Quiet till it falls.

In the last few weeks in Amman, we've been volunteering once a week at a public elementary school.  In Amman (I'm not sure about the rest of the Middle East), anyone who can afford private elementary school sends their children there instead of to a public school.  The public schools are, for the most part, for the poorest segment.  The school we went to was in the northern part of the city, on the outskirts.  It's near a makheem, or refugee camp, so most of the students are Palestinian or of Palestinian descent.

 

 

It was certainly saddening in some ways to see how poor their school is, but I also got the impression that their teachers work hard to teach them well.  There are no pictures on the wall, and the building is old, and the recess hard is very small, but they were so excited to have guests, that we got swarmed when we took out our cameras to take pictures with them.  It can only be described as an adorable riot:

  

We also visited an 8th grade class and a 9th grade class.  Since I'm not top notch with kids large groups of kids, these classes were more interesting for me.  It's actually kind of amazing to see the difference between the 8th and 9th graders.  The 8th graders were generally really outgoing, eager to meet us and talk to us and make friends.  On the other hand, the 9th graders were much more formal and reserved. 

Last weekend, we went to Ajloun castle and the Roman ruins at Jerash to the north of Amman.  Ajloun castle was first.  It was originally built by the Arabs, but during the crusades, the Crusading armies controlled it.  I'm not sure about after that, but it was pretty neat.  And it was cool inside, which was excellent relief from the heat wave outside.

 

After Ajloun, we went to Jerash to visit the Roman ruins there.  According to our program director, after the Roman part of the city was abandoned, the Arabs who lived near Jerash thought that the Roman buildings were haunted, so they never built over them.  An earthquake damaged a lot of the buildings, but for the most part, they're incredibly intact.

This is a Roman manhole.  The water drained into the sewage system.  Honestly, seeing this blew my mind just as much as the buildings. 

 

Mosaic floors from the church:

And of course, bagpipe players?