"Why you not married?"

(My cab driver asked me this on the way home today. It's amazing how this and other similar questions simply don't phase me anymore.)

I know - it's a miracle! Two blog updates in one week! Essentially this is me procrastinating, especially since I didn't realize I had a senior project proposal due on Friday. Alas, mish muskila. I know what I want to work on, it's just a matter of articulating it well enough for the powers that be.

Today I had my blood taken for my residency application. If you want to be a resident in Jordan, you have to take the blood test to prove you don't have AIDS. That's all fine and dandy, but you all know how I am about needles and blood...luckily, I had a fine group of people with me who tried to keep me calm, despite the fact that I knew it wasn't going to be quick and painless because for me and my TINY veins, it never is. And I was right. I was poked twice, once in each arm, and now I have matching holes. But it's all over, and when I got back to campus I went and got myself an iced coffee before heading to class, so I was all better.

For a while now, I've been meaning to discuss the LGBT talk I went to last week. It was hosted at CIEE, and the speaker was the first out man in Jordan. Quite literally, the first. There have been newspaper articles written about him, and he's become the de facto voice for LGBT issues in Jordan. Jordan, surprisingly, is the only country in the Mid East with no laws against homosexuality, and thus many of the area's LGBT community flock to Amman from other countries. However, this isn't a one way street. Jordan is originally tribal based, and that tribe mentality continues even today (remind me to talk about wasta sometime...) Thus, the frequency of honor killings is much higher than it should be. Honor killings occur when a person, usually a woman, does something or is accused of doing something - anything from talking to a man in the street to having an orgy - and thus her blood must be spilled to regain the family honor. My professor in Arab Women Writers makes no secret of the honor killings she's heard of occuring not only in Jordan, but in Amman as well. In fact, she told us that one girl was slashed across the face on the staircase inside the building we have class in, all because she refused to marry her boyfriend. Then her tribe came to school to revenge her by slashing someone from his tribe, and you can see how this can spiral out of control. The man who gave the speech broke it down like this - Jordan has three forms of law: civil law, sharia'a (religious) law, and tribal law. That's a lot to be held accountable to at any given time.

Back to my point though. The man (let's call him Bob) told us that the LGBT community in Jordan is more of a network. Since they can't be an official group (again, law issues) they form a loose net of people all ready to help one another when the time comes. Since Bob is one of the few out people in the country, he gets a lot of calls and messages for help from complete strangers all over the area. You have to understand that there are no words, no lexicon, for the LGBT community in Arabic, and half the battle has been creating that lexicon in order to facilitate discussion for the LGBT community. In short, it's amazing to see how the intricacies of this loose community differ from the loud, proud communities back in America. If you want to know about the talk, feel free to message or call me or whatever, and I'll fill you in. It was quite illuminating, to say the least.

Another thing on my list of things to talk about is the Jordanian school system. If you know more about it than I do, and I've somehow gotten this wrong, feel free to correct me. The basic tenant, however, is the high school exam. This exam is a HUGE deal in Jordan, much bigger than the SAT or the ACT is in America. Unlike the SAT/ACT, the Jordanian exam does not merely test you in various subjects and spit back a number to send to schools. The Jordanian exam creates a cumulative score that is all or nothing - there is no break down to see what you're good at and not good at. I mean, yes, there are separate scores that measure how you did on the various tests, but as separate entities they don't matter. Your score determines what you will study in college. Let me repeat, it determines what you will study. If you are a top scorer, you go to med school. Second to top is engineering, and so on down the list. You cannot move up without wasta (i.e. connections) and it's pretty hard to move down as well. It boils down to ONE test determining your college years, your career, and your future. That's a lot to handle. It also prevents those who are smart in say, sciences, but really suck at reading comprehension, from entering the science field. The lack of choice means all the "brightest" students are in medicine, and there's no one left to be competent at other jobs, like I.T. and other services. There are many people who agree that the Jordanian educational system needs an overhaul, and I think this test is a major reason why.

There's a couple more things on my list to talk about, but I'll save those for another post. I really do need to get some work done, and finish out this senior writing proposal. Hopefully when I write again, I'll have definite plans for spring break.
Yellabye!
Beth