Farewell at TSS and Reflections
TSS Boarding House, Amman, 22 May, 07:49. The children are bustling about, having breakfast, filling their water bottles, wiping down the table. I’m standing by the door in the corridor between the group rooms. Next to me, on a chair that looks rather out of place here in the otherwise empty corridor, sits one of the Year 4 pupils, drinking from a paper cup. “How are you? How’s your morning going?” I try to strike up a conversation. “Okay,” he replies curtly. “How’s the tea?” I ask. “Not good,” he replies with a grim expression. I look at him questioningly. “What do you mean, not good? Why’s that?” Half annoyed, half smiling at himself, he explains to me, “I accidentally put salt in the tea instead of sugar.” I can’t help but laugh and now understand his rather poor mood. Anyone who knows how sweet tea is usually served here can imagine that there must be at least a tablespoon of salt in the roughly 150ml of tea he’s holding in his hand.
How lovely, I think, that the children are still making me laugh this morning. We don’t usually join them for breakfast, but last night my colleague had asked us to come along. I was delighted to have the chance to experience this part of the day at the boarding school and didn’t give it a second thought. Until the door opened this morning with the words: “Today is the last day; say goodbye to the children, they’re going home after school.” I felt a great turmoil of emotions. When the children asked why I was crying, I realised that some of them weren’t aware that we volunteers wouldn’t be coming back after the holidays like the other teachers. We took photos, said our final goodbyes and wrote our contact details on index cards so that the younger children could text us using their parents’ mobile phones. That was our farewell, quite suddenly, two weeks earlier than expected.
Or so we thought…
Over the weekend, we’d come to terms with the situation and made new plans for the time we’d suddenly found ourselves with. Then on Monday, I received a message from my colleague asking me to please come to the family home to help the children learn German. Completely bewildered, I realised that all the children were back. Some asked if I was back from Germany already. And so we had two more working days, then another ‘this is really the last day’, only to meet some of the children again at the boarding school the following week. It was a back-and-forth, it was confusing, and to be honest, I’m glad it’s finally over for good. Not because I didn’t love working with the children, but because saying goodbye over and over again became frustrating and eventually stopped feeling genuine.
One very lovely event amidst all the turmoil was the official opening of the newly renovated boarding school rooms. Surrounded by high-ranking church officials and ambassadors from all over the world, enjoying fine canapés, we felt a bit out of place. The renovated rooms look absolutely beautiful, though, especially with the furniture, which the children had already marvelled at and tested the day before. The graduation ceremony took place immediately after the opening of the boarding school building. There were speeches, a short play and a fantastic performance by the school choir, before the vocational training students at TSS received their graduation certificates.
This marks the end of our work as volunteers at the Schneller School. It’s the summer holidays and I still can’t quite believe it’s over. We are still living on the premises, going on trips from there and meeting friends. Last weekend we were in Irbid, a town in the north. Among other things, we visited the head of the boarding school, with whom we have developed a particularly close relationship over the past few months and who has often been there for us with advice and support. We had a lovely time with him and his family and, in the end, a good, if difficult, farewell.
Typically, Arabic coffee is drunk at the end of an invitation or a get-together – which doesn’t mean you can’t have a cup (about the size of an espresso) beforehand. Although we’ve got used to the bitter taste a bit by now, we usually drink the coffee more out of politeness. But the people who have got to know us better are aware of our aversion and don’t hold it against us if we only have one cup or don’t join in at all. In any case, it is now time for us to have our farewell coffee with Jordan, figuratively speaking at least. Apart from that, however, I also want to prepare myself for returning to Germany. It’s probably still a bit too early to reflect on my time here, but I want to share my thoughts with you so that I can look back on them later:
What might I miss, what do I really appreciate here?
What am I looking forward to in Germany?
You may have noticed: my feelings are mixed. What makes it hard to leave things behind here is that I don’t know if or when I’ll return. But I very much hope that I can take some of what I’ve learnt here back with me to Germany. Even though the list of things I’ll miss mentioned above is long, I’m currently really looking forward to coming back. As much as I love being here in Jordan, I realise that I want to spend the coming period in Germany, a bit closer to my family. That’s why I’ve decided to study in Tübingen from October. Let’s see how my thoughts develop over the next 20 days and what my return will actually be like. If I get round to it, I’ll tell you all about it in another blog post from Germany. If not, thank you in advance to everyone who is making this very special time here possible for me and contributing to it. A big thank you for reading, following and encouraging me.
Warmest regards,
Caro
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
