[A Syrian lawyer who is studying English with Mel Struthers] took me to his law office where he was very proud to serve me Italian coffee. . . . We ended up helping each other w/language. The preceding pages [Matthew has a page listing common Arabic words and their English meanings] are a result of my asking him several questions about common words in Arabic, not only to try to appear more interested in the Syrian culture, but also to make me feel better about myself being here. It strikes me as ironic that [many Americans in Syria] dog the students' English abilities to such a degree. First off, these students, I will guess, are first generation college students; therefore, they may not grow up in an intellectually nurturing environment. Secondly, they are learning a difficult language in atrocious conditions, bad classrooms and materials, poor conversation opportunities, and at times, their professors have been known to laugh at their students if they hear them practicing English in the halls of school. I hardly know 5 words in Arabic and these students can spout off facts about Emily Dickinson, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare that I have no idea about. Then they ask us about our knowledge of middle eastern and Arabic writers, if we've read them, even if we know them. All I can do is smile and shake my head in shame.

The sessions at the University of Aleppo have been wonderful experiences. From the extensive hospitality to the smiling looks and stares we receive from the students in the halls, everything has told me so much and yet so little about the culture. The students are so eager to speak with us. After we finished the first lecture, for instance, the students surrounded us with smiles, "welcomes," handshakes and questions. I am embarrassed to say it, but it made me feel special in a way. The only way I'm special in this process is that I'm "especially" lucky to be blessed with such an eye-opening, refreshing people.

Matthew occasionally took notes during the lecture sessions; here is a page recording part of a lecture the third day in Aleppo.

• The Greeks kept commonplace books over 2000 years ago.
• Syrian student: "Ideas have wings; they often fly away." Dr. Bob in response: "Writing is a way to put those ideas in a cage."
• "Love is a better master than duty." Albert Einstein
• "Don't think but look."
  Wittgenstein How much do we really look and see things?
• Dr. Bob's commonplace book has 10-15 sections. 1 section is dedicated to teaching--ways to improve teaching.
• Dr. Bob's basketball story. It's amazing how many stories I know about him. I know more about him than I do of myself. 4 years ago in my J-Term class little did I know I'd be in Syria with him discussing writing. The running metaphor. Talent vs. practice. Michael Jordan. It is amazing to see how much these students eat this up. They are so interested and responsive.
• A response to a text, an evaluation, tells us more about the reader than the writer.
• Every human being has talent with regard to language. We are all creative with language. Every person can write something new that has never been done before.
• Michael Jordan could not make the high school basketball team when he was a freshman. How would you like to have been the coach who told Jordan he couldn't play? That is why teachers can't and shouldn't make judgments about what a student will or will not do.

The following passage was written after a one-on-one conference that Matthew had with Lena, the student who eventually won the Nesteby Prize.
A quotation from Lena's paper on liberty and the evaluation of the American dream: "It is strange how we know so much about science, facts of life, and how little we know about ourselves."

In Lattakia

Crazy experience. I just taught a class. Samer [Matthew's host in Lattakia; Samer taught in a public school and was a diploma student at Tishreen] took me to his school and asked at the last minute if I wanted to teach. So without any preparation I taught 2 lessons from their text book--1 about is/are and the other about sports. Finally, I turned it into a geography lesson of the US and then of the world. They did incredibly well, locating successfully Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, New York, London, Stockholm, etc. The students are about 10-12 years old. Their little faces were riveted on me as I took them through the lesson. It gave me a whole new appreciation of teaching. On your toes all the time, discipline, keeping it interesting all at the same time.

The school is completely different from our system. We entered the school and just walked into the classroom in which 40 students were gathered without supervision. They were going crazy until Samer and I entered the room. He said "Good afternoon" and they all stood up and recited together "Good afternoon, sir." Then Samer went on to say "you may sit down" and they replied with "Thank you, sir." All of them wore green uniforms, most of those covered by coats or puffed up with sweatshirts to keep warm. The rooms themselves are a mess--chalk dust everywhere and dirt and trash over the floor. My blazer is full of white dust just like the rest of the group's clothing. The situation at the University is not much different. The power goes off occasionally. There is no heat, and the teachers' desks are wobbly, brittle wooden structures. Yet the kids are very eager to learn. They hop out of their seats, hands and eyebrows raised expectantly. They call out "sir, sir, sir" when they know the answers. . . .

Nahla and Najla's home was a treat. The twins invited us to tea at their house, which of course meant a lot more food too, but mainly it was great. They had so much energy. We started off with freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice and some of those pizza-type snacks, then graduated to tea and "sweets" and finally chocolate candies at the end of the visit. This all took place in less than 3 hours and only about 3 hours before we were to have dinner with Lena and her brother Faldi. The mother had her head covered by a white wrap, but the interactions of the family and her expressions gave me the impression they are a relatively liberal Muslim family. N & N both had tight pants and the other brothers--Ismail, the eldest who drove us around and the youngest whose name I can't remember and who did not speak English--dressed in jeans and joked with their sisters. The youngest sister--something like Niarin--was so shy with her English that she started to cry when she was talking to Claire. I felt for her. The funny thing was, however, is that their English was all so good. The mother teaches English and the twins do part-time in addition to their classes at the University. As it came time to leave they were thrilled when we asked if we could get photos and brought out their camera as well. We enjoyed a long photo session complete with rearranging the furniture to accommodate the last shot. . . .

In Lattakia we had one question/answer session when we divided a class of 50 Syrian students into three groups and they wrote short responses to questions we asked. One of the questions was: What three words first come to mind when you think of the United States? Here are the responses from Matthew and Jennifer's groups.

Matthew's group: adventurous, big, liberty, empire, civilization (3), freedom (2), developed (2), giant, strong, horrible (3), different (2), destruction, noisy, construct, strong (4), beautiful, wild, large (2), technical, and 4 words that could not be deciphered.

Jennifer's group: rich, great, development, nice people, danger, home to everyone, scientific, practical, wild, peace, strong military