H A P P Y

Back in America !  I am here.  I should change the name of the blog to Jo is Here!

You can e-mail me if you want.  Thanks for following me and supporting me over these months.

You are awesome and I appreciate your support and prayers.

Still got all the love there is coming from my humble heart to you.

Love,

Jo

Here I Come!!!

There is a lot to share with you all!!!

I will be there soon !!! 

This is like a tease movie trailer !!!

I can't wait !!!

LoveLoveLove

*Memorial*Day*Weekend*for*You*Guys*

May  28, 2011

In Jordan it is not Memorial Day Weekend.  We did celebrate (at least the country of Jordan) did celebrate Jordanian Independence Day on May 25. They didn’t seem to celebrate their Independence Day in Jordan like we celebrate back home in the USA.  Jordan gained its independence in 1946 from Britain.
It’s a monarchy and is currently ruled by King Abdullah.  It was ruled by his father King Hussein until he died from cancer in 1999.  That’s it for the history of Jordan lesson..anyway we had an extra day off - Wednesday - in the middle of the week.  Now you guys have the 3 day weekend to look forward to - I can’t believe it’s Memorial Day Weekend for you and I am missing being there at my beloved Assateague Island.  Last year I went into town in Ocean City and my sister Tina was in Ocean City, we sat on the beach and then we went to eat some wonderful Maryland crabs.  I miss my home.  My family, my neighbors, my Maryland.

Life here in North Jordan…I am waiting for the end of the school year.  It ends June 15th - looking forward to it just as much as I always did back in my real school life in America.

The weather is definitely warming up here.  We have had a couple of borderline hot almost unbearable days.   The volunteers who arrived the year before,,,those who have been here a year longer than us…they have been telling us that this 2011 spring and weather up to this point right now in May has been really pleasant.  I have found it pleasant…they said last year  - 2010  this time was unbearable…too hot.  Even though it has gotten hot here, it is still cooling down at night and a little breeze has been blowing in my windows.  So far so good.  It will get to the unbearable hot stage definitely in June and July.  There is actually a ceiling fan in my living room so I may be sleeping out in the living room when that time comes.
My typical day consists of getting up at about 6:30 or so and shower…coffee, or tea, grabbing a light breakfast,  getting ready and saying my morning prayers.  Then I am off to my special education center… I usually head out the door no later than say 8:05 or 8:10...arrive and go to my wonderful sped. Center.  The work day is 8:30 to about 1 to 1:30.  Then we are finished for the day.  Sounds like a short work day, but there is not a lot that goes on in a structured way in my center so that sometimes makes for a long day. 

My daily life here in the desert of North Jordan:  Mafraq:  I live in a moderately small apt. which is cozy w/ a bedroom and a kitchen and a bigger living room which I don’t  have any furniture in except for some plastic chairs.  The kitchen isn’t much there is a gas burner stove…no oven.  I have learned to bake potatoes using a frying pan and a big pot inverted that creates an oven effect.  Basically when I got here I had put on a few pounds because of indulging before I left and then when living with my host family during training I gained a few more lbs. because they were one big eating family - but since I have been living here on my own…I have dropped the extra lbs. and am at a low…like I was before I began the celebratory eating before leaving in October.  I don’t eat much meat…don’t buy it except for a roasted chicken occasionally that fortunately is available in many restaurants here in my city…so it comes with bread, and some veggies and it is delicious. 

  I can tell you that the best best best tomatoes you have ever had,,,well that I have had are grown here in Jordan and cucumbers…they are so so delicious.  The grocery stores have canned goods and normal shelf items,,,dairy products, paper products, but you don’t get your produce in the regular grocery stores.  There are produce stands and stalls everywhere.  You buy your fruits and veggies in one of these.  There is one a block from my apartment that I like. The guy is always pointing out the better tomatoes to me.  For some reason I have developed and real penchant for eating apples…they are probably the biggest part of my diet…I mean I eat one every day…so I buy a lot.  They have Gala apples and for me this is good since I don’t like red delicious.   You don’t buy your bread in the regular grocery store. There are bread stores like the produce stands, there are different kinds of breads.   There is one big bread store on the main street in my city and there are other bread stores where the bread comes warm out of brick ovens.  The bread is not the sliced kind but bread that is flatbread, it sometimes cooked on a hot ceramic stone also. The bread here is the best also.  I will put in a link here:

http://www.demotix.com/news/234078/baking-bread-amman-jordan 

You can see a picture of bread being baked on a ceramic stone.

   I just recently discovered that one of the grocery stores where I shop actually carries some deli turkey…and I bought some for the first time last week to make some sandwiches out of.  It was pretty good.   Especially on that flat bread and grilled with some wonderful tomatoes. The other protein sources are canned tuna, and beans.   It’s a good diet.  I am afraid of gaining back the weight  I lost here when I get back to the states.  Will do my best to try to keep the diet healthy. 

Life here…interesting the life of an older retired teacher Peace Corps Volunteer.  Here in Jordan.  Jordan is an oasis of calm in the middle east.  No worries here as things are good.  The culture is way different from anything I have experienced before.  I am adapting but it is way different.  But peaceful - no need to worry.

So, my family and friends.  I miss all of you and am praying for all of you.

I miss you so much and thanks for praying for me.

I love you all from my heart…but where else does love come from?

LoveLoveLove&Blessings

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL MOTHERS OUT THERE!!!

Love you and miss you!!!

Have a great Mother's Day!

IT'S APRIL 27 !!!

It's April 27, 2011  !!!

It's been 10 days since my last post.  It's been 2 weeks since Anna left.  Since she can't be with me all the time I am happy that the pace at  which time seems to move is seeming to go faster.  How relative it all is.  I am waiting for summer...ticking off time until:

"SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER :) "  wOw that is no different from any other year of my life.  Well... the continent is different this year.  Big difference.  We all seem to be waiting for that magic day.  Since Easter was late this year that seems to help.  My teacher friends in America you now have the Memorial Day holiday to look forward to to help tick tick tick the clock winding down...and pretty much after Memorial Day...you keep asking "Why are we here?"  It's hot and everyone is restless.

In Jordan we say "same same" as at home.

The weather yesterday and today has been P E R F E C T here in my city of Mafraq.   Cool breezes but plenty warm out.  Perfect spring weather.  I say "stay stay" because we have already been warned about the summers here in the desert.  I have a good friend who lives in a village in the south close to  Aqaba.  She was telling me today of how hot it is there already, and HUMID!!!  Yes my east coast friends you can relate to that.

We had in the last couple of weeks a couple of 90 degree days here...I didn't realize it was 90 until I looked on a website where I check the weather for my city and it was indeed 90.  But it is a "dry heat" and indeed it did NOT feel like it was 90 to me those days.

I am only hoping that is a harbinger of things to come (hope hope hope    p  l  e  a  s  e  :>) pretty please???

Time will tell.  Now I have circled around to my opening main idea of this posting.  Time and the passage of such.  Sometimes our friend...and sometimes like a tornado...whirling through...you turn your head and say where did it go?  What did it leave in its path?  Most tornadoes do leave a lot of destruction and with that a lot of sadness in people's lives.  So I guess not a very good analogy...maybe like a waterfall (Niagara) one of my favorite places in all the world.  The water just never stops...power, power, power in the falling...moving moving moving...time passing passing passing.  A whole lifetime. 

My - I can only say MY! Don't blink too much...or turn around!!!

Where did it go???

I just need to say how much I love my Bonny Christine (she's getting married this year you know & so excited & ME excited for her) and my Anna Kathleen winding up 2 years + service in Peace Corps!!! and that I miss them SOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!

I miss the rest of my family - so much too...'specially my MoM.  She is so dear and she is doing so well.  Al ham dulilah !!!  Thanks be to God.

I miss all of you my friends too!!!  Please keep sending the prayers...I am always praying back for you too!!!

All the love there is from my heart as always!!!

Daughters Who Visit

I have had the most wonderful life.  I grew up with 2 loving parents and 5 siblings.  My family lived and grew in the 60s when for the most part it was the generation where the moms stayed home and the dads went to work.  In my neighborhood and a whole lot of America at that time.  I was in third grade in 1963.  I am a middle child...my older brother is Larry and my older (&only) sister is Tina, and then there are 3 more brothers younger than me.  Mike, Chris & Les in that order.  Paul Michael, Francis Christoper, and Leslie David.  Somehow I just felt the need to list these younger sibs by all their names.   Paul Michael has always gone by Mike, Francis Christopher goes by Chris, (Francis was my dad's first name) and Leslie goes by Les.  Anyway...it was a good life and I always felt loved and secure and well cared for.  I didn't feel dysfunctional at all.  For the record.  

So then I grew up and got a college degree and got a job as a special education teacher living at the beach, on Maryland's Eastern Shore (God's Country) for the record!  Then I got married and had 2 beautiful daughters and then I got divorced and raised these wonderful girls on my own.  Then life just F L E W  by and a 33 1/2 year teaching career just  W H I Z Z E D by!

So,  then my Bonny went off to college in California,,,and then moved there...and then my Anna  went off to Bulgaria with Peace Corps!  That was almost 2 years ago!!!  Can you believe it?

Then I decided to retire from teaching and go to Jordan in Peace Corps!  Did you ever ask yourself:

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING???  Because I sure do!!!  So, I arrived in Jordan on October 25, 2010.  Now today's date if April 17, 2011!  It is Palm Sunday, and of course next Sunday is Easter.  Last Easter I was in King George, Virginia at my niece Erin's house.  That is my favorite place in the world to be on Easter Sunday...am missing it this year.

I miss my family.  My wonderful happy Peace Corps daughter named Anna Kathleen came to Jordan on April 6, 2011 to spend a week with me in Jordan.  I mean it doesn't get any better than that.  Well, maybe if both daughters were here it would be better but it was wonderful to have my Anna and to sit and talk with her and reflect about life in Peace Corps, her service almost at the end of her service and mine at the beginning...almost the 6th month mark.  We talked much,,,laughed MUCH,,,,so good to laugh with her.  We ate good food.  We traveled to South Jordan to one of the 7 wonders of the world, the lost city of Petra.  I have posted a few of the pictures here on the blog.  I am not very savvy at navigating through the blog and figuring out how to post like a whole album of pictures.  I have put a few choice ones here on the blog.  The albums of the Anna visit and our time in Jordan are on both my facebook pages and also Anna's.  I have shared over Anna's album of pictures so if you can get to my page you can see all the pix.

Daughters who visit you from one continent  to another make your week...as a matter of fact they make like the last 6 months of your life worthwhile.  I have had the best life.  It continues to go on.  I miss my people back home SOOOOO SOOOO MUCH!  I miss all of you.  I MISS my MOM majorly!  I miss my little sweet great nieces.  I MISS  everyone.  I am happy so happy for the resurrected Christ!  Easter is new beginnings.  I love the warm weather...though I may not be saying that in maybe another month or so here in the desert of Mafraq,  Jordan!

Anna arrived in Amman, Jordan in the middle of the night April 6, 2011.  Later on that day we got on a bus and headed south for a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to south Jordan to the village called Wadi Musa, which is the town at the top of the hill from the entrance to Petra.  We toured Petra all day on Thursday, April 7, 2011.  We stayed 2 nights in Wadi Musa and then we headed back on Friday to Amman, Jordan to spend the night there and tour around Amman that Saturday, before  heading north to my city of Mafraq later that afternoon.  Anna came back to my apartment with me and went to the special education center where I work for 2 days.  And we ate, and laughed and watched movies together.  We talked about what is in our hearts and we laughed and hugged each other.
Then she had to go back to Bulgaria.

That  is my life up til now folks.  Please keep praying for my family.  I am praying back for all of you.  I love you all so much and miss all of you and miss America.  God Bless!!!
 

Time? Does it fly?

Is time flying by since the last time I posted it was March 18?  Now it is April 2nd?  I need to double check that date...need to look at the calendar...or my cell phone.Yup got it right...

The time just pushed forward this week in Jordan so we lost the hour as well and now the time difference is 7 hours again to the east coast and 10 to the west coast.

Since the last post my good friends that I met in Mafraq have returned to America...all the best to Ken & Marianne.  I miss them.  They are wonderful people and were very kind to me in the short 2 & 1/2 months that I knew them here.

What have I been up to?  Hmmm...this week myself and fellow volunteers who are sped. ed. volunteers as well and YD (YD = Youth Development) went to Amman for an inservice conference...marks the end of our first 3 months of service since we moved to our sites. 

After the conference drew to a close my friend Marian and I went to a city not far from Amman called Madaba for 2 nights R & R.  We did sightseeing...ate some good food...had a nice hotel room...took hot showers...all the hot water you want no waiting :) it was a lovely time.  I returned to my apartment in Mafraq this morning.

We hired a driver and we went sightseeing to Mt. Nebo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nebo_(Jordan)  and after we 

were there we went to Bethany Beyond the Jordan: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/jordan/bethany-baptism-site

These 2 places were really great to see.  Jordan is a very beautiful country.  I've got to get to work getting the pictures from the disk in my camera to this computer.

On Wednesday of this week my ANNA arrives for her week visit with me here in Jordan.  I can't wait.  I miss my girls so much...I miss all of my family so much.  I am so excited to have her here for a week.

I will try to keep you guys posted of our adventures.  

Love to you all!!!

Miss you all!!!

My baby G*I*R*L*

Shoulda mentioned in the last update that was a few minutes ago that today my baby girl turned 
24 years old!!! 

ANNA KATHLEEN O'NEILL
born the day after St. Patty's Day - the day after I ate the corned beef & cabbage!

http://www.bulgarianna.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=1485841758779&set=t.7408023&theater 

life is good when you have wonderful daughters

Spring in Jordan*M *raq

Beautiful spring day here in Mafraq, the desert, Jordan.  Did some laundry in a bucket and hung it on the line...it was dry in no time at all.  Fridays are our Saturdays here in Jordan...people go out and enjoy picnics ***  rehlas *** everywhere ~ on the rocky sandy sides of roads...on hillsides.  My American friends called me and picked me up about 4 - they brought fried chicken and we drove out to a hillside a little outside of  the city - ate the food, drank soda.  Watched the big full moon rise over the countryside, and the sunset.  We could see these mountains in the distance and are pretty sure we could see Syria.

 These good friends are named Ken and Marianne.  They have been such kind and warm friends to me in the 2 short months I have known them. They are here for a short term, 6 months doing some other work here not PC - but their 6 months is up and they are returning to the USA this week for reunion with their family.  Hooray for them :( for me!!!

Going on one last adventure with them tomorrow to a place in Jordan called Pella...will post some pix after I get them.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pella,_Jordan

That is it...quiet here in Jordan...nothing adverse happening here.  When you hear news reports back home about the middle east Don't Worry - be Happy!  Not in Jordan!!!

Families - friends -be happy - value the time you have together.

If you are near a family member - if they are close by...please go give them a hug.

Send me one and send me an e-mail as well. 

P L E A S E :)

I value them so much!  Love to you all.

Jo*in*Jordan

 

The Heart Won't Lie!

I miss you all so much.  The heart won't lie!

 
'Cause the heart won't lie
Sometimes life gets in the way

I miss you all so much.  I know I am supposed to be here...to do whatever good I can do...but I miss my family and friends.  You all are always on my mind...another country music song!

You are always on my mind and in my HEART!

Tell each other how much you love each other.  NOW!  LOVE YOU praying for you as you pray for me.

T H A N K S !!!

Finally an update :>)

February 22, 2011

Dear Everyone,

Time to update my blog.  I have to say I’m not much of a blogger I have discovered that about myself.  I’ve read some excellent  blogs where people are amazing writers and it is really impressive.  Me… I type…then my fat fingers hit something weird on my keyboard…and I often lose half or more of what I just wrote.  I guess I doesn’t help that the laptop is on my lap and I am in bed in a semi reclined…almost “crunch” position …you know like at the gym (where I used to go when I lived in Amreeka!)  Yea…a rambling blog…maybe I should change the title from TheregoesJo to TheregoesJoramblingonandon.  I read someone’s blog yesterday - fellow Peace Corps Volunteer…who has an hysterical sense of humor and a wonderful insightful editorial slant on life here in Jordan.  I could talk about the generalities of life here in Jordan…or specifics about my life here in Jordan.  I am pretty sure that is what everyone wants to read.

I could tell you that right now I am cooking some rice pudding on a makeshift double boiler on top of my gas burner stove because I do not have an oven.  I am not complaining, sometime I am going to get a counter top oven (in Arabic it’s pronounced “foreign”).  I just haven’t gotten that far yet.  I can’t buy one and carry the box down the street to my apartment.    I could take a taxi - might get lucky and get one of the drivers here who speaks some English but that is a crap shoot.  There are just some situations I haven’t decided to take the plunge into yet.  En shall ‘ah I will get a counter top oven so I can then then go on a quest to get proper ingredients for say, some of my famous chocolate chip cookies.   I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it told that the choco chips are hard to find here…I will have to make some more inquiries of volunteers who have been here a while.
My apartment is good.  My bedroom is cozy.  This time of year most volunteers (here in Jordan and other places I suppose) live in the room they can keep heated.  We have these propane heaters called “sobas”  they are a metal framework kind of thing that a propane tank fits in and hooks up to in the back, and then you turn the tank on and there are 3 ‘screens’ so to speak in the front, so you can light one, two, or three of the screens…high, medium or low.  I have never cranked it to high, and I use medium when I run in to the cozy bedroom directly after a shower to get warm by drying off and getting dressed in front of the “soba”.  Maybe it will warm up soon.  Actually, my apartment is starting to warm up.  I have not had to light the soba as much this week.  The outside is starting to warm up some.  Apparently this time of year here in north Jordan the weather changes and can’t always make up its mind as to what it wants to do.  Remember we live in these block buildings and they don’t have central heat.  The heat is from sobas…everyone uses them.  There are also electric ones.  It’s just that often really often it is warmer outside the building.
Anyway…I havn’t password protected this blog.  I have to be careful what I write. Which means that right now I really can’t go in to a lot of detail about my assignment as a special education volunteer.  For my friends who are teachers, and for anyone who may be involved in any way with special education…maybe you have a child who gets special education services in America or know someone else who does.  Believe me when I say PLEASE APPRECIATE ALL THE PROGRESS THAT AMERICA HAS MADE SINCE THE SIXTIES in special education.  PLEASE PLEASE never take it for granted even if your job is hard, you are overwhelmed…and you think some of the ways and best practices are ridiculous.  Wow…the grass here is not green…it is brown… it is dying…t really there ain’t much grass, it’s desert.  Literally there is desert and lack of proper practices as well…oh my I can’t begin to say…it is discouraging, and dumbfounding sometimes.  I guess that is why they want American Peace Corps Volunteers with experience here. 
My attitude and emotions have definitely gone on a kind of roller coaster ride of ups and downs.  I keep praying about it because I know the Lord wants me to be here for a reason.  The other day I played a game with some students in my sped. Center and they don’t play many games…so 2 of the little girls told me “Shukran”  when we were finished playing.  So sweet.  I need to keep reminding myself I am here for the kids. 
Since I have written this blog update in 2 sessions I am now the proud owner of my first Jordanian cold…which may have just been coming on the other day when I started this entry.  I fought it for 4 days…got up this morning and there was a lot of stuff not a nice color…(I wonder where I might have picked up these nasty germs?)  I decided to call in sick…call the Peace Corps Medical Officer  - describe my symptoms to her and she sent me off to a local pharmacy where you can get an antibiotic sans a prescription.  I am on the road to recovery  I spent the day sleeping, and watching a (weird) movie.  I am feeling better and ready to go back in to my center tomorrow.   I miss you guys….I miss America…I miss Denny’s Grand Slam breakfasts…there is a lot I miss.  That may be the subject of a soon to be more updated blog.
I love you all…send me some love my way…Just a little e-mail catching me up with things on that side.
Keep those prayers coming…as I pray back for all of you.
Love love love love all the love I can send.

A Little Arabic for fun!

 It's been a few weeks since I've updated...

A little Arabic for fun !

These words are “trans-literated”

I am writing them in English the way they sound in Arabic.

Mean = who ?             Kafe =  how ?      Wayne = where ?  Shway = little

Lay-ish = why ?          Aimta =  when ?    Miah = water     Kabeer = big

Shoe = what ?        Ga day ish = how much ?   Bebsi = Pepsi

Mush coola = problem    moosh moosh coola = No problem

Aya saah  =  what time ?    Anna ma beddee =  I don’t want

Anna ma aheb = I don’t like      Iowa = Yes    La = No

mumken???  Is it possible ?      mumken = it is possible     ham mam = bathroom

Shoe crahn = Thank you     afwan = you’re welcome

Asif = sorry      afwan = excuse me   shoe fee = what's up?

Shoe malik ? = what’s wrong ?    Shoe sar ?  = what happened ?

Anna = I or me    Inta = You (when speaking to a male)

Intee = You (when speaking to a female)

Whoo-Ah = he           Hee- Ah  = she     laptopee = my laptop

Yome = day     cooly yome = every day   alley yome  = today

Embarrah = yesterday   bukra = tomorrow      can I buy ya = sofa

gebbil = before         Bad = after          bad bukra = day after tomorrow

Hone = here    honack = there     Yellah Jo! = Let's go Jo!   cooly cooly Jo! = eat eat Jo!

Hi everyone...recently we teachers in Peace Corps Jordan have been on break,,,because in Jordan this is how they roll - the break time is not  (not like home )  I think I go back to my special education center on February 8, 2011.   With some help a tutor has been located here in my city so I can begin to speak in better arabic sentences and understand a whole lot more of what is said to me.  That starts bad bukra for me.  Last Friday I got to participate in this:

Employees and volunteers from Entity Green, Peace Corps Jordan, and other groups got together for a weekend of planting trees and learning about permaculture in the village of Samma al Sirhan, near Mafraq.   Planting a forest in the desert near the Syrian border.  I got to participate on the first day and it was a great day!

Living here is certainly different.  I have a cozy little second floor apartment.  I don't have much but I do have enough.   I am adjusting and am very glad to have internet.  Right now my mom is sick so please keep her in your prayers.  The world seems to be getting to be a crazier place each day.  I don't know why.  I am operating on trust and all of your prayers... with all the love there is from my heart.

NOT I repeat NOT prepping

for the winter storm like they are on Delmarva.  No
S N O W  headed my way presently here in Jordan!!!

AND I am very GRATEFUL for that :)  

Just got online here in my apartment and will be putting some pix up soon of where I live and bringing the news to you all.

STAY warm east coasters...I saw that the south was iced/snowed on...oh my ... so sorry.

More later...

Love from JO in JOrdan  

Volunteer I Am !

I am now sworn-in as a J 14 Peace Corps Volunteer! Today, January 4, 2011 in Mafraq, Jordan! We are the first group, worldwide, to swear in during PC’s 50th Year Anniversary. :)

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28:7

Swearing In for Peace Corps Jordan!!!

Peace Corps Jordan... I am about to swear in on January 4, 2011 as an official Peace Corps Volunteer.  Training is over and I will be living and working in Mafraq, (north) Jordan.  I can hardly believe it!!!  See me smiling?  Someone who is really good at this blog thing please send me a message on how to adjust the picture size so when I have lots of good photos of the swearing in tomorrow I can put more reasonable size pix up and you can enjoy them in not so much giant size...I am still learning.  

I will post more I promise.  Keep praying for me as I move into my new apartment and my new job!!! 

More to come and much love from me as always!!!