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.