I am living with a host family in Sport City or Medina Riadiyah in Arabic. My host family is great! I have a mother and father who both work for IRD, which is a branch of UNHCR. They help Syrian, Palestinian, and Iraqi refugees settle down in Jordan. I have two younger host brothers Rashed, 9, and Ahmed, 17. I also have three old host sisters. Fatima lives is around 22-23 and lives at home, and the other two host sisters are abroad in Atlanta, Georgia and Dubai. My family is really funny and live such sweet and simple lives. I love how simple yet beautiful their home is. Sarah, my roommate, and I share a room in the house.
Here are some pictures of my immediate host family as well as some people in the extended family. I think it is so great how close the extended family is.
Here are some pictures of my immediate host family as well as some people in the extended family. I think it is so great how close the extended family is.
We have had some funny encounters with the family. One day, Rashed walks into our room with a cage with three canaries inside it, and said "For you".
So now we have these birds in the house, haha.
We also went on a hunt with my host mother the other night to find our host brother, Ahmed, who apparently was late for curfew. We searched all over the Sport City Park, which is this huge facility with walking trails, fields, and an Olympic sized swimming pool. The host mother was asking around if they saw her son, and after a while we finally found him with his friends. But he was smoking. The mom got mad at him and embarrassed him in front of his friends, which I have to say was hilarious. Poor kid. There is a huge smoking culture in Jordan, so he probably easily got the cigarettes, but mom was not so happy.
My work life so far is pretty great. I started working at the International Union for Conservation of Nature at the Regional Officer for West Asia located in the Al-Swafeeh region of Amman. It's approximately a 1.75 dinar taxi ride there, so not that close, but not horribly far. (1.44 dinar = 1 American dollar). The office is a three story building with really nice office space inside. I am working directly under Fida Haddad who is one of the directors of the Drylands, Livelihood and Gender Programme. I have not met her yet because she is in Thailand, but will meet her on Sunday. Oh yeah also the weekday starts on Sunday, so we work from Sunday through Thursday. My group jokes about how Tuesday is the new hump day.
I am enjoying my work a lot so far, especially the topic! I am helping the regional office structure their gender program by incorporating gender mainstreaming initiatives into sustainable development. The whole idea is to combat environmental issues such as water scarcity, climate change, etc. through sustainable development, but in the process we are trying to incorporate plans to eliminate gender imbalances. This issue goes farther than providing equal pay between men and women. The Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) has a lot of issues with gender inequality because women in the area do not have the same resources as men such as land, agricultural land, and accessibility of loans. By improving these issues as well as getting more women involved in higher positions in politics, the organization hopes to end gender inequality. I'm already learning a lot, and I'm excited to learn a lot more!
I am enjoying my work a lot so far, especially the topic! I am helping the regional office structure their gender program by incorporating gender mainstreaming initiatives into sustainable development. The whole idea is to combat environmental issues such as water scarcity, climate change, etc. through sustainable development, but in the process we are trying to incorporate plans to eliminate gender imbalances. This issue goes farther than providing equal pay between men and women. The Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) has a lot of issues with gender inequality because women in the area do not have the same resources as men such as land, agricultural land, and accessibility of loans. By improving these issues as well as getting more women involved in higher positions in politics, the organization hopes to end gender inequality. I'm already learning a lot, and I'm excited to learn a lot more!