East West Forum

For the past three days I along with most of the ISA members participated in the East West Forum. This forum brings Jordanians and internationals together to learn about each others cultures and countries and to do community service.  There were people from the United Kingdom, Russia, Canada and of course the U.S. and Jordan. During the three days we did multiple activities that brought us very close together and I've made many friends that will last a lifetime.
The first day we toured parts of Amman...

 We went to the Amman Citadel!

 Views from the Citadel...

 Children flying a kite

 The beautiful Citadel 

 Inside of a dome at the Citadel

 The Roman amphitheater

 Roommate love with Rosalynd, Maegan, Ashley and Brenda!

 Enjoying the Roman amphitheater

 Traditional Jordanian dress

 Meg played the violin for us

 We decided to play spin the bottle at a coffee shop downtown...

 Raghda, Anndrea, Rawan and Leah!

 Shisha for only 4.200 JD?! I love Amman

Watching the soccer game enjoying shisha and a lemon minth smoothie...perfect way to end the day!

The next day we were invited to spend the day with a Jordanian family. I along with Maegan, Brenda and our new friend from Russia, Daria, went to a souk and Rawan's house for the afternoon. The souk was full of cool shops! Rawan's house was very fun. Her family made us lunch and quite a few of her friends came over for a surprise party. We danced to Arabic music and chatted about our studies. Later in the day we all met up at Issa's house for a culture night. Each country presented a few aspects of their culture to the group. The Jordanian presentation was my favorite! We danced dabkeh and listened to different Arabic songs, it really felt like I was among family!

Here are a few pictures from my fun filled Jordanian day...

 Souk Jara

 

 At the souk with Rawan, Maegan, Brenda and Daria!

 Sitting on the floor and wearing hijab like a typical Jordanian ;)

 My new sister Raghda, I love her so much!

 Some of the Jordanians singing and playing instruments

 Everyone dancing to the Arabic music

 Being Jordanian :)

Today we did multiple activities. We first went to the King Abdullah mosque. It was so beautiful! I've been to mosques in the US, but this mosque was by far the most beautiful one I have ever been to. We listened to a short talk about the mosque and Islam along with peoples personal reflections about being Muslim.

Here are some pictures from the mosque...

 King Abdullah mosque

 Inside...

 Around the bottom of the dome were the 99 names of Allah

Inside the Royal Room

 

Also today we split into two groups and did community service. One group went to paint a school and the other group went to a Palestinian refugee camp. I was in the group that went to the refugee camp! The camp was about 45 minutes outside of Amman. When we got there we watched three short films that were produced by youth in the camp. The videos reflected how they felt living in the camp and the changes they wanted to see. The videos were very well done and inspiring. After the videos we went to a refugees house to talk with them about their life. This was a really humbling experience. Even though I know a lot about the conflict to actually sit in a refugee camp and talk one on one with a refugee was so inspiring. Inshallah this experience will help me to educate more people in the US about Palestine. We also played with the children at the school! This was an amazing experience! The kids were so beyond happy to have us there! We played games, danced and took pictures with each other...

 Some of the school girls

 Jacque and I with some of the girls

 Sarah :)

 Adorable :)

 The girls loved to take pictures with us!

 The first game...who could drink leban the fastest

 The boys doing dabkeh

 The girls doing dabkeh. They were so good!

 More games!

 Salsabeel :)

 

 Everyone dancing!

 The kids with the pictures we made them :)

Finally today the two groups met up again and we all went to a farm. Farms in the Arab world are much different than in the US. When Arabs refer to farms they mean another house away from the city with plenty of land for playing games like soccer or riding motor bikes. The farm we went to was pretty nice, I played on the swings and teeter-totter! 

Here are a couple pictures from the farm...

 Maegan and I playing on the teeter-totter!

 Clearly I'm still 5 years old

 My roomie is such a beast! 

These past three days with the East West Forum have really been an awesome experience. The people I met and places I went have all made a lasting impact in my life. I hope to keep in touch with all of the good friends I made and to participate in the forum next summer! Inshallah I will be able to see my new Jordanian friends before I leave Amman :)

By the way, I'm thinking about spending a semester here for an internship...thats how much I love Jordan! Tomorrow I start school bright and early at 8am so I'm off to bed!