First Days In Amman--UYCorps Visit!

The first couple of days of our visit with our UYCorps volunteers have gone very, very well! After a very late arrival on Sunday evening--1am!...then getting driven to the apartments by one of the Palace guard/drivers late that night (which was an efficient treat!), I was met by the welcoming greetings of Eduardo and Stephanie Elizondo as I invaded their apartment in the late night (Early Monday morning!).

I had a short night's rest (even though the Elizondo's had a very comfortable room ready for me!), and met the Palace driver in his Mercedes at 9:30 am outside the apartments for a short but wonderful drive into the Royal Palace grounds. Going through a couple of checkpoints and the official Palace gates (with Gold crown seal of the Royal family), I arrived at the personal research offices of HRH Prince Hassan and Princess Siti Sarvath.

After a wonderful 2 hour visit with both Khadijeh Siraj and Tine Banda, we all watched a short video produced by Jordan TV almost 20 years ago about our predessors service in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan through Ambassador Foundation over almost 20 years. And while visiting with Khadijeh, she commented on how our young volunteers example and service is a continuation of the love and example of our involvement since 1984--25 years.

After that visit, I was able to be given a tour around the research offices and library of HRH Prince Hassan with Tine Banda as my host. We also stopped in Tine's office and talked for over an hour, which was wonderful. Tine will be ending her tenure (for now, anyway!) in the Royal Palace next week as she plans to fly to the UK before the Feast and begin her doctoral studies at University of Oxford.

That evening we all (the current 5 volunteers and Tine) enjoyed a wonderful meal at the apartment of Eduardo and Stephanie Elizondo (where I am staying while in Jordan). We also topped off the great food with a spot of white Texas wine I brought along for the group to enjoy. Jamie Franks, Audry Bauer, and Kelly Schrieber are among the volunteers and all have some different roles of service while here.

We ended the evening by walking two blocks down to the ZamZam Hotel where Mssrs Clay Thornton and Clint Porter were met by us as they were delivered there from the airport by the Palace driver. We all had a chance to touch base and I could inform the two men the good news and "bad" news! The good news was that they had a good bed awaiting them in their hotel rooms. The "bad" news was they had to get up at 5:30am and be ready to roll the next mornign as we were all riding the YMWA student bus into the Bunayat Center at 6:45am!

~Doug Horchak