Hello dear readers,
Following on from my last post, I’d like to tell you more about my final months in Jordan, during which I had the chance to get to know the country and its people in a different light.
In April, my family and friends came to visit, and the six of us explored the country together. Of course, this isn’t what everyday life is like, and I consider it a great privilege to have had the chance to get to know the country so much better in this way. We visited a few cities together, including, of course, Amman, where I was based. It was lovely to finally be able to show them the things I’d been telling them about in real life. Over the next few days, we visited the desert castles in the east of the country and then drove on to Petra, with a few stops along the way.
Petra is an excavated city carved into the rock by the Nabataeans. It was truly very impressive to see – I had to keep reminding myself how it came to be, as it was so incredible. After two days there and some good Jordanian food, we drove on to Wadi Rum – a vast, very impressive desert with many rocks and canyons. Many films have been shot there, such as Star Wars, Aladdin and Lawrence of Arabia, as it offers such magnificent scenery. We stayed in a camp there and were driven through the landscape by a Bedouin for two days on the back of a pick-up truck. We climbed up and down dunes, built stone towers and saw lots of camels. After these days, we went hiking through impressive valleys and landscapes, spent a day at the Dead Sea and explored two more towns – Madaba and Salt – before we arrived back in Amman and it was time to say goodbye again. It really was a wonderful experience to show them the country where I’ve lived for 10 months.
After this experience, however, my daily life at TSS carried on as normal. I helped with homework and exam preparation, played football and got better at bottle flips thanks to the constant competitions. One major event, however, was the opening ceremony for the newly renovated rooms in the boarding house, which had been under construction for the past year. The new air conditioning systems in particular make a huge difference to our work – at 34 degrees, they were very welcome over the last few weeks. In addition, the trainees’ graduation ceremony took place, which was celebrated with choral singing and entertaining theatre performances.
The last few weeks, however, were another rollercoaster of emotions. As the final date for the end of the school year wasn’t clear, we had to say goodbye to the children and teachers several times, which made the farewell a bit more difficult and felt somewhat unreal. Nevertheless, we were still able to spend some really lovely days together.
Once we had finally said our goodbyes, I unfortunately had to sort out some upcoming university deadlines first, but this meant that Caro and I ended up exploring other cafés, which made the whole thing much more bearable. We also visited our fellow volunteers in Salt more often, which is always lovely and offers a nice break from everything. Together we went on a few more trips, but we also started preparing for our departure and bought souvenirs to take home.
Saying goodbye to the people we’d got to know wasn’t easy, but we still enjoyed lovely days and evenings with them. Although I was also looking forward to coming home, I couldn’t shake the nostalgic and surreal feeling that these ten memorable months had, after all, gone by so quickly.
Now I’m back in Germany and still often think about the past year. I’d like to thank everyone who accompanied me on this journey and supported me. I hope my reports have given you a glimpse into my experiences, and I’m excited to see what lies ahead for the next volunteers.
Many thanks & best wishes
Julia
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
