Arrival

Any trip includes forgetting something. This time it was my keys. The morning of my flight I went for a run, and my house key never made it out of the pocket of my shorts, now tucked in a laundry basket in the corner of my Seattle closet. I did, however pack and carry on my keychain, including my leatherman micra - scissors, blade and all. I realized this as my plane approached Paris, well after us security scans. Ihad to go through security again in Paris, which inxluded more than enough nervousness for the day. It might be found, they'll see the fear in my body language and so on. Nothing. My well traveled micra is still with me and will go home via DHL.

As the flight to Amman approached the Israeli coast we were instructed to stay on our seats to comply with air space regulations. Pass ing over, the difference between new housing developments and old villages was so visible-the former in grids and the later in round clusters that conformed to rhe landscape. We quickly passes over rhe Jordan River, and then I could see the green neon lights of mosques below. We touched down a blood moon was rising, and my exhausted body thought it was 6 a.m.

I was brought to our shared flat and met some of the co-trainers. Next door was a wedding party, complete with wesding songs, men and women, tabla drumming, music, singing and a little gunfire too. We're in a Christian neighborhood, filled with chirches and at least one dedicated liquor store. I was introduced to one of the many (apparently) Western missionaries in the neighborhood. She wished me blessings on my time here. My host and I were quick to cover our own positions on evangelism to each other, I'm not down with converting the masses.

Early in the morning I was up and wide awake. It was gorgeous out- the sky pink and the sun rising while the moon was still up. It was still cool and the streets were relatively empty-perfect for a run. We at living on top of a pretty steep hill, which changes things nicely for my body. I'll push myself further tomorrow. Today it was a Michael Jackson tribute that kept me going.

Today we began a refresher training for trainers. Four Americans were leading, there were two young Iraqi women and one young Palestinian woman along with myself and a Belgian woman. Next week we will be running our own training. I'm starting with basic training for youth aged 12-18. Outreach to this age group has been lacking, no-one had yet registered. This should be remedied by Monday. I'm facing my usual problem of feeling like I've got more facilitation experience than the folks I'm teamed with, and not wanting to take up valuable learning opportunities that will do more do for someone else instead of me. I may as well just ask more seasoned facilitators here how they suggest dealing with this.
Our water is out at the moment, but will hopefully soon be fixed. The wedding party is back. And... I'm tired of typing on my iPod. An, but my Arabic is coming back again and that's rewarding.