"Mansaf" for everyone!

Yesterday I slept until noon.

For those who know me, that is highly unusual. In fact, I cannot even remember such a moment for years and years! I don’t know if it was the camel sighting on Friday, or the massage at the spa, but I actually slept until noon. In an odd twist, last night I only slept two hours. Erratic is the name of the game for me I guess.

Yesterday was another planned excursion from the school, a trip to nearby Madaba and Mount Nebo. It proved a satisfying, and a more personal trip actually than I would have imagined. A group of only 7 of us jumped in the bus, driven by Bashar, and went to Madaba, a town of maybe 60,000 about 4 miles down the road. The town was hard for me to get a handle on—I miss the grid pattern of much of Manhattan, I guess. And there was garbage around the town more than I have seen in my short trips to Amman, and many plastic bottles just tossed aside seemingly carelessly. As we drove around the town, spending maybe an hour so exploring, I never felt I had acquired much of a command of the town. Would I ever be able to read the street signs in Arabic? Are there landmarks I will learn? It reminded me of my first week or two in New York in 1994 when I was with the Klingenstein Fellowship, and I took a tour of Harlem. Of course I had heard of Harlem, and all the good, the bad, the ugly, and when I started on the tour I certainly had trepidation. But by the end of the 3 hour tour, my fears had been dispelled, and I had a “feel” for this section of Manhattan. I didn’t get that yesterday in Madaba. Patience is a virtue, I know!

So we went to see some historical and archaeological sites, including the remnants of a building built by the biblical Herod. We stopped in a famed Greek Orthodox church, saw the icons and mosaics. There is a painting there that, as the story goes, a woman had come for help and prayed to the Virgin Mary. All of a sudden a blue hand appeared on the painting, and the woman fainted. The blue hand has remained, and the natives believe it is God offering a helping hand to Madaba. We can all use our own version of the blue hand.

In Madaba several people in our group decided to stay there and make their own way back to school, so there were just four guys left with Bashar, the driver. As we started down the road to Mt. Nebo, Bashar grew suddenly animated, and decided we should stop at his home for some refreshment. He excitedly pulled up to his house that afforded a stunning view of the Jericho valley, and we went inside. It was as if old friends had come by, and his son brought out some coffee, and we sat and talked about his home and family. He was so honored to have us in his home. A couple of his children poked their heads in to meet the strangers. Then Bashar told of a Jordanian custom to welcome friends, the “mansaf.” This is when you get some appetizer portions of lamb kebabs and pop them in your mouth, like we would popcorn. It is meant to relax guests, laugh at yourself, and welcome friends to a home. Naturally, all four of my colleagues found this all so warm and kind.

After our respite in his home, Bashar drove us up to Mt. Nebo which is chronicled in Deuteronomy 34 as the spot where Moses climbed at the end of his life to see the “Promised Land.” It is this rugged mountain, and the views are quite raw and thrilling as you gaze into that valley and modern-day Israel.

In 1933 a memorial church from the 4th century was unearthed, and since then archaeologists have excavated more from this ancient church with very fine mosaics. In 2000 Pope John Paul II came up to this spot to hold a service, and they built a new road, and a really inventive sculpture of a cross intertwined with the serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert. I hear that the scene is breathtaking at sunset. If I have guests come see me, this will be a great thing on the itinerary!

Today was a work-day, with lots of policy discussions. Of course, not only does every school have to work its way through the handbook morass, but in a new school, everyone has something to share. We discussed effort grades, and just the contributions took about an hour—and no decision yet.

My department met again, and I laid out a plan for creating our courses in the next three weeks. It is fun to invent courses and work on the collegiality that can mean so much in a department.

But the real thrill of the day was meeting my first student who will attend the school!
There was a young lady with her mother (they are Jordanian and have recently lived in California) and they were touring around, and I bumped into the Admission Director, and got to meet this incoming 9th grader! I gushed, “You are my first student at the Academy!” It was so good to meet someone that might be in my class in three weeks, reminding me of the fun of getting to know students. Three weeks from today will have been the first day of classes, with the 100 incoming students in the inaugural year!

Several people have written with questions about things here for me, so tomorrow I will have a little Q&A session!

Best Love.