This year I returned to Jordan on a
Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) grant. I was very blessed to have received the grant and it all
happened so quickly that many people don’t even know of my award. As part of the Fulbright program in
Jordan, they prefer that we stay close mostly for safety reasons so the
majority of us are living in the capital, Amman, where the Fulbright Commission
and U.S. Embassy are located.
Despite the current politics (or lack there of) that completely
surrounds Jordan—the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the immigrant overflow in
Lebanon and the hostilities that that adds to the country, and of course the
continuous frustration found in the West Bank and Gaza under the occupation of
the territories—Jordan is still safe and remains to be the safest country in
the Levant (with of course Israel which is in it’s own world apart from the
region.) Besides the weekly roar
of military planes and helicopters flying towards Syria and the redundant use
of “da3sh” (the Arabic name for the Islamic State) on the news, I would never think
of the dangers that lurk over the boarders. Because of this, I chose to come to Jordan over two years
ago when I came here alone for the first time and I chose to come back to
Jordan with the Fulbright program.
Fulbright placed me in a
secondary school for girls, which has given me a much different learning
experience than when I taught at a private language center for mostly college
age students. I must admit the
grant money under the Fulbright program is much better than the volunteers’
stipend that I received before, which has formed a sort of paradox when it
comes to my spending habits. At
one moment I know that I have more money to spend then what I did before, which
has allowed me to be more lenient than what I use to be basic necessities two
years ago, but at the same time, my mindset of poverty and the constant
reminder of what the people around me in average live on (which amounts to
about $500 per month), plus that after my grant year is completed that I have
absolutely nothing to support me besides my parent’s pocket book, keeps me
constantly counting my spending to save for the “rainy day,” student loans, and
the day after tomorrow.
Overall, my learning curve this
year has sharply flattened out, (besides my Arabic skills) which is why I haven’t been blogging as much as
I did last time. Whenever you
leave your country for the first time or you go to a new country to live for an
extended period of time, your eyes are wide and everyday is a new lesson that
you grow from. This beginning my
second time to come to Jordan for a year’s length, I feel like I was simply
returning to a place that felt like home.
Everything had changed and stayed the same. Because I was back in the US for a year and I had readjusted
to the American lifestyle, so I didn’t feel like I was simply picking back up
from where I was. Instead, I was
entering a new book of a series with all the background of the previous.
Jordan had changed. If you follow the current events in the
region or in Jordan you are probably aware of the vast amount of immigrants and
refugees that flood the borders.
Many of these immigrants are people who sold everything to be able to
leave so they are here with valid visas living a life of any other visitor, but
they don’t actually plan to be able to leave anytime soon. They rent apartments, much like Mexican
immigrants in the US, and have multiple families living together to save money. The average immigrant struggles to find
a job in Jordan, but so does everyone here. It was once explained to me that Amman is viewed as only a
city to work. It has no life of
its own like Beirut, Damascus, or Baghdad. Now Amman has the skilled professionals of the surround
countries applying for the same jobs that the Jordanian population is applying
for, but without the connections.
Regardless of their lack of connections, they are still skilled
professionals that can easily out merit a recent Jordanian graduate for any
job. Overall, the job market is
overloaded. There are too many
people and too little jobs.
Employers can have their pick of the litter and pay them less because of
they don’t stay someone else will gladly replace them, much like what I saw in
the US job market.
Beyond the job market, Jordan has
been changed in other ways as well.
Anyone will tell you about the influx of traffic. Anytime I plan to go anywhere I expect
it to take at least half an hour, if not an hour. I joke with my friend that I spend more time in the taxi
than anywhere else. The streets
have too many cars and the Department of Transportation is showing remarkable
efforts to try to control the troubled areas of the city with dividers and
mediums being built everywhere.
In addition to this, I have also
noticed a shift in the general relationship of people. I don’t feel like I stick out as much
in Jordan because of the more westernized immigrants that live here now. On any given day, I can easily found a
nice young couple walking around in public, alone, enjoying the sunset. I see many more mixed groups than what
I did before and I also notice more of a push to for development. I have told people before, in the mist
of all the turmoil that surrounds Jordan, I have seen many positive changes in
the atmosphere in Jordan. I think
that the new diversity in Jordan, besides the traffic and job market, can only
be a positive thing and that it will continue to stretch and strengthen the
Jordanian outlook.
Jordan is leading the fight against
the Islamic State especially after the public burning of the Karaki pilot,
Muath AlKasaesbah, how’s video was released only a few months ago. There has been a push in the Jordanian
moral, much like under late King Hussain’s “Jordan First” campaign, to keep Jordan
strong and encouraged. Of course
times are hard and they continue to get harder the more the Jordanian share
with influx of immigrants, but as it says on signs all over Amman the quote a
speech given by King Abdullah II,
“Raise your head. You are Jordanian.” There is a new sense of pride in being
Jordanian. As the immigrant
population influences the social tolerance of Jordan, the government pushes to
accommodate the immigrants, and the King increases the moral, I feel more of a
sense of purpose and pride in the overall population for the overall good in
Jordan.
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| "Raise your head, you are Jordanian." |
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Department of State website of blog, and the views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.
