cultural facilitator in each village. For the record, we are “trainees” until we finish pre-service training in our villages and pass an oral language proficiency test. We mostly focus on speaking & reading basic survival  Arabic during training and will soon begin more focused training in our specialty. Insha’allah we will be sworn-in as official volunteers in early January and then the two years of service will officially begin...

{first day of school}

{from amman hotel room}

{the king & queen welcome us to orientation}

{immunizations here- not creepy at all}

{flags everywhere remind you where you are}

{colorful hijabs in the mall}

{bedazzled turtle not for sale}

{morning stroll}

{cats of jordan, take one}

germany to amman

Touchdown Frankfurt. This stop involved a 10 hour layover and fortunately we were treated an airport hotel room where we could shower & relax. It was really difficult not to sleep the entire time.

{massive 747}

{view from our room in frankfurt}

{hotel restaurant}

{delicious trout}

{german trees}

{dizzy return to the airport}

{four hours later-- amman!}

At about 2:00am, we arrived to a very warm welcome in Amman. Many Peace Corps Jordan staff & volunteers were there to greet us. We could not believe we were actually in the Middle East!

Besides one of Dave’s bags not showing up, everything went very smoothly for the entire group. We were allowed to take one of our two big bags, and then a man & a young boy loaded up the other bags & took a truckload ahead to our center training site. We meet at the center for 2 days/one night a week, for most of our pre-service training period. 

{warm welcome & name tags}

{anne with sultan- peace corps jordan staff, holding pc logo}

{dave before realizing one of his bags was missing}

We could not believe we were actually here and could not get to sleep until after the dawn call to prayer-which was something neither of us had ever heard before. It was beautiful and sounded like it was coming from at least a few of the nearby mosques.

{snacks and info}

{hurrah for the western toilet!}

about the bidet...

philly to nyc

By the time we arrived in Amman on October 25th, we had spent about 26 hours traveling from staging in Philadelphia. Here are some photos from Philly and the bus trip to NYC-- more specifically, JFK Airport.

{two bags each + carry on = 27 months}

{full moon philly cab ride}

{we heart christina}

 {ben franklin}

{obligatory cheesesteak}

{let the role plays begin}

{leonard- rpcv paraguay, staging director, & fellow st. ed’s grad}

{bus ride leaving philly}

{nyc bound}

{waiting in jfk international terminal}

{more waiting}

{lufthansa sardine can}

We have some internet connection here and will try to upload as many pictures as we can, but we only have internet during center days- assuming the connection is up. This is also the only time we see each other, as we live in separate villages due to being in separate sectors. Anne’s primary assignment is in Special Education. Dave’s is in Youth Development. 

If you have any questions, email us & we will be happy to reply when we are given an opportunity! If it is possible, we will post it to the blog. Thank you to all our family & friends who sent us off with warm wishes, love, and support-- you mean the world to us!!!!