A Day in the Life...

We have been here in Jordan for about 4 months now, and now that we have our routine down, we thought we would share it with you.  Here’s a run-down of our average day at the YMWA:

5:30am -  Our alarm goes off for the first time and, depending on how tired we are, we hit snooze 2 or 3 times.  We finally get up and ready, and we are out the door by 6:20am.

6:25am -  The bus arrives at our building, except when it’s late (which is often).  Then begins our 1 ½ hour bus ride to work.  After our stop, we wind through west Amman, picking up about 25 students and 10 teachers.  When we are almost finished with the route, some of the teachers get off the bus and pick up falafel sandwiches for breakfast (including us most days).  We arrive at our final destination around 7:55am.

8:00am -  School begins!  Amber heads to the art class in the school section, and Darren heads to the woodshop in the vocational section.

Amber’s day -  After arriving, I head straight to the art room in the school section, where I lay out the materials for the first class.  We have done so many projects!  Here are a few: drawing, finger painting, egg carton creations, paper mosaics, play dough sculptures, and using dirt/sawdust/leaves to make textured pictures.  Which children come to art class depends on the time and day of the week – each day we get a different grade level from the school section or the preschool section, six grades in all.  From 8:20 to 10:00, I have three different groups of children (in 30 minute classes), all from the same grade.  From 10:00 to 11:00 is my lunch break.  Three days a week, I have recess duty, so from 11:00 to 11:20 I keep an eye on the kids while they play.  From 11:25 to 12:50, two more groups come in for art class.  The days go by fast when you have so many different groups of kids coming in.  

Darren’s day -  My typical morning starts off in the shop office, eating a bit of bread and falafel and having a glass or two of tea with the guys.  After we’re finished, we split up to get at our individual work.  So far, I’ve worked on wooden toddler toys, cooking utensils, weaving looms, and tea server sets.  Projects I have not worked on include chairs, tables, picture frames, cutting boards, and more children’s toys. In the shop class, there are about 10 students (all boys) who help out where they can: carrying and stacking, sanding and clamping, assisting with machinery… anything that’s not complicated or dangerous.  At about 11:00, everyone finishes what they’re doing, gets cleaned up, and heads to the cafeteria for “breakfast.”  For the students it may be breakfast, but for me it’s lunch.  The meal period is pretty short, about 15 or 20 minutes, and then we head back to the shop.  School is over at 1:00, so the rest of the day goes by pretty quickly.

This is pretty much our routine, Sunday through Thursday, with the following exceptions:  On Tuesdays we have our Group 1 English class, which consists of 6 of the vocational students who have some knowledge of English, but not much.  On Wednesday, Darren takes Group 2 English class, which is 3 of the more advanced students.  Amber goes with the school section, on that day, to the city sports complex, where she instructs a few students in tennis.  Thursdays are also slightly different, in that the vocational students get an hour of free time after lunch, and everybody gets off at about noon.

We love the staff that we work with and enjoy our jobs, but what really makes the difference is the students: they are always there, smiling and laughing, even though they have no idea what we are talking about.  When we come in, they are always happy to see us and ready to great us with whatever English they know.  Several of them ask about past volunteers (Lena, Emily, Kelly, and Jamie) daily. We know that when we leave the school, we will leave behind an imprint on the student’s lives, and next year they will ask where we are, too.

~Amber and Darren Henke