Hosting a Jordanian Administrator October 1, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in Middle East.Tags: American Councils, Egypt, high school, Jordan, Middle East, NMELRC
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Abeer Harazneh, an administrator from Jordan, is staying with me tonight beginning her 10 day visit to Provo High School and Brigham Young University. She will later be staying with administrators from the high school shadowing them during the day. I’m to facilitate the cultural adjustments between Jordan and the US. I’m brushing up on my Jordanian dialect which is pretty weak after being submersed in Egypt for so many months.
Tomorrow she has an all-star cast to instruct her and take her around BYU, which houses a world-renowned Arabic program and the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC).
This is now the third program I’ve participated in with American Councils for International Education. This summer I participated in ISLI which took me 6 weeks to Egypt for intensive Arabic emersion. We are now involved with TCLP (Teachers of Critical Languages Program) by hosting an Egyptian teacher for a year, Mohamed El Naggar. This is the Host a Jordanian Administrator program. Our school and much of the valley has caught the spirit of the Middle East. Many are excited to have these visitors come into their classrooms and community meetings. Dr. Kirk Belnap and Dr. Maggie Nassif of the NMELRC have been very supportive and willing to help facilitate these experiences.
Jerusalem: Besieged April 25, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Armenian Quarter, British Mandate, Christians, Jerusalem, Jordan, life, Old City, Ottomon Empire, passports
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An old Turkish tailor has a shop in the Armenian quarter of the Old City. If you turn right then left and walk a few paces…in other words, it’s hard to find. The stones of Jerusalem’s walls differ from base to height reflecting the seiges of past conquerers and the life of a man can reflect the seiges, too. I discovered this in a man of this tidy tailor’s shop.
He told a longer story but I’ll skip to the part when he opened the drawer of the desk where he sat. He pulled out 5 passports he used all living in the same city, Jerusalem. First, his Turkish passport under the Ottomon Empire which originally brought his father to settle in the city. Then his British Mandate passport. Then his Jordanian passport issued when Jordan controlled the greater part of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Fourth, his Israeli passport he uses as a citizen of the current state. And last, his Palestinian identification card because he is non-Jew. Most of these passports are still active.
What will a man of 5 nationalities say about Jerusalem? Maybe it’s not a surprise. He respects those who govern but believes it short sighted of those who think they possess. And when he sees Jews and Muslims fighting over the city, he wonders about the Christians of whom he is one. Is it not a Christian city also?
I think life is just as hodge podge as Jerusalem’s walls. We are besieged by life’s experiences and then we conquer and become the culmination of many realities.
See other posts in the series:
Jerusalem: Windows
Jerusalem: Romance
Jerusalem: Snapshots
Cairo PIV: Reconciliation
Part III: “Cairo as an Arabic Student: Mosques and Trains”
Cairo Part II: “Cairo for the first time with an Argentine Flair”
Cairo Part I: “Pre-Cairo, My Aunty”
Damascus
Middle Eastern Cities Poll