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Marhaba! Thank you for visiting the GW UNESCO Fellows blog! It’s been three weeks since I got to Amman and it’s already been a whirlwind. During my first two weeks, it was Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, and then Eid, the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. During this month, Muslims are required to fast and abstain from any other vices such as smoking and drinking. These things are considered haraam (forbidden). Ramadan also means shortened work days, or in the case of Talal, the friend of my new roommate, no work at all it seemed.
When I arrived at my apartment, I was able to relax after two days of travel for roughly an hour before Talal showed up. Within 30 minutes of meeting him, he was offering me a place to stay for free provided I help chip in for groceries. I had heard about Jordanian hospitality, but was not expecting to be the recipient of it so soon. A couple days later Talal invited me to his sister’s house to break iftar with him. Iftar is the term Muslims use when they break their fast after sunset. It was an experience to say the least. I initially thought the meal would include him and his sister’s family, but when we got there, they had already eaten so it was just us and my roommate Hamza. I must admit, I felt a little imposing since his sister had to get everything back out and heated up for us. It was a very delicious dinner though!
I started work on Monday, May 25th. I got in to the UNESCO Amman office at 9:00 AM and was immediately handed the project documents for a system strengthening project and the School and Directorate Development Program – two projects I would be helping to support. These projects aim to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Education to better use the OpenEMIS system for policy decisions at the school, field directorate, and state level and helping to create maintenance workflows for schools that are falling into disrepair, a common problem in the government run schools in Jordan.
After reviewing these documents, we headed off to the Ministry of Education for a meeting with three high ranking ministry officials to discuss how UNESCO could facilitate the deployment of five professionals into the MoE to help build its capacity. This was a rather surreal moment for me. I had spent a year and a half researching Jordan and its response to the refugee crisis and here I was on day one walking into the MoE to listen in on how those conversations are playing out in real life. It was all quite fascinating.One thing that the office has allowed me to do has been to pursue my interest in education in emergencies. Because I am the only one in the office who has this interest it has allowed me to take the helm of assisting the UNESCO regional office in Beirut, Lebanon with updating Jordan’s progress towards the UNESCO Strategic Framework for Education in Emergencies in the Arab Region (2018-2021). So far, it has mostly been familiarizing myself with that framework and digging through project documents and identifying projects and successes that contribute to the EiE Strategic Framework. I am most excited for this bit of work since it aligns with my interests and especially since I will be solely responsible for moving it forward.
So far, my time in Jordan has been quite the experience. I have gotten to know how the office operates, been a part of high level meetings, learned more about the various projects UNESCO is undertaking, and broken iftar in a rather odd way. I am very much looking forward to what the next two months brings.
In my next post, I’ll provide more updates on how my work has progressed and how this experience has helped me develop as a practitioner in the field! Be sure to follow along as my colleagues in UNESCO offices all over the world share their experiences as well!
Justin Rotundo is a Master’s candidate in International Education with a focus on education in emergencies (EiE) and monitoring and evaluation (M&E).