Hello everyone!
Newest report from the doctor is he isn't sure what is wrong with me! My white blood cell count is apparently high, which might mean infection, so I get ten days of antibiotics, and some other medicine, and then ANOTHER trip to Amman for more blood work (to check on those white blood cells) and a follow-up with the doctor.
But in good news, I wasn't sick today! Hooray!
This week has been pretty exciting actually. While in Amman, I went to visit the Amman Baccalaureate School. The principal is from Rajef, and occasionally gives money to my center, so I decided to take her up on her offer of a visit when I was in Amman for medical stuff. The school is absolutely amazing!!! It is the school where the whole royal family sends their kids (so I saw all the Princes and Princesses children, which was kind of cool) The school is completely bilingual and all the children were able to hold conversations in both languages. I was so jealous of the facilities. They were having trouble with people leaving the doors open when I was there, and letting the heat out (my center doesn't even have heat) It also got to watch the fifth grade spelling bee. Of all of the parents that were there (and there were a lot) not a single one of the women covered their hair, and they were all dressed in tight fitting fashionable clothes. I felt like such a country hick in my village wear!! It was great getting to see the school and hopefully some of the teachers that I met will be good contacts to have later on. They are definitely the who's who of Amman!
Yesterday Abu Aymen had a lot of guests come to his house, which meant I got to help cook and clean (well, I got to watch the babies while all the women cooked and cleaned, since I'm not actually very useful cooking or cleaning here!) I was there from noon until almost 10pm and never once even saw the guests! I did however watch three goats being killed (the blood squirts really far, its gross!) and I got some good pictures of women making shrak (which is a really really good flat bread, hopefully I can post pictures on Saturday). I also posed Abu Aymen's grandchildren in front of my small Christmas tree for a picture, which I found really funny. We'l see if they do when they see the pictures....
My class is going well. My four year old is talking more and more. Every morning all of the students do exercises, and Rya's new favorite thing to do is to do those all the time. She pushes all the older kids into a line and then yells "wahad, ithnen, arbaa" (one, two, four....we are still working on three-its hard, thalatha...) Today to conclude our unit on farm animals I took the older kids on a walk around Rajef to look for what animals we could find. They all had a list of animals that they had written (traced the words at least) and colored earlier. We found a donkey, goats, sheep, chickens and cats but no camels or cows.
I'm getting ready for a Christmas party at the country director's house in a few weeks, that will be a lot of fun! Christmas carols, full christmas dinner and gift exchange. The week after Christmas (right around new years, dates are determined by the moon again) is the second Eid. During this Eid all families that are financially able to will kill a goat and then give certain portions to friends, neighbors, family and the poor. Later in January, I am going to Istanbul to meet up with Cuttino for a few days during our semester break. Lots of things to look forward to!
I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season (its weird not seeing Christmas decorations and hearing Christmas music everywhere!) Good luck to all those taking exams right now!
I miss you all and love you
Jessica
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