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.

Friday Night Fun

So tonight the exciting agenda is a movie:

And a snack:

It didn't take me too long to break into the pomegranates! And you might be saying to yourself, Did Sarah pick the movie because it matches the snack? I can assure you, that while that may be something that I would do, in this case it is pure coincidence.

Happy Friday everyone!

Micro Busses

I don’t think I’ve talked much about this particular mode of transportation. Micro busses, also known as mini busses, are quite popular. I haven’t ridden in one yet but I hope to before too long. I’ve been advised that it’s not really safe for foreign women to use alone, so maybe I’ll get an Egyptian friend to go with me.

Anyway, the micro bus is kind of like an extra large Volkswagen van. It has about four rows of seats and a sliding door. They are blue and white. There’s a mini bus depot right next to my regular Metro station, so I get to avoid them every day.

So here’s how it works: At the depot, the driver or his sidekick will shout out the destination. I’m not sure how many passengers it needs to leave the station, but eventually it does. If a person wants to get on a mini bus, s/he stands at a known place, or visible place along the route of the bus s/he wants. That person shouts out the destination to all the busses that pass by. The door slides open, the bus slows down, and the new passenger jumps on. And off they go. You can imagine the chaos of everyone shouting at the depot! Alternately, there are several hand gestures that symbolize the destination. For example, if you want to go on the bus whose final destination is the Pyramids, you either shout out “Haram!” or you make a triangle with your hands.

The mini bus drivers are probably the wildest drivers in all of Cairo. Sometimes it looks like people are about to fall out, as they go careening around traffic circles with the door open. However, they are also maybe the best drivers in all of Cairo, and are perhaps the most popular form of transportation. They are cheaper and faster than the Metro, and probably just as crowded.

One tricky thing about the micro busses is that their routes are not published, neither are the hand signals. So a newcomer could have quite a difficult time, especially if they don’t know Arabic.

Learning all this has helped me adjust to the shouting of my daily walk. It also explains why some people stand on the street, shouting at traffic :-)

'Tis the Season!

So, I realized the other day that the holidays are approaching. I had completely forgotten about Halloween until my host mom came home from the US with Brach's candy corn. I have always loved the stuff, but in recent years I've been turned off by the thought of eating plastic. But having a few pieces sure reminded me of home!

Here in Cairo, we're all celebrating the end of Ramadan. That's it for holidays! I think we get Thanksgiving Day off of school... I'm planning to do all my touristy things that day!

But in other seasonal activities, it is now pomegranate season. Here's a picture of the tea I enjoyed after breakfast today. Notice the pomegranates:

Yuckyness

Yesterday when I was walking to the Metro, I saw something strange on the sidewalk. I couldn't quite tell what is was, so I stared at it ask I walked by. It was about 8 inches of the bottom part of a donkey's leg, including the hoof. Eeeew.

Converted?

Having a 15 year old sister is fun. She's always wanting to play around with me. Here's what I would look like were I Muslim:

A Glimpse at AUC

Here's where I sit in the afternoons and make phone calls, or do some random work. It's quite pleasant here. It's called the fountain area. The little gathering of grasses in the middle surround a small fountain.

Road Rash

Many of you know that I can be quite clumsy at times. Last night when I was getting out of a taxi last night. As I was stepping back to be on the sidewalk, I failed to lift my foot the 12 inches needed. I fell over, quite gracefully. Here's the result:

The Story of My Camera

I usually just reply personally to comments (if at all), but Hook's comment on my last post reminded me of a story that I think everyone will enjoy. First of all, I don't remember what kind of camera I have, and it's not with me at the moment... I think it's a Nikon.

Anyway, back in April when I decided to come to Cairo, I had a list of things I needed and a list of things I wanted. On the list of things needed was a laptop. I had been saving specifically for a computer, so I was glad to have the money available.

One item at the top of my "want" list was a digital camera. I wanted a good one, but didn't really want to spend any money on it. I probably could have afforded an inexpensive (i.e., low quality) one... but I didn't want to. I had prayed about my needs, and the thought occured to me that I know a lot of people with cameras, and wouldn't it be great if someone loaned me a camera for 4 months at a time. Pretty unlikely, I know.

A couple days later, I climbed into Jeff's truck, and he asked me if I had a digital camera. When I told him no, he asked me how I would feel about a long-term loan. He happened to have two, one of which he hadn't even taken out of the package and came complete with rechargable batteries (and a battery charger). He had it with him, and said, "Here you go." I was surprised at his generosity, as we hadn't really known each other very long.

If nothing else, this experience has been repeatedly teaching me how the Lord provides.

Leaving Cairo

After a firm admonition from my mom, here is a new post. In my defense, this week has been quite busy, and I got a cold. Most of my free time has been spent sleeping, or trying to sleep.

On Thursday afternoon, I went with my family to a place outside of Cairo. It was some conference... "Dad" invited me along because I told him I was considering a trip with school for next weekend, but it is quite expensive. So I went with the fam. It was a little awkward for me because I was not a formal conference participant, but it turned out okay. I think. The point is, I got out of the city!! I couldn't believe how quiet it was, especially at night. We could hear crickets! Plus, I got a million and one more mosquito bites. It looks like I have chicken pox.

The pictures were taken randomly. The landscapes are taken from the roof, and the other pictures are inside the conference center. And some cityscapes of the drive there :-)

My first glimpse!

The conference center.

This is taken from the roof. Notice the red dates on the palm trees. And thanks to my zoom lens, you get a glimpse of village life.Inside the center again. I was trying to be artistic, like Jeremy. Perhaps I was mildly successful.