Sunday

Yesterday we went to Zarga. It is a manufacturing center in Jordan. There is only
one park, plenty of Industry and foreign workers and pollution like crazy. We went
there to visit Jafar's father. Jafar is our guide extrodinare. He is one of 10 children. His mother died 10 years ago so his father has a trophy wife.She remained
in another room, while we ate.
We had hummos, pita, babaganosh, PICKELED EGGPLANT..Valisc should make these.. my feet puffed up in about 10 min...falafel and some kind of lamb dish. We sat around
the table and used the pita for forks, scoops etc. I thought we were going to have
a pretty good day but it got wrecked going to a really boring NGO presentation.
I'm still not sure what they did there. I think they did Aids prevention, battered
women and some kind of counseling. The reason I don't know what they did is beacuse
the director was a total igomanic showing us pictures of her doing this and that and
then we watched a film show doing the same.
I almost forgot we went to the Ministry of Education. Yes, they work Sundays here.
Friday and Sat. are the off days. Jordan is doing a good job of realigning their educational programs. School is mandatory until 10th grade. They are just starting
a KG (kindergarten program) Children are tested in the 4th and 8th grades. Testing
is in SCIENCE (remember its now being taught starting 5th grade in the USA, because
its not on the test) Math, English and Arabic. They take a big exam, after 10th
and they have 3x to pass (tawjihi). If they fail, they do home study and have 3 more
times to pass. Not only is this and exit exam, it is also a placement exam for the
public universities. The minister of education is a Physicist, hence the science
empasis. When I started teaching 18 years ago Science was the focus in the USA, too.
I truly believe our focus on testing, and all the "money" on English and math will
really drag down education in the USA, which by the way we are ranked 5th or 6th
worldwide behing the I word, Norway, Sweden, Japan etc. Not to mention students are
leaving Jordan's schools speaking 2 languages.Oh, and did I mention that the
US is giving Jordan 320 million to build new school and remodel old ones? No, how
much does the FED gov give US schools, that's right campers 00000!!! (for remodeling
etc)
Now, I actually watched CNN last night. They were reporting that the US is going to
pull troops out of Iraq in April and that the Bush administration is now taking a
stand that the solution to the Israel/Palestine situation is two seperate states.
I don't know who is setting US policy but they sure haven't had the same level of
instrution or observation that I am getting here. We have made such a BIG MESS in
Iraq that troops or NO troops it is going to cost of BILLIONS to clean up that mess
and the two state solution is NOT going to happen! The hearts of Arabs are as heated
about the existence of Israel and NOT Palestine as the J's are about having a j
state. Peace in our time won't come while Ms. Rice and Mr. Bush are in power.All for
now and PRAY FOR PEACE.