Right at Home

Marhaba! Hola a todos! Hello to everyone. My name is Eduardo Elizondo. My wife Stephanie and I are on the Jordan project this year and we are very happy to be here serving, learning and experiencing new things. I am an accountant by trade and here in Jordan I have been working with the Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS) in the finance department. I have also been coaching soccer in the afternoons. We are going to have our first tournament this weekend! Both opportunities to serve here have been very rewarding so far.

Since today is my first time posting to the blog, I wanted to talk a little bit about Jordan in general from my perspective. Jordan is a great country. Since our arrival here, I have felt at home. Being originally from Mexico, I have found many similarities between the two countries. The first thing that reminded me of the place where I grew up in central Mexico is the weather. It is hot and dry here in Jordan and I love it! Another similarity that I found is that the food is great! Mexican and Jordanian cuisine are definitely different, but they both have a lot of flavor and variety. Actually, if you think about it, they are the same but different: Mexico has tortillas, Jordan has pita bread, mexico has refried beans, Jordan has hummus made of chickpeas, Mexico has salsa, in Jordan there is Turkish salad, Mexico has tacos al pastor (which I don't eat because its pork) but it looks exactly like the shawerma in Jordan! (except I can eat shawerma because its chicken or lamb/beef). Other minor similarities would be that people love football here (soccer of course), and that I have seen a lot of donkeys around, just like back home (hence the pictures above).

However, the similarity that I have been most happy about is that the people are friendly, like in my native Mexico. People here say hi to you all the time and smile. Even if they do not know English, they still talk to you, smile, and try to make contact with you. People are really welcoming and it has been very refreshing to be in a culture that is so relationship based like it is in my country (more on relationship based cultures in my next post).

All these similarities have made me feel right at home from the beginning...now I just need to pick up the language. Jordan has a lot to offer and we are certainly very blessed to be here serving and getting to know the people and the culture.

Expecting the UNEXPECTED

Hello to everyone out there! I hope everyone had a wonderful FOT, I think I can speak for all of us and say that we had a very nice time in Bangkok. Now, since I am speaking for everyone I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Jamie Franks and I have lived most of my life somewhere in Texas, although over the last few years I have been in the Cincinnati area. During my stay here in Jordan I have been and will be working at the YMWA center for special education along with Kelley Schreiber. Most recently I have been assisting in music class and will soon be starting to teach first aid classes as well as English.

So far everything about this experience has been amazing and I will probably be attempting to put it in to words for years to come. However, I would like to share something that I personally enjoy about traveling and living in another country. It is something that has an impact on all five of us daily, and could at times if you let it become a negative experience. This thing is to always try to be ready for and anticipate the unexpected. Some days it seems as though we can not "assume" that we know anything for certain. For instance, one might assume that because I am helping out in music class that I am talented in this area. Your assumption would not be correct. I had no idea this is the area I would be initially helping in, but I have had the opportunity to work with an excellent teacher and along the way have learned to play a pretty mean tambourine. Another example happened just the other day. I was sitting in my classroom playing with the students when someone came to the door and asked me to follow them somewhere. She only spoke a little english so I was not sure where we were headed. Due to my lack of arabic following others without knowing where I am going has become a common practice for me here. Anyways, as we are walking she does manage to tell me, "you teach english now." This is something that I was NOT EXPECTING. There had been some talk of one of us possibly teaching English in the future, but the who, what and where were still in question to my knowledge. I began to panic a little during our short walk to the classroom. My mind began to race with possible lesson plans. You must also keep in mind that by trade I am not a teacher, so the list of lesson plans running through my head were very short. Ahhh, but then it hit me! I suddenly realized that my English had to be far better than my tambourine playing and that I should be fine with winging it for just one day. In the end everything worked out fine, and I am very excited about spending time this week planning for class next week.



This is just one example of some of the unexpected things that go on daily in our lives. I personally really do find it exciting to not know for certain what might happen from day to day. We are constantly thrown into situations that are outside of our comfort zones which can be frustrating and intimidating at times, but it makes for one more thing that we can cross off our list of things accomplished or at least attempted in life. All the situations usually have happy endings, and they make for great stories and dinner conversations. Life continues to be exciting here in Jordan!