Season of Giving

The season of giving has officially begun here at school, but not specifically in a Western or Christian context. Rather, the school is presenting this season of giving in terms of the community service component of its mission as well as the Islamic festival, Eid al Adha.The school is celebrating the season in a 12-day event called "12 Days of Giving". The event has been planned so that each day presents a unique opportunity to give back to the community within and without the school. On the first day, for example, the school asked the student body to donate a JD or two in order to raise money for a non-academy student overseas. On other days, the school asked students to give back to community by participating in other service activities such as making paper cranes for a sick teacher, baking cookies for a nearby school, and donating clothes to a shelter. The 12 Days of Giving, however, has also had a long term goal of raising money in order to buy three holiday sheep for local families. These sheep would be holiday sheep because the Islamic holiday, Eid al Adha, is set to begin early next week. Eid al Adha is the second holy feast in the Islamic calendar. It begins on the tenth day of Dur-Hajj, the last month of the Islamic calandar and the month when Muslims around the world make the Hajj to Mecca. To be precise, though, Eid al Adha marks the end of the Hajj.Whether or not Muslims only make the Hajj during this month I don't know but I'm pretty sure they make the Hajj all year round. Anyway, this feasts commemorates Abraham's resolution to sacrifice his son, Ishmael (more favored than Isaac and from whom the Arabs are decended) to God and God's decision to substitute a sheep for Ishmael at the last minute. Muslims celebrate Eid al Adha by purchasing a sheep, slaughtering it, and then cooking/offering it to the poor. Muslims also celebrate this holiday by traveling to be with family and by visiting the graves of relatives. Anyway, the school is asking the community to give money to the sheep fund so that we can buy three sheep for local families. That's the holiday/giving season at king's and that's Eid al Adha. The next event on the Islamic Calendar is the Islamic New Year which is currently expected to fall on December 29th. After the new year, we will be in the year 1430. The Islamic calandar started when the prophet left Mecca for Medina.

Cross Country

For the Fall co-curricular season, the school offers a very impressive array of both athletic and alternative afternoon activities. Not surprising, then, is the school’s decision to offer the alternative, athletic option of Cross Country. Cross country, a sport that is only just starting to gain the recognition it deserves, in the U.S. at least; is still a foreign concept here in Jordan. The school’s team currently consists of seven students; the other students are either in soccer, volleyball, or one of the other small, obscure, co-corriculars. Now, since the majority of these seven students ran on the team last year, they almost all signed up for Cross Country this year with the full understanding of what they were getting themselves into. The coaches this year are also doing a great job re-creating a near perfect Cross Country experience, one that looks very similar to those that I have seen in America. I say near perfect because the Cross Country co-curricular is still missing one very important aspect: a true interscholastic season. The team has had only two true competitive meets with teams from others schools, none of whom were as devoted to or knowledgeable of the sport as the academy’s team. I know that these other teams weren’t as devoted to Cross Country as our own team because I have had the privilege this season of serving as an official course guide/marker in both of this season’s meets. I volunteered this service because I wanted to help the team, see Jordanian Cross Country in action, and cheer on some of my dorm’s students who were running in the meet. I first began to suspect that Jordanian school's had absolutely no concept of Cross Country when I '"spotted" for the first interscholastic meet of the season. After three visiting runners had run past me I turned my back on them to cheer on the approaching King's students. When I turned around to check up on the three runners I found that they had completely deviated from the marked dirt path and instead navigated through parked cars, construction materials, and a dirt hill towards the track, where the finish line was. As soon as I saw what these students were doing I shouted as loud as I could so that I could salvage their race. I had assumed, after all, that they were running in order to achieve a personal record that they could use to evaluate their own progress in the sport. I know that one of these students heard me because he turned around and started moving in the direction that I was pointing in. The other two, however, disappeared over the hilltop, and I didn't see them again until the end of the meet. I still don't know if they honestly thought that they were supposed to run through the parking lot, construction materials, and dirt piles in order to get to the finish line or if they heard my shouts and just decided to finish the stupid race as soon as they could. After the second meet that I spotted, however, I am convinced that the teams against whom our students are running have no concept of Cross Country and probably aren't even part of any real team (I'm guessing they were here as a punishment). Now, for the second meet I was determined not to make the same mistake twice and compromise the meet for both our students and the visiting students. This time, however, I was spotting on a section of the course that was simply a turn on a paved road down the hill. All the runners needed to do was keep running on the only paved road down the hill toward the track. After three visiting students ran past me and rounded the corner, I turned around to greet the public safety truck that was following the last three runners so that they could no that everyone had finished the meet. I followed the truck with my eyes and watched it slowly pull up next the three runners. Then, to my shear astonishment, I see the truck stop, the students climb onto the back, and the truck drive down the hill. This time I knew right away that I had not made any mistakes and that something was seriously wrong with this meet. I again shouted to the runners and told them that I would have to disqualify them for their actions. Either the students didn't want me to disqualify them or they thought that I was yelling at them and ordering them to keep running. I still don't know. When I approached the three public safety officers in the truck, they all made faces of sympathy and concern and told me that the students were "tired". I told the three officers that the students had to finish the race on foot and that we couldn't do anything to help them. The drivers then asked me if I wanted to ride with them since I was in the middle of no where and since the last three runners had past me. I accepted this very nice offer, and, for the next three minutes, we trailed right behind the last three runners making sure that they didn't go anywhere where they definitely shouldn't be. While I was in the truck, though, I was looking ahead for the next spotter so that the students would know where to run. I looked ahead as far as I could but I couldn't see anyone else on the course. This was a bit of a problem because I didn't know this new course by memory yet. But, when the public safety driver told the students to take a left on a road that lead to the general track area, I thought that I didn't need to worry and that public safety must have familiarized themselves with the course beforehand so that they could better monitor the runners. So the three runners turned left and we continued to drive down the road to the track's parking area. When we got there, however, my I found my relief short lived. There, right next to the track, we found the next spotter, well beyond my field of vision from where I was standing before. At this point I wasn't sure if I had ruined yet another Cross Country meet or if everyone involved had turned this meet into a fiasco, either by having no knowledge of the sport beforehand or by not bothering to learn the very simple rules. But the spotter near the track reassured me that I hadn't messed this meet up and that I didn't need to worry. And I guess he was right because our school was clearly set to win from the beginning. And that's Cross Country in Jordan.

The U.S. Airstrike in Syria and Its Consequences

Just when I, and the majority of the gap year students, thought that a trip to Syria and Lebanon was within our grasp, our dear mother nation decided to bomb a small Syrian town in an attempt to kill Abu Ghadiya, suspected of smuggling Al Qaeda fighters into Iraq. Syrians, enraged by this blatant violation of international law, have since come together in a wave of anti-U.S. demonstrations that have forced the U.S. embassy in Damascus to close and the Syrian government to respond harshly toward Americans and American organizations. For example, while the American embassy chose to close in response to Syrian riots, the Syrian governemt has since closed American schools in Syria and deported their non-Syrian students and teachers. By the way, I'm not 100% sure about any of this but I'm pretty sure that I have the basic story right. In response to this, either these deported students have looked to King's in their hour of need or King's invited them to apply. In any case, King's has accepted six of these students from Syria to join our community and attend classes for the second semester in January. They will visit campus next week, during which they will live in the dorms, visit classes, learn about King's expectations, and experience daily life here. The school is also planning to pair these new students with current King's students so that they have somebody to talk with and ask questions. Also, finals have been postponed till the end of the Fall trimester so that students can cover more material and prepare more. The reason why the students need more time to prepare is that , a few weeks ago, the school required teachers to give midterm exams (some lasting up to two hours) while using a trimester system for the school year. Basically, a recipe for disaster. So, now exams are scheduled to start on November 25th and last right up to December 3rd, the day before Winter break begins.

Apple Cobbler

Today I made my second attempt at making an Apple Cobbler and I think I can say that it was a near perfect success. I haven't served it to my hallway yet but I think they'll enjoy it, especially since several students gave me such positive reviews on my last cobbler even though it had no leavening agent. If I don't write anything otherwise, let's just assume they liked it.... I didn't grease the pan because I thought the melted butter would be enough, so it stuck to the bottom a little. Otherwise it tasted just as it was supposed to.

Apple Hill

This weekend the school hosted its first guest artists of the year: The Apple Hill Chamber Players from the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. Not only did the school host its first guest artists but it also organized its first non-athletic, on-campus, weekend event. Normally on weekends the school looks outward from campus-towards Amman's Mall's, Madaba's snacks, and Jordan's parks and trails- for entertainment. Except for athletic matches, events rarely come onto campus. This was one reason why I especially wanted to see The Apple Hill Chamber Players: because I wanted to support the school in its efforts to make its campus a fun and exciting place for its students and community. The concert was Friday night from 7:30-9:00 and was completely free of charge. And, although I am not very good at estimating numbers, I would say that the show filled about 90 seats in the auditorium. Now, about Apple Hill; The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, located in Nelson, NH, is an organization whose goals are "to teach chamber music at the highest standard" and to bring together musicians of various ages and backgrounds to play chamber music and thus promote peace and understanding in the world. The center works towards these goals in two ways. It provides quality instruction in chamber music through its Summer Chamber Music Workshop. This workshop is open to musicians of all ages and skill levels and is taught by the centers own Apple Hill Chamber Players as well as various guest faculty. The workshop lasts through the summer and is divided into five ten-day sessions. During these ten days, musicians stay on the 110 campus- playing chamber music, assisting in various maintenance tasks, and sleeping in cabins. During the rest of the year, the center works towards its other goal by sending its four person chamber ensemble, the Apple Hill Chamber Players, to destinations all around Europe and the Middle East as part of its "Playing for Peace" program. While on tour, the players perform concerts and award summer chamber workshop scholarships to musicians from various countries and ethnicities with political/ideological differences. For example, "Playing for Peace" began in 1988 when it awarded scholarships to Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian musicians. The musicians attended the summer workshop where they became good friends. Since then, Apple Hill has brought musicians together from areas such as Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland, Georgia/Russia, and Turkey/Cyprus. And something that I didn't know until this evening is that Apple Hill has been hosting a workshop here on campus for last two days. I guess Apple Hill tries to bring musicians together wherever they play, even if only for a short time. Anyway, the workshop here at King's included about five or six King's Academy students as well as about 15 young musicians (ages 14-25) from Syria and Jordan. It lasted for about two and a half days and concluded with today's student performance. During those 2.5 days all the students involved met and practiced randomly assigned, small groups. And, somehow, during those 2.5 days these students managed to not only learn the music but also learn how to play with one another. I'm thinking the latter task would be difficult because I'm sure the students were all at slightly different levels and each had slightly different styles of playing. But the student performances were all fantastic, featuring mostly classical music but also some 19th and 20th century works.

The Election

Although many individual students at the school have been showing interest in the U.S. election for the past few weeks, the school itself did not officially address the event until last Monday, November 3rd. On that day the school asked a U.S. history teacher from America to speak during an all school meeting about the election-including the candidates, the voting process, and the chief, relevant issues in American and world affairs. The students, as a whole, are clearly pro-Obama. In the student mock election, for example, Obama won 163 to McCain's 11. The next morning at the all-school meeting one of the students made an announcement, reminding everyone not to ask someone whom he/she is voting for, as many people consider this rude. I think the students thought that this applied only for the student mock election, however, because all during Election Day students were asking me whom I had voted for. Anyway, the school decided to celebrate the U.S. election in two ways. The first was to have a dress-down day for November 5th, when students would be allowed to wear any pants with either a red, blue, or black/white top; depending on which candidate they supported. Of course, by the time the school day had begun, Obama had already won the election. This brings me to the second way the school celebrated. The school invited the entire community to come to the dining hall at 5:00 am on November 5th to watch the end results live on CNN. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to wake up this early on an already busy day for me but I then decided that it's always fun to wake up early to see something you certainly don't see everyday. In other words, I came to me senses and decided that, of course, I was going to witness the end to my first election, and possibly one of the most important elections in history. I got to dining hall by 5:08, grabbed some pita and hommus, and sat down for 2 hours. I unfortunately had to leave towards the end of Obama's post-victory speech because I had to get ready for the day and to check in students at all-school meeting. At 5:08, when I got there, I estimate that there were about 15 people, both students and teachers. Then, around 6:00 (around when Obama had won), I'd say there might have been about 40 or 50 people there.

First Day of Our Long Awaited Seminar

Today the junior fellows met in the library rotunda for our first class of our "Seminar on Jordan and the Middle East". I say long awaited because most of the junior fellows, if not all, accepted their job with the understanding that the school would create this seminar for them. Personally, I took this job because I wanted to learn more about Islam and the history of the Middle East. Since we the junior fellows had discussed at our weekly meetings that we were mostly all interested in learning about these two topics and that we would be able to design the seminar according to our own interests, I decided to wait patiently for this seminar to begin. Now we have our course syllabus and have met for the first time. Today we discussed a short story that we had read the night before and a poem by a well known Palestinian poet who recently passed away. The short story was called "Tigers on the Tenth Day" and was written by Zakira Tamir. We discussed how the Arabic speaking world hadn't been actively producing works during the Ottoman Empire and that Zakira Tamir helped revive modern Arabic literature during the 20th century. The story we read was about a caged tiger who slowly comes to submit to his tamer and to forget his own identity. We discussed that Zakira Tamir used his writing to protest the oppressive regimes underwhich he lived. The next reading that we discussed was a poem called "My Mother", by Mahmoud Darwish. Mahmoud Darwish was a Palastinian who fled his home in the 1948 war. His death last August has saddened many of his admirers, including our head librarian who reportedly needed a moment to collect herself when talking about it to a school tour group. The school is even planning to honor his life at an upcoming school meeting. I think the school plans to bring a musician to read Darwish's poetry and accompany it with his own music. Anyway, "My Mother" is about Darwish's regrert at living in exile (Israel) and not being able to be by his mother's side when she passed away (At least, I think that's what I remember hearing today). In this poem Darwish writes about his longing to be with his mother again. However, I believe that Darwish also used the word, mother as a symbol for a Palestian homeland. I'm not sure yet what I think about this seminar. I feel so busy right now because I feel as if I have been and still am gradually committing myself to more and more small responsibilites here and there. I feel really stressed when I start thinking about the prospect of writing 10 papers in addition to all my other responsibilities. I am also not sure what this seminar will teach me about Islam and the Middle East. But I mean that literally: I simply do not know how much I will learn because we only meet once a week and because our seminar is set to cover multiple topics in addition to Islam and history. However, the seminar nevertheless looks interesting as well as promising. Our coordinator tells us that we will here lectures from various esteemed teachers and professors, both from and not from our school, who will discuss various topics with us such as Islamic art, women's studies, and the issue of Palestine and Israel. So, time will tell.