By allisonray94
Today, we had more rain than I've ever seen in Jordan...and hail...and flooding. I'm gonna go ahead and non-contentiously blame this on climate change. Anyway, unlike the United States, Jordan doesn't have infrastructure dedicated to rain and flood management. Never have I missed storm drains on the side of the street more.
On Thursdays I typically volunteer at a girl's school, but it was cancelled today because of the rain. Which is good, because this morning my apartment (a basement under my host family's house) started flooding. From the toilet. That's right: it rained so much that the neighborhood sewage system overflowed. After about five minutes, our floor was covered in a mix of water and poop which had overflowed from the toilet. We had to grab our passports and some clothes and book it upstairs. Luckily, our host mom called a man with a hose who sucked up all the water (and presumably the fecal matter), but it was a hilariously awful experience.
This coming week is a special week for our program. All of our classes have been cancelled, and we're going to spend all of our time researching project related to Jordanian culture. About a month ago, we divided ourselves into three topic groups: Refugees, Tribes & Tribalism, and Developmental Organizations. I'm working in the second group, and I'm hoping to research the differences between traditional and modern conceptions of Bedouinism. I went to a traditional wedding last week (see a previous post) and next week there will be other events like a visit to parliament, interviews with members of tribe families, etc. I'm hoping to learn a lot!
Stray Observations of the Week:
- Jordanian houses typically don't have heating, so it has been COLD.
- Wifi is a fickle privilege, not a right.
- Did I mention I don't have classes next week? Not even one.
- You know you're starting to get the hang of Amman life when you can tell if a taxi driver is joking about charging you 10 dinar (a ridiculously high price) for a ride.