In honor of His Majesty King Abdullah II's birthday, we helped organize King's Academy's second annual "Peace Day" last Saturday, January 30. This was a particularly special event because we invited students English and Arabic-speaking students from all over Jordan. The day started with two keynote speakers: Captain Dhia Al Azawi and Abdel Rahman Sultan, both from Friends of the Earth Middle East, an organization that brings Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians together to work towards solving common water and environmental problems in the region. Captain Al Azawi spoke in Arabic followed by an English translation by a King's Academy student and Mr. Sultan spoke in English followed by an Arabic translation. It was impressive to see some of the students that we work with step into the role of translator between the two languages (our Arabic is still improving but it's a slow process). Captain Dhia's speech touched on the American occupation in Iraq. Before coming to the Middle East, we had never directly heard from an Iraqi of the antagonism toward the American military. During the speech one of the faculty members from the Salt school interrupted the Captain to tell him to speak in English so that the Americans could hear this message. We were slightly taken aback but it made us think about how we are perceived in the world. After the speeches we split up into discussion groups to discuss the various reactions to the speakers. During the afternoon faculty led workshops on different peace movements and conflict resolution from the South African apartheid to the apology to aboriginals in Australia. Our headmaster, Dr. Eric, planted the first olive trees (the symbol for peace) in our new "Peace Garden." We were blown away by the enthusiasm and maturity of the King's Academy students surrounding these often complicated issues.
-Kat and Marianna
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