It’s hard to believe I’ve almost finished my nine-month tenure as an instructor in Jordan and have been been overseas now for eleven months altogether. Everyone I know has been asking me what I’m going to do next, and to be honest, I still am not entirely sure. It’s ironic – at this time last year, many of my fellow just-graduated friends were worrying about what they were going to do next. I was a month away from leaving for Jordan and unworried about the future (except for that little thing about flying halfway around the world to work with people I’d never seen before and learn a language I’d never spoken before). Now it’s my turn to wonder: with all the opportunities I have in front of me, what should I do next?

My contract with EGT will be expiring at the end of the month, and that will be the end of my contractual duties to them, although I know I’ll be doing odd jobs for them and server work for quite awhile. The other teachers all seem to be quite sad to see me go, and ask me what could convince me to stay. I heard about an email that was sent to one of the administrators from a teacher admonishing them to “pay Mr. Zach more money so he will stay with us.” I had to chuckle at that one, but anyone who knows me knows I’m not here for the money – only to help people and see the world.

If I choose to go back to America for a little while before embarking on my next travels, one of my closest friends won’t be as far away as I thought. Wamidh got his official acceptance and approval for he and his wife to emigrate to America! He came to the office to greet Jeff and I early in the morning, a big smile on his face, and said simply, “They let me in.” All of the students were congratulating him, shaking his hand, and going over their favorite stories about America one more time. Normally I would try to keep the non-class related chatter to a minimum until I let them out on a break, but in this case I was willing to make an exception – and not only because with Wamidh answering questions from the students, I wouldn’t be able to get translated anyway! He won’t know where and when exactly he’s being moved for several weeks more, although he’s thinking possibly somewhere in Virginia first to be with his family. However, it would be wonderful if he had arrived before January 2010, as he’d then be able to visit Wisconsin and I could show him around the land I grew up in.

Wamidh wears a blissful expression during his first visit to Fuddruckers; I got him the "Southwest" with all the "fixins'"

It’s amazing how popular the Ayn al Basha site has become. We’ve gone from being newcomers and a faceless NGO in the village to being the center of attention. I take that back, it’s not that amazing – we work with more than Iraqis now, although they’re still our primary audience for our training with at least 80% of the classes being filled with Iraqis, with a few Jordanians and Palestinians from the nearby Baq’a refugee camp coming in. Lines of people wait outside the door every morning for Jeff, Aaron and I to arrive so that they can ask Jeff for application forms. It’s gotten so crowded in there that Jeff and Ahmad have had to start turning away everyone who isn’t an Iraqi until “the shaher tamanyah” – the “eighth month” as they say. Everyone wants to be in on it, though – how many training schools do you know that pay the attendees to take lessons? I guarantee that at the beginning of August, they are going to be swamped with everyone coming back at once.

In other news, I’ve been living on the other side of town for the past several weeks now. Wajih is heading out on some business trips soon, and his family is on vacation in America, which means that they needed someone to take care of the house and their sweetheart of a dog, a big happy golden-colored fellow named Chance. I was happy to oblige the request; every one of my pets back in Brodhead has passed away since I left for Jordan, and the thought of taking care of a lovable dog for a month made me nostalgic to see my old boxer, Willie, and our golden retriever Bailey once more. Chance probably wouldn’t be a very good guard dog, but the large majority of Muslim Arabs have a distrust or even fear of any dogs which means that his very presence is an excellent deterrent for any unwanted guests. Also, he has this weird habit of smiling whenever he’s smiled at, something that Wajih swears they didn’t teach him but instead he just learned by mimicking his family. So whenever someone comes into the house, Chance will run towards them, wagging his tail and smiling at them while barking and snuffling. Of course, when a dog tries to smile like a human, his lips pull backwards and all his teeth are bared, which means that Chance’s smile means to most people that he’s going to eat them.

Lastly, guarding Wajih’s house also means guarding his PS3 and 50″ flat screen LCD too. Like I said, I was happy to oblige the request.

Man's best Friend(s)