From Here: Chapters 6–14

by Luma Mufleh
In this memoir, the author recounts for her children how growing up in 1980s Jordan led to the founding of both a championship-winning soccer team and a nonprofit organization, Fugees Family, which provide athletic and academic opportunities for refugees and immigrants in the United States.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Prologue–Chapter 5, Chapters 6–14, Chapters 15–21, Chapter 22–Epilogue
40 words 14 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. decorum
    propriety in manners and conduct
    During these weeks, our home—normally a sanctuary of routine and decorum—would transform into a playground of open doors and midnight snacks.
  2. oppressive
    marked by unjust severity or arbitrary behavior
    Many women in Jordan viewed the burka as an import from more oppressive societies like Iran and Saudi Arabia; it had no place in a modern country like ours.
  3. enticing
    highly attractive and able to arouse hope or desire
    There was something so new and exciting about ordering at the counter and carrying your tray to any table you wanted, something enticing about the way they wrapped the food in colorful striped and checked paper.
  4. caliber
    a degree or grade of excellence or worth
    When it’s time for their daughters and sons to wed, Arab mothers go on the hunt for the right partner. They start off by assembling an FBI- caliber file on every potential match. They ask neighbors and friends and grocery store clerks what they know about the potential match and their family.
  5. calculating
    good at tricking people to get something
    Our mothers are calculating and cunning, experts in interrogation, in getting anyone to confess family secrets over an innocent cup of tea.
  6. complement
    make perfect or supply what is wanting
    Dating app algorithms have nothing on mamas. They’re excellent at what they do.
    So much so that most children trust their mothers with this task. To find someone who will complement and care for them.
  7. extravagance
    excessive spending
    It is too much of everything: food, music, dancing, flowers, and cotton candy. It is the most joy and extravagance that you will ever see in one room.
  8. whimsical
    determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity
    Weddings changed for me that night. They were no longer magical, whimsical celebrations. They were barbaric, suffocating rituals.
  9. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    After all, a boy would be the one who carried on the family name, who would be doted upon and served.
  10. meticulously
    in a manner marked by extreme care of details
    The built-in bookshelves housed a tidy display of trophies and certificates and a collection of books that I had meticulously arranged.
  11. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    When I opened my eyes and saw a hospital room appear beyond my blanketed feet, I was confused. I felt like I was underwater; sounds were garbled, and my vision smudged.
  12. rosary
    a string of beads used in counting prayers
    She was rarely without her masbahah, the Islamic rosary that she’d wrap around her hand and wrist. To say the masbahah, you’d choose one of Allah’s ninety-nine names and repeat it silently to yourself, over and over.
  13. cajole
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    Just like she was good at getting me to pray and making it seem like it was my idea, my grandmother could get me to open up without cajoling or asking probing questions.
  14. confidante
    a woman or girl to whom secrets can be entrusted
    I listened a lot and talked very little. I was a confidante, a sounding board, an alibi in case their parents got suspicious.
  15. bravado
    a swaggering show of courage
    Saddam Hussein was a fixture, another Middle Eastern dictator I saw on TV and in headlines. Some Jordanians loved him for his Arab bravado and the cheap oil he sold to our country.
  16. secular
    not concerned with or devoted to religion
    The Muslim Brotherhood won a bunch of seats in parliament, promoting a return to religious-based law instead of the mix of religious and secular law that Jordan currently relied on.
  17. compliant
    disposed to act in accordance with someone's wishes
    Many Jordanians had seen the extreme rules put into place in Iran—where secret police used torture and executions to keep people compliant—and didn’t want that to happen in Jordan.
  18. moderate
    not extreme
    We were never going to separate church and state, but we could at least hope for a moderate church.
  19. semblance
    the outward or apparent appearance or form of something
    We grabbed on to any semblance of normalcy we could have.
  20. monotony
    the quality of wearisome constancy and lack of variety
    I had grown up around war, but now I was in the middle of one. Our days were filled with a terrifying monotony, with no end in sight.
  21. interim
    the time between one event, process, or period and another
    We had tennis practice every day after school, and most days, while my teammates hung out trading snacks and gossip in the interim, I would sneak away to the library for twenty minutes to myself.
  22. dispatch
    an official report, usually sent in haste
    The magazines at the library—inked on the back with a US embassy or US State Department stamp—were dispatches from the Western world.
  23. humble
    marked by meekness or modesty; not arrogant or prideful
    She seemed quiet and humble, whereas Navratilova was always arguing with the referee and making a scene.
  24. vicariously
    indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute
    Even if dating had been a possibility for me, I wouldn’t have had time. Plus, I could live vicariously through my friends, many of whom seemed to devote all their time to the opposite sex.
  25. scrimmage
    practice play between two teams
    In the middle of the season, my basketball coach mentioned that the embassy was looking for high school students to play pickup games, since after the war many of them now lacked enough players to make full teams. She asked that our team stick around for a scrimmage after practice; it would be good for us to play against bigger, stronger athletes.
  26. comradery
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
    A couple weeks after that ride home, there was a party for the basketball teams at the Embassy Club. I knew Susan would be there; all the adults we played pickup games with were coming to give us a big send-off before that weekend’s tournament. A comradery had grown between the two groups.
  27. ratchet
    move by degrees in one direction only
    When Susan dropped Jake off, my heartbeat ratcheted up.
  28. intoxicating
    extremely exciting
    Maybe somewhere, deep down, I knew it wasn’t right. But that instinct was drowned out by the intoxicating notion that maybe I could be just like everyone else.
  29. bohemian
    a nonconformist who lives an unconventional life
    “Isn’t that a school for hippies?”
    “Intellectual bohemians,” she corrected me with playful irritation.
  30. flashy
    tastelessly showy
    Or did Brown simply see through all the flawless transcripts and flashy trophies?
  31. torrential
    pouring in abundance
    I handed him the letter and then let the tears come—great, torrential waves of tears.
  32. incessantly
    without interruption
    Though he dated girls, talked about girls incessantly, I just had a feeling I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
  33. distinction
    high status importance owing to marked superiority
    Valedictorian went to Khalid, a wildly smart boy who had never broken a single rule in his life. As he bowed to accept his medal from the headmaster, I wondered with a detached curiosity if the distinction would have gotten me into Brown.
  34. morbid
    suggesting an unhealthy mental state
    Consumed by my own morbid thoughts, I was jolted back to the present by the sound of my name.
  35. curt
    brief and to the point
    Instead of a hug, he gave me a curt nod.
  36. appeal
    be attractive to
    Besides, the thought of going to the club with kids I hardly knew—pretending I wanted to dance with boys and not girls or pretending the boy I was dancing with was a girl—did not appeal to me.
  37. smattering
    a small number or amount
    A couple acres a few miles outside of the city, it was a simple place: a smattering of picnic tables beneath pine trees that somehow grew from sand and rock.
  38. erratic
    having no fixed course
    Seconds later, Susan was in the seat next to me, her breathing fast and erratic.
  39. inconsistency
    the quality of lacking a harmonious uniformity among parts
    The other Luma believed her head, what it had always known to be true. There was no future in Jordan, no way to make the puzzle pieces fit. That Luma had tried over and over to wake the other one up, pointing out the inequalities of Jordanian society, the inconsistencies of Islam.
  40. barge
    push one's way
    I kept my gaze fixed between the clock and the door, waiting for the night to end or for the police officer to barge in.
Created on Wed Mar 20 17:14:10 EDT 2024 (updated Thu Mar 21 13:41:03 EDT 2024)

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