Some As to your Qs...

It is exactly one week ago that my dad took me to the airport in Cincinnati. One week on the Jordanian odyssey…

Several people have emailed me with questions, so I thought I would now entertain those queries! If you are old enough to have been a fan of “The Carol Burnett Show” she always opened her show fielding questions from the studio audience. While I am not red-haired like Carol, or clad in a Bob Mackie gown, I am imagining right now my own studio audience and taking your questions!

Q: How hot is it?
A: The weather reporter must get so tired everyday: sunny and warm! The temperature here is usually about 93 but at night it goes down to about 60. At the Dead Sea the other day, however, it was a scorching 114 degrees! Without the humidity folks, it is not as bad a humid day in Ohio or New York. But it is weird how the perpetually all-blue sky is a little disconcerting—I miss a cloud or two! But all day, until dusk, it is sunny, sunny, sunny.

Q: What do you eat for breakfast?
A: There is a buffet for breakfast, so there are many choices, and indeed, it is the first chance of the day to have hummus. By the way, this is something—the hummus is presented not only with lovely garnishes, but a gorgeous imprint of the school’s logo is made on top of the pile of hummus! Just so you know, the logo of the school is a beautiful flower, because…(pause for dramatic effect) knowledge flowers here.
I tend to have corn flakes, a banana, and mango juice.

Q: How expensive are things?
A: Here is the most unusual dichotomy of prices—ready? At the Dead Sea, a bottle of sunscreen was priced at $25!!!! But to pay for someone to clean my apartment, and pay for their transportation by bus to/from the school, will set be back simply $5!! American brands of products are very expensive, but hey, I own stock in P&G so shouldn’t I support the Cincinnati-based company??

Q: Where does the title of the blog come from?
A: My friend Judy who set up the blog for me decided it might be nice to do a wordplay on the 1967 Sidney Poitier film about a teacher in England, entitled “To Sir, With Love.” Poitier (playing Mr. Thackary, to be addressed as "Sir!") is assigned to teach a tough classroom of young working class Brits, who are about to graduate and enter the workforce. The pupils are poorly educated and thuggish. Thackary quickly realizes that their real problem is that they lack a moral and social compass, or any appreciation of the value of an education. He confronts the class, and inspires most of them to steer a more proper course in life. Poitier encounters prejudice, but transcends it by his talent, intelligence, and force of personality. So Judy thought I should do a reverse version, hence, the FROM Sir, and the love part is pretty obvious.

Q: Is your school an American school?
A: This is a vexing problem, because actually it is considered a Jordanian school with an American-influenced system. But since it is Jordanian really, it has to follow Jordanian educational requirements, laws, etc. But, the model is Deerfield Academy, a venerable New England academy.

Q: Do you watch TV?
A: Not yet. I have about 6 channels; 1 in Spanish, 3 in Arabic, and 2 in English (BBC News and a European CNN). So I just decided to wait and not watch—which means I guess not getting much news either. My sister had said earlier this summer that if there was no cable, “oh, you’ll be home by October!”

Q: What is wonderful so far?
A: The sunsets are wonderful. Close your eyes and imagine the ideal sunset. Or get out your old albums, and if you find a Barry Manilow album, “Even Now” the sunsets are those pure colors of red, pink and blue, and at the front of the school, you see right into the Jericho Valley with these sublime colors. That word sublime is an interesting word, for it comes out of struggle and finally a peaceful resolution. This volatile region yields such calming sunsets. You can almost Moses or Joshua seeing the same kind of sunsets thousands of years ago, moved by God’s simple, yet deluxe, magic.

Q: Have you been to Amman often?
A: We have gone a few times, for shopping and out to eat once, but not enough yet to walk around and establish any sense of territory or bemusement. I go tomorrow to get my residency visa. I need to go and wander. With a map.

Q: What is the best part of Queen Noor’s book?
A: I still have some of the book to finish, but the most astonishing part of the book thus far is her explication of how the Anwar Sadat-Monachem Begin Camp David Accords affected Jordan, King of Hussein, and did not work toward peace in the Middle East. The best part of the book, of course, is an Arab perspective I have rarely seen. As we know as historians, getting at THE truth about something is like chasing Jello tigers, and as I remember the cries of triumph over those 1978 Jimmy Carter-led meetings, Queen Noor explains how this actually set back the process for years and years. If you want to know more, get her book and see how she helps see another side to a thorny issue. Her name Noor, means “light,” and frankly she has shed light for me on the Middle East in an exciting way.

Q: Are you happy?
A: I am overwhelmed! I am adjusting. Happy? Gosh. Happy is such a difficult concept, isn’t it? Maybe happiness is something you glean after sifting through the realizations, the pains, the joys, the insights of a particular time. Maybe it is when you reach for that quilt of memories and warmly recall laughter and smiles and hugs and tears of cherished ones. As when I moved to New York in 1996, I am reserving real judgment. Probably for months. But, I am happy that I have a family supporting and loving me while I go halfway around the world. I am happy that I have a network of friends in New York and Cincinnati and elsewhere that wanted to see me off with smiles and good wishes, probably knowing that going into the unknown, without a local support group is hard. I am happy I got a fan for my apartment today. I am happy that we can email each other with a few spare moments and a few clicks on a keyboard. I am happy to think about priorities, opportunities, and choices.

Any more questions??