Greetings from the land of the Dead (Sea)
Oh my God I have no internet in Safi and it's DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!! Anyways, this is the first time I've used the internet for over two weeks, so this will be a nice long post with all sorts of funny/sad stories about my insane life.
First of all, living with my counterpart sucked, but luckily only after 6 horrible days, I moved into my house!!! Those six days were brutal, and I don't want to talk about it.
My house is awesome, or at least, it will be awesome. I have no paint on the walls, and hardly any furniture, but the view is absolutely amazing, it's huge, and I finally have my own space with locks on the doors. I sleep on two farshas pushed together with a comforter on top. A farsha is a thin mattress, a little smaller than a single bed mattress. I have two other farshas in my "sitting room," and two plastic chairs, and two small plastic coffee tables. I have a nice big kitchen, and a small mini fridge that reminds me of freshman year college. I have a shower, which usually works, and a turkish toilet. Ah, the turkish toilet. Oh how I love and despise it. No, there's no love. It's disgusting. For those of you who do not know what a turkish toilet is, I'll spare you details. Google it.
My house is two blocks from the center where I work. The center is an interesting place. We are open from 11am until 4pm, roughly. I teach English classes four or five days a week. Fridays we're closed, just like the rest of the country. Thursdays are my favorite day. I'll tell you why in a sec...My counterpart, Majeda, who runs the center, decided to go on vacation the day I moved out of her house and into my house. She has not yet returned from vacation. So, things have been rather strange for me, since the other two ladies I work with don't speak more than 5 words of English. Fatima lives below me, and is very sweet. Nabila is our tea lady, who is also very sweet. They are both second wives (meaning their husbands have two or more wives), and Nabila has 8 kids. Fatima is a newlywed and has no children yet. Yesterday, we opened at 11:20am, Nabila cleaned the floors while Fatima and I played Spider Solitare on the computers, Nabila then made us some coffee, and went home at about 12:30 or 1. Fatima's husband came over and hung out, I continued to play solitare, until 2pm when Fatima decided to close. Not one girl came to the center. I personally think it was a great day since I beat my high score on Minesweeper.
But before you go thinking the Peace Corps sucks, last Saturday was a riot. It was my first English class, which 20 girls signed up for. I walked in the center an hour before class, and saw 80 girls in the classroom, all waiting to be taught English. By the end of the day, I had 120 girls signed up for English classes, and a nice schedule worked out. Everyday I have to turn girls away from the center since there is no more room in my classes...it's sad, but eventually I'll start more classes, maybe even in the evenings.
The Earthquake
For the past two months, I've been hearing about an impending earthquake. Finally, two weeks ago, I was told by a variety of people, including other PCVs, that an earthquake was going to hit Jordan. For two days, all I heard was earthquake earthquake earthquake. School was let out in Safi early for two days because of it. After the two day terror and no earthquake, I was told by one man that the earthquake was too weak and no one felt it, another told me that there was no earthquake and we can't predict them and everyone's insane (my hero), and a third, the GOVERNOR of Safi, told me that it wasn't an earthquake, but Israel exploding bombs in the Dead Sea.
The Power
My power has gone out nearly every day in Safi since I've been there. It will go out for an hour, for 8 hours, overnight, or just a moment, but it manages to piss me off every time, cause it means the fans don't work, and I go back to sweating buckets.
On Tuesday night, only half the town's power went out because there were two big wedding celebrations going on at the same time, and the family who controls the power switches turned off the power for my part of town so that the other wedding wouldn't drown out their own wedding.
On Monday, the power was out from 9am until 6pm. At 2pm, I asked Fatima when the power was going to come back on, and she predicted 6pm. I didn't believe her. But she was right. The next day I asked how she knew it was going to be back on at 6pm, and she told me that every Monday it goes out from 9am until 6pm.
How I Spend my Time
Everyday I wake up, eat, go to the center, go to the market to buy food (Mom-you'd be SO proud, I buy and cook veggies, fruits, everything...I eat so healthy!! Except for the fried okra), make food, then try to entertain myself for the rest of the evening until Dan calls. (For those of you that don't know, Dan is another PCV...if you want details, email me! And yes, I'm only mentioning him to get more emails cause I looove emails) I've read about 7 books (including Harry Potter, THANKYOU SO SO SO MUCH JIYOUNG!!!!), I've watched all of my movies at least three times, I walk in circles around my house to get exercise, I clean, and I play Civilization 3.
Karak
Karak is awesome. It's the nearest big town with internet, Christians, and tourists!!! Lots of tourists. There is a huge crusader castle at the top of the hill, where the view is phenomenal, and you can see the Dead Sea. Brian and I meet up in Karak every Friday for no particular reason other than speaking English and enjoying eachother's company. Brian is awesome. The bus from Safi to Karak is only 60 cents, and takes about an hour. The drive is a little crazy, but I'll leave that to another blog post.
Ok, and with that, I leave you all. Don't forget to email me!!! And if I don't respond, I'm sorry, but PLEASE know that I LOVE EVERY EMAIL I get. So thanks in advance.
Also, don't hesistate to call ANYTIME! My phone is always on, the number, once again, is (962) 796202998.
Peace in the Middle East.
First of all, living with my counterpart sucked, but luckily only after 6 horrible days, I moved into my house!!! Those six days were brutal, and I don't want to talk about it.
My house is awesome, or at least, it will be awesome. I have no paint on the walls, and hardly any furniture, but the view is absolutely amazing, it's huge, and I finally have my own space with locks on the doors. I sleep on two farshas pushed together with a comforter on top. A farsha is a thin mattress, a little smaller than a single bed mattress. I have two other farshas in my "sitting room," and two plastic chairs, and two small plastic coffee tables. I have a nice big kitchen, and a small mini fridge that reminds me of freshman year college. I have a shower, which usually works, and a turkish toilet. Ah, the turkish toilet. Oh how I love and despise it. No, there's no love. It's disgusting. For those of you who do not know what a turkish toilet is, I'll spare you details. Google it.
My house is two blocks from the center where I work. The center is an interesting place. We are open from 11am until 4pm, roughly. I teach English classes four or five days a week. Fridays we're closed, just like the rest of the country. Thursdays are my favorite day. I'll tell you why in a sec...My counterpart, Majeda, who runs the center, decided to go on vacation the day I moved out of her house and into my house. She has not yet returned from vacation. So, things have been rather strange for me, since the other two ladies I work with don't speak more than 5 words of English. Fatima lives below me, and is very sweet. Nabila is our tea lady, who is also very sweet. They are both second wives (meaning their husbands have two or more wives), and Nabila has 8 kids. Fatima is a newlywed and has no children yet. Yesterday, we opened at 11:20am, Nabila cleaned the floors while Fatima and I played Spider Solitare on the computers, Nabila then made us some coffee, and went home at about 12:30 or 1. Fatima's husband came over and hung out, I continued to play solitare, until 2pm when Fatima decided to close. Not one girl came to the center. I personally think it was a great day since I beat my high score on Minesweeper.
But before you go thinking the Peace Corps sucks, last Saturday was a riot. It was my first English class, which 20 girls signed up for. I walked in the center an hour before class, and saw 80 girls in the classroom, all waiting to be taught English. By the end of the day, I had 120 girls signed up for English classes, and a nice schedule worked out. Everyday I have to turn girls away from the center since there is no more room in my classes...it's sad, but eventually I'll start more classes, maybe even in the evenings.
The Earthquake
For the past two months, I've been hearing about an impending earthquake. Finally, two weeks ago, I was told by a variety of people, including other PCVs, that an earthquake was going to hit Jordan. For two days, all I heard was earthquake earthquake earthquake. School was let out in Safi early for two days because of it. After the two day terror and no earthquake, I was told by one man that the earthquake was too weak and no one felt it, another told me that there was no earthquake and we can't predict them and everyone's insane (my hero), and a third, the GOVERNOR of Safi, told me that it wasn't an earthquake, but Israel exploding bombs in the Dead Sea.
The Power
My power has gone out nearly every day in Safi since I've been there. It will go out for an hour, for 8 hours, overnight, or just a moment, but it manages to piss me off every time, cause it means the fans don't work, and I go back to sweating buckets.
On Tuesday night, only half the town's power went out because there were two big wedding celebrations going on at the same time, and the family who controls the power switches turned off the power for my part of town so that the other wedding wouldn't drown out their own wedding.
On Monday, the power was out from 9am until 6pm. At 2pm, I asked Fatima when the power was going to come back on, and she predicted 6pm. I didn't believe her. But she was right. The next day I asked how she knew it was going to be back on at 6pm, and she told me that every Monday it goes out from 9am until 6pm.
How I Spend my Time
Everyday I wake up, eat, go to the center, go to the market to buy food (Mom-you'd be SO proud, I buy and cook veggies, fruits, everything...I eat so healthy!! Except for the fried okra), make food, then try to entertain myself for the rest of the evening until Dan calls. (For those of you that don't know, Dan is another PCV...if you want details, email me! And yes, I'm only mentioning him to get more emails cause I looove emails) I've read about 7 books (including Harry Potter, THANKYOU SO SO SO MUCH JIYOUNG!!!!), I've watched all of my movies at least three times, I walk in circles around my house to get exercise, I clean, and I play Civilization 3.
Karak
Karak is awesome. It's the nearest big town with internet, Christians, and tourists!!! Lots of tourists. There is a huge crusader castle at the top of the hill, where the view is phenomenal, and you can see the Dead Sea. Brian and I meet up in Karak every Friday for no particular reason other than speaking English and enjoying eachother's company. Brian is awesome. The bus from Safi to Karak is only 60 cents, and takes about an hour. The drive is a little crazy, but I'll leave that to another blog post.
Ok, and with that, I leave you all. Don't forget to email me!!! And if I don't respond, I'm sorry, but PLEASE know that I LOVE EVERY EMAIL I get. So thanks in advance.
Also, don't hesistate to call ANYTIME! My phone is always on, the number, once again, is (962) 796202998.
Peace in the Middle East.
posted by Hilary at 2:00 PM
1 Comments:
well while Rory is not going to yale and not talking to the mother.. Haley is back in town, Paige's biological mother is alive and Scott' dad's dealership is burnt down... (Marisa and Ryan got kicked out of school and Julie Cooper has no money since Caleb died bankrupt)
I miss all our TV nights
but I love my DVR
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