Agent E: International Super Spy

July 23rd

     Today was a stay at the Institute kind of day.  Not a lot to report, as you can see from the kids' minimalist daily drawings.   Eva’s is on the right.  She practiced guitar today, which she’s been doing almost every day since we got here.  In addition to the folk songs she’s supposed to be learning, she’s been working on Hey There Delilah by Plain White Ts.  She sounds pretty good!  It think her guitar teacher will be pleasantly surprised when we get back.

     Eli’s needs a bit more interpretation.  These drawings are fun, because I learn what the kids were up to while I was in the basement office working all day.  At the bottom, you see the sidewalk he and Jason took on their walk to the ATM today.  Or his idea of the sidewalk, because I can’t think of a sidewalk in Amman that looks like that.  The ones around where we live look more like this:

 (*I’m cheating and using photos from the 24^th, but since that’s my birthday it’ll be a longer post anyway!)

     As you can see, there’s not really a commonly held idea of the sidewalk as public walking space.  Instead, it’s more of an area for cultivation.  Pull up a few tiles, pop in a palm tree or other vegetation, and soon you’ve got some nice shade for your house (or hotel, as is the case across the street from these photos).  Pedestrians?  That’s what the street is for, right?

     The upper drawing--of 5 red circles--on Eli's page apparently relates to a spying incident.  Jason and Eva were throwing the football during ‘sports’ time and, according to Eva, Eli was bored to death.  So he snuck over to the front patio area and spied on the Institute cooks, who were cutting up tomatoes for lunch.  When Eva and Eli told me about it, I couldn’t help but think of the Eloise books (http://www.eloisewebsite.com):

"I am Eloise.  I am six.  I am a city child.  I live at the Plaza."  -Kay Thompson, 1949

     Except it would go something like, “I am Eli. I am five.  I am a spy.  I live at a research institute.”  Like Eloise, he's one of very few children living in a building filled with adults--some of whom behave quite seriously.  Also like Eloise, he likes to snoop.  The week before we came to Jordan, Eva ran a ‘spy camp’ for Eli on our back porch—complete with spy gadgets, missions, and the watching of a spy movie each day.  Eli won’t be happy that I’m sharing this, but there were even Phineas and Ferb spy undies that week (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_and_Ferb for more about Phineas and Ferb, not about the undies.  That’d be creepy). 

So I was really thinking of a combination of Eloise and Perry the Platypus.  Eloise + Agent P = Agent E!
     The sad bit about the Eloise reference is that I’d be the absent mother in that scenario, which I guess makes Jason Nanny.  Or we could go with the Phineas and Ferb reference, in which case I can be the Mom who was a pop-star in the 80s and Jason will need to start speaking with a British accent.  Actually, I think the latter is true in either scenario.