Christmas with Iraqis, Jesuits, and Usher.

There are some stories that are just too hilarious to be true, but too ridiculous to be made up, and the JRS end of year celebration was one of them.  Held in a church basement, complete with snowflake and reindeer decorated stage, the program went as follows:
1. Picture slideshow of the year at JRS.  While pictures faded in and out of the screen, the first song that played in the background was some country song about living large.  The second, completely unexpected and random song that play was "Rebellion" by the Arcade Fire.  Interesting choice for a slideshow of memories...
2. The screen and stage curtain lifted to reveal the Kindergarten class all dressed in little Santa outfits.  They had a dance/handbell performance that would have made the CUMC bell choir proud.  During this performance I tried to think what it would take to get me to trade places with the teacher who had to teach Kindergartners with bells for a month.  What, exactly is my hearing and sanity worth to me?  They performed the Arabic version of "Jingle Bells"  Which translates instead to "Christmas Eve"  and is sung by a sing songy man with obnoxious back up. This was an adorable and hilarious performance, all the parents knew it, and as such there was a throng of people video recording the entire thing (Jordanians LOVE camera phones).  Unfortunately, because of their clamoring fans, no one could actually see the Kindergartners performance, so of course, they had to do it again.  They then went into a screaming rendition of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and filed off stage after a final bow.
3.  We then heard two Arabic poems written by boys from the middle school class.  The first was about our homeland (aka Iraq) and went something like, "our homeland is the best.  our homeland is the most beautiful.  It is the best place in the world.  We love our homeland so much.  It is amazing."  The second poem was almost identical but instead of "homeland" the poet said "Jordan."
4.  An interesting thing happened next, the woman sitting next to my co-teacher, Richard, and I leaned over and asked if we would drank coffee.  She then proceeded in a very Mary Poppins, Hermione Granger like manner to pull a full pot of coffee and two small cups out of her purse.
5. Coffee time was accompanied by a series of musical performances.  We had a piano solo of Jingle Bells.  The notes were the Jingle Bell notes anyway- rhythm and counting was really non-existent.  At one point the audience tried to clap along.  But couldn't get on the beat.. because there wasn't one.  After that we had a popular song from Iraq, also on piano, an improv guitar duet, and a soloist sing an old Umm Kulthum favorite which was rudely interrupted by an unruly group of shebab.
6. My student then gave a speech in English!  so proud!!
7.  Now we get to the highlight of the show, and quite possibly my life up until this point.  A dance performance.  Break dancing to be exact.  A boy from the kindergarten class breakdances to Usher's "Oh My God" while another girl from the kindergarten class hula -hoops (for the ENTIRE four minute song) around the stage.  Completely inappropriate, this boy points to the hip swinging hula hooper as Usher sings "Baby let me love you down..." And the crowd went wild.  The next set of only slightly older boys also does a break dance performance to the Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow."  Again, totally unphased by horrendous lyrics, the crowd hooted and hollered for these talented ten year olds.
8.  The night ended with a shocking co-ed dance party of sorts.  And, naturally, a photo shoot with everyone's camera phone, and people bringing me plates of food they had brought from home.  In hindsight, this was probably the best part of my Christmas season (the actual day was pretty depressing- this all happened about a week before).  I do feel like I have a home, and a family at JRS, and I'm just glad that break dancing is now in my bloodline.

Leaders of Tomorrow, Yesterday

Yesterday was the workshop I have been helping to organize for the NGO I volunteer with, Leaders of Tomorrow. We partnered with the Netherlands Institute in Amman to host two scholars who spoke about intercultural business practices and social media.  When we started planning the event, we expected it to be about 20 people or so, in a small, interactive type workshop.  After posting the opportunity once on the Leaders website (leadersot.org- woo check it out!) we got over 90 responses and ended up having a total of 50 participants! People were engaged and asked great questions, as one of the speakers put it afterwards "If you wanted to give me a good impression of Jordanians, you have certainly done it."  The spokeswoman for LoT told us Jordanians are an interested and well educated people, but they don't have enough opportunities to express their interests and ideas.  This was certainly a great example of people eager to stretch their minds.
  The speakers covered a number of aspects of the issues at hand including social media in business practices, workplace rewards based on culture, workplace mobility based on culture, appropriateness and usefulness of social media in marketing and hr.  To me, three points especially stood out as new and interesting information (though it was all good!)
1. The majority of the world's market are being ignored.  The "developed" world is a minority of people on this planet.  And yet, they are the majority of the ones that are truly being marketed to.  A lot of under-developed countries have been written off by all kinds of businesses as "too poor" to sell to.  However, if companies would simply lower their profit margins on individual sales the mass of consumers they would gain in these countries would be huge.  Poor people may not have a lot of money, but they are certainly still consumers!  Cell phone companies were given as an example of a company that understood this.  Everyone in Jordan has a cell phone.  My Sudanese refugee students all have cell phones.  People in Jordan don't have a lot, but they are not dragging through the streets.  They can still buy things, and they do buy cell phones, which is possible because they are much much cheaper here than in the states.  Entrepreneurs in these countries have a comparative advantage in that they know that their fellow citizens can still spend money.  The thing I thought about most during this part of the talk was infectious disease.  Where is this idea more true? Pharmaceutical companies have made drugs so expensive they can only be sold in the west, but where is the majority of populations with HIV/AIDS, TB, etc.  Certainly not in the west.  If these companies would cut profit margins they could do good and make money so why not?  Because they have no idea what it is like in "developing countries," they don't understand that people still buy things. duh.
2. People will do things for free.  I know this one sounds nuts, but these lecturers made a good point.  If someone told you, I'm going to start a website to give people information, and I want everyone to use my website for everything, and I will just get people to post things about stuff that they know.  And then some people will monitor the stuff and make sure it's true.  And I will not pay them, they will just do it because they are interested.  Do you think, that's crazy?  That's wikipedia! and Yahoo answers, and a million other ways of getting information online. The lecturer made the point that very few people actually work just for money.  He asked a woman in the audience "why do you work?" and her response, of course was, "to get paid."  Then he asked her, "where do you work?" and she said, "PR because she liked to talk with people and meet new, interesting professionals."  So this was the reason she worked.  Because it was interesting to her, because she was motivated by her profession.  The point here was not that every job has to be interesting to the worker, but people must have some motivation to do their job outside of money, whether it be from good management, or interest, or a sense of accomplishment.  If you can sell something as interesting to a person, you can get them to work without a physical exchange of capital.  I like taking the money out of business- it makes the whole thing much more appealing to me.
3. If you want to know what someone wants, just ask! This one I learned a long time ago at Sierra Service Project, but I thought it was funny for business people to be saying it like it was this brand new idea.  In a different context, it does sound sort of revolutionary.  The idea was presented as, wow, if you ask consumers, they will tell you what they want!  If you want to know a culture, just ask the people of that culture!  no shit.  (pardon my French) Service lesson 101 says that the first step of service is to ask.  If  you go into anywhere saying, "I know what you need" whether you are trying to donate or sell your services you are going to get a nice kick on the way out of your very unsuccessful attempt to get anything done. 

So that was the workshop.  Good times. 
To follow, a few notes about blogging: I have no idea who reads this, which is fine, but if anyone ever reads anything you want to comment on, please do!  If you don't or can't post your comments because you don't have an account, I would love e-mails at jencompton@gmail.com.  It doesnt have to be about anything I write about but I would like to be more in contact with people from the motherland (and anywhere).

Also, after re-reading some of my blog posts I learned I need to be a more careful proof reader.  I apologize for my lack of attention to these details and hope it doesn't bother any of my avid readers. In other words, Mom, sorry I'm a dummy and don't proof my blog.

When you blow out the candles one light stays aglow, it's the love light in your eyes where'er you go.

Birthday day started like any other, Wednesday, but this time I went to school with a cake pan full of birthday treats.  My English 99 class were the first recipients, and added candles to the festivities.  Of course, they asked how old I was, so I told them I was somewhere between 20 and 30, so my cookie got three candles.  I wasn't exactly sure when to blow them out, as no one really knows the "Happy Birthday" song it kind of died after the first two "Happy Birthday to you's."  But I made my wish, and was proudly presented with a stuffed animal cat (of which I sadly do not have a picure) who we named Lota and is our new class pet.

The other class that knew it was my birthday also had surprises in store.  One of my students who is very good at English, always talks about how his family has pizza nights, and he brought in homemade pizzas for the class.  We also had decorations, and a latecomer who added a fabulous and tasty cake to the operation.  

Every year since we were born, my dad has taken a picture of my sister and I on or around our birthdays in this (hideous) burnt orange chair that we will keep forever if for nothing else but this purpose.  Not to let the distance from the actual chair stop this tradition, I made due with a slightly different shade of coral.  It might mess up the album a little, but as my dad said, it was going to be a huge hassle to take the chair with them when my parents come to visit in February.

In the evening, Fulbright friends came over for dinner and dessert.  The menu was a delicious spinach, fruit, walnut salad (fresh greens, what!), a bulgur tomato dish, and random leftovers from our fridge.  yum.  Dessert was by far the best part, those most dedicated to my birthday happiness (and who didn't have to work) made a carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting! Of all the deserts I've had in the Middle East, this one took the cake.  heh.

From there, we went to Champions (same chain as in the good ol' USA) which is in the Marriot hotel and beautifully decorated for Christmas.  Things got about as wild as you see in the picure below, which was perfect.  With truly touching wishes from friends here and abroad, my birthday was special, and lived up to the build-up of birthday week.

Continuing on, this week will be a busy start to my next year of life.  I have been helping to organize a conference with Leaders of Tomorrow, that has over one hundred registered participants!  This is a very healthy sign for the organization and an amazing turnout for what was originially planned as a small affair for 20-25 people. It is nice to feel a part of such an active community. On Wednesday, my English 1 classes will begin oral presentations for their participation grade.  That should provide plenty to blog about.  Wednesday evening I will also have my first lesson with the Somali refugees.  It's nice to be busy, needing things to get me out of the house as the weather continues to deteriorate into the winter that I am oh-so dreading.  I am also looking forward to a break, though, and hoping to stay in touch this holiday season with all of the loved ones that have made the days after my birth so worth living.