Jordan Project: Couple Teaching in Amman

United Youth Corps volunteers Matthew and Mary Ann Bates were chosen to serve in Jordan, continuing a long tradition of service by Church of God members in the Hashemite Kingdom. Here is their report halfway through their project.

by Matthew & Mary Ann Bates

At the invitation of Princess Sarvath al Hassan, a 10-month United Youth Corps project teaching at the Amman Baccalaureate School in Jordan began last August. We were chosen as the first participants, and so soon after our wedding in Ohio, we were on a plane to exotic Amman.

First Impressions

When we first stepped off the plane in Amman we knew we were in for an exciting year, one way or another. Forgetting to check the time at the airport, we faced our first challenge later that night when we set our alarm to wake up in time for the bus and training the next morning.

"Is it GMT +1 or +2?"

"Do they use daylight saving time?"

The prayer call at 4:30 a.m. ensured we didn't sleep too late. Once the sun rose, we went outside to ask local construction workers the time. They didn't speak English, but we were able to ask, using our fingers, if it was 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock. They responded in Arabic and held up six fingers. Good, we were an hour off, but had our answer.

Ah, but not so fast. Now, one of the men was trying to elaborate and drew a "7" on his hand. Definitely six fingers, definitely the numeral seven. Which should we believe? Several days later we discovered that the Arabic numeral six looks almost identical to the English numeral seven.

Daily Life

Many conversations and a few Arabic lessons later, we have settled into a nice routine of teaching, tutoring and planning for the summer Youth Corps project. Our main duties here in Jordan are as full-time teachers at the Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS), or, in Arabic, Madrasah Baccalaurea.

Matthew teaches ninth and 10th grade mathematics, and Mary Ann teaches English subjects for grade two. Extracurricular activities, like a gardening club and a Lego robotics team, keep us busy too.

ABS is well respected as one of the premier educational institutions in Jordan, and many of the students come from families that lead Jordan's business, economic, political and social sectors.

As a result, we see our daily interactions with the students here as important steps in giving the future leaders of Jordan a positive connection with young Christians from the United States through one-on-one interaction.

We have also started teaching evening English classes in Mahata, an area of town characterized more by plastic and tin roofs than by the Porsche and Mercedes SUVs of West Amman. Our group of students at the Osama community center includes poorer Palestinian-Jordanians and Iraqi refugees whose families came to Jordan a number of years ago on temporary visas and never left. This puts them in difficult positions in terms of mobility and future employment.

Our interactions with people from both sides of Amman give a personal face to the complex culture and politics of the region.

Cultural and Religious Impressions

Even living here for a few months has altered some of our perceptions about this part of the world. After having had a chance to interact with so many different types of people, it is now easy to appreciate the diversity that exists within Jordan's communities. The people here are rich and poor, selfless and greedy, tall and short, conservative and relaxed, Spartan and material—just as they are back home.

In general, though, the Muslim community we interact with here in Amman (which is more westernized than many other parts of the Arab world) is much more focused on issues related to family and religion than the average guy on the street in the United States.

We have been shown tremendous hospitality and have truly been treated as friends and brothers. It is a pity so much of the world only sees the extremists generating the sensational news on TV and not the simple goat herder whose only English words are "Drink tea?" or the older Palestinian couple who welcomed us into their home and talked for two hours after we had waved from the sidewalk.

When we first arrived, the statistic that 95 percent of Jordanians are Muslim led us to predict a high level of uniformity in behavior, dress and beliefs. Since then, we have noticed more tolerance for personal choice and variation in interpretations of the Koran than we had imagined.

For example, in some parts of the city, most women wear the hijab (a scarf wrapped around the head and neck, leaving the face exposed), while in others, many women wear no head covering at all. While proselytizing in Jordan is strictly forbidden, the country's Christian minority is allowed to express itself freely.

Last fall, during Ramadan, we were careful not to eat in public in the daytime, out of respect for our thirsty and hungry neighbors. Multiple times during the month, though, in the homes of people we met, we were served food and drink by those who were fasting.

On more than one occasion, this occurred not too long before sunset, when the breakfast they had eaten at 4 a.m. was long gone. Despite our protests, they made tea and served us the best of their baklava and dates, while touching nothing themselves. And this happened even at the home of our most religiously conservative friends.

We also appreciate that Muslims don't eat pork, so following the biblical dietary laws here requires less continual vigilance than it had in the United States or Europe. Pork products are sold, as is alcohol, for the Christian minority, but only in a few small specialty shops disconnected from the local supermarkets. Shortly after arriving, we ceremoniously ordered our first clean pepperoni pizza at, you guessed it, Little Caesar's.

Living in such a religious society, it is common to see cars parked three or four deep outside the local mosque during the time of Friday prayers. The main road through the downtown souks (markets) is also blocked off by the police during this time, when the crowds from the King Hussein Mosque spill out the doors, across the sidewalk and into the streets.

Prayer is not meant to be showy, but it is also not specifically hidden. It is not uncommon to find people rolling out their prayer rugs behind their desks or even beside the road, in plain view.

We enjoy the daily challenge of teaching spelling patterns or geometrical theorems at ABS. In our free time, we like to ride the public buses to different wadis (canyons) or ruins and then explore the country by hiking.

Whether in the classroom or on foot, our goal is to discover as much of the local culture as we can and to share our perspectives with the Jordanian people as unofficial ambassadors. UN

View more information on the summer Jordan/Israel project.