Church Weirdness

Yesterday morning at church was a little weird. The service itself was great - we have this really fantastic teacher who is filling in for 3 months until our new lead pastor arrives. I think everyone wants him to stay!

Before I launch into the narrative, I need to relate a little episode that happened earlier this week. I was talking with one of my students, and he was saying how he speaks a little Spanish. That is actually quite rare, so we tried to speak Spanish together. We were horrible, but it was fun.

I got to church early on Friday because I left the house too late to walk and took a taxi. I walked in, put on a nametag and headed toward the beverage stand for water and tea. On my way, I noticed a young man standing around, looking uncertain. "He's new!" I thought. I got my tea and water, and walked back toward the seating area. He was still standing around, but had moved to the other side of the narrow walkway area. I took pity on him.

When I greeted him, I said, "Hi, I'm Sarah." I thought he said, "Luke," but he really said hello. After an awkward "what?" moment, I asked his name. It's Lucas. What are the odds? Things like that happen to me way more than they should. Anyway, he arrived in Cairo just in January, so we chatted a little bit and I encouraged him to join a small group. I noticed an Egyptian man listening to our conversation, but I ignored him. He looked creepy. I left to greet my small group leader who was nearby chatting with someone.

As I was loitering near her, the creepy Egyptian came up to talk to me. His opening line was, "Are you Egyptian? You look Egyptian." I was polite, told him that I'm an American studying at AUC. I oh so subtly said I am getting married this summer and my husband will come back with me next year. Then I took a drink with my left hand (flashing the ice). He said something like "thank you" and faded away. My small group leader's husband came up at that moment and we started talking. I pointed out the new guy to him, and later saw them and the youth pastor talking. That's good. I hate to say it, but I've become suspicious that whenever an Egyptian man approaches me, he only wants to know one thing. Men here just don't talk to women they don't know.

I took a seat as service was getting ready to start. A family of three sat down next to me (parents and an adult or almost adult son). I greeted the woman, who was next to me, and she asked me if I speak English. She communicated that her English isn't very good - she's from Chile and speaks Spanish. What are the odds? I tried to use my Spanish, but every other word was Arabic. After the opening song (something by Hillsong), she told me she can sing in English. She listens to Hillsong from Austraila.

Lots of little weird things that day.