It's been over a month since my last post. I apologize for this, things are really picking up here as we all get back to work and programs start back up. Green Creations continues each morning for us from 9 till noon five days a week. However you should not assume that means all we do is sit in the workshop or the offices not having fun.
Not all of the materials we need come directly to us, sometimes we have to go to them. This particularly applies to the sea glass GC uses to make pendants, bracelets and earrings. Getting it is just a matter of going where it is. The beaches are not cleaned often and picking pieces of glass up out of the sand is free. The main obstacle of course is finding time to go to the beach and someone to drive those willing to go. Jumana, our design manager, chose the day and a driver was quickly selected from among our crew: Me. That's right, it was decided that I, 22 year old Pennsylvania driver who has never driven on a highway and thinks 60 mph is fast, was to drive five Jordanian women along with Kara to the sea. I had driven here once before but it was during Ramadan at Iftar, the time when everyone is home getting ready to break the fast with their families. That night there may have been two other cars on the street. This time I would be driving through downtown midmorning in the Center's giant green van. I was the only one who could do it though since Kara was waiting on a new license from the US and none of the GC women can drive. That morning we all piled into the van and set off for one of the public beaches. Jumana sat up front to direct me and we made it through with only minor difficulties.
The four GC ladies who went with us were Basima, Najaa, Saamya and Heba. Basima is forty-seven Palestinian woman who lives with her mother and her husband. Basima works to support her household as her husband's medical bills continue to grow as his health depletes. It is obvious that Basima and her husband love each other very much. They have no children and usually such marriages end or a second wife is brought in to provide children; in this case however, Basima's husband has chosen to respect and remain faithful to her. The weight of caring for her husband and providing for her family does not keep Basima down; she is always the life of the party at work and kept us laughing at the beach. At the beach, Basima wore a white baseball cap overtop of her burkah. Najaa is a fifty year old Palestinian woman who lives with her youngest daughter. She has eight children with her husband but this was not enough for him. Though they are still legally married, Najaa's husband lives in a different country and is married to two other women. The two of them have not seen each other in twenty years. For Najaa it was hard to find work and she stayed at home most days before coming to Green Creations. Najaa and Basima are always up to something and they have taken to calling themselves Kara's parents: Basima is Kara's mom and Najaa is Kara's dad. Saamya is a fifty-five year old Egyptian widow. She came to Jordan as a second wife but her husband has since passed away. She works to support and care for her four sons, ages sixteen to twenty-eight. Only one of her sons has a job and none of them are in school because there is not enough money to send them. Even though her life is hard, Saamya is the sweetest lady. When I greet the ladies in the morning, I know to save a few extra minutes for Saamya because she likes to hug me a long time and tell me how much she loves me. Lately she has been asking me about my family and makes sure I take time to talk to my mom. I have learned how to say "I thank God for you" in Arabic and I tell her that everyday. Heba is a twenty-three year old Jordanian who lives at home with her parents. After she finished school there was nothing for her to do so she stayed in the house most days. After learning about Green Creations, her father gave her permission to work there. Many women suffer from depression because there is a real lack of things for them to do outside the house and/or many of them are not allowed to go out on their own. GC provides a safe place for all these women to work and socialize, something they could not do otherwise. Also with us as I've mentioned was Jumana, our design manager. Jumana is really a jack of all trades at GC. She keeps the records of the materials we have and don't have in the workshop, takes care of anything the ladies would need, offers advice and ideas on new product ideas, manages our color schemes, organizes the GC orders that need shipped out, and at times translates between the ladies and the interns. Jumana is a thirty-four year old Palestinian woman. She is divorced with three children. She has the children for now but she needs to work for fear that her husband will take the children away from her. Through working at GC, Jumana has improved her English and has even branched out to take computer classes. This English term, Jumana is in my class and I am glad to have someone I know (who is a woman) there with me.
For the full stories of each of the GC ladies click here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.189890791042519.46969.145005612197704&type=3
I drove 80 (kilometers/hr) out to the beach and we arrived after about 45 minutes. As soon as we parked, Bassima and Najaa ran across the sand to the playground. They both jumped on the swings, laughing at themselves the whole time. Soon we all got to work searching for good pieces of glass. There was a fair bit of wind that morning making it hard for the ladies to keep their hijabs on and whipping sand across our faces as we bent down to pick up the glass. The lot of us must have been a sight on the beach that morning: five Jordanian women with two American girls walking up and down the shoreline taking things out of the sand. There aren't many sea shells on the beaches here so onlookers had no ready excuse for what we might be doing. After sifting through the sand for a bit, we came back together to drink some water and sort through our findings. I honestly have no idea what separated the good from the bad. Some aspects were obvious like size or color but some pieces that were rejected looked the same to me as some of the pieces that we kept. After some sorting, Najaa, Heba and I continued down the beach to find a few more pieces. I guess my standards were too low for glass. Once I had half filled my plastic cup, Najaa came over to inspect the contents. Pouring all the pieces out into her hand, she looked them over then through them all back into the Sea. "No" she said in English while she laughed at my surprised face.
The other ladies finished their sorting soon after and came to join us. Basima had found a big plank somewhere and now she planned to use it. While Jumana and Najaa were examining pieces of glass, Basima ran up behind them and started spanking Najaa with the plank. All in good fun, Basima and Najaa started chasing each other, each trying to take hold of the plank. Saamya joined Najaa in trying to get the plank from Basima but in the end Basima kept her beating stick. It is great to see the ladies outside of the Center; to see them laughing and having a good time with their friends. While we were walking back up to the van, I was thinking how great it was that there were no men on the beach that morning to bother us. Just then an entire football (soccer) team of young men jog by us and decide to sing to us. Kara and I shook our heads while the ladies thought it was hilarious. Driving back was fine and the ladies have since found uses for the glass we found. I am so glad I got to be a part of beach day with the ladies. It was a great day out with the ladies and awesome to get to hangout with them outside of the Center.
Photo credit to Miss Kara Oyer, my year-long-buddy
https://picasaweb.google.com/108532852514122909750/SeaGlass?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzQk6-15P_YggE#
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