Under a full moon and before the rise of the sun, I set out to photograph a sand fox.
Debbie and Richard had seen a pair of sand foxes and a red fox last week while taking their early morning constitutional--their morning walk. The sand fox loped like a dog, but was as smooth as a cat. It saw me before I saw it.
The fox kept a football field's length between the two of us, but every now and then it stopped and sat down to watch me from a distance.
Water. Water probably is what has brought the endangered sand foxes and the red fox on to campus early in the morning before the sunrise.
Water has also brought mosquitoes into my room at night to disturb my sleep. Water to make the King's Academy look like Massachusetts' Deerfield Academy has also given mosquitoes a place to breed.
For the last two nights I have been startled awake to the buzzing sound of a mosquito in my ear. My sleepy response is to try and kill the mosquito by boxing my own ears. So I am hitting myself awake two and three times a night. After our first week at King's Academy our patio doors were taken off to replace them with doors that have screens. It took almost a week to get our doors back, and once installed my door didn't and doesn't properly latch. Either mosquitoes are coming in through the small remaining crack or they made a home of my room while my door was gone. The extravagant use of water to create a New England feel to The King's Academy has brought endangered foxes
and dangerous mosquitoes to Jordan.
I really do try to kill the mosquitoes by flailing out in the night, and I have become a danger to myself. Foxes
and mosquitoes...I think it is worth it,
at least for a three week visitor to this small oasis in the midst of a dry Jordanian August.
Tuesday. Today. We began our three days of school visits with a visit to Maysoun's school. A school of smiles and learning. 
Ain Jaloot is one of the best upper secondary schools (11th and 12th grades) in Jordan. The traditional teaching supplies (science posters, science supplies, text books, etc.) are very well organized and there are several computer labs and other aspects of modern technology (a digital video hook-up for the classroom microscope). However, what impresses me about Ain Jaloot is the sense of family and personal respect that radiates from the principal and the teachers. The principal cares about the students, smiles and encourages students, and believes in her school as a place of learning and love for young women who will become some of the 21st century leaders of Jordan and the Arab World. Technology is necessary to prepare young people for the modern world, but care and respect for students is essential in creating an environment where people learn. (I should also mention that there is a care for the school as an orderly place--the principal made sure that students left the halls clean after lunch.) Today is a reminder that schools should never forget that the power of encouragement and a smile is the foundation for powerful schools.
Today we ate two feast style meals--the first cooked by the teachers 
and the second by Maysoun. I am overfed...almost tipsy with food after two feast today and one feast two days ago and a lot of food yesterday on campus and at Madaba.
