proxemics: study of man’s need for personal space

So I hear there is fear amongt the congregation that "no news is bad news." I am happy to inform you that this is just simply not true.

Yesterday we visited the refugee camp we will be working at. It is called Baq'ua (pretty difficult to pronounce). We drove through a small part of it, though it was fairly ackward for Erin and I to be there in my dad's very-nice car.

Hopefully one day we can post some photos from the camp, though I am not willing to take my camera and start photographing until the people I am taking pictures of recognize me, and understand that I am not photographing them for entertainment, but for educating and exposing the calamities of the situation. I feel very disturbed about showing up with a fancy camera and very little Arabic skills to take photos of real people. If I were them, all that would run through my head is "Right now, my terrible conditions are a rich American girl's amusement."

The camp isn't exactly what you picture when you hear "refugee camp," if there are any images showing up in your mind. The structures are permanant, made out of cement. This camp has been inhabited by Palestinians since 1948, the first time the Israelis took over cities in Palestine, so it is obviously not going to be a bunch of tents still, 60 years later. Anyways, everything is two stories high, but there is pretty much just cement (as in no windows, doors, etc). We did not see the clinic because the camp is huge, and my dad had no idea where it was. It's just a giant grid (or maybe maze would be more appropriate)...and everything looks the same. In the few minutes we were there, almost all the people we saw where children playing in the thin dirt roads between all of the buildings. So many kids, everywhere, running around without any apparent boundary or supervision. Basically, it's a buttload of people smashed into a tiny area. I don't even want to know how many people are living in each cell/house area. There is no space to breathe. It seems that everywhere you look there are people on top of you (and trash too)...

It looks like we will begin working the camp next week (hopefully Monday or Tuesday). This week, we've had to spend at Jordan Hospital doing somewhat of an orientation. Working in the hospital and in the camp is nothing alike, but because Erin is an RN, she needed to work for a week struttin' her stuff, so to speak, in a setting that is actually reportable and able to be evaluated. We've been working 8 hours shifts (only twice so far), from 7a-3p, on a med-surg unit in the hospital. We're on two different units right next to each other, though Erin's unit is much busier than mine. It has been good for her to get to know the similarities and differences between US hospitals and Jordanian ones (or at least this one). Again, in the camp, I'm sure many regulations and procedures will change much more drastically for the worse, but Erin's still found some noteable differences. I haven't done any clinicals, so I really have no gauge for it. But it has been good for me to spend some time working in a hospital for the first time, even though it's extremely difficult to learn with so much Arabic everywhere. Almost all of the medical staff speaks English decently well, though they never do to each other, so unless someone is directly speaking to me, I have no idea what's going on. Story of my life right now. Because of that, Erin and I have been studing Arabic almost every night. Such a difficult language.

We've had some cool opportunities at the hospital the past couple days. Even though the vast majority of people around us are Muslim (most women are veiled so there is no question about their beliefs, but I suspect that most of the unveiled women are also Muslims)...the subject of faith has come up a few times for each of us. The conversations were really good to have.

In other news, the other day...we also stopped on the side of the road to see a herd of camels at a bedouin camp, so hopefully I'll get a picture up soon! That was a highlight for us. I want a camel one day! Much better than a car.

Lastly, thank you for commenting! It's really neat to hear from all of you and good to know that people care to know and are praying. I love you my family, and though Erin is currently passed out, I'm certain she does too.