So, what do you do there? Part I: YD, Generally

The front room of my center.

Great question. I’m going to try and post a little more about my actual job as a Youth Development volunteer, as I learn it a little bit more every day inshallah.

Peace Corps is a firm believer in “experiential learning” which, despite what some snarky PCVs may tell you, is emphatically not the same thing as “making it up as you go along.” It really just means observing things, participating in them, and taking the time afterwards to reflect on what you’ve done, where things might be headed and what action you can take to nudge things in a positive direction.

As I’ve been experientially learning my job these past almost six months, it’s best summed up in the unofficial Peace Corps Jordan credo, “be flexible.”

Peter & Christa have an awesome roof, mashallah.

Anyways, in Peace Corps “youth development” work falls somewhere on the border between the education and community development sectors. YD volunteers work with young people at various levels of the educational system, sometimes all at once (as when local university students volunteer to help put on a program for local middle- and high-school-age students, something we’re hoping to pull off later this summer). But we also work with local people and groups organized to help their neighbors and themselves.

Ideally, a Peace Corps volunteer working in youth development will be helping build the skills of the young beneficiaries of the program as well as the local actors implementing the program. In a country as young as Jordan (70% of the population is under 30), pretty much every development issue (education, jobs, the environment) affects young people. “Youth development” work starts to seem pretty broad.

Worldwide, Peace Corps focuses it by organizing it into three (again, broad) themes: family life, working, and citizenship. I’m paraphrasing a lot of Peace Corps documents and manuals but that’s the gist of it. Family life encompasses things that help young people become healthy adults, including physical health, mental and emotional health, and learning to communicate and make decisions. Basically everything that UNICEF calls “life skills.”

I hear you asking, “but Dave, how are you supposed to give good advice to kids about this stuff?” Shut up.

If you click on that life skills link you’ll notice that in the development world these things are often associated with a particular public health issue that Peace Corps doesn’t work on here, but that’s a story for another post.

The second theme, working, is pretty straightforward: programs that build practical skills for participation in economic life. Here in Jordan, that has typically meant doing stuff like teaching English, but this summer we’re also rolling out a pretty impressive program developed by two of our volunteer colleagues for teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. More on that after a successful field run next month, inshallah.

The last theme, citizenship, is stuff like promoting civic engagement and volunteerism, stuff that falls under the category of service learning in the States. Here in Jordan it also covers interesting efforts around girls’ empowerment and brings up a lot of complicated issues related to the heavily youth-involved character of recent events in the region. When young people make up 70% of the population, a society has a vital interest in making sure that they are constructively engaged in community life.

As guests in this country we only touch lightly around the edges of these matters. But the meaning and practice of citizenship is great fodder for the cultural exchange that is the heart of our work here, especially once we have the Arabic skills to talk about it! As always, more on that later.

This is an overview of youth development work in Peace Corps generally, as I understand it. The next post in this series will give more detail about how we go about actually developing these here youths in Jordan. Until then, الله يسلمك !

the holiday wrap-up part three: the nature reserve and the resurrected squat toilet

And then there was Easter. Dave spent most of this week at the National Youth Games. He is on the committee that works with the Higher Council for Youth, and will help plan for next year’s event and transition. Hopefully he can post pictures later. 

During this time, Anne planned a two-day hike in the nearby Dana (pronounced “Donna”) Nature Reserve which turned into a painful but gorgeous one-day hike, extremely fun overnight camping, and long but beautiful, sometimes frightening (curving mountains without seat belts) three hour ride back to civilization. Apparently the hiking boots were a tad too small and the pack too heavy. Thank you, Andrea for taping my feet! Anne went home with lots of bruises and gross blisters. Was it worth it? Heck yeah! Just wish those expensive boots could have made it to another volunteer instead of one flying out the back of the truck, lost to a wadi forever. 

{dana village}

{we ♥ dann + andrea}

{the women}

{we walked down into the wadi/valley}

{lookin’ shebtastic- shebob means unmarried man*}

*two of them are married but i just like to say shebtastic!

{rocky + beautiful}

{ comin’ around the mountain- just sunny, not grumpy. yet}

{gorgeous weather}

{about an hour or so later}

{crazy millipede thingy why do you need so many legs?}

{goats keepin it real}

{nature lookin good}

{huge spider lookin scary}

{first spot of fuchsia oleanders}

{oasis}

{my dogs were barkin- notice how far back i am}

{caves!}

{amazing tree}

{GORP rock}

{wandering along}

{oleander bonanza}

{don’t know what this is but i like it}

{oleander + goat looking pretendy}

{camel smiling even tho his feet are tied}

{dropped off outside reserve so we can camp}

{rocks}

{jesus sky}

{a very peace corps photo*}

*the kid's dad came over to tell us that we might not want to set up our tents on the grave sites... one which was a too-good-to-be-true step down bathroom. hindsight 20/20. i apologize.

{hoping it rains after we set up our tents}

{d.i.y. tent}

{drizzly coffee}

{rainy dinner}

{the morning from my tent}

{the tent- one of our most loved wedding gifts}

{those who will go on hiking}

It was hard to take pictures from the car but we were down around the Petra area and it was gorgeous. There were a bunch of tall cedars and many hawks perched on top of them. I fell in love with hawks in San Francisco. They would hang out on top of eucalyptus trees and street poles in the panhandle.

{my truck buddy}

{along the road}

The easter bunny sent us a package via Austin (thank you, easter bunny!) and on Easter Monday, as Dave entered our bathroom, he was treated to some more magic... or was it something more?! There are several biblical sites in Jordan. We will always remember this day and The Resurrected Squat Toilet.

{is it a sign?}

{what does it mean? its so intense}

Thanks for checking in on us! We hope to post more, and more often. Time is a little funny here. Come visit! 

the holiday wrap-up part two: the dead sea

Maybe before... definitely around Christmas, we were treated to an inexpensive trip to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea. I’m not going to lie. We went to a public area and therefore, there was quite a bit of trash and glass. If you come on a planned tour, you will pay to go to a clean area or stay at a resort that has cleaned-up, private beaches. While it is wonderful that these resorts clean up the area, they also use much of the limited water resources, as well as exploit the famous Dead Sea minerals... what to do? what to do? As in most developing countries, anti-littering and waste management is an emerging issue. Recycling is extremely rare. But we looked beyond to the salty fun of the sea. We floated without any effort, smothered ourselves with healing mud, and stepped over old Pepsi bottles so we could rinse off in a waterfall. 

{newer but typical village bus}

{pretty certain we scared our jolly driver}

{the royal silhouette}

{getting closer}

{clapping and dancing like true jordanians}

{greetings loved ones}

{our photographers- pete and kate}

{and future neighbors on the commune}

{wardrobe change in the bushes}

{just floatin’ not even trying}

{peace corps jordan representin’}

{cracking ourselves up}

{with two of our faves}

{the view while floating}

{locals getting in on the fun}

{trying to swim but floating over to mud pots}

{challenging to walk since water is so dense}

{i wanna know where the muds at}

{jackpot}

{one of our language + cultural teachers}

{all we want is peace and mud}

{lowest place on earth}

{it’s not magic, it's an illusion}

{worn out host}

{one of many coca-cola baptism super markets}

{stopping in amman for photoshoot}

{2010 is so last year, we know}

{the red + green was a happy coincidence}

{jawad- supposedly the best bakery in amman}