Echoes Of Andrew Corsie

How many worlds are there for us to experience? I have now arrived in Jordan and will be staying at the Holy Land Institute for Deaf and Deaf Blind Children. It is a project administered by the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East and takes children from particularly poor circumstances. It is a boarding school so the children live on the premises during term time. Currently, the teenage group are having their exams and so the concentration levels are pretty high. Although it is definitely a ‘Christian’ school most of the students, and staff, are Muslim – a factor that does not seem to bother anyone.
Salt, the town is half an hours drive from Amman the capital and could have been the capital before Amman was the eventual choice. We are near to various holy and tourist sites and I hope to be reflecting on visits to some of those in future posts. We have an itinerary worked out.
Back to my question – how many worlds are there?
This is my first visit to the Middle East – an interesting phrase because it begs a few questions – Middle of what, and East of what? If anyone can help me with the history of how this phrase came to describe this wonderful place I would be grateful to know.
But I am definitely in the Arab world. I am not sure to how to describe this yet, but life progresses in a steady and spontaneous way. It is a male dominated culture, although maybe it is to early to see how women impact on the culture. A visit to a large ‘post office’ yesterday highlighted this. I went with Br.Andrew, the Director of the Institute, to this place as he is selling 2 cars and has to register them and their value – that’s to do with tax – before the sale can be completed. On arrival at the complex, I was amazed at the hundreds of men around and inside – the only similar context I am aware of at home would be a football stadium, or the clergy changing room at St Paul’s Cathedral before a big service. Thankfully though, that demographic is changing! The noise of animated conversation was high and the seeming inability of forming queues was evident. I felt sorry for the clerks behind the desks dealing with about 5 different inquiries all at once. The atmosphere was good natured and somehow tasks were being addressed. I will never complain about a British Post Office ever again!
After about an hour with the paperwork complete we returned to the school, the journey being one of seemingly random forms of driving with each driver needing to be alert compared with the programmed and overly organised driving conditions in the UK these days. I am in a different world, I like it and the adjustments, were I to be here much longer, would be huge.
There is the world of the church and diocese. I heard that there are 26 parishes – a figure I had difficulty appreciating as the deanery I am in, Ealing borough, has 36 churches, many more clergy and a way of relating very different from my church world here. The 26 parishes/churches extend right across from Jerusalem and the Arab world. That is challenging to support.
Then there is the world of the school. This is a well run and disciplined establishment, shaped by the Director Br.Andrew who has been here over 35 years. He has immense drive and vision and the service it offers to the country is clear to see. It is a model institute for how to educate deaf and deaf blind students and has developed a teaching component that others come to from various parts of the Arab world to learn from. The world of a boarding school is new to me and I am interested to see how it works.
The world of other languages highlights my own weaknesses. I do not speak another language, one of my life regrets, and the starkness of that reality is clear here. However I continue to be amazed by the skills of others and also the human desire to communicate and find ways of doing so. This was true of life on the Camino, with people from all over the world, and no different here. I am grateful to the local staff and international volunteers who all speak some form of English for accepting me and being willing to speak in my language. I realise that to know another language is to enter the world of another and inhabit with them a world of possibilities. Sign language may be lacking in me, but with the adults and students who are deaf I have found ways of expressing myself to them and they to me. Whatever the incompleteness of our interactions, a smile and good eye contact help greatly. That is a gift as far as the deaf are concerned, eye contact is crucial for them.
But then there is the world of the deaf blind. It seems to me that their world exists as long as their arms and no further. The space beyond appears to be really, beyond them. Students who are deaf blind have 1 – 1 contact with a teacher and staff member all day. This is an intense relationship and the commitment of the staff is incredible. Hearing and speaking people like me can take human interaction for granted, and that became clear to me yesterday afternoon. I was being shown around the school by an English missionary. We met a teacher from Germany who is spending time here and stopped to say hello. She was working with a girl who is deaf blind. This young woman was found in a cupboard in the family home. She had been rejected by the family, who in poor circumstances did not know what to do with her. Government provision and education about this area is minimal. The girl was learning to walk (about 8 years of age) and she stood there. We talked. Another local member of staff in typical Jordanian fashion, gently yet firmly, suggested to us that we were not helping the girl as she knew we were there, but hadn’t established contact. I thanked the staff for this and immediately moved my hand to the girl and touched her hand. She responded and then explored my arms with her hands. I could see her visibly relax. I had entered another world and it was only 12 or so inches from me. The gesture was not much physically, but the potential it opened up was immense.
While on sabbatical I am exploring issues related to conflict and reconciliation. Maybe conflict arises when 2 worlds clash in some way and the boundaries around each one are fairly rigid? Perhaps the path to reconciliation becomes possible when, one at least, allows the boundaries to soften and moves towards the world of the other. In my case with this girl it really didn’t take much other than the willingness to reach out. The invisible boundary between us was breached and human contact was possible. In relationships where there is conflict how much better when this happens and is met with a similar response by the other.
All this and I haven’t mentioned the religious world. I think that is because I am seeing that it does not seem to matter. God as a reality in life appears to be taken for granted. Believers of Islam and Christianity live side by side and church and mosque too, as the call to prayer from the Minaret 5 times each day reminds me. I don’t think the issues in this world, inhabited by Arab, Palestinian and Jew are religious, rather it is political. A simple truth that can lead the way is to extend the hand into the world of the other – and how much better if it is met by an open response. I know it is easy or simple to say, but it seems to be the way, at least to begin with.