Gift of Life- Hablando español en Jordánia

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Last Monday, I attended a charity event for Gift of Life. The organization raises money for children with congenital heart problems so that they can have open heart surgery.

El lunes pasado, asisití un evento de la organización ¨Regalo de la Vida¨. La organización colecciona dinero para niños con problemas de corazón para que reciban cirugías cardíacas.


On Thursday evening, I went with some board members of the organization to greet Juana from El Salvador and her one year old son Brayan who came to Jordan for a heart surgery.


El jueves por la noche, fui con algunos miembros de la organización para saludar la mamá del niño, Juana y su hijo, Brayan, que vinieron a Jordánia para una recibir una cirugía cardíaca.


It was the first time for the mother outside of her village some four hours away from San Salvador. It took two days to get to Amman passing through Houston and Frankfurt before coming here. I could identify with the mother in many ways because my first experience outside of the country was in El Salvador when I was 18. The mother did not speak Arabic.



Era la primera vez que la madre estaba fuera de su pueblo que queda unas quatro horas de San Salvador. Les costaban dos días en llegar al Amman pasando por Houston y Franfurt antes de llegar aquí. Podía identificar con la madre en vários niveles porque mi primera experiencia fuera del pais fue en El Salvador cuando tenía 18 años. The mother did not speak Arabic.

I spent the first evening assisting the family to settle in. The second day was spent at the hospital preparing for different tests, helping to feed and calming the mother. The third day was the surgery. I was invited to attend the open heart surgery and was able to stand next to the head surgeons. It was a life changing experience which has given me a whole new outlook. I have a greater appreciation for doctors, biology and the miracle of life.


Pasé la primera noche ayundando la familia sentirse más cómoda. El segundo día se pasó en el hospital haciendo algunas revisiones, ayundando con la alimentación del niño y tranquilando la madre. El tercer día fue la cirugía. Los médicos me invitaron para asistir la cirugía- estaba a lado de los cirujanos. Fue una experiencia inolvidable que me ha dado una nueva perspectiva. Ahora aprecio más los médicos, la biología y el milagro de la vida.

Rotary Talks

Click on the title Rotary Talks to view a bilingual newsletter

The reason that I am able to spend this summer in Amman, Jordan is through the sponsorship of Rotary International District 7210 in the Hudson Valley of New York. I am very fortunate to be in the company of a city full of Rotarians. There are in fact several clubs in the Greater Amman Area. During the past week, I have given a presentation to three Rotary clubs in Amman about the Hudson Valley, West Point and what I will teaching to Jordanian students this summer. Classes start this Sunday. The school week here is Sunday through Thursday. This week I have been taking care of administrative tasks at the university. I will have 40 students in my class and they will be posting some assignments on this blog.

articles written in Lebanon about Brazil

http://www.ndu.edu.lb/lerc/News/2010/Assistant_Professor_of_Portuguese.pdf 

Are these pictures from Brazil or Lebanon?

If you answered Lebanon, then you are correct! Lebanon has Brazil fever. The World Cup has only reinforced the strong ties that the country has to Brazil. There is literally not a street in Beirut where I did not see a Brazilian flag flying high. You don't have to take my word for it.


Many of the people that I met are Brazilians that came to Lebanon and have made it their home. Jilda cooks Brazilian favorites for dignitaries in Beirut while Marcela teaches exercise classes to both the young and older population.

Lebanon

During the summer of 2006, I was a student at the Portuguese School at Middlebury College. It was there that I read an article about a village in Lebanon which stated over 99% of the people there in Sultan Yaaqoub spoke Portuguese. At first, I could not believe it! This is when I wrote the author of the article, Roberto Khatlab- and thus started my journey with the Lebanese Emigration Research Center at Notre Dame University.



I became so interested in this topic that I decided to write about language contact between Arabic and Portuguese for my dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin. I was not able to go to Lebanon at that time because of the political situation so I decided to concentrate my efforts in Brazil at this time. I researched the contact of Arabic and Portuguese in Sao Paulo. I interviewed over 60 people from different backgrounds and asked them questions about the circumstances in which they use both Arabic and Portuguese. I met so many wonderful Lebanese- Brazilians when I was in Brazil. They opened their homes to me and allowed me to learn more about their language and culture. After conducting these interviews, I wanted even more that ever to go to Lebanon. It was a dream come true to finally be able to have the opportunity to visit and conduct interviews the first week of June.


The hospitality that I received there was overwhelming! I met so many people that were willing to share their stories and were eager to welcome me to their country. I had a chance to meet not only children and grandchildren of Brazilians- but also first generation Brazilian immigrants- which will be the topic of my next article.