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}