Wonders in Saudi Arabia
- Aoyumi Jung
- Sep 11, 2022
- 5 min read
24 Aug 2022 - finishing up on 11 Sep
A mind-revolutionary time for my future.
My face has been suffering from a heat allergy for 3 weeks… Thailand is so COOL compared to Saudi. :)
“You are unstoppable now” - from my co-facilitator, P’Gai.
At JUMP! We have a feedforward culture that is always the highlight of every program for me. That was the feed that will stick with me moving forward from my teammate. JUMP! work always consumes 120% of my energy and pays me well in every aspect. It is time for me to step out of my comfort zone. JUMP! has mentors for my personal and career growth, where I can’t see such that in anywhere else.
I started my day with blessings from the video sharing students’ testimonials sent by KAUST. This is my first time that I have received this many beautiful takeaways from students in a JUMP! Program. We had the opportunity to conduct a Leadership Training in The KAUST School, part of The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a prestigious school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!
I felt blessed all the time when I was in Saudi Arabia. I feel blessed since I received the invitation email from JUMP! Shannon Fox. I feel blessed to be part of a blessing team consisting of 5 nationalities.
Then I stepped foot in the magnificent airports of Dubai and Jeddah. They were absolutely different worlds compared to all places I had been to! When I arrived at the hotel of the university, I was speechless. I didn’t say “I don’t deserve this'', instead I said “I would do my best because of such a heaven.” I felt blessed seeing the campus quiet of students but full of hard-working educators during the semester break. I felt blessed seeing a Common Room where teachers can make coffee and hang out. There are posters of people who worked here in the past who said “Thank you” to the KAUST family. I felt blessed when I had an amazing Program Manager - Aie who is always smiling who doesn’t look like having so much work and responsibility. JUMPers! are like that! I want to be like that too, I am getting there!
For the first time, I have covered a number of main activities with deep discussions such as “Mindset”, “What do I know about Global Citizenship?” “Privilege Walk”, “5 Whys” and “Project Management Tools”. My students are from grade 7 and grade 8 Middle School. The students are my blessing. Most of them are pretty vocal, they are polite and good listeners. Working with them fostered my creativity and sense of comfort. They are also critical to give their opinion and speak up for things they believe in. They smiled and came up with the most impressive performance of group norms ever.
I applied various techniques so that students could participate based on their interest in learning style. The primary technique is to ask leading questions that open up to ideas and no right or wrong answers. I allowed students to write down in their post-it notes, paper and share with small groups to build up more ideas and confidence before asking them in a large circle. That has been a very effective method to have fruitful discussion so far. This student group likes acting or performing skits which was made as a key activity in the Leadership Block.
Like P’Gai said, these kids are hungry to express their voice. Our job is to create a space for them to manifest such thoughts. A brilliant student from my group said “the students have a lot of ideas, all they need are good questions for them to think”. That sentence sparked my day, and is the epic of my facilitation journey up to this moment.
Something I wish to do more:
I wish to have time to chat with students during break time
Run fun energizers and discuss about 5 leadership styles
I wish the program could be a bit longer to have more engaging conversations and mentorship sessions for the projects.
Practice more facilitation activities during prepping time.
Talk to my JUMP! Team members and Lusine
*** About our wonderful Lusine, a welcoming sweet person from the KAUST School
Lusine is from Anastasia, the country I heard of once. She said the village where she lives is very welcoming. Everyone who comes to their family will be invited to stay for food and sleep over. Their guests are important people. She is just a beautiful human being. She is pregnant and was nonstop active to accommodate all of our needs from preparing for the program logistics to navigate us around the campus. She spent time telling us about the social issues of Saudi and historical stories of the country. We felt that she was like a good friend of ours who we had known for a long time. She is one individual that made me truly feel blessed from the very first moment landing at the door of KAUST.
Other reflection:
Never have I ever seen this much beauty of female in Hijab and the holiness of Muslim until coming to the country of Pilgrimage.
The beauty of human beings is embedded in the soul, knowledge and action, not the appearance. These wonderful females are my students, my program manager, the women working at malls, airports, and schools, who dress in Hijab and inspire others to act by their own action. I am blessed to recognize something about the religion that I hardly feel related to. The Mosque was an absolutely peaceful space for an atheist like me.
I made some mistakes speaking my normal words without conscience that violated the cultural practices there. I learnt to be cautious of my words especially in public space. I respect the revolution of gender empowerment, breaking traditional barriers of women in Saudi Arabia. Everything is possible. And everyone is creative and has the potential to do the unimaginable.
Yet women are not allowed to use contraceptives because it goes against the natural development of humans. So, this country has 60+ % of the population as young people which may promise youthful human resources to make more changes. Yet, among this percentage, there are so many orphans. Women still have to be accountable for choices that they don't want to make. There is still a lot to do about social inequality in such a wealthy nation which I am going to explore more tomorrow.
Questioning what I know?
At times, I did not really understand some conversations, when fun stories were being told, people were laughing. I chose to be in my own space. I think it was OK. When I am mentally awake, I ask many questions to digest stuff I am curious about. Many moments, I close myself for both the anxiety or the inconfidence of knowledge. It was like some bit of my low self-esteem being surrounded by the high intellects that I could not mumble. So at times I spoke, I made people laugh at my silly ideas. All I could do was to ask. Observing didn’t give me the understanding. Listening confused me even more. I was nervous to ask, but I did, and people laughed. I guess it is the power of choice. And it is the power of knowledge as well. It is not about what we know, it is about how much we dare to admit what we don’t know and open up to new ideas. Then we speak up, in a humble manner, for some reasoning and empathy, and enthusiasm. And I never feel dumped to ask questions with JUMP! People. I take things slowly, and I hope I will keep this pace as I am on the next journey.
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