Random Thoughts

I think I'm going crazy.

My students were in tears yesterday over their grades. It's silly, because thier grades are fine!

I saw an old man on the Metro this morning. At first I thought he had a beard, but then I realized it was chest hair sticking out of his shirt. I tried not to stare.

I lost the assignment for the final paper I haven't started yet.

At least all my shopping is done.

I leave in less than one week!!!

Another Lecture

I went to see another lecture at school tonight. The AUC Press just published a book about Islam by Hans Kung, a famous Swiss theologian. It was actually quite boring, although he said some interesting things about Christianity, Judiasm and Islam. One thing I'm tired of hearing is that all three religions share the same ethic.

Of course they do! Most humans agree that things like murder are wrong, let alone the three major religions. Kung acknowledged that the fundamental differences are NOT ethical, but that's what he said we should focus on in order to encourage unity. That's all well and good, but if anyone truly follows one of the religions, he is not concerned with the morality of the other folks, but with that person's soul. The fundamental differences, as stated by Kung, have to do with having the right relationship with God. What difference do ethics make if you're pointed in the wrong direction? What a strange world we live in.

Don't get me wrong - I have no idea what Kung believes personally. I understand that in situations like this, a speaker doesn't say all that he believes. Perhaps I'll have to pick up one of his books.

Eating

Tonight I went to the little corner place I noticed a while back and got shawerma for dinner. It was a little greasy, but not too bad. It tasted good, too. It's the second time I've had this since I've been here. The first time was during my first week, and I was really disappointed. This place is better. I asked the guy if I could take a picture, and he said yes. I don't think he realized that I took video too :-)

After church on Friday, we stopped at a little place to get lunch. I surreptitiously took these pictures from the car across the street. The guy getting stuff out of the big pot of oil is making tammaya. A donkey cart walked by, and I like the guy in the red hat. Enjoy!

A Waste of Time

It's 1:00 AM and I just lost two hours of my life to what is probably the worst movie I've ever seen. Yes, even worse than Gerry. Heba and I watched The Big Blue (1988) starring, wait for it..... Rosana Arquette.

Every Friday night at 11:00 PM channel 2 shows an English language (usually American) movie. It's the best movie of the week. We've watched Gone with the Wind, Serving Sara, and I don't know what else. Tonight's movie was definitely the worst yet. I highly recommend it for all you Mystery Science Theater types - there were great long stretches of silence just waiting to be narrated.

Disaster

This morning I realized I'm out of my Mary Kay face moisturizer. I thought I had a back-up, but I think that was the backup. At this point, anything mailed won't make it here before I'm ready to leave.

Oh well. I have three weeks of dry skin to look forward to. Maybe I'll hit the drugstore. Or Oriflame, the Swedish equivalent of Mary Kay. They have a store here that European friends say sells the products much cheaper (any MK directors out there getting the hint??).

Pastoral Prayer

At church we do something I've never experienced before. They call it the Pastoral Prayer. About once a month (I don't keep track), a congregation member will go to the podium and lead the congregation in prayer. The prayer varies in theme, but it always includes confession of corporate sin, worship, and various requests concerning the entire church. It's pretty neat. It makes me feel like a realy part of the body of the church even though I'm fairly new and aren't a member.

Needed Reflection

Last weekend I decided to go to the Thursday night service rather than one of the Friday morning ones. That day was particularly long; I went to bed late the night before, got up early to talk to Jeff, and never took a nap. I went to school and was frustrated by an office procedure (I should just start expecting delays. More later on that).

Class ended at 2 pm, but I decided to stick around and work, then go straight to church. I knew if I came home I wouldn't want to go out again.

So I did an assignment, graded some papers, read, blogged, and so on. I left for church and I was really tired. Probably because I hadn't eaten anything most of the day. When I got off the Metro, I got a falafel (here we call it tamaaya) sandwich, which I figured should hold me over 'til I got home. The tamaaya was overcooked and reallly crispy, but it tasted great. Besides, what should I expect for 1 LE? I walked to church.

The service that night was the youth service. They led worship, did announcements, gave testimonies, lead the congregation in a pastoral prayer (more on that later as well) and so on. The youth pastor preached.

It was great. Since I've been going, I've heard the youth pastor preach three times, I think. Everytime it's really good. Maybe because he's about my age? I don't know. He preached on Psalms 111, and basically told us that when we're frustrated or irritated and so on, that we need to stop being self-centered and focus on who God is and what he has done for us. It was a really gentle reminder to me of what it means to live a life filled with praise.

Friday morning was great. I slept in, and when the family was at church, cleaned up and did laundry.

Chipsy

The big brand of potato chips here is called Chipsy. They are quite good - they tend to be more thinly sliced, and are really cheap. The flavors are quite inteteresting. I finally became adventurous, and ventured beyond the (apparently) universal appeal of salt and vinegar. Some of the flavors I like: kebab, roasted chicken, and salt and vinegar. Flavors I pass on: tomato, old yellow cheese, lime and chili.

Chipsy is also the local producer of Doritos (by appointment of Pepsico, NY). The Doritos here are different. The chips are thicker, which I really like, and the flavors different. They have the orange bag (cheese and spices) and the blue bag (sweet chili). I only saw the blue bag for the first time a week ago, and I have to say it is not nearly as good as the orange bag.

One great thing about eating unhealthy food in a foreign country is that I have no idea how bad it actually is. I can't read the info on the back!

Pictures From the Road

Last weekend I drove the family to the airport to pick up 'dad'. I've driven this route several times - it goes right by the Citidel and Al Azhar park. I gave my camera to my 14 year-old host brother and told him to take whatever pictures he wants. The first one is the Citidel, and the rest are just random stuff. The day was warm, and very hazy (it's pollution).

The big mosque in the distance is the Citidel. And as a fun coincidence, in front of us is a mini bus and to the left is a taxi.

I took this one on the way home. I am released of my driving duties!

Ponytails

I've realized that Egyptians like ponytails. And yes, I'm talking about a hairstyle.

I don't like the way my hair looks in a ponytail, or more accurately, I don't like the way a ponytail makes my face look.

But earlier this week I was in a hurry and didn't want to do anything to my hair. So I said khellas (that's it/finished!) and pulled my hair back in the dreaded ponytail. When I got to school, Nevine was sitting at the computer next to me. She said, "Sarah, you look so good with your hair like that! I've never seen you wear a ponytail before." I went to class and my students complimented me, "Miss, you look so nice today." I told them that doesn't earn any extra points, but they said, "No really, you look nice!"

My host mom always tells me she likes my hair like that when I have it pulled back to wash my face or something.

I guess I'm outvoted.

African Children's Choir

This morning at church the children's choir from the church's school for African refugees. They were very cute, singing in their little English accents.

And will someone tell me if the videos are too much?

An Interesting Lecture

Last night I attended a lecture given by Dr. Cornel West of Princeton University. The lecture was held in Oreintal Hall, named in honor of Edward Said. The room is beautiful, but the lighting is poor. Here's a picture of the ceiling detail:

The lecture was about Racism in America. Dr. West was incredibly charismatic, and I really appreciated his historical approach. He explained race problems in a way I never understood before. I've only seen the symptoms of the racial problems in the U.S., but he made it clear why things are the way they are. More impressive is that his concern is not limited to African Americans. He is passionate about the American ideal of "Justice for all". Much of what he said is exactly how I feel - the elite in America are not held accountable, people pretend that justice exists but the rich are often treated differently, no one knows what politicians really think.

Dr. West appealed to every person in the room, and I would guess there were at least 5 or 6 nationalities represented if not more. While I suspect I might disagree with his politics, I don' t know because he did not talk about politics in any explicit way. Justice and equal treatment to each person was at the heart of the lecture.

Two things concerned me about this lecture. Over and over Dr. West referred to himself as a Christian, cited the Gospels as evidence for the need to value people, and mentioned church a lot. One thing that concerned me is when he was talking about his meeting with Louis Farrakon, and said that before he came to AUC, he and Farrakon prayed together, to God or Allah, it is all the same god. Whenever someone says something like that, it makes me think they don't really understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said, "There is not other name under Heaven by which men might be saved," he really meant it! We are not saved by the name of God, we are saved by the name of Jesus.

Secondly, it seemed like Dr. West has replaced Jesus as the Savior of mankind with the idea that equal justice will save humanity. He is so passionate about justice, but where is the role of Jesus in forming that passion? He hardly touched on it. Is it possible for people to treat others with absolute justice without the Holy Spirit? "Justice is what love looks like in public, and Democracy is what justice looks like in practice," according to Dr. West. But what allows us to love? "We love because he first loved us" is the answer given in 1 John 4:19.

While Dr. West was inspiring and challenging, his message seemed to be hollow, missing the only thing that can change a person's heart, the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

I'll put some video up when I have a chance. And I had a chance:

Not So Great New Shoes

I wore my new shoes today and have 4 blisters. Good thing they weren't expensive.

Society for the Protection of the Environment

This is part 2 of my tourist activities on Saturday.

We visited a paper/cloth recycling center. The center is in Garbage City where all the trash in Cairo is taken. It's a training center for women. They learn how to make new paper products (cards, gift bags, etc). They also make rugs, blankets, purses, quilts, etc. It's a pretty neat program, and the weaving uses the traditional methods from Upper Egypt. The women start out sorting fabrics, and move on to more complicated projects. They take materials home and pay to use them, and then bring back to finished product to be resold. The women also pay to use the looms.

It's a neat program that teaches skills and business. Here's a video of the loom:

And here's a random picture of AUC from outside the walls:

The Monastery of St. Simon

This is part 1 of my touristy activities today. I signed up with a school group to go on a tour to the Monastery of St. Simon. When we were on our way, I started to suspect I had been here before. But when I came 7 years ago, it was for an evening service, not a tour. So this was nice.

I won't give the entire story in this post, but you can read about it here. It is quite a good story, and I encourage you to read it. Our tour guide was a short man, who described himself as an uneducated garbage collector (he doesn't have his certificate, or high school diploma). He was very kind, and shared how the Lord Jesus saved him from drugs and alcohol. He said that while he is very poor in this world, he knows that Jesus Christ has riches in the next world. Here's a short video of the guide:

The main church is set in a natural amphitheatre. The garbage collectors of the area hauled out the rubble to reveal this beautiful cave. It seats 20,000 people:

And taken from halfway up:

All over the monastery there are carvings in the limestone. The story goes that a Polish man named Mario, who is not an artist, has done the work by the grace of God. He stayed in the monastary for something like 8 years and now he lives in Cairo with his Egyptian wife. In the next couple pictures, there is another church with carvings all along the back wall, and other carvings on the outside of the mountain. All of these depict scenes from Bible stories.

This carving is not actually a carving. The story goes that as the rubble from the amphitheater was being cleared away, this picture of a mother and baby (Mary and Jesus, of course) miraculously appeared.

And this picture depicts the miracle of Mokkatam Mountain, and how the Christians in Egypt prayed for the mountain to move and it did.

New Shoes!

After breaking my other new shoes, I decided for a more practical route - black shoes. Of course, I plan to glue the blue ones.

Zombies: The Recurring Theme

My friend Amanda (see her comment here) will be happy to note that the topic of zombies came up in class the other day, and I wasn't the instigator.

I had compeletly forgotten about Halloween on Wednesday last week, until at the end of my last class, the professor ended by telling us about a plant in Haiti that makes people become zombies. I was pleased to share about World War Z with him.

And just for kicks, I completed the risk factor calculator available on the website. I didn't have an option for living outside the US, so I guessed what my location is most similar to. If I had lived through the Zombie War, I would have had a 30% chance of survival. I'm sure it's actually lower, as Cairo is extremely crowded and the culture is quite different than what the calculator is made for.

I'd be interested to know all of your survival rates... leave a comment!

A New Direction

I'm dropping out of school to join a gospel choir.

This morning in church, we had a choir from Salem Baptist Church of Chicago lead worship. It was great! The Reverend (and U.S. Senator) James T. Meeks was there with a choir of about 30 people, and it was incredible. I decided theology is irrelevant - they have fun!

I managed to forget they were coming and therefore forgot my camera. But if you tune into TBN or another Christian Network, you're sure to see them on TV.

I also chatted with the woman next to me before service. She arrived here 3 weeks ago to work at the embassy. It was fun to enjoy the service with someone. Of course, I kept my natural reserve, but I'm convinced if I had a choir like this every week, that would drop in no time.

One More Time...

I got a new mobile phone. I don't remember if I shared, but my other one got lost. I suspect it was stolen by the cleaning people. So I gave in and bought one:

I actually wanted a PDA/phone combo, but the ones here are really expensive - like $900. That's USD, not LE. So I decided I can stay organized, and spent less than $40 for the phone and the line. I'm back in touch with the world!

Midan Tahrir

Here's some video of Tahrir Square, where AUC is and where I exit the Metro every morning. It's rush hour - about 3:30 p.m. I included a still photo because the sun is so bright. Turn down your volume - it's loud!

Busy Day

Today after class, Alice and I went shopping. She wanted to show me a store that sells handcrafts, and I wanted to find a video of an Egyptian novel I read. I found gifts for several people, and the video I wanted. We went down Talat Harb Street, to Talat Harb Square. The statue of the man is Talat Harb himself. Here are some pictures of the heart of downtown.

Here's the store where I bought a gift and plan to return to buy some more. I love the Oriental style - it's so bright and intricate!

Test Results

So much for the B on my test Monday. I got 98%. I'm shocked, and even checked with the professor to make sure he didn't make a typo.

Broken Shoes

My crummy Egyptian-made shoe busted the other day walking home. I suppose glue will fix it, but I think buying a new pair will make me feel better too.

On Comments

Please, if you leave a comment, tell me who you are! If you don't have a Google account, it doesn't show me your name. You need to type it.

Thanks!

Random Thoughts

Today is Monday. My hardest day of the week. I had a meeting from 11-noon, and class from 1-5 without a break. I get home around 5:30, and I have my church group at 7:30. I've pretty much decided that I will not get any work done on Mondays.

The test today was quite hard. It was in Linguistics, and it made my brain hurt. I think I'll get about a B. Hopefully I'll be surprised in a good way with my grade!

I feel bad for the women wearing the niqab, or the veil that covers them entirely in black, including gloves, a veil over their face, and stockings. Not only is it uncomfortable, it's unsafe! Especially walking around at night. As a matter of public safety, I think they should require reflective striping on the robes.

Normally my commute is about 30 minutes. This morning it took me almost an hour to get to school. Good thing I planned some extra time! The metro decided to stop at every station for a few minutes, go really slow, and randomly stop between stops, for I don't know how many minutes! I was on the coed car (not the women's car) and had a great seat. There was like six inches on either side of me. No sitting close to strange men this morning!

The other morning there was a man on the bench with his arms stretched out on the back of the bench. He was asleep. I wanted to sit next to him, and tried to nudge him awake. Finally one of the other men shouted at him and he moved his arm. I wasn't about to sit with some man's arm around my shoulders!

I decided to buy a new phone. My other phone got lost, but I really suspect the people cleaning the house stole it, as I had it the night before they came and then couldn't find it anywhere. Jeff suggested I get a PDA phone, and I think it's a great idea. I need the electronic reminders! No more missing classes and meetings for me. My host 'cousin' is going to take me shopping on Wednesday night. Supposedly he knows how to buy phones.

Okay, this is the end of my random thoughts.

Homesick

You know what I miss most about home right now? Other than people, I miss soft, fluffy towels. A freshly laundered towel here is crispy (everything is hung on a line). I don't notice much difference with other things, but towels definately need a dryer.

Mid-Semester Slump

I am so ready to be done with this term. Today marks six weeks and six days until I get to go home. I can't wait! It almost feels like I'm waiting to get out of jail. Okay, perhaps that's an exaggeration.

This weekend I'm fighting a headache and I have no motivation to do anything for school. I did one assignment today, and very briefly reviewed for a test I have on Monday. I have lots more to do, most importantly, making lesson plans for next week and doing my mid-term evaluation of my students, but I just don't want to.

My cycle of culture shock is back to accepting this culture and not being annoyed, but now I'm just plain tired of school.

Enough complaining. I have to get to work!

19??

Happy birthday Dad! You're the best dad I've ever had!

Thoughts on the Third World

Editorial Note: The thoughts in this article are musings more than opinions. I do not mean to imply that the US is as restricted as Egypt, only that we are not as free as we like to think we are, or as people in other countries might think we are. I'm glad I'm American!

Today I'm reminded that I live in a third world country. It's surprising how quickly one learns to overlook the donkey carts, trash piles, and freshly butchered animals. These are things I see everyday on my walk to and from the metro.

I was reading some statistics about Egypt. With over 10% unemployment, 20% of people living in poverty, and less than 60% of the women being literate, it's a tough place to live. In a country of over 80 million people, the workforce is only 21 million, and there's still unemployment.

In class we talked about democracy and freedom of the press. It was kind of depressing to realize that a pure democracy is as idealistic as pure communism. Not to say that Egypt and the US are the same, but people are self-serving no matter what kind of government is in place. Even with so-called freedom of the press, each country has its own bias when it comes to reporting events. One could argue that the news in the US is also censored/filtered/restricted. The difference is in who is doing the censoring. For Egypt, it's the government. For the US... perhaps it's advertisers or PACs. Regardless of who does the repression, people are recieving highly filtered news. So much for free press.

The more I'm here the more I realize that in this highly traditional society, things are done to be self-sustaining. The traditions exist in order to keep things the way they are (one definition of tradition!). So Egyptians are always saying things need to change and in the next breath saying things will never change.

I work at and attend a school that caters to the elite, if only because they can afford it. Everyday I walk by a family who lives in a one-room shack and eats their dinner on the side of the street. It so happens that across the street from them is the Adidas building, all shiny and black. On the same street are brand new Mercedes. My students talk about the need for education reform. The current education system ensures that they get a job and not let new people into the upper class. I occasionally drive by a beautiful building - always a government building or a mosque. Why aren't the government and the religion helping create decent housing? Egypt's GNP has been growing at a healthy percentage rate for years, yet unemployment is high, the income per capita remains low, and inflation seems to be out of control. Why?

Things here are a paradox.

Return to Dreaming

Those of you who know me know that I dream. A lot. And vividly.

Since I've come to Cairo, I haven't been dreaming much, and it bothered me. I can't really say why, except that I'm used to them and have missed them.

So I've started dreaming again. Over the last week I've dreamt about rain (see post below). The other night I dreamt about a classmate of mine coming over to my flat to have a beer.

Last night's dream was about me rescuing a samurai warrior-in-training. He was in a compound, but for some reason was being tortured. At the time of my dream, he was hanging on a looooong rope by his wrists tied together over his head, in a round tower-like room that was very tall. Apparently this samurai compound was Muslim, because when the dawn call to prayer happened (around 4 am), everyone left for the mosque to pray. He managed to free himself from his bonds and I helped him get out before they returned. I was driving a station wagon, the old kind with wood paneling. It was quite a long dream and involved us going back to get his clothes and possessions and being chased...

All this to say that I'm glad I'm having my regular, vivid dreams again. It's almost like I'm at home.

Yummy!

Today I helped make Mahshi (it means "stuffed"). It's one of the rare dishes unique to Egypt, and my favorite. We made eggplants (white and purple) and peppers. I helped hollow out the purple eggplants, and learned how to make the rice stuffing. I'll have to make it at home.

The process:

The product:

Okay, so it looks a little gross, but it's really good! I can't wait to make a big pot and share it with everyone.

Rain!

This afternoon around 5 pm when I got off the train, it was raining! On the train I had my eyes closed because I had a headache, so I didn't realize it was raining until I stepped out into it. And this was no drizzle, but full-fledged, big drops. With thunder. It rained just long enough for me to walk home in it, and then a little more later. It's been really windy tonight, and as I type, I can see lightning and hear thunder. The strange thing is, is it's not really cold. In Oregon when it rains, the temperature drops quite rapidly, but here I was quite comfortable walking - except for being wet, of course.

I've heard it said that when it rains in Cairo, it rains mud. Now I know what they mean. The shirt I was wearing now has dirt on it shaped in raindrops. My face had dirt on it. I'll be washing my hair soon! I guess all the dust in the air and on the trees makes the water dirty before it even hits the ground. I thought about taking a taxi home, but was wary of the price the driver would charge me, and also worried about the roads. I could actually feel the slickness with my shoes from all the oil build-up.

And you know what's really weird? Last night or the night before I had a dream about rain in Cairo.

Coptic Cairo

So I finally made it to a tourist site! Yesterday I spent a couple hours in Coptic Cairo. Egypt is very proud of its Chritian heritage, which you can read about here. At one point, I wandered away from the main tourist area (big surprise) and ended up walking around the Coptic area, which is walled in. I only got one catcall of "Hello my princess!" Here are some pictures, the captions are on top.

The "Hanging Church", built on top of one of the Roman towers.

Looking back from the steps.

A mosaic in the church showing the holy family fleeing Herod to Egypt.

Inside the church, with the TV showing continuous teachings of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III.

The Hanging church from the outside. The tower on the right is one of the Roman towers, and the church is the newer, white brick. Notice the street level over to the left, there are two people standing.

One of the roads outside the Coptic area:

The church built over the cave where the holy family stayed:

Part of the altar in the church.

This is it! The cave where the holy family came when they were in Egypt.

This is the Greek Orthodox cemetary that the church is in the middle of. You can see the church entrance on the very left of the frame, at the end of the path.

Entrance to St. George's Monastary.

St. George's Church.

The other Roman tower, as seen from the Metro Station exit.

To the left of the tower and directly in front of the Metro Station is the entrance to the Coptic Museum. According to my Lonely Planet book, it's quite good. I didn't have time to go in, so that is for another day.

This is the view of St. George's from the Metro Station platform. The white sign has the name of the stop, which means "Saint George".

And finally, just for kicks - the Metro platform.