The Jordanians......

There were about ten of them in our group of 41. The State Department held two of them up -- finally allowing one to come a week late, but one they wouldn't allow to come at all. Twelve hours in an airplane had brought them to NYC, to a culture about as different from theirs as day is from night. They were so eager to talk about their country and culture, so hungry to see NYC. It was interesting and enlightening to talk and interact with them.

One Friday night a group of us (including several of the Jordanians) went to a Mexican restaurant -- Zarela -- for dinner. At the end I was invited to go along to a place where we were to smoke the hookah. At the time I didn't think women were allowed to participate in this activity, but....you live, you learn. For some reason we never made it to the hookah place, but our walk through NY and our ride on the 1 train back uptown was interesting. All but one of the Jordian women were covered -- scarfs, long coats, etc -- and I was surprised by the stares we received in such a cosmopolitan city as NY. Maybe it was the difference in dress that drew peoples' eyes -- some of us in jeans or skirts and tank top, and some covered from head to toe.

The Jordanians -- that's what we called them, that's what the program director called them and it stuck. The Jordanians were smart, polite, eager to talk about their country and culture, yet they really had a time of it. Apparently there had been a national competition and the best of the best were chosen to come here, yet they still had their own unique set of problems -- keeping up with the assignments was even more of a challenge to them. They constantly had meetings and dinners that were set up with different dignitaries. It was said that when they met with the president of Columbia University and complained to him about the work load, his response was, "Well, just get with the program." Linda, the director of the program would tell them that American students worked all the time. She kept tellilng them that they weren't here to sight-see and didn't have time for it.

That didn't help much. They were so interested to see NYC. One of them told me she didn't know why she even went back to the dorm. She said she had so much work to do that she should just sleep a couple hours at school and not bother leaving. Another one told me that all over Jordan people said, "Oh! You're so lucky. You're going to NYC!" She said when she gets back she'll tell them, "Lucky? All we did was work, work, work!" It also didn't help that they arrived the day before the program started and left the evening the program ended. I wonder if their country or our State Department set up that time table?

Whatever shocks and surprises NY held for them, they handled them with grace. Only toward the end of the program did I hear stories of how horrified they were on that first day when they saw students sitting with their legs crossed and the sole of their shoes pointed at the teacher. Some said they were so ashamed that they wanted to walk out of class. And I had conversations with a couple of the guys about their reactions to the way some American women dressed.

During one class we were talking about how in some cultures men didn't shake hands, and the Jordians mentioned that that was true in their culture. Linda almost had a meltdown because she had shaken hands with each of them when she met them for the first time. They laughed and assured her it was fine. On the last day the guys were coming around shaking hands with all of us, and the women were hugging us women. The Jordanians. They represented their country well.