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Dispatch from Amman (July 8, 2005)

Filed under GSLIS Administrative
Posted by GSLIS, July 08, 2005
View all posts for July 2005

July 8, 2005: Dispatch from Amman — from Harvey Varnet

11:00 a.m

Hello again from Amman — it’s Friday, the holy day, so things are much quieter all around. I’m in the library/teaching lab and there are a few Iraqi men already at work on the computers.

The news from London sobering — while chatting with some men this morning, they are sympathetic but… they live with this kind of thing every day — they are not unkind, just somewhat resigned to the world’s craziness. We talked about “is the glass half-full or half-empty.” They say, “it has water in it — that’s all” — practical? philosophic? Who’s to say.

In a perverse way, the stealing of Michele’s purse has helped to bond all of us. Several Iraqis deeply concerned that this has happened to ‘such a nice person’ and ‘it’s a shame that there are so many bad people in the world!’ One Iraqi man told me of his harrowing experience being arrested with no cause, held for 3 weeks and losing all of his teaching materials and his computer. Though resigned to it, it was clear that it disturbed him and I’m sure his family as well.

Yesterday was Michele’s day to lead the teaching on Collection Development and Collection Management. One of her goals is to model the kind of teaching and learning we’re trying to inculcate with the group. So… Michele brought all of us in to touch on various points — a joint effort, collaborative, informal yet purposeful. Michele and John Dean have obviously ‘connected’ with the group — here’s hoping I and the others do as well.

One interesting point: we spent a lot of time defining basic concepts yesterday. The ‘base information’ is not as common among us as one might think, and just defining terms becomes so important. This applies to we Americans as well as the Iraqis — the blend between teaching faculty and practitioners pushes each of us…

Teaching through and with translation is definitely a challenge. Basima and Shayee are superb translators, keeping up with the teaching styles of John and Michele and themselves learning new Arabic words for our concepts (the students become the teachers). Perhaps it’s good that Arabic-speaking people talk as fast as we do! :) I recall my mentor Dick Palmer talking about teaching in Egypt via translation — you get to teach about 1⁄2 of what you think you’ll do, so remember to ‘focus’ on what matters. That surely applies here and it appears we all seem to ‘get it.’

Yesterday we ‘negotiated’ the teaching schedule regarding when to start and end the day. It was interesting to do this, as our style of ‘cram it all in and work til whenever’ is certainly different than the Iraqis’ style (we Americans are definitely manic about work). We’ve reached a suitable compromise among us — starting Sunday the day will start at 8:00 a.m. instead of 9 and we’ll finish before lunch. After lunch, and after a rest, a tentative plan is to gather informally so that any issue/topic/idea can be put on the table and discussed — we’ll see how this goes. Our fearless leader Michele has made it clear to all that this is a ‘trial’ and “we’ll see how it works.” Deans can be so directive. :)

6:00 p.m.

Late this morning, I and two of the younger Iraqi men spent some time downloading their pictures onto my computer, then sending them back to themselves to take back to show friends. Interesting experience, and I’m amazed at how much they know regarding computing. They were so polite in showing me each picture (all 89 of them) — it was good fun.

John and I headed off to the old center of Amman this afternoon. Our Goal was to just ‘bop around’ and see whatever… In the center of the old city is a Roman amphitheater — looks like it would have seated around 2000 people — very vertical and fairly well preserved. We walked among the shops and the people, just watching the interactions. The shops seem to be organized by general category, though ‘organized’ is loosely used here. First clothes, then odds and ends, then electronic gadgets, the furniture, then appliances. (My wife Terrie will be pleased, I think, that I did not find the gold souk!) Off on its own area was a food souk (market) — lots of very fresh vegetables. Nearby the veggies was the meat area — even though I’ve seen this many times, it always startles my western senses to see meat just hanging there.

There were lots of people out and about — with Friday afternoons typically free for local people, it’s fairly customary to go out and shop or have a sweet or a glass of tea. Thus, you see families out, which seems to change the tone of the streets — somehow seems calmer and less frenetic than during normal business days.

Now that I’m back at ACOR and wrapping this note up, it’s become apparent that the teaching lab has become our central meeting point. I’m sure folks who once lived in dorms will understand how that works — there always seems to be a place that’s safe to be and where you can expect to see a colleague and ‘to chat,’ which we all do oh-so-much!

That’s it for now. Another colleague arriving tonight (Cynthia Correia), so we get to view all of this through another new set of eyes. If you like change, enjoy the unknown, and can thrive in ‘ambiguity,’ then this is one heck of an experience!

To read additional Dispatches from Amman, please see http://my.simmons.edu/gslis/resources/publications/index.shtml.