Art, General, Jordan, Mindfulness, Travel

A year in the life…

Dianne Smith

So here we are, together again – you are there and I am here. It’s been a year since I’ve started this blog after leaving my career and KM team, leaving my friends and neighbors, leaving my house and Gracie cat, leaving my family and leaving my daughters! I never imagined that I could do this but here I am – doing it! Before I left the US one of my dear friends gave me a card that said “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” and what this last year has taught me is that even though I love being in my comfort zone, I can also be happy outside of it – really happy, at that. Another dearie did a watercolor of a Joan Didion quote that I also keep in my eye line each day, “Remember what it is to be me, that is always the point” and I do my very best everyday to remember that. The “me” changes, especially when you are pushed a little beyond what you are comfortable with, but that is the point, be mindful. I’m ready for 2020; some more travel, learn everything that I can about youth programs while I’m with USAID, spend time with the people that I love, take photographs and create paintings, have some visitors to Jordan, see Petra, maybe even something really cool that I don’t even know about.

What I’ve been doing: the end of 2019 was very chill. Just hanging out with Mike and the pets, working, going out to dinner with friends. We started walking a 5K every weekend morning after one of our friends saw a Virtual 5K walk in a health magazine and asked a bunch of us if we wanted to do it, so we’ve kept that up. I got some acrylic paints and have been painting some smaller paintings while I get used to the difference between acrylics and oils. I like the way my first acrylic turned out…

Ol Mercedes.

Late October is Olive Picking season in Jordan and there isn’t a lot of time to get all of the olives off the branches. The community liaison office at the Embassy set up an olive picking trip to Ajloun which is in northern Jordan (and north of Amman), and since my friend Elly and I like to have a job to do – we went! It was cool to see Ajloun Castle as we drove into the town.

Ajloun Castle (Arabic: قلعة عجلون‎; transliterated: Qalʻat ‘Ajloun), is a 12th-century Muslim castle situated in northwestern Jordan. It is placed on a hilltop belonging to the Mount Ajloun district, also known as Jabal ‘Auf after a Bedouin tribe which had captured the area in the 12th century. From its high ground the castle was guarding three wadis which descend towards the Jordan Valley. It was built by the Ayyubids in the 12th century and enlarged by the Mamluks in the 13th. The name ‘Ajlun goes back to a Christian monk who lived on this mountain in the Byzantine period. The castle stands on the ruins of a monastery, traces of which were discovered during archaeological excavations.
We were treated to a delicious breakfast by the Women Farmers group.
To pick the olives we would get a branch and pull down then pop the olives off and they would collect on big sheets beneath the tree. Here is Elly doing a great job! ❤
Some olives still on the branch!
Taking a break and heating up some tea over an open fire while we wait for lunch.
We pickled some green olives and then we went to the refinery and got freshly pressed olive oil!

I’ve gotten to do some really interesting visits the last couple of months for my work at USAID. When one of my coworkers asked if I wanted to join to see a young artists’ work in a bookshop in Madaba, you know I said “OH YES”! Madaba is southwest of Amman and best known for it’s ancient mosaics, most notably, one of a large Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land. Mike and I haven’t toured Madaba yet, but it is on my to-do list so there will be a special edition post early in the new year.

Kawon bookstore, vegetarian/vegan food, cultural center, artist hub, organic garden, all around perfect place!
Cool way of displaying books that are already damaged/destroyed rather than throwing them away.
The youngest art lover at the event and my favorite little person of the day – the feeling was mutual from her end.
As I was leaving I saw this outside the bookstore, never thought I’d see another Metal Maniacs magazine – let alone, in a town in Jordan!

Next work visit was to a new school for Sign Language in Zarqa which is north east of Amman, I had been to the school once before to get some photos and video for social media and while we were there I was able to participate an in interview of one of the high school students – I’d ask a question in English, it would be translated into Arabic and then translated into Sign Language! He was adorable, his hobby outside of school is acting – so he was a natural in front of the camera. I was able to look at the arabic letter alphabet poster on the wall and spell my name for him in sign language.

Love these affirmations on the stairs.

Next trip was to Al-Jizeh which is in Amman but a very different world from the city that I live in. Lots of farms, small houses and tents – students drop out of school to help work for their families. This was the first event that I worked on from the start and I was really proud of my office and the work we do. We launched a Non-Formal Education center for girls and the event helped to raise awareness. We were in the newspaper, on TV and USAID’s social media, outreach accomplished!

I held some flowers and my coworker took a picture of me! 🙂

Mike and I had our 27th wedding anniversary in November and I worked with a local jeweler to create a band with our names written in Arabic and I absolutely love it. I’d originally intended for the ring to be a wedding band to go with my engagement ring but when I gave the wrong ring size and then it fit my pinky perfectly AND looked cool – I loved it even more. She is such a talented artist.

Pet time: Iris had her spay surgery (at home!) and she came through like a champ. I, on the other hand, barely did. Like most people, seeing an animal under anesthesia is quite unsettling. 😐

Day before, she is practicing for the operating room.
Day after, she wasn’t thrilled and Finn was constantly worrying about her.
She didn’t even mess with her stitches. No cone, nothing.
Being a caretaker is a tough job, sleepy boy on his blankie.
Feeling better a few days later, Iris with one of her toys – “Cork”
They like to have coffee in bed with me before work. They wrestle, Finn brings his green ball in, they chase each other, then they rest.

Back to Jordan; I had a great night out with a crew of international ladies to check out some carpets and antiques at Farrahs in Downtown Amman. There were lots of things there, but the carpets were the draw for me. I didn’t get anything but have some ideas of what style of rug I’d like to get eventually.

The pottery was gorgeous!
Lovely rugs.
Heehee.
An Iraqi wedding rug, they called this one the Angry Lady (or Angry wife, or Angry mother).

While we were waiting outside Farrah’s for our Ubers to arrive, this 73 VW came riding by. This one looked like my best friends’ father’s car so I snapped a quick pic – the driver rolled down his window and we had a chat and now I’m painting this scene, it is very downtown Amman – I just love it.

My friend Kim and I needed to get some gifts for various parties we were attending so we went to the Boulevard for the Christmas Market – we had a great dinner at Free the Fork and got some nice Jordanian crafts at the market. I went in July when Jillian was here and linked the places we visited. It was just so pretty, not much else to say about it – I wanted to share the photos! Christmas season in Jordan has been nice, trees and decorations are up all over, everyone loves seeing Santa(s), people at work are doing Secret Santa stuff (I’m not haha) and candy grams, it is just nice. My next blog post will be about the Christmas Markets we visited in Munich, Germany at the end of December and a little about my first R&R home in the US!

Strolling along the boulevard!

Interesting how things come full circle sometimes. Before I came to Jordan I knew that I wanted to volunteer at CRP (Collateral Repair Project) and help the beneficiaries of that community center either with language, computer skills, life skills, anything that I could do to contribute. As you know, I was able to teach english to a class for a semester and one of my students was Suleman. From the moment we met him, Lareena and I were hooked by his infectious smile, his desire to connect with us and talk, he wanted to be the first to answer questions or tell a story. He is in the same age group as our daughters, so we were motherly towards him. Well, Suleman and his family are part of the 3% of refugees that are resettled to another country and he is off living in Australia! We got together one last time to have breakfast the day before he left, with the beautiful backdrop of Amman behind us. I am so thankful to have had the chance to meet him and am looking forward to following his life through his social media.

What I’ve been watching/listening to: Absolutely loved Watchmen, I read the graphic novel years ago on Mike’s recommendation, saw the movie but this series is just… ugh I loved it. I’m still listening to the new Opeth, still in Swedish. I do love Angel Olsen, particularly the song All Mirrors and Grimes’ song, So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth.

Next up: we didn’t go to Egypt, just didn’t have time to squeeze it in but it is on the back burner. In the meantime, I am scheduled to take training in March – in Bangkok, Thailand. Mike is planning to join me so we can do some exploring, eating and drinking when I’m not learning. After that in April I will be visiting Nerja, Spain to stay at my friend Margaret’s apartment – let’s call it a ladies trip! Arabic class is going well and Luma and I are still practicing our language exchange with each other, I just love her and would learn any language if it meant I could spend time talking with her each week. Happy New Year and thank you for reading my blog in 2019, I will be sharing more about Jordan, travels, my pets and my painting in 2020…bye for now!

Everyone in the world looks up into the same sky each night.

Published by Dianne Smith

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