Dust . Helpfulness . Noise . Curiosity . Traffic . Smiles

As I'm writing this, I am sitting on the roof of our building in Amman enjoying a magnificent view of the craziest city I've ever visited.
All around me the minarets tower up over the insanely noisy and crowded streets of Amman. I have never (I can't not emphasize 'never' enough!) experienced a so scary traffic. To cross a road here in Amman or to go by car to somewhere else is literally like playing russian roullette.
There are hardly any traffic lights and speeding limits is something you only respect when there's a police man nearby (and even then, not always). Besides from these two seemingly harmless facts, there are no lines to separate the lanes on the road. And the drivers are certainly not trying to make an effort to keep the traffic calm and regulated.
It is absolutely crazy. It's sort of like crossing the German Autobahn.

The reason why I am in Jordan is that I've been fortunate enough to get a job here (just for 9 days) as an workshop-instructor for school teachers in a city north of Amman called Zarqa.
The workshop we are doing here is focusing on how the teachers can use Ultimate Frisbee as a tool for developing the life skills (cooperation, communication, conflict resolution, hightened self-esteem) of the children in the schools.

Coming here there was a lot of uncertainties regarding the workshop: how many participants would we have, how many of them would be women, in what kind of gym hall would the workshop take place, and many many other things.
Tomorrow we have Day 4 of the workshop and most of the questions have (fortunately) been answered.

We have about 23 participants, of which 7 are women. The ages of the participants range from 18 to 60, which isn't as big a problem as I would have thought.
Most of the participants are teachers in Zarqa in what is considered underpriviliged schools.
The workshop itself is being held at an all-girls school in Zarqa. Because it's an all-girls school we are pretty limited in where we go on the school. We are allowed to be in the gym (of course) and do short breaks in the school yard (but not when there's a break between classes for the girls, because the girls are not really allowed to look at all these men).

We had been talking a lot about how it would work with the women as a part a group with all of these loudmouthed men with huge egos (we've heard a lot about the men from a former workshop).
But I must say: It's been a great eye-opener for me to be here. At first when I saw the women at the workshop, I thought that it would be a tough job to get them to understand and be enthusiastic about what we would be doing. But no.
Sajera, Raja, Rayya, Saja, Eman, Islam, Sadiqa and Jasmin are some of the strongest and most comitted people I have ever met. And for that I can do nothing but take my hat off.
They have an open mind, they are curious, and most importantly, they want to learn and to get better.
Watching those niqab-wearing women running around after a disc gives me a smile on my face that nothing can ruin.

Therefore my thanks goes out to you!

Back in Cph

Wow..

This is kind if weird.

Louise and I flew from Reykjavik last night at 1:00 am local time (3:00 am Danish time) and landed 3 hours later in Cph (6:00 am Danish time). My dad was there to pick us up and took us to his house north of Copenhagen, where we had breakfast.

Now Louise is at work and I'm sitting in our apartment looking out on a gray, windy, rainy backyard. Could it be more different from what I have been used to for the last 3-ish months?

I can never get my head around how much things look the same even though you've been away for a while.
So different, but still so familiar.

I wonder what it would've been like without the 4 days of acclimation in Iceland.. It's almost a scary thought.

But I'm looking so much forward to seeing you all. No doubt there!

/ Aslak

Tip #4

Jeg beklager den dårlige lyd, men det er sgu lidt svært at finde læ, når man står oppe på en gletscher.

Tip Lyngmarksbræen from Aslak Lau Rolvsen on Vimeo.

3 days in heaven is better than 1 day in heaven

Fra bunden af mit hjerte, tak. Tak. Tak.

Hannah, Jon og Kristine.

Tip #3

If you think that 4 days is enough for doing the things you want to do here, book 7 days.

There are two reasons why you should do this:

Reason no. 1:

It is when you don't have any plans a lot of the unforgettable things happen.
For example, yesterday was the first day of school for the new 1st graders.

We didn't have any plans, so I could just enjoy this fantastic scenary. All the small boys and girls in their national costumes sucking their thumbs and crying when daddy left them in front of the crowd. Unforgettable.

Reason no. 2:

There is this word in Greenlandic : "Immaqa". The best translation of Immaqa would be something like maybe.

Immaqa can be used in a lot of different contexts, but mostly we (the guides) use it for our guests to describe the insecurity surrounding the completion of the excursions.

Today two of our guests was supposed to go on a helicopter ride to the glacier front. A trip they have been looking forward to very much.

And then we woke up today and saw a very wet, foggy Ilulissat.

At first the heli ride was postponed for an hour, but then after an hour we had to go tell the guests that their trip was cancelled. That will never be my favorite part of the job.

My message is this: You never know what happens here. An engine can get a leak, the fog can come in, the captain of the boat can be drunk.. It's waaay better to expect your trips to be cancelled or rearranged - and to have the time for it.

Tip #2

Find great people that make your days beautiful

I thank you all very much

Tip #1 - and more

Tip 1 from Aslak Lau Rolvsen on Vimeo.