Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies

Website: Institute of Traditional Islamic Arts and Architecture

Yes, I did the tourist thingy today

I rode a camel at Petra.

madaba and petra

Here is a link to National Geographic's Petra pic site.  This link will provide you with more of the scope of the place.  Just think, only archeologists say that only about 30% of Petra has been discovered.

Meeting Sana, Head, Fine Arts Program, King's Academy -- Amman

King's Academy is an interesting high school that is modeled after the one HM King Abdullah II attended in the United States, Deerfield Academy. I met with the lovely Sana Madadha who is in charge of the fine arts program in the academy and her husband, Maa'n Hayek, who operates a large farm in the Jordanian valley.  Their home shows the couple's beautiful tastes: mostly blank cream-colored walls with a few family portraits, expensive rugs on marble floors.   The centerpiece of the office is an elaborately inlaid desk that was given to his grandfather by the king.  I've never touched a piece of furniture so intricately crafted and wonderfully proportioned as this desk and its equally sophisticated chair. 

From the first few words it was easy to tell that Sana is an outstanding and passionate instructor-- she knows what it takes to activate students.  Although every student at King's Academy must take a least one year of humanities electives, her classes are full, she said, "because students really enjoy working with their hands, especially in ceramics."  We shared enough to realize that she deals with the same creative dilemmas as I do in her students.  She wants them to think bigger, to move with beyond personal doubts in order to be ready for an adventurous life.