Completed Projects

Art in Tafila

Coming from an art background, I noticed that the youth in Jordan, both
males and females, have a hard time expressing themselves. I don’t hear anyone speaking about reading an interesting book, or drawing a pretty picture. I haven’t heard many poems or seen clothes that express mood or personality. Also, I don’t see fine arts or creative majors listed in universities.

We set up an art program for a short period of time. The art program allowed “shebob” and “shebat” to express themselves creatively on paper with pencil, charcoal or ink. The program ran for 2 or 3 days a week for a full month.  I used FOJ funds to purchase sketch pads for each student, along with ink, charcoal, crayons and reems of printer paper. Paper and certificates were also donated by the center. Each day of class, I taught a specific lesson; portrait, cartoons, landscape, the human figure, animals and perspective drawing.

The students were welcoming to some of the topic matter, but were hesitant when they thought it was difficult. Moving passed their frustrations, they accepted new ideas and had fun using new materials. I think that for the first time, they enjoyed their homework, which was really to draw whatever they learned that day. At the end, all the students were given certificates and 5 of those students  were given new sketch pads. One merited student  received a charcoal and eraser set and the entire class gave eachother a round of applause for particapating. I also welcomed them all back for next year.

Summer Camp and Garden

The garden project at Al Turra Secondary School for girls was implemented as part of an English summer camp. The first week girls worked on english activities which focused on the environment. They designed the color scheme and placement of the gardens around the school, and strategized how best to implement the project. During the second week painting and construction began. The funds were used to purchase paint supplies, cement, cinder blocks, and dirt for the garden.

Overall I think the summer camp was a success. The garden turned out
better than I could have hoped and the participation from the girls was
very high. My initial concern was that the girls wouldn’t want to work
or get their hands dirty. Fortunately for lack of opportunities to do
just that, most of them were really excited. On a one to five scale,
five being the best, the average evaluation for the garden portion of
the summer camp was a 3.8.

The support of Friends of Jordan also motivated the administration at
the school to fundraise for the project. The money raised by the school
went to the awnings you’ll see between some of the gardens. In addition
I have talked to the art and home economics teachers who have agreed to
dedicate class time to further painting and planting.

Health and Fitness Camp

The Rajib Summer Wellness Camp (RSWC) took place for 3 hours on Sundays through Wednesday over four weeks during the month of July, 2007. The camp benefited from a very large pool of volunteer facilitators as well as from a student leadership team.

Camp activities were four-fold including fitness, English, health, and community service. Every camp day began with 20-30 minutes of stretching and fitness warm-ups and concluded with 30 minutes of playing American Football, Frisbee, Capture the Flag, and Soccer. 

During the second and third weeks of camp, participants engaged in one
daily hour of English tutoring. The PCV and two English-speaking
counterparts split the group into three equal groups and taught a
specialized lesson focused on speaking and pronunciation, vocabulary
building, and grammar.

Camp health instruction concentrated on four specific topics: dental
hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and anti-smoking. Dental hygiene lessons
included a hands-on demonstration of the proper method of tooth
brushing; thanks to Friends of Jordan, each camp participant received a
tooth brush and tooth paste to take home with them. The subject of
anti-smoking was covered by guest lecturer Dr. Zaki Zawaideh, was given
an entire camp day to present the dangers of cigarettes. His
presentation was followed by a sing-along song in English and Arabic
entitled "The Healthy Trip" accompanied by the oud.

Participants spent a total of six hours designing, planning, and
implementing two community service projects in their village. The
students decided to work on the Rajib School Anti-Smoking Campaign and
the Wadi Rajib Beautification Project. They placed "no smoking" signs at
strategic locations around the school and spent the final camp day
cleaning trash and litter from Wadi Rajib.

Participant and community satisfaction with the camp was very high.
Facilitators learned the importance of communication and pre-planning.
Next year, we will hold a pre-proposal conference to discuss plans for
the camp and enroll all interested facilitators before submitting the
proposal. Also, we will make team spirit a bigger part of camp
activities in order to improve group cohesion.

English Teachers' Workshop- Thinking Outside the Book

Thinking Outside the Book was a two-day workshop designed to supplement
the Action Pack curriculum currently used in Jordanian public schools.
The tactic of activity-based learning was well received by the school
districts and English supervisors. The first day, we covered
activity-based lessons for elementary grades (1^st -5^th ) using the
four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Day two covered
secondary grades (6^th -10^th ) and was done in the same format.
Additionally, we did sessions on class management, making worksheets,
reasons students are learning English, assessment tools, teaching
through games, as well as a brief session on replicating the workshop.
During the sessions, teachers were divided into groups and told to
brainstorm and come up with creative activities for certain subject
matter. The participation and enthusiasm from the teachers was
overwhelming and we were extremely pleased with the outcome and support
we received from the district supervisors. The attendance was beyond
what we had imagined and we were able to reach a large number of
teachers in the two districts. The workshop was completed at the
beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year, therefore enabling teachers to
refresh material and start the year with new ideas.

The teachers also filled out evaluations for us and found the sessions
on class management and making worksheets especially helpful. One
teacher commented “The sessions were helpful because they were new,
creative, simple, and easy to implement in class…” Another teacher wrote
“thank you for the best workshop I have ever had…” Teachers also wrote
about the importance of collaboration: “This workshop gave us time to
learn new ideas and to share our ideas with our colleagues…”

All of FOJ funds were used to print manuals for the workshops.

English Teachers' Workshop- Thinking Outside the Book

The first three days of this camp involved an intensive training
workshop for a previously selected group of 15 girls I know to be strong
English students and willing to help me with the camp. All of these
girls had participated in "English Team" the previous semester. My
sister was here at that time, providing an incentive for the girls to
come and help, as they had the chance to meet and talk to an American
girl closer to their own age who did not speak Arabic. During those 3
days, we talked about how they would work with small groups of girls to
make sure everyone had a chance to participate, and to give each
participant more individual attention. We decorated the room and also
made visual aids for the camp including interactive posters for the days
of the week, weather, and calendar. As all the other teachers were busy
with their families over the summer, I found that having students help
worked out extremely well. They showed up every day and actively kept
the other students on task.

The rest of the camp was held on weekdays. 4 groups of students came in,
for one hour each. I worked with Tawjihi alone on grammar, then my
helpers came in to assist with the other three age groups. Besides the
Tawjihi group, every group focused on review of material they should
know by now, such as letters, handwriting, basic phonics, greetings,
weather, days of the week, describing yourself, and shopping. My helpers
were amazing in facilitating a beneficial learning environment. They
truly exceeded my expectations in their dedication to the project and
the amount of help that they provided me. On fashion show day, two of my
helpers brought bags of dress-up clothes to make the fashion show more
entertaining for the girls. Most writing activities were done either on
the board, on paper with pencils and crayons, or on white-boards made
for the purpose from cardboard, paper and contact paper. Special white
boards for tracing letters were made and used extensively as well (and
are still in constant use this semester). The calendar, days of the week
poster, and weather poster are also in use this year by all 6 of the
English teachers in this school.

Finally, on the second to last day of camp, all of the TEFL trainee
girls came to visit for one hour. My helpers and campers welcomed them
with much fanfare, and really enjoyed meeting several new Americans!
Students have already started inquiring after spots in next year's camp...

Summer Camp

Summer camp activities included arts and crafts activities, English games, science experiments, team-building activities, computer projects, and school beautification efforts. Specifically, arts and crafts activities included making bracelets, snow globes, woven placemats, picture frames, paper mache rattles, and string and stick “eyes”. English games included board games like hangman and word tic-tac-toe, word-searches, and other games like “upset the picnic basket”, Bingo, scavenger hunts, and matching capital and small letters and ordinal numbers. Students also listened to a story and drew a picture about it.For science projects, students built and “exploded” a volcano using baking powder and vinegar. As team-building activities, students worked together to build a tower, create a mural, and go on a scavenger hunt. On the computers, students practiced writing their names and words that corresponded with the letters of their names; they put these words in different fonts. To improve the school grounds, students planted flowers and painted murals on classroom walls. I judge the camp a huge success by the excitement of my students.

“Thank you so much for the opportunity you gave my students and myself. It made my day to go to camp every day and see the smiles on my students’ faces.” V. de Bruyn.

English Materials File

I used the FOJ funds to purchase four expanding file folders, contact paper, packets of different-sized envelopes and glue. Five expanding files were assigned to the specific grades 4-8 and the last was for miscellaneous teaching aids and worksheets for grades 1-3. Within each grade's file, the pockets were labeled by unit in the English book. Within each unit I placed teaching aids labeled by grade, unit, and appropriate page number. Teaching aids filed in this manner were magazine and coloring book pictures demonstrating vocabulary words, flashcards, worksheets, and envelopes containing specific activities such as strip stories and matching games. Many of these visual aids were those that my counterparts and I had used over the past two years; some were new. Most were laminated with contact paper to protect them from wear. At the time of writing this report, classes have not yet started at school so there has been no opportunity to use the files in the classroom. However, my counterparts have looked through the files and familiarized themselves with what's available in them. They understand the filing system and are excited to use more visual aids in their classes. I've also left all leftover materials (envelopes, contact paper, colored paper from my own collection) with them so that they can add to the available teaching aids without having to invest anything but the time it takes to make them.

I think the aides will be put to good use during the school year. The one thing I would recommend to another volunteer contemplating a similar project would be to do it earlier in his/her service than I did. That way it can be available while the volunteer is still present in the school to model its use, and materials can be added over a longer period of time to keep from having a huge workload all at once.

Youth Leadership Training Camp

60 chosen youth from 12 youth centers throughout Jordan attended this year's 3-day Youth Leadership Traning Camp at Seru, Jordan. Located near Al Salt, the facility provided an excellent location for the youth leaders to learn leadership and facilitating skills, and how to use them in leading a new Teambuilding and Drama program at their individual centers. The youth took part in numerous challenges and games. Each activity was followed by a discussion about lessons learned and their relevance to real-life situations. We used grant money for translation during the camp and to print English and Arabic manuals. Summer youth leaders and their PCVs will conduct follow-up Teambuilding and Drama workshops at their youth centers. Building on last year's inaugural leadership camp, this year's camp was a huge success and the YD PCVs in Jordan are looking forward to more such camps in the near future. I would like to thank FOJ for their support of this project.

Special Education Workshops

All of the J10 Special Education volunteers, along with 1-4 counterparts met for a one-day workshop in Ma'adi (near Deir Alla, near Salt). The morning started with a workshop presented by Reema, a Speech and Language Pathologist from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt. She talked about the different speech disorders and ways of teaching students who are nonverbal. After her workshop (which she presented in both English and Arabic) the group headed over to the girl's school to watch the play "Hamudi and the Sea Cruise". This play was special because all of the actors were children and adults with special needs. 500 girls from the girl's school were able to watch the play, and in addition, around 50 young boys from the boy's school snuck over to watch the play as well (a true sign of success!) After the play, the director, Muhamed gave an hour long workshop on the importance of drama, and ways to use drama in a classroom of children with special needs. The hosts of the center prepared a wonderful lunch of Magluba and the participants were able to talk about their different classrooms and experiences. FOJ grant funds were used to fund the transportation of volunteers and counterparts. We hope to continue this workshop series, with another workshop in August, with the incoming J11 Special Education group.

Phenomenal Woman Essay Contest

The Peace Corps Gender and Development Committee sponsored the Phenomenal Woman Essay contest in celebration of International Woman's Day on March 8, 2007. The goal of the project was to encourage youth to think about women as role models and how women affect their lives in a positive way. Each site with Peace Corps volunteers, especially those who teach English, encouraged their students to participate. The essays were submitted in English or Arabic.

We used FOJ funds to purchase certificates for all those who participated as well as prizes for those whose essays were especially outstanding. Nearly one-third of the participants were able to receive prizes. Prizes included 10 Arabic to English dictionaries for first place and second and third place prizes of 20 notebooks and 15 colored pen sets.

The GAD committee also decided to ensure that at least one person from every site  received some type of award. 12 sites from across Jordan participated and 138 essays were collected. Plans are already being created for next years contest on a larger scale, including corporate sponsorship and collaboration with the national newspaper.

Recorders and Music Classes

I purchased a class set of 9 plastic recorders.  This is fewer than I had hoped, due to an unavailability of the least expensive recorders.  I have had 2 groups to date.  Each group consists of 8 girls and myself.  We use sheet music from my personal collection.  We started by learning how to play the basic notes of the recorder and how to read the corresponding notes on sheet music. 

From there, we have been able to move into very simple songs.  It is a very popular program, but the girls are not used to an activity like this and do not have the corresponding hand-eye coordination.  It is slow going to develop the muscle memory necessary to further develop their skills with the recorder.  The classes are still ongoing and a new class will start in February.  Our goal is to learn to play the Jordanian National Anthem so that we can present it at future center activities.

Ramadan School Pride

To start, the school principal organized a school yard cleanup (trash pickup).  All students spent one morning before school started cleaning up the school yard.  Then, we used FOJ funds to laminate three wall maps to hang in older kids' classrooms, purchase paint for alphabet murals in younger kids' rooms and a Jordan map in the library. 

Volunteers painted the alphabet murals, which were too high for kids to reach and also a little more intricate than most of the kids' levels would allow.  The Jordan map was painted by older students during free periods when their regular teacher was absent (with volunteer supervision). As a result of the project, the older students have greater experience, ability and confidence in painting, which several of them had never done before. 

The school yard was completely cleared of trash for the first time, at least since I've been there.  Since the initial clean-up, more garbage has accumulated but the principal has also organized smaller student clean-ups to address it periodically.  The alphabet murals are hugely popular for the younger kids (who were very impatient to have them completed) and are used as a visual aid for alphabet and vocabulary practice by the English teachers.

Youth Sports Camps

Anas Ben Malak Center is an orphanage for boys. Sports and other playground activities seemed a great way for the boys to develop positive social interactions, including helping others and controlling temper. With funding from Friends of Jordan, we renovated the cement lot behind the center into a colorful, useful place for the children to play. We then held  two camps a week over a five week period to start a play routine that the children could comfortably fall into. Grant money was used to buy paint and a basketball goal for the center.  A local painter volunteered his time to paint the background color for the wall, a bright sky blue. 

The center also secured a mobile basketball goal that cost about $280 with a donation from a local community member. Ten Peace Corps volunteers helped paint the yard mural, 20-meter long basketball court, four square area, and install the two basketball goals. One goal was set lower for the smaller children. During each camp, 14 volunteers identified 4 team captions and had the captions choose their teammates from the remaining participants. The teams then rotated through separate activities such as basketball, football, water balloon toss, capture the flag, etc.

The team captains were responsible for keeping their team in the right place at all times. Misbehaving participants were sent to a "time out" area for 2-5 minutes as a non-violent disciplinary measure. At the end, all participants came together and the volunteers awarded candy to everyone, bonus candy to the member of each team who showed the best sportsmanship, and a prize such as a small toy or deck of cards to the participant voted "star for the day". We selected new captions for each camp so that every participant got the opportunity to take on leadership responsibilities. As a result, we brought basketball and football to the center, structured sports that required teamwork to succeed, helped gradually build participant skills, and singled out each participant for their positive behavior. 

The most rewarding result was watching kids who were usually troublemakers make obvious efforts to get along with others and help the volunteers whenever possible. "Thanks to the friends of Jordan, all of this was possible. " - S. Mitchell.

Paint-a-Playground

During the summer months the special education school in Al-Sa'diyya, The Charitable Childcare Association used money granted by FOJ to buy paints and paint supplies to paint playground equipment and classroom walls. Five vocational education students helped paint the newly installed playground equipment, giving them a sense of ownership and pride of their school. Two PCVs and two JICA volunteers helped paint the inside walls of our school white and then painted alphabet and number borders in each classroom. The project allowed us to make the school a more inviting place for students to return to in the new school year.

Al-Alouk Summer Camp

The major event of the summer in the village of Al-Alouk was the Al-Alouk Summer Camp for boys. I had my students design and run a summer camp for themselves with me acting as facilitator. They asked to learn Judo (which they are convinced every American knows very well), new games, more English-- but in a fun way, paint the school, and teach me dubca (their traditional dance). I said yes to all of these suggestions. We held the camp three days a week to conserve the limited funds for t-shirts, food, and paint. It was hard to involve the other teachers since they all have second jobs to supplement their low teacher salaries. I bought 40 plain white t-shirts and different colored magic markers and we made t-shirts the first and second days of the camp. The kids made exceptional shirts but also gave themselves temporary magic-marker tattoos which quickly made me the enemy (for a few days) of many mothers in the village.

There were two surprising outcomes. First, the kids who attended regularly were generally students most of the other teachers didn't like. These were low achieving students that were often kicked out of school. However, when given some responsibility, they took it, behaved, and help keep others in line too. One example is Ahmed, who, during the year was kicked out of class daily, but helped plan many aspects of the camp and even served as a luitenant. The second surprise was the makeup of the kids that attended. The village has three clans from the Benni Hassan tribe (the largest tribe in Jordan). In the village, the clans are rigidly separated and rarely interact.

They even have separate stores, butchers, and buses. Since I held the camp on the grounds of the school which is in the Amoosh clan area,  only Amoosh kids showed up with the exception of two or three sporadic Shdefat kids who mustered the courage to walk to camp with me from the Shdefat part of town where I live. However, when the Shdefat and Amoosh kids hung together, there was a little tension in the air which i later figured out was due to the fact that such an occurrence rarely happened. Next year I'm going to try harder to integrate the kids.With the camp, I also started tutoring kids full time. This is more rewarding since i don't have to deal with the restrictions that the ministry of education places on teachers. My favorite kid are Hamza and Malak who come from a very, very poor family. Who knows, maybe they'll go to university someday if they can demonstrate their ability in English and win a Kings scholarship.

Portraits of Kom El-Ahmar Photography Exhibition

An additional FOJ grant was supposed to fund a second photography workshop in July 2006. However, delayed notification of grant status, difficulty contacting students after the school year, and lack of teacher commitment required a change in focus. Instead, the grant award was used to publish and exhibit the students' photography. 35 photographs were professionally edited, enlarged, and printed to create a student exhibition. Arrangements were then made with the Canvas restaurant and art lounge in Amman, Jebel Lwebdiah to display the students' work. Canvas was the ideal location because of its proximity to a local park and the National Gallery of Fine Art: it was the perfect destination for a student field trip.

Canvas even contributed lunch for the visiting students. The remainder of project funding was used to bring 24 students and two teachers on a trip to see their work displayed at Canvas, and visit the neighboring National Gallery and park. Despite the managerial challenges from 24 boys, all parties were thankful for the opportunities afforded by the trip. The story of our photography project, along with the student's photographs are featured on the school's new website: www.redhillschool.onesite.com.

Photography Workshop

FOJ funding covered expenses for 23 disposable cameras, film developing, a photography field trip to a nearby historic site, and miscellaneous supplies. One effective planning method was requiring a 1 JD ($US 1.41) contribution from participating students. This ensured attendees were invested in the project and also allowed requesting matching grant funding to cover project expenses. Another effective tool would provide some sort of incentive to get Jordanian adults involved. Their participation would help workshop activities go more smoothly.

As a result of the workshop, students improved their photography and presentation abilities, received pictures to share with their families, and visited a nearby historic site. After the workshop ended, both students and parents expressed gratitude for the activities. Lastly, I created Kom El-Ahmar School in English website to display the best of our photography, and hopefully use for student writing during the school year. Please visit the site to see the students' pictures.

Habibi Program

The Habibi Program was implemented to raise participation in academic activities given by myself at the youth center. We based two activities, the Daily Question Program and the World Club, on the Habibi Program. This program used a token system which rewarded students for their participation and allowed them to exchange their tokens for prizes each Thursday.

The funds were used to buy enticing prizes like football jerseys, notebooks, hats, bizzur (sunflower seeds), pepsi and other small trinkets. Students would come to me and eagerly want me to check them off that they answered the question correctly or make sure that I saw their two pieces of information for the World Club. As a result of this program the youth learned about world geography, ways to transmit AIDS, local history of their town, world religions, main functions of their city, basic health practices, a little bit of business economics and some history of the youth center. One co-worker helped me facilitate the Daily Question Program, on days I weren't in the center, and also the World Club. He is pictured in the first picture. His involvement helped the program a lot and gives me a small hope that he could continue it if he wanted to.

“Thank you for your support and for giving us volunteers a way to implement our programs if our center can't support us financially.” – A. Ko

Youth-Led Teambuilding

Last year, 39 male and female youth leaders from the Balqa area completed a week-long training camp. During this camp, PCVs and a professional instructor from "Project Adventure" trained the youth to lead teambuilding workshops and facilitate processing discussions. Throughout the summer and school year, these youth leaders now conduct interactive workshops that focus on problem-solving through teambuilding activities. In each workshop, the youth leaders present a group with a challenging task that they must work together to solve. Following the challenge, the group discusses the variables that fueled its successes and failures. Participants also make connections between the problem-solving strategies they employed in the challenge and the problem-solving strategies that they employ in their real lives. Workshop participants are gaining a more enriching and impacting camp experience and youth leaders are learning valuable lessons in cooperation and program management.

We used Friends of Jordan funds to build custom teambuilding equipment for this youth-led workshop program. Since four different centers share the teambuilding equipment, multiple centers often want the same equipment at the same time. To solve this problem, we bought additional basic supplies: ropes, balls, hula hoops, buckets, and blindfolds. We also hired local artisans to build some of the most popular challenges. Two challenges, "Space Portal," and "Wooden Puzzle" are pictured below. In "Space Portal," a group must transport each team member through a different route in a three dimensional cube. Each route is a "time travel portal"; once it has been used, it cannot be used again. In "Wooden Puzzle," a group receives a stack of boards and a diagram of how the boards should be configured. After the group has assembled the boards, they must work together to create a system for assembling the boards in 3 minutes or less. 

We've found that the challenge activities and debriefing sessions help participants hone their leadership skills and learn to work together more effectively. The following are some memorable quotes from the workshops:

"On the first two days of the camp, our group was not able to complete the wooden puzzle challenge. When we finally completed it on the third day, I felt so proud. I learned that I should never give up."

"It was rewarding to lead a workshop that actually had an impact on participants. For the entire three hours, the participants were engaged and enthusiastic. They learned a lot, and I learned a lot too."

"I never thought of myself as a leader before this workshop. I had a lot of ideas about how to solve the challenge and I was excited that the group listened to me." 

"Our team is like a group of candles. If one of us isn't shining, the room isn't as bright."

"I enjoyed the discussions because everyone paid attention and respected each other's opinions. I felt heard and supported by the group."

"Our group was always more successful when we took time to make a plan before we started working. Everyone needs to give their opinion and agree to the plan; otherwise, we won't work as a team."

“We are enormously grateful for your generosity. Thank you for supporting this exciting community program!” – A. Bates

Holiday English Club

The Holiday English Club which was held four days a week for four weeks at the Hashmieh Basic School for Girls. Students were split into five groups according to grade-ranges and there were four sessions per day and each group came twice a week. School lasted from 9-1 with each group going for 45 minutes to one hour. Each group worked on different things to encourage them to speak more English and enhance the skills they learned during the year. For instance, the 1st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders reviewed the alphabet (flashcards, worksheets), colors (worksheets), time (worksheets and clocks), days of the week (calendar), months of the year, vocabulary words through BINGO and flashcards, and learned the song The Wheels on the Bus. The 4^th graders introduced themselves, reviewed the days of the week (calendar), months of the year, seasons, time (worksheets), read short paragraphs (worksheets) and answered questions, discussed jobs of various people, and did a following directions worksheet. The 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th graders group was small (12-15) and they decided they wanted to meet every day so we did. One girl came from another village every day and took 2 buses to get here because she wanted to learn more English.

Funding was used to make copies of the worksheets, make the BINGO game, the calendars, covering them with contact paper, buying pens, pencils, erasers for the board, chart paper, paper plates for clocks, paper fasteners, paper clips, rubber bands, certificates, etc.

All of the girls said that they really enjoyed going to the Holiday English Club. Some came every day even though their group wasn't scheduled. If they were scheduled for 11:00 they came at 9:00 and waited around for their group to begin.

Before the Holiday English Club began, about six teachers in the school helped color worksheets and pictures for the BINGO game, make signs, and talk with the students about coming and sign them up. One woman who was a student teacher in English and lives in Hashmieh, helped me clean the rooms, get them set up and organize some of the many materials I had. Another students mother helped me throughout the summer with teaching, translating, and preparing materials. She indicated that she gained a lot of confidence in teaching and learned a lot from me as far as organizing, teaching materials, and general vocabulary pronunciation. I learned vocabulary and techniques from her as well. There were also four girls, two in the 6^th grade and two in the 7^th grade who were invaluable help to me. They helped keep a register of attendance, translate words for me to the younger students, helped work with them when more hands were needed making clocks and telling time. The two 7^th graders actually taught two classes on colors and did a wonderful job. One of the girls said that she gained confidence in speaking English, learned the value of being on time, and of organization. In a short written survey I took after the program, the girls said they all liked the program, would come again next year, liked speaking English and there was nothing that they didn't like. The only frustration faced was many of the groups were too large for effective individual speaking in English. But overall, the children did review and learn new skills and seemed happy and the help that was there was wonderful.

Extracurricular Supplies and Painting Project

This project extended an extracurricular program begun last year with mentally handicapped boys and girls, ages 6 – 16, at the Markaz Manar (Manar Center) in Deir Alla, Muaddi. The program activities include p.e., art, taekwondo,music/dance, and community interaction activities. We recently received a large in-kind donation of art supplies from a pre-school in Connecticut and funds donated by Friends of Jordan were used for painting projects (40JD) and to purchase soccer balls (20JD), a playground parachute (25JD), hand targets and gloves (9JD), and other outdoor supplies such as kites and frisbees (11JD). We now have a Jordan flag, map, a tree with the names and pictures of all our current students, and a room with a sea theme complete with fish and waves.

One of our students has been saving for a bicycle all year long, bringing ten gersh to school every day. He has saved 15JD. Five JD from the FOJ project was donated to Sufian so that we could help him buy his bike. Girls from the Salt Girl's Center with their PCV, Ashley, came to our center on a Saturday in order to paint. The girls were really excited to help, and I was glad they got to join us. We have paint and brushes left over, so we have stored it and will complete a second mural during our break this summer.

The culmination of our SPA and FOJ grants occurred on Monday, May 29 with an Independence Day party. Local Ministry officials, Peace Corps staff and volunteers, and the families of our students attended.

“It's a wonderful feeling to be able to invite guests to our center to celebrate our success as a team” – L. Heinlein

Involve, Decorate, Educate

The goal of this project is to involve the youth in a fun, beneficial and educational activity during their winter break. My co-workers and I worked with the youth to decorate our new center, which we moved into three months ago, by painting the Jordanian flag, a map of Jordan, and a map of the world. Funds were used to buy the supplies for the project. We spent all of the 12 JD on our first day of shopping for supplies. One problem we ran into was the underestimation of the amount of paint thinner we would need as well as erasers. The project lasted about 6 weeks. Many of the youth were excited about painting things like the Jordan map and the Jordan flag in their center. One interesting thing was to notice how a lot of the youth were surprised at the size of Jordan after the completion of the world map. My suggestions for others interested in doing similar activities is to leave room in the budget for miscellaneous things that will come up in the project; and to do as much as you can with when you can. I discovered that not pushing the youth to work that extra bit on the days they came caused the project to linger.

“Friends of Jordan has allowed volunteers like myself to do small budget projects without having to wait a long time for funding. Thank you for ‘befriending’ Jordan ;)” – A. Ko.

Democracy/Theatre Workshops

Three volunteers facilitated workshops in their respective community centers to engage male youth aged 12 to 18 and promote and conduct a neutral and balanced discussion on democracy and how it relates to their lives in a broader and less politicized sense. Grant funds were used to purchase workshop materials (poster boards, pens, and prizes), buy lunch for the youth, and reimburse volunteers for travel costs to each center. The driving force of the workshops was direct volunteer and youth involvement in humorous theatre and concept games. Through this engagement, the youth found addressing the democracy topic fun, took away a far better understanding of the subject, and reinforced critical-thinking and comprehension skills.

Operation Smile

3 teams of volunteers coordinated, hosted, and entertained 40 Iraqi families (both parents and children) during their 10-day stay at an Amman hotel while the children underwent life-changing, face-related medical treatments as part of the December Operation Smile effort. Grant funds supported entertainment activities including finger painting, face painting, playing outside (a rare opportunity for children in Iraq now), a dance party, a field trip to the old Roman amphitheater, and arts and crafts such as paper-weaving, drawing, origami and whatever else struck the children's fancy using the available supplies. On the last day, the Peace Corps volunteers received a number of hand-written and illustrated thank-you notes from children and parents, in Arabic and English, which were divided between the volunteers, hotel staff and Operation Smile staff.