June 29, 2005: Headlines: COS - Jordan: Married Couples: Older Volunteers: AzJournal.com: Marty and Karen Feess Look Forward To Service with The Peace Corps In Jordan

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Jordan: Peace Corps Jordan : The Peace Corps in Jordan: June 29, 2005: Headlines: COS - Jordan: Married Couples: Older Volunteers: AzJournal.com: Marty and Karen Feess Look Forward To Service with The Peace Corps In Jordan

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-245-37.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.245.37) on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 10:53 am: Edit Post

Marty and Karen Feess Look Forward To Service with The Peace Corps In Jordan

Marty and Karen Feess Look  Forward To Service with The Peace Corps In Jordan

“It’s a chance to serve. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Marty explained.

Marty and Karen Feess Look Forward To Service with The Peace Corps In Jordan

Feess Look Forward To Service
With The Peace Corps In Jordan

By Tammy Gray-Searles

“It’s probably the most modern place the Peace Corps could send you,” remarked Holbrook resident Marty Feess on his upcoming trip to Jordan.

Marty and his wife Karen will be spending two years in Jordan with the Peace Corps. Both are retired teachers. Marty is retired from the Joseph City School District, and Karen from the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.

“It’s a chance to serve. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Marty explained.

The Feess chose the Peace Corps because they want to serve for an extended period of time. They also decided that they would go wherever the corps needed them.

Marty will teach English to fifth through 10th grade students in Jordan, while Karen will train English teachers.

“I’m a little apprehensive because of the language barrier,” Marty said. “We’re only just learning Arabic.”

The Feess will leave Holbrook in early July, spend three days in Washington, D.C., and then fly to Jordan. Once there, they will spend two months in training before they begin teaching English.

“There’s a big push to learn English in Jordan because it’s the language of business,” Marty explained. “There’s a lot of English learning going on all over the country.”

While in Jordan they will rent a small house or apartment from a local resident. Indoor plumbing and electricity are standard in the area they will be serving.

Karen explained that while the climate is similar to that in Northeastern Arizona, the culture is much more restrictive.

“We’ll both have to wear long sleeves, and I’ll have to wear skirts or slacks that cover my ankles. There are a lot of taboos,” she noted. “I’ll also have to wear a head covering, but I won’t have to cover my face.”

The Feess explained that the majority of the population of Jordan is made up of Palestinian refugees, who are friendly toward individual Americans, even though there is tension with the American government.

“It’s a safe country, even though there’s a lot of unrest around it,” Marty said.

Marty and Karen plan to do some traveling during their time in Jordan, and although they’re unsure where they’ll be able to go, they hope to visit Petra, an ancient city carved from sheer rock walls, and Aqaba, a resort city on the coast of the Red Sea.

“They discourage us from going to Israel,” Marty remarked. “We do plan on traveling, we just don’t know where.”

At the end of their two-year stay, the Feess say that they may request an extension since Marty plans to continue teaching and returning in September poses difficulty in finding a teaching position in the U.S.

They are also unsure if they will return to Holbrook or seek adventures elsewhere.

“We have no idea. We’re just playing it by ear,” Marty said.





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Story Source: AzJournal.com

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Jordan; Married Couples; Older Volunteers

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