The kids arrived on Saturday and, with the exception of first a partial power outage (including the outlets in my room where my computer is plugged in) and then an internet outage in the boys’ dorm, which have prevented me from writing more frequently, everything went according to plan.

The kids have three classes in the morning: two hours of English and one hour of computer classes (which all the Jordanians call IT class). After lunch they have an activity which so far has been three days of art and one day of games, including hangman, charades, pictionary, and mafia. After a break in the midafternoon, they go for sports, which usually sees them split up into two groups of boys and two groups of girls. Each day, one gender goes swimming in the pool in two shifts, and everyone else plays other sports. The far-and-away favorite is, of course, soccer (or as they call it, football), but there has been much progress since last year in that they will accept other games, including basketball, capture the flag, table tennis, and relay races. Then dinner and evenings vary quite widely—we roasted marshmallows one night (the kids had never done it before and most weren’t quite sure what to do with their marshmallow once it was roasted), we have watched movies (English with Arabic subtitles), or just hung out and played cards.

Lunches and dinners are served family-style, as at Deerfield, except that for kids this age we have to have them work in pairs to carry the enormous trays around. It took a few days for the kids and for the kitchen staff to get accustomed to the system, but it is now working very well.

Everything went according to plan, that is, until yesterday. In a game of soccer that was not particularly vicious, one boy bit his lip in a collision with another boy, and I was hit in the face by a soccer ball. Fortunately I was wearing sunglasses, but the nosepiece on them cut my brow. Both of us spent the evening in the hospital. I got taped up; my teammate required two stitches. The odd thing is that it didn’t hurt at all, but now I can’t get that part of my face wet for five days.

Categories: Jordan, Summer 2007
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We arrived in Jordan about an hour and a half early, thanks to a healthy tail wind. We arrived on campus to a barbeque, complete with hamburgers and brownies (from the Deerfield recipe, we were told). After dinner, and after the headmaster had gone to bed, the school accountant and a couple of maintenance workers set off fireworks in the parking lot.

I have adjusted to the time change rather better than last time, keeping relatively normal hours, although not sleeping too soundly.

Yesterday brought training—discussions of the daily schedule, rules, procedures, what the returning kids were like, and so on. In the afternoon we had a basketball tournament with a number of other staff, and after dinner we climbed up on top of one of the dorms, watched the sun set, and then chatted and stargazed.

Today brought more training and tonight we are going to Mt. Nebo and to Amman.

The kids arrive tomorrow.

Categories: Jordan, Summer 2007
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