Islamic Theology

And my last bit of news is that a small number of junior fellows and I have succeeded in organizing our own directed study in Islamic Theology!! We meet once a week to discuss with a teacher from school to discuss any thoughts or questions we have on our assigned readings-presumably, either text or article excerpts . We've only met once and we still don't have our reading for our next meeting, but I'm very optimistic. For one thing, we're lucky enough to have the head of the department of ethics, religion, and philosophy teaching our class. She has a bachelor in Islamic law and a ministry issued certificate in Quranic reading and recitation. But I'm really optimistic about this directed study because our first meeting went so well. Our teacher began the lesson by teaching us that Islam's mission is to make the world a better place and that the "core of Islam is how to be good to others". We then moved on to talk about the six articles of faith-faith in God, faith in angels, faith in prophets, faith in books, faith in judgement day, and faith in Khudr (fate and predestination I think). Anyway faith in God basically means faith that God deserves to sole worship from Mankind for his benevolence and power. Faith in angels basically means faith that angels exist, are completely obedient to God, are made of light, don't have survival needs, and assist God in numerous ways. Iphrael, for example signals the end of time when he blows his horn. And the Angel of Death holds the souls of dead until this time when God judges them. One interesting thing about the Angel of Death is that he comes to a dying person in either a good form or a bad form, depending on how that person led his/her life. Another interesting thing is that the Angel of Death has no name, not even the name, "Azrael"(apparently this name originates from The Old Testament, but I'll have to research that). We talked a little about Faith in Prophets but not in enough detail because class was ending when we reached this article. Anyway, I'm exited to see where this goes.

More on Gaza

As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to devastate the land and people of Gaza, now raising the Palestinian death toll over 1000, people everywhere are coming together to respond to this crisis. Throughout this entire week the school and its community has been investing nearly all its energy and resources into providing aid for the people of Gaza and the people whose lives have been affected by the crisis there. Last Tuesday, for example, the school made its first official use of our spiritual center of the year by holding a candle light vigil in the spiritual center's central courtyard. The school invited all members of the community to this vigil, where students and faculty alike could read a poem, sing a song, or simply express themselves on the crisis. The vigil began at 7:00 in the side dining hall, where the community service department and student volunteers were distributing prayer flags and selling bracelets, pins, and Kheffiyehs (Palestinian, black and white scarves/head garb ) to raise aid money for Gaza. Once everyone had settled the community service department invited students and other guests to talk, read, or sing about the crisis. In the half hour that followed we heard both students and faculty sing songs, both in English and in Arabic; read poetry, in English, Arabic, and even Japanese; and share their experiences of living in Palestine and meeting people from all over the region. Afterwards, we passed around candles and lit them from person to person until we were ready to proceed outside and up the hill to the Spiritual Center. We gathered around the central fountain and stood in silence until about 7:55 when the head of the community service department reminded us that the students needed to be in their dorms by 8:00 for study hall.

This was the first community event of the week to raise support for Gaza. The second event, called "Pizza for Palestine" was two days later in the dining hall. The event all started with the generosity of one of our student's fathers, who owns a pizzeria in Amman. To help the people of Gaza and to provide a tasty alternative the regular dining hall menu, this man donated over 850 Jordanian Dinars worth of pizza to school, all of which was donated directly to buying aid supplies for Gaza. Pizzas sold at 8 JD for a whole pizza and 4 JD for a half. What I'm still unsure of, however, is whether the dining hall served just plain spaghetti and salad by coincidence or as a motivating factor for students to buy pizza and give money for a good cause.

And our third event for this week, "Souq Gaza" is actually taking place tomorrow in Amman, though the school isn't organizing this one. I'm not sure exactly what to expect but I'm sure I'll see local merchants selling both donated items and their own local products at prices set to raise money for Gaza. The school plans to participate by setting up its own booth, which will sell items donated by the school, and by bringing its own students eager to do some shopping.

Winter at School

Okay, so this is my first major entry in a long time. I'll start with the basics of what's been happening here. Coming back to campus in late December and early January, I have seen for the first time what the campus looks like during the winter. The grass has faded from its healthy shade of green to a barren quilt of brown and grey patches. I guess the campus doesn't plan to water the grounds much this winter. This might sound environmentally friendly except that now I'm pretty sure we don't have any means of reusing our shower water as part of our grey water system. Apart from the grass, our sycamore trees have completely lost their leaves, though the jacaranda and olives look almost the same as they did during the summer. But of course, nobody can see the biggest change in the campus since winter set it: the change in temperature. The temperature here fluctuates just as dramatically as one would expect in a desert region. During the day the temperature can get as high as the low sixties, whereas it can drop to the low forties to the high thirties at night. I know that the temperature can get that low because we had nothing else to talk about at the beginning of the week when the heat still hadn't completely turned on. For most this week I had been sleeping in sweatpants and sweatshirt and praying every morning that the showers would dispense their reliably hot water instead of the luke warm rinse that it gave on the first morning. But the heat has finally turned on and I am now warm enough to live and work here.

Environmental Awareness at school

Although we're consuming precious fossil fuels and wasting energy in the excess heat we produce, the school is planning to raise environmental awareness in the community this winter. Already in the dorms we have stickers above the light switches reminding people to turn off the lights and the students are already outraged at the mere mention of the phrases, "Meatless Monday" and "Tray less Tuesday". But the real eco-friendly initiatives won't start until later in the winter. By then the school will have hopefully begun its compost pile, its recycling program, and its dorm water consumption competition. An extra initiative that I plan to take is to pick up more trash around campus. Earlier this year, I chose to ignore trash left on the grounds and around the dorms because I wanted the students to see what a littered campus looks like. But that was a stupid idea because the grounds keeping staff provides a practically 24 hour sweeping service. But I do think that these initiatives are truly going to spread some much needed environmental awareness around campus this winter.

The January Intersession

So, because its really too cold to exercise outside and because we only have one pool, one gym, and no hockey rink; the school is running an intersession season for the month of January instead of a winter co-curricular season. During this intersession period the school will be taking full advantage of its faculty's talents so that it can offer fun workshops for its students. These workshops could range in anything from cooking, to mosaic making, to salsa dancing, to photography, to gym training, and even to robotics. From what I've seen, though, a lot of the students are not taking full advantage of these rare and fun activities. In fact, every time that I have asked a student if he/she is excited for the intercession period I've only elicited a reply of about two sentences, except in the case of salsa dancing that is.

Gaza

Now I come to topic that is on almost everyone's mind here at all times: the situation in Gaza. Since late December, the situation in Gaza has only gone from bad to worse. Gaza city has been bombed on an almost daily basis while friends, allies, and supporters have had only limited means to communicate and to send much needed medical supplies. But the school is doing everything is can for "our brothers and sisters in Gaza", as I've heard students refer to residents of Gaza during morning meeting. The school has asked the community to donate money and/or any medical supplies to the community service office and to keep the people of Gaza in our thoughts and prayers. Unfortunately, actually getting the medical supplies into Gaza is the hard part since very little humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza right now. Next week, the school plans to hold a candle light vigil in the spiritual center. Some of the junior fellows are even trying to organize a trip to Madaba so that we can donate blood. Now, although I try to mention students as little as possible in this blog, I feel that I do need to mention the words of one student in particular so that I can convey a sense of how close and how real this conflict feels to me now. During an all school meeting a student stood in front of the stage next to Dr. Eric to talk to everyone about Gaza. The student related that she hag lived in Gaza city from age 1-9 but that here grandmother still lives there. The student told us that she had spoken to her grandmother a few days before and had heard that her old school had been bombed and that the city "smells like death". I'm gradually starting to feel closer and closer to this conflict almost to the point where I feel as if I'm surrounded by it. Not only is Gaza city only about a 4 or 5 hour drive from here, but now Lebanon has joined the conflict by firing its own missiles into Israel as Egypt works continuously to negotiated a cease fire. I'm honestly starting to feel a little scared actually. Neither Israel nor Hamas is showing any signs of compromising and nobody knows how exactly how bad this situation might get or when it will show signs of improvement. I hate to sound egocentric, but I'm trying to give my future self a sense of what I'm experiencing here at school. I think about the suffering and destruction that is taking place so close to me every day and I hope that I can give my money, my blood, and whatever else I can to the people and families of Gaza.