Challenger Village

After those behemoth posts to cover Friday, I will try to keep this post shorter.

Today was our meet our peer tutor event; this meant getting up at the unearthly hour of 6 AM on a Saturday in order to make it to the University by 8. From there, we left on 4 chartered buses for “Challenger Village” located about 15 minutes outside Amman.

One thing I am learning here is that names and descriptions are often very misleading, even if you can read them in English. Challenger Village was no more a village than Cedarville is a thriving metropolis. Actually, that metaphor (or simile, or whatever) is wrong because the location was actually a giant stone structure, renovated in the style of a medieval castle.

We had arrived around 9:15; I was surprised, then, that we were to have breakfast (again). It was a plate for each of us full of various sweetbreads and pastries. I have no idea what I ate, but it was good.

We then left to play games such as tug of war, arrange the giant foam blocks into specified shapes (which, I think, should be required for all residency interviews for surgery), and Simon Says. There was elevenses, consisting of tea and coffee. More team-building games, and thn lunch around 2. To start, we had a sort of puff-bread: hard on the outside, but soft on the inside and separated, so you could spoon immense amounts of fuul, hummus, lebaneh, babaghanouj, or some other sauce into it. This was only the opening: next came a plate of barbecued beef and chicken with grilled vegetables. After this point, we were nearly stuffed with food: but not quite, because finally they brought out the knaffeh for dessert. Oh, and did I mention I had mango juice? Lazeez! Tasty, indeed.

Finally, we returned home. I stopped by the bookstore to pick up a notebook and English/Arabic dictionary (okay, I admit, mainly to break my 50JD) and then went onto church.

The service was good, although I did break my “I’m never going to listen to modern evangelical worship music again unless being tortured by a sadistic regime” promise. However, it is always good to gather to worship and be reminded of God’s goodness.