Special Visitors, Exams, Little Beasts and a Providential Meeting

Sunday Nov. 24--From Tom:

Special Visitors from Salt Lake: So, we're not forgotten! Last weekend we had some wonderful visitors from Church Headquarters. Elder Tad Callister, of the Presidency of the Seventy; David McMillan, Director of Temporal Affairs under the Presiding Bishop; Sharon Eubanks, Director of LDS Charities worldwide and Elaine Bond, Specialist in Welfare Services flew in to review the progress of the church projects here in Jordan. Elder Callister had a special Fireside for both the Arabic and English branches. It was beautiful to hear both the English and the Arabic translation of his message. Sharon Eubanks, as a special favor, brought over to me a half year supply of a critical medicine, that I couldn't obtain in Jordan. It came in the nick of time.

What a surprise to start teaching my Gospel Doctrine class with these visitors in the class, except Elder Callister. The lesson  was about continuing revelation and their input made it even more special.

Fireside with Elder Callister--photo op afterward with some Asian sisters from branch

Great Conversation: Yesterday, I needed a break from grading tests so I drove into Madaba to visit a good Muslim friend. With one of his customers ( from Holland ) there, he looked at me in shock. He said he was amazed that I showed up at just that time. He said that just 5 minutes earlier he had been telling this lady about the Mormons, so he said to her, " and here is a Mormon". He spoke on how he respected how they were so sincere in providing quiet service to so many. Largely, he was referring to the work of Brent and Margaret Strong but also Bobbie and Chris Coray who served here as humanitarian missionaries working in health care, education and in many other aspects. After the customer left, we sat and talked about service. But mostly he talked about how we all need to have purity of heart and sincere caring. He also spoke positively about his belief in life after death. It was an incredible conversation. Mostly I listened. 

Little Cheats: This was Exam Week and Ronna had an eye-opening experience. We knew the Jordanian students copy work from each other, clip articles from published journals and are generally very creative with circumventing the rules ( how's that for being gentle?). We didn't realize to what extent they went to literally cheat. Ronna took special precautions by having students spaced apart from each other and warned them explicitly. Yet she still had to take exams away from several students who were blatantly cheating and had to get pretty angry with others. They were holding exam papers so others could see. They placed lists on the floor to refer to. 

We have found out that it is not considered wrong here to cheat on exams. It's a challenge and expected. They have had experience in earlier classes where teachers would actually give answers during exams and where they would use earphones to link with an outside resources. Their educational pattern has been "rote" teaching, learning by memorization. So they have a problem with creative thinking, getting "out of the box" and problem solving. 

I didn't have problems with cheating with my students, probably because I took away the opportunity and gave warning. But I am a little frustrated with getting them to think creatively and get out of rote answers. This gives me direction for the next weeks. They will have many quick exercises in problem solving where there are no textbook answers. If there is a problem here in Jordan, it's having the people recognize problems and then come up with solutions. It's standard procedure in America and is what has given us the ability to rise up and overcome problems. This leads to my next adventure. 

I am going to propose to our Art and Design team to adopt the idea of Problem Solving as the annual research project. We would adopt a local community and find problems that need attention. This would provide real world experience, give them research opportunities, develop multi-disciplinary teams and engage with the public. So far it's just an idea. That is until…….we met the Garretts. 

Enter the Garretts: After church on Sunday we met James and Shaylyn Garrett. They are here in Jordan running an NGO, or Non Governmental Organization, on teaching and training on "Problem Solving." James is a Columbia trained psychologist and Shaylyn is a social worker. They hired and are now training Jordanian youth in critical thinking and Problem Solving. They will be developing a set of courses on Problem Solving at AUM. Bingo!!!

We went to their studio and home. It is down in the alleys of Downtown Amman--in a somewhat Bohemian section of Amman called Rainbow Street. ( originally called Ar-Rinbo in Arabic) Because so many foreign ex-patriots live there, the name got changed. These are the cliffside stacked buildings up narrow infinite stairways that Ronna referred to when we drove to the Post Office. You arrive from the top and go down 20-30 narrow stairs to their hole in the wall entry. Their studio and home is perched on the cliffside overlooking other rooftops. Within their building are little courtyards and rooftop perches. Very cool

View of Central Amman from Garretts Deck

View toward the Roman Citadel in Downtown Amman from Garretts Deck

Looking down to Children's Play Yard of Apartment Below. Can you imagine that this is the whole outdoor playspace for many children here. I was on the balcony and heard the sound of children laughing but couldn't see them until I looked down. They were playing a board game. 

Access Stairway from Rainbow Street

After hearing of their work, Ronna and I were amazed because we recognized that I needed their skills and passion to accomplish what I had a vision to do. It felt like a blessing of providence. We'll see where this goes. 

Little Beasts: Ronna heard some noise out near our front entry. There is a trash dumpster there. She saw our little gypsy or Bedouin boys in the neighborhood going through the trash, but they didn't just "dumpster dive." They pulled everything out looking for things to salvage and loot. They left everything laying out on the drive. It's no wonder there is trash laying everywhere. Of course the landlords have left a pile of debris from the remodel laying there for months, so I guess it's a signal that a little more trash won't matter. How does a culture not care about their surroundings? 

I asked my students in prolonged discussions, why there was so much trash laying around our communities and along the highways. One of them responded " Do you think you can change a 3rd world country?" So the issue is that they see themselves as being less than they really are. The challenge is building a sense of pride and empowerment in them. 

Thanksgiving in Jordan: We will be gathering with our little branch in the home of one of the members from the US Embassy to celebrate Thanksgiving. ( Small branch and big home ). So while we are away from our dear family, we will be with loving people in the great American tradition. The biggest challenge was finding a patch of grass that the younger men could play a little football on. It took weeks to find some grass. How's that for sad. Nevertheless, we will be having turkey, and all the fixings, table games, football and laughter. 

Weather: We finally turned on the heat since weather finally has gotten down to about 50 at night. Most days are near 70 but the evenings get a little cool. Much better than winters, but we miss the beautiful fall colors. Everything is still green. So it's hard to get our minds into the fact it's Thanksgiving. 

Love to you all--Tom & Ronna. 

Let us know if you get these. 

"So, what are we doing in Jordan anyway?"

Sunday, Nov. 17--From Tom:

So far we have written about crazy driving and wild dogs, visits with doctors, tender mercies by quiet angels, lifestyle changes and trips to interesting historic places, lunches on roasted goat, and crazy party goers next door shooting machine guns. But what are we doing here?

Ronna and I came here because AUM ( American University of Madaba) was starting an architectural program. So it was anticipated that I would be the one with the heavy load and Ronna might, perhaps, maybe, possibly teach a little English or maybe just translate a little. Not so!!

Tom's Original Class: When we arrived in September, I was originally asked to teach only one class. Because Architecture is just starting, it didn't make sense to have me teach a "Practice of Architecture" course to Freshmen so the Dean asked me to teach a Professional Practice course to second year Graphic Arts students. Yes, Graphic Arts!! First of all, I've never been a college professor and secondly, I am not a Graphic Artist. Third, there was no teaching plan or syllabus and fourth, no textbooks were ordered or available. I had a big learning curve. I even had to learn what a syllabus was.

Ra'Ed, the Dean, is a very cool, bright, outspoken Jordanian architect who got his architectural training in Milwaukee of all places and got his PhD in Scotland. He is very passionate about the arts but also about politics. He served in the Jordanian Parliament and is now starting a new political party. He and I have gotten along very well, increasingly so.

Ra'Ed also wanted  me to give a lecture to the Jordanian architectural community on the State of American Architecture, which I am still working on. He also wants me to work on accreditation, recruiting and internships. We're figuring it out as we go. There are two other professional architects on the faculty, Yasser, a PhD who is very competent, technically. He was Dean of Architecture at the University of Jordan. Dr. Waleed Al Sayyed is a Jordanian, also a PhD, who practiced in London and published a quarterly international journal of architecture. Both are wonderful.

My class turned out to be about 6 students although only 3 showed up the first two weeks and one or two hardly speak any English.

Ronna's Classes: Ronna, on the other hand, was given a boatload; she has four classes totaling about 90 students. The worst part for Ronna is that they are not four classes at the same level ( so you could prepare one lesson and teach it four times). She has four different levels of students, thus having to prepare and plan four lessons for four different ability levels. The bottom two ( remedial) hardly speak English and frankly don't want to be there. Many have rich parents who are forcing them to go to college. Anyway, try to explain or teach words like" envy, concern, thoughtful or meaningful" to people who don't know the words for "cat, dog or ball". Try to do charades for those words. So Ronna is going nuts, and stays up till the wee hours planning out lessons for this wide range of students. She'll give more description in a later blog.

Ronna in her office

Surprise!!: One Tuesday morning, in the third week, I had no classes and was making some copies for Ronna. I got a call from my Dean's secretary, who asked, " Professor Tom, where are you?" I told her and she replied, "Your students are waiting for you". I told her I didn't have a class on Tuesday. She said that I actually did and they were waiting for me on the second floor. I went to the class and about 8-9 students were sitting and smiling at me. I just asked them, "Could you tell me what class this is?." They said it was a 3rd year Graphic Arts class called "Design Concepts and Systems". So I made up an extemporaneous lecture on solving design "Problems". The class has now grown up to about 12 students and is actually pretty fun. We need to invent as we go. I just finished the syllabus this morning and it's going to be very interesting; creating quick concepts to a variety of design problems.

Most of the students are very nice, kind, have some English skills but they didn't arrive on time, didn't  show up regularly and didn't know anything about a notebook. Duh! I was shocked. I opened MY notebook and showed them a year's worth of daily notes. I said that if I was the professor and I took notes morning and night, at church, at all meetings, while eating breakfast and while contemplating my navel, that they could and would start a habit of recording and planning their life with a notebook.

My lectures generally have a lot of sketches and diagrams. It has evolved, ( genius idea ) into making a list of the students on the left and then having a column indicating attendance, being on time, if they had a notebook and if they asked questions in the lecture. Guess what? They are now all on-time, have notebooks and participate eagerly. What gets measured gets improved!

Troublemaker: The most interesting part of my life here is what has naturally evolved as a result of being an 'activist' or troublemaker. I started noticing that, while the university is new (in only it's third year), that a lot of things just didn't make sense. Mostly it was the buildings and pathways but then I noticed that there were operational issues as well. Pathways didn't make sense, a lot of money was spent on the entrances to the campus and general appearance but there were no funds for projectors, there were many unfinished areas, doorways in main passageways were always locked, the library was hidden and hard to get to, there were long lines at a single cashier in a poorly stocked snack bar, there were poor acoustics, toilets without the necessary paper or baskets, and patio furniture that fell apart in 3 weeks, etc. I started making a list and when I got to over 50 items I knew this was bigger than just a few missed items.

So I started asking questions of different people. This led me to some very interesting discoveries. I could get in trouble sharing these, but I decided to write a report to my Dean. It got to be seven pages long. This got me assigned to the Culture Committee, which is designated to make the University fit into an American Culture. I made the point that in the American culture 'things work!!'  At AUM, so far, they don't and nobody seems to care.

Patio furniture from outside Snack Bar--3 weeks old.

My report got forwarded to the various Vice-Presidents and eventually to the President. They discussed my report in the Strategic Planning Committee and all got invited to our next meeting on Tuesday. So either this will have a positive effect on the university or I may be wrapped and put on the next boat for America. We'll see. So far I've had very positive responses.

New Role: The Dean has shared with me a lot of his frustrations, many of them in confidence. Last week he asked me to take over connecting to the President of the New Hampshire Institute of Art for an exchange and internship program. He said I could use the title of Assistant Dean. That's not official but gives some support for what we're trying to accomplish.

Community Involvement: It's hard not to get involved when I see problems. Our little town of Madaba is safe, kind, friendly but it is filthy. There is trash everywhere. It's hard to believe that people can be sitting on a chair in front of their shop all day and have litter laying all around. The open lots and fields in many cases are strewn with bags of trash, piles of old construction debris, etc. There are a few street cleaners but it hardly makes a dent and we often see people throw litter out of their vehicle or just toss a bottle while they are walking. Ronna and I have come from a culture where you never litter and usually pick up debris if you see it.

So this has gotten under my skin, so to speak. I've started asking various people why? why? My students have said that people are lazy, no one tells them to do differently and there are no penalties. But the most telling answer was when one student exclaimed to me, "Do you think you can change a 3rd world country?" I asked them if they really thought they were 3rd world, like Somalia, the Congo or Bangladesh?" Most said yes. So that's the reason. They don't think much of their country and certainly they believe no one can change it. That's not the American spirit. We believe we can change things if we put our hearts into it.

So I've started to form a working group. I know it's a long process to change a culture, but it can start here. Madaba is a center for tourism because of historic sites. There would be an economic benefit to having a clean, inviting environment for tourists. I do believe that much of the problem is that many believe that it's beneath them to clean up trash or that it's caused by someone else.

I now have some students and a few faculty involved and will be meeting with the Mayor and Director of Tourism. We probably will need to get the heads of the churches and mosques involved, if they will. It's been suggested that we form a Center for Community Affairs at the university and work to get corporate support as well. This could be interesting but it's not what I expected to be doing.

Boys will be boys,,,or is it beasts?

Nov. 3 From Tom:

A group of boys plays soccer on a dirt field near us. There is no grass so they just rearrange the rocks to give them sidelines and goals and play hardscrabble ball. I stopped once before and they were fun and wanted me to take their pictures. I sent some to Carter.

Today, they had a bigger group playing and I took some shots and then they spotted me, an old gray American with a camera, so they came up and were jousting with me. I got them to line up for a pose and they were pretty good. But as I was trying to communicate with one of them, someone pointed to my car and there were about 8 of them rifling through my car. They got a bag of nuts but I was worried about the expensive GPS navigation unit that cost several hundred. They didn't find that but it was a tug-of-war to get them out. Then they wanted money. I thought it was time to leave. I got the doors locked to go around but they got in again. Basically, I was driving off with them hanging on the side.

Ronna was not happy when I told her. :(

Note the carefully groomed turf--tough on a sliding tackle. 

Team Picture--just before they ransacked my car

"Dr. Sawala! Where are you?"

Nov. 3 From Tom:
It's Sunday morning and I felt like I had a severe UTI, ( TMI for some, but roll with it). So I called Dr. Sawala, who took care of my sinus infection a few weeks ago. No answer, but I left a text message. 30 seconds later ( really??) he calls me back, personally, and says to come right in to his clinic. Since I went to the hospital ER the last time, I asked where his clinic was located. He said to go to the bus station and call him again, really?? ( Remember, there are no addresses here.) So I parked in the central bus station, a large open parking and maneuvering area, about one square block, and called, expecting to have him tell me directions. No, he suggested I hand the phone to someone else. I handed it to a young man, who talked a few minutes and then handed the phone to another man, who talked a few minutes in Arabic and then hailed a taxi. They talked for a minute and motioned for me to get in. I did, wondering where I was going to be taken. The taxi started off, talking with someone on his 'bluetooth'. We drove south a block, west a block, then north a block and then he pointed to the 2nd floor of a building. I paid him about $2.50 for his effort. Then I tried to find something that looked like a doctors office.

I saw cages of chickens, dead carcasses hung in the windows, sellers of everything you can imagine, but no office. So I again asked a young man where Dr. Sewala's office was. He took me down a nearby alley and pointed to a narrow stair. As I entered the little waiting room Dr. Sewala called me on his cell phone. I said I was just entering his office. He said he had walked over to the bus station to find me. ( Who's going to do that in the US?)

The office was very spartan, old and messy. His Muslim assistant couldn't speak English but was very welcoming to his office, also very messy. Dr Sawala entered muttering something about Africa. I asked what he meant. He said something about how it would take 200 years to become like the Africans. Again I was puzzled. He explained that Jordan was so disorganized that if they really tried, someday they would be as organized as Africa. Interesting perspective.

I asked to use the restroom. I was taken to a shabby, folding wooden door. It led to a closet with all types of refuse and piles of boxes, buckets and rags. To the side was a space with a porcelain hole in the floor. It was the toilet. I looked around and found no paper, no spray hose, no bidet and no way to really close the door or wash your hands. You're welcome!

He gave me the prescription and suggested I see a specialist in Amman. I asked for how to find the specialist or what the phone number might be. It was a 10 minute hunt for both him and his assistant trying to find a number. It was at the Jordan Hospital, which I could get on my GPS.

He asked where I lived. When I described it, he said that he also lived on the same driveway and that Mariam, the landlady, was his cousin. ( I guess when the town is 5,000 years old and nobody moves away, eventually everyone is your cousin. I hear this constantly, "oh, he's my cousin".

As I was leaving, he asked if I could find the bus station. I said I am sure I could since it really was only about 50 yards away. But Dr. Sawala made polite apologies to the 3-4 people in his waiting room and walked me back to the bus station. Now that's personal service.

Dr. Sawala's Office

Street scene outside Dr's office

Central Madaba Bus Terminal--very busy at all times. 

Shops around bus terminal