Kayla Balangue

Hello! Kayla here! We are living the dream on our second week in this country. Monday morning was our first day of space camp!! We have two camps–one in the morning for 6-9 year olds, and one in the afternoon for 10-13 year olds. Let’s just say we were all pretty exhausted (in the best way) from Jerash the day before and were wondering how we’d manage the simultaneous joy and chaos that comes with kids. 

We started with the younger kids and Alyssa read them a story about space. I loved that part because I got to learn from Alyssa’s teaching style and watch her engage all the kids so well with the story. The kids enjoyed a game of duck-duck-goose that got progressively more chaotic and a balloon game that probably exhausted all of us more than them! 

The older kids are more mellow and really sweet and respectful. They enjoyed making telescope crafts and constellations made from little circles of black paper that we made “stars” in by using pushpins to create holes. For me, it’s kind of intimidating working with the older kids at first. It’s easier to connect immediately and find a bunch of stuff to talk about with the younger kids, but all the kids are truly so smart, genuine, and yes, chaotic in their own special ways (like our team!). I feel so privileged to have gotten to know them all a little bit. 

After camp ended at 1:30, we all went our separate ways for a little while till dinner. I spent some time cleaning shelves and chatting with Eva. For some reason I’ve discovered that I looove cleaning shelves. A lot. But only in libraries so I don’t have to do it at home (sorry Mom, love ya!). 

For dinner, we had lamb and chicken kebabs, plus veggies, pita, and this amazing meat-stuffed pita (like a mini pizza!). Personally, the highlight of my day was when Rose, Emmalee, Audrey, and Alyssa ate the serrano peppers that came with the meat. We all could not stop laughing (and crying a little for those who ate the peppers). No matter what day it’s been, there’s always been some great laughs in this country. That’s been one of my favorite things about the trip–and the fact that we truly have such a fun group. 

Onto Day 2 of Space Camp! Well, when everyone woke up, let’s just say we all hit a MAJOR wall. It was rough. And I don’t know what it was, but it hit everyone on Tuesday. Thankfully, we powered through! 

Today, I got to read a story to the younger kids called A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars. I used to say I’d never work with kids…haha, past me had no idea what was coming! I enjoyed reading to them so much; it was one of the highlights of the week so far for me. 

Both groups of kids played a bunch of Minute-to-Win-It games, like transferring cotton balls from one plate to a table with their nose, or building a tower using only a toothpick to transfer their materials. So fun! And it was also Water Day, which meant water balloons, water bucket races, and other games. It was straight out of a Survivor challenge. And of course, us teachers got splashed too. I mean, when all the kids are being such great sports, I couldn’t say no to getting a little water on me!

For lunch we had some AMAZING bread called zaatar, which had green seasoning on top, and other cheese breads and potato-and-cheese bread. J, our fieldworker here, is an amazing host and was kind enough to buy local ice cream for all of us. We feel so welcomed here at this organization and so thankful to serve alongside J and M! 

One of the girls, H, stayed a while after camp for the older kids was over. Alina, Shaynna, Emmalee, Sharon, and I hung out and played games with her for a while. All of us are now Spot It experts and loved getting the chance to spend quality time with one of these great kids. 

We also went on a mini-adventure to J’s apartment for dinner that night. He is such a good host and has a bunch of items all around his apartment that tell the story of people he’s built relationships with from the different places he’s been. You can see the focus on people and relationships in this culture illustrated beautifully through how he cares for others. My personal favorite item was originally the jug from the Dead Sea, but then I saw the sword and that all changed!!!

We sat down to debrief after dinner and that’s typically one of our favorite times of the day. Emmalee said it feels like we’re a family coming together to talk about our days and I couldn’t agree more. I feel supported and encouraged by this team, and my prayer is that the kids we interact with feel the same, that they are loved and belong right in this beautiful library. Thank you so much for all your support, prayers, and encouragement. To my family–can’t wait to see you soon and you know I thought about glassbending while I was climbing in Petra!!!

-Kayla H

Hello, this is Sharon! This organization has been a pleasant experience and the owners of the establishment have been very welcoming. What I’ve been doing at the organization is mostly behind-the-scenes like cleaning, organizing, shelving books, etc. Because I don’t consider myself as social as the others, these activities are amazing and I’m so happy to do them since I love organizing and doing things in the background. However, I did play with the kids in the Chess Club and Blackout Poetry. Since I don’t know how to play chess, I had to be taught by Shaynna and a sweet little girl named S (we shorten names to initials for the blogs). I was playing a match with S but in the end we didn’t finish our game since we both kept getting distracted and I’m very slow. But she was very funny and I was happy to meet her.

Blackout Poetry was incredibly fun since I was not expecting it to be that fun. For blackout poetry, you rip a page out of a book and circle specific words on the page to keep in the poem, and you cross out the rest of the words. Get all the circled words together and make a story or poem. You can draw on it and everything. All the kids were very engaging and I was very impressed with all the kids’ creations. I’ve never done blackout poetry before so I wasn’t confident in my abilities, but honestly it doesn’t need to make sense or have to be super intelligent. I just made a poem about animals and drew animals on the page. All the kids made super cute and engaging poems and I was so happy they had so much fun. Jo, M, and S all had such funny and cute poems. S even made pages of poems that connected like a cinematic universe. Mind blowing. Also, one girl named Je made one that hit pretty deep. I think it went like this, “Cash makes men go in rough ways.” Wow.

The day after that, we went on a trip to Jerash and I can say that the view was so amazing. Just walking through all the pillars, colosseums, rocks, and the ancient sights are just surreal. Walking through the parts where people in the Bible times walked is just honestly unbelievable. My favorite part was definitely the amphitheater where men with bagpipes and drums let us dance in the middle of the theater. We were all clapping, singing, and just having the best time. Also the shopping experience was very cool. Bartering was also an option too which is crazy to think about since I never bartered. Yet I still have not, because I didn’t barter any of my items because I’m too shy. But I’m very satisfied with what I bought (a tree of life necklace, a cute stuffed ram, and a white chemise). The shop keepers also gave us many gifts and freebies which was a huge plus. Very welcoming people.

The food was very good where we ate. We ate at a buffet, and I got rice, chicken, noodles, and pita bread. Not going to lie, I’m one of the pickiest people on the planet, so I basically had the most boring and basic dish but others had so much delicious looking food. I hope others do and write the food justice unlike me. But in the end, we all had such a good time and had a very pleasing lunch. The owners of the restaurant were very welcoming (as always).

Jerash was such a fun experience and I’m looking forward to what happens next!

Marhaba friends and family! This is Shaynna popping in for an update!

Please read this in the voice of a lost astronaut recording daily logs in the hopes that someone will find and hear his recordings, complete with static in the background: Day 4, 2100 hours, Saturday, June 25, 2022. We’ve completely run out of running water. (End astronaut recording). As Californians, many of us were confident we knew how to conserve and ration water – but we were wrong (insert nervous laughter). Thankfully, James and Momi helped us out and there is running water in the library that we can use, although it definitely surprised me just how much we rely on and use water. We weren’t at “home” all day today (Sunday, June 26) and we’ll be getting a water delivery tomorrow (Monday, June 27), so we’re all doing just fine, it was just an interesting experience I didn’t think about possibly happening! (And we have plenty of drinking water by the way; staying hydrated is not a problem, so no worries everyone!). 🙂

As one of the “free floaters” (unassigned to a specific job) in the group, I have been doing all sorts of odd jobs at the organization – just the way I like it! 🙂 I cleaned out some of the kitchen cupboards and reorganized a few things (“like things together!”), reshelved some books (new favorite job), helped construct some bird feeders (the only one who hit their thumb with a hammer was me, thankfully), and watched some very intense chess matches involving Sharon and a very snack-distracted 6-year old (relatable). The kids speak English very well and have been teaching us new words – for which I am very grateful. We still can’t read letters/words but we are starting to be able to pick out certain words and phrases in songs and in overheard conversations.

We visited the Ajlun Castle and Jerash today (Sunday, June 26)! Before we even got to the location, I was awed by the stunningly beautiful landscape we saw on the drive there. Although there is a great deal of trash littering most of the Jordanian landscape, the hills and plateaus on the drive were covered with beautiful rows of flourishing olive trees and a variety of other lush vegetation as well as clusters of sharply square sand-colored buildings (sorry, no circles Lee!). One of my favorite parts about visiting these sites is how friendly the tour guides are. At the end of the castle tour, our tour guide talked about his family, pointed out where his house was, and invited us to have lunch later in the day – just as the tour guide at Petra did and just as many other native Jordanians have done during our stay. After the castle tour, we headed to Jerash – I have to say the amphitheater seemed to be a crowd favorite. The stairs were so steep! At least 2-3 times the height of our American steps with no handrails or safeguards. Though tall and huge, it was easy to hear those “on stage” in the amphitheater while the rest of us sat in various seats. We got a lovely rendition of “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Emmalee and later got to hear “Amazing Grace” and other melodies on bagpipes and drums by three Jordanians. I was talking to Audrey and Eliza about how crazy it is to think that the places we were walking to and sitting at and touching and taking pictures of today were places where people did daily life thousands of years ago. And so much of Jerash is still underground yet to be discovered! Wild! Our fieldworker has great connections and friendships with many of the people at Jerash, so for lunch, we headed to a buffet that his friends’ owned. After a great meal with a variety of side dishes and plenty of pita bread, we went back to the stores at Jerash to do some shopping. There were so many vibrant colors and various trinkets to look at and many of the store vendors invited us to look at their wares. I was surprised by the gifts many of the vendors gave – little souvenirs were insisted upon us and put into our bags or handed to us as we passed by (it was an effective sales tactic – we made sure to shop at their stalls to say our thanks). Eliza and I were invited into the stall of D and his younger brother “Short Man” (who was at least 7 feet tall – Squid don’t get any ideas). We were given some deliciously sweet black tea and encouraged to look around and add to the shopping pile they insisted on starting for us. Bartering was…interesting. Some of us thrived and seemed to be quite successful (for example, Audrey and Rose), while others of us were pulling out calculators and hoping for the best (for example, me). Thankfully, we had some help from our fieldworkers and we all made it out and back home, tired from the day, but happy, healthy, and safe.

The food is *chef’s kiss* – the pita bread and hummus have been everything I hoped for and dreamed of. I don’t think it’ll ever be the same again back in the States. We’ve had chicken and meat shawarma (“meat” seems to mean a mixture of beef and lamb or some other sort of red meat combo) and a dessert loaf made of tahini, pistachios, and other things (it’s sweet, dry/crumbly, and…interesting). And I’ve discovered that my old favorite, Nutella, is here and here in abundance (I have taken to calling it chocolate hummus, sounds kind of healthy, right?).

Good news! I haven’t seen a scorpion yet! Or a camel spider! We did see some millipedes and fruit bats though (super cool!)!!! And the cooling rags have been a huge help to the team and I (thank you Ellie!!).

Hi Mom!!! Hi Sam and Squid and Micah and Faith!!!! Hi and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOCELYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi to Kaeleigh, Joshua, and Shaynna too!!!! Hi to all my friends and family and to the friends and family of the team!!!!! Thank you for your support and continued prayers!!! We love and miss you all!!! Shaynna out! 🙂

Hello! Audrey reporting for duty. This trip has been such an enriching experience already so I can’t imagine what else is in store. As the person arguably the most stoked about the experience, I have been given the privilege of updating you all on our trip to Petra yesterday. 

My morning started at 4:00am with my roommate (@Emmalee) and fearless leader (@Cason), flashlights in hand, hunting the largest cockroach we have ever seen. Chaos ensued and it’s safe to say we were all fully awake after the monster was finally eliminated.  

At 6am (8pm CA Time) our van drivers rolled up and we all began our three hour trip to Petra. Petra is located in a valley so after a windy drive that looked like it was straight out of Dune, we arrived at our destination, applied sunscreen, and bought our tickets. Petra is the home to many Bedouin families, one local we spoke to said his family had lived in the hills of Petra for over 700 years. We were assigned a tour guide who we will call A. At the end of the tour, A said he also lived in the caves surrounding Petra and we were welcome to stay with his family any time, just one example of the presence of hospitality in this country. 

The tour of Petra begins at the visitor center and works its way down farther into the valley through a series of canyons. This single point of entry was a benefit of this location for the safety of those who resided there through the centuries. As you walk through the canyons you can begin to see the carvings and infrastructure put in place by the Nabateans, the earliest known residents of the region. The canyon walls have a series of aqueducts carved into the limestone to collect water from the flash floods of this region. Half an hour into the walk, seeing (truly) amazing carvings, structures, original pavestones, and naturally occurring rock formations, we hit the most well known location of this entire site: The Treasury. The Treasury is the location that is shown in Raiders of the Lost Ark and is what many come to see when they visit Petra. I’m going to be honest with you all, I cried a little, but that’s probably not too surprising if you know me. We turned the corner and light was shining on the imposing, famous, and incredibly intricate facade of The Treasury. This location is called The Treasury because for years tradition said that the treasures of a pharaoh were kept behind its high walls.

After this moment of shock and awe we continued our tour, seeing the ancient court of law, countless tombs, some much more intricate than others, and eventually stopping for lunch at a shop owned by a friend of our guide. This shop was located near the colonnade and main cross street of the city. In a full sun area, surrounded by hills dotted by tombs and residential caves, we were able to get to know M, the shop owner, and enjoy some shade while letting what we had all seen sink in. 

At first the Bedouin groups selling transportation, food, or trinkets seemed pushy, but then after talking to A, we realized the tourism into Petra is the lone source of income for many of the local residents. Whereas to us we could see a souvenir or “overpriced” drink as non essential and a waste of money, it is the livelihood of those living here and holds much more significance than many are willing to give it. 

A finished our tour and recommended that whoever wanted to should visit the “monastery” at the top of the hill, his favorite location at this whole site. Those in our group who were interested, began the trek up the mountain. This was hard. It was so hot, and so steep. All the way up and down the mountain we were stopped by shopkeepers in hopes we would buy a souvenir, and sidestepping donkeys carrying folks up the mountain, and all that the donkeys left behind (you know what I mean). 

After what A said would take 30 minutes (around 1.5 hours and 900 steps) we arrived at the top of the hill. Shock and awe again, I’m telling you. A building larger than even the treasury and almost as intricate sat at the top of the hill, facing the country’s border. Totally uncrowded we were able to take in this building and see all the remains surrounding it yet to be studied. The face of this structure also showed signs of the interaction of other cultures at this site. Roman influence echoed from this and many other carvings at Petra begging to tell the stories of anyone who has made it their home. After a while, back down the mountain we went. much faster this time. 

We rejoined the rest of our group and began the hour long trek out of the city of Petra. Pizza was consumed, and after another 3 hour drive back home, we all got to reflect what we had seen that day. A great night’s sleep was had, and no more cockroach intruders have been seen since.