The big event over last weekend was my first trip up to Ayn Al Basha, where the future classrooms and administrative buildings for Entity Green’s vocational training program are located. Although it’s kind of a long drive from our house, it was a necessary stop on Saturday to drop off a couple dozen bags of cans and bottles after we did our weekly collection run of the hotels and embassies that are now included in the recycling program.

Ayn Al Basha office building

I didn’t really know what to expect from the site. Philip had told me before I arrived that it wasn’t done yet, but that it was “really big.” However, when the truck pulled past the dusty gate, churning up boiling hot sand in all directions, I was impressed by the massive size of the compound. From the squat two story pale green near the road for the administrative offices, to the far corner where the alternative fuel vehicle lives (it’s powered by waste vegetable oil from the hotels which we can get for free, but we don’t have the special license required in order to drive it on the roads yet), it’s about 20 acres or so of land in total.

This will eventually be the 'Hands on Workshop' for the school. You can see the oil-powered vehicle at the back of the lot

Philip showed me all the different parts of the complex and told me of EGT’s vision for all of them. One part would be a complete recycling center, down to our own compactors, storage, and melting facilities. The part next to that would be the classrooms, the only other part of the facility that has been built at all besides the administrative building, which is almost completed. Another would be the “hands on workshop” area for all the vocational training classes like gardening and cooking, which was a sunken pit in the ground that you could have parked a 747 in it. On the far end next to our sad little unlicensed truck was the most ambitious goal – the site of a community housing project that would be self sustaining, with food-growing gardens and a small farm that would work in tandem with the school and recycling center. Right now, though, it was just a bare lot with weeds and a charmingly small pond. “It’ll take a long time to get to this point,” Philip admitted, “but it’s the eventual goal for EGT.”

Later that evening, after I had gotten back home and taken a shower to wash the recycling grime off (still no hot water yet; we didn’t get as far into knocking holes into Philip’s walls as hoped) I went to church with Wajih and his family, who had invited me to their monthly “cookie and coffee” social after the service as well. Although I’m not really used to the more “expressive” (i.e. guitars and clapping) church services after years of solemn Lutheran hymns and pipe organs, it was a lot of fun, especially since I got to see a lot of my fellow teachers at the school at the service. I don’t have a lot of opportunities to hang out with other Americans my age, but after the social they invited me out to a cafe with them, where we discussed God, the Universe, Creation, and Everything. They all know a whole lot more about Scripture than I do, but I just like to listen and give my different, somewhat more “liberal” opinion on things when they ask me what I think about something. I’m thankful that they accept me as my progressive liberal self and I don’t have to hide my beliefs on foreign policy, although many of the teachers here are quite conservative. We just relax, and don’t worry about the politics!

I need to get the Amman police station some time this week, hopefully tomorrow, and get my residency confirmed before I’ve been in the country a month. I’ve been told that I’ll be fingerprinted and everything for this, and it’s needed for me to continue working at the school as well. It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been in Jordan for almost four weeks; it feels like it’s just flown past. I’m getting so busy – when I’m not working at Entity Green’s office or out at recycling or doing tech work for the school, they’ve also coaxed me into working as a vocal instructor for the school’s musical, “A Fiddler On The Roof.” I think I’m a little under-qualified for that, but they don’t seem to mind. Wajih’s son is playing Tevye, so he’s completely happy with me getting involved with more activities outside of my usual EGT work. Another of the teachers has invited me to join a local weekly choir that practices only a couple blocks from my house at 2nd Circle, which I’ll start with on Wednesday, assuming that they let me in. Wajih’s children were in it in previous years, and I’ve been told that it’s often filled with wealthy, English-educated Jordanian singers – or at least, this is what I’ve been told!

I’m going to be so busy with extracurriculars that I’ll barely have time to be a tourist!