my adventures in egypt

just wanted to check in with everyone and let you all know that i've landed safely.  more to come in the next few days :-)

it's about 2am now and we're down to the last 4 hours before we load up and go to the airport.  earlier today (or yesterday, i guess) we went to saqqara where the oldest ever built architectural structure stands.  it was really amazing.  we went inside some mastabas and we were able to see some of the hieroglyphic carvings on the wall, statues, etc.  then we took lots of pictures of the desert.... and on a clear day (which today was), we were able to see as far as Giza, so all of us had pictures of the pyramids off in the distance.

when we got back from our sightseeing, we took the afternoon off.  i went to take a nap before dinner, then we trekked to downtown cairo one last time.  first, we hit up a nice egyptian restaurant where i had shawrma and baba ganoush (i'm REALLY going to miss egyptian food), and then we went to a rooftoo shisha bar, where i had a very good fruit cocktail since i don't smoke shisha.  it was fun just hanging out with the group, and it was really cool to see professor taylor really laid back and very down to earth.  we talked about the highlights of our trip and laughed about all the jokes, blunders, and other culturally awkward moments we've had these last three weeks.  oh, the memories.

anyway, we're now powering through the night so we can begin to adapt to eastern standard time once again.  it's been fun, and during the next few days, i'll post my reflections on the trip.  see ya all stateside!!!

today was cool!  i know how unbelievably juvenile that sounded, but it really was a fun day.... not to mention AMAZING if you're a religion major/dork like me.  i met the grand imam, Sheikh Al-Azhar!!!  for those of you who might be a little lost on who that is..... think: pope equivalent of Islam.  yeah. pretty cool huh?  we visited Al-Azhar, which is known to be the most prestigious Islam university in the world.  it was soooo cool....

anyway, after that really fun experience, we came back to Refuge Egypt for what we thought was supposed to be a "staff meeting" we were sitting in on.  it turned out to be a good-bye celebration for us.  we sang some sudanese songs and they all spoke of their appreciation to us.  then they gave each of us a turn to say something and we all did.  except i was cool and i cried.  most of the girls did, actually.  it was really sad.  after the meeting, we were invited to a Sudanese wedding at the cathedral, which was interesting, so say the least.

the topper of the night was actually visitng the apartment that several refugees were sharing.  they invited us for dinner, so we had AMAZING sudanese food.  there was an ADORABLE little boy (he was 2) named Ephraim, and he was a load of fun.  we played some party games, did some singing, etc.  it was probably the best part of the entire three weeks here.  i didn't want to leave.... they are sooooo much fun and they were so kind and welcoming to everyone.

tomorrow is our last full day in cairo.  we're going to see the step pyramid at saqqara in the morning and then we have the afternoon off to do whatever we want.  i'm gonna be really sad to leave, although i do admit i'm ready to go home.

today was our last day working at Refuge Egypt and it was anti-climactic.  we had so many projects to finish up that we basically rushed to get it all done, then were so frustrated with all our setbacks that we just couldn't wait to get out of there.  i think tomorrow, i want to go back to just say goodbye to everyone the right way.

i'm still not done buying souvenirs for people.

and oh!
 so tonight, i got lost in cairo.... and it was kinda fun.

we started out having dinner at our favorite egyptian restaurant in zamalek, where we spent 80 L.E. between the 6 of us.  that's about 16 L.E. a person, which is about $3.  the next part of our excursion was to hit up a rooftop shisha lounge near midan talaat-harb, but ben sr. and i got separated from our group during one of our life-and-death expeditions to cross the street.  we were never able to catch up to them, so we attempted to find the place on our own, to no avail.  so we just ended up walking around some random part of cairo (i'm actually still not sure where we were tonight), giving up, and ultimately taking a cab back to our guest house.  it's been an interesting experience over all.

the food in cairo has been really good (just thinking about our dinner tonight).  my favorite has been kosheri, although kofta (which is like ground meat) is also REALLY good.  here, you basically stuff everything in a pita and you put some babaganoosh (eggplant-based sauce) or tahina (sesame-based?) and it's sooo good.  falafel is really fun also.

tomorrow, we're going to be meeting the bishop of the episcopalean church of egypt and also the shaik, and maybe the grand imam.  good times.  i can't believe i've only got 3 full days left in egypt!!!

i think i fell in love with the kids at Refuge Egypt today.  we have been teaching both grades (grade 1 & 2 - students ranging from ages 5 - 14) english and they are ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE.  diana, one of the younger kids is absolutely attached to me and i find her sooooo cute.  she wouldn't let go of my hand today.  after their recess, when it was time for them to go back to class, two of the somewhat older boys grabbed my hands and exclaimed, "school?!" we skipped across the courtyard back to their classrooms and i had lots of fun teaching them words like "fall" and "ball."

we gave them a soccer ball to play with during their break and they were ridiculously thrilled.  it was soooooo encouraging just to see the look on their faces.

day 2 at sharm began with a buffet breakfast at our hotel, which included GLORIOUS crepes.  after that, a bunch of us hit the beach for some fun in the sun and volleyball for about 4-5 hours.  we did lunch at TGIFridays again, then we all came back to our rooms for a nap, then headed out to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  we had a waiter named Hero, and he did the YMCA with the other waiters - i was amused.

after dinner, we went up to the rooftop lounge of our hotel and kicked back some beers and had good conversations all around.  it was a nice and quiet place, and it was fun sitting around and spending time with the group.  some of the girls went out clubbing again, and they didn't get in til much later on.

day 3 (1/14/07) at sharm started out with another glorious breakfast and long day at the beach (again with some volleyball).  we packed up to go by 5pm, but the bus ride to cairo was fun this time, except for the stopping of the bus and going through all our luggage right before the suez canal to check if there are bombs or something.  it was an interesting experience, i must say.  i was exhausted when i got back here.

The Sharm adventure began with an agonizing 6 hour bus ride (11pm - 5am) from Cairo.  It was cold and sad, and sleeping was really hard to do.  The bus was absolutely feezing and we were ALL miserable.  When we got to Sharm, we took a cab with a VERY angry driver.  He dropped us off a ways from where our resort is, and we had to tote our luggage a bit to get to our hotel.  When we got checked in, I ended up crashing for another 4 hours or so.  Around noon, I woke up and met up with Ben Jr. (everyone else had gone out on the boat for snorkling).  We had some lunch at a TGIFridays and got cornered at a perfume store and paid 100 L.E. for perfume (which is $20).  After that, we went and sat out on the beach until the rest of the group came back from their adventures at sea.

We got all dressed up for dinner and went to a rooftop restaurant (appropriately called "The Roof"), where we had good laughs and fun times.  Then we all headed back to our hotel for our night in, with some drink, UNO and a quaint game of TRUTH OR DARE, lol.  We eventually got bored of that, so the group split and went separate ways.  My half of the group went to a shisha (hooka) bar, where I took ONE puff of hooka - my first and only, I can safely say.  Some of the other girls went out to hit the night clubs - Sharm is SUCH a touristy place and there were lots of night clubs, filled with young Europeans with dispensible trust funds.  I was perfectly happy and had quite a good time at the hooka lounge, where it was chill, quiet and peaceful.

Sharm El Sheik is SO different from Cairo, in that there isn't one thing about it that FELT authentic.  every aspect of it was perfectly manufactured to cater to the European tourists that frequent it.  Annie described it best when she said that it was like DisneyWorld or like living inside a mall.  Nonetheless, the beach was gorgeous and I really enjoyed the warm weather and the ability kick back and relax.  We need a sense of surreality once in a while.

1/7/2007
today we did some more sightseeing.  we went to the citadel, where we saw the mosque of mohamed ali.  it was huge and absolutely gorgeous.  after that, we visited a few more mosques within the citadel and then eventually wandered off to a part of the citadel that wasn't too traveled by tourists.  we gave some people bakshish, and they took us inside the fortifications and we went up to the battlements.  it was really cool.  we had a really good view of the city from where we were, because we were so high up.  it was really good to actually be inside a citadel, instead of just hearing about it in art history classes.

after that, we left the citadel and visited another mosque/school.  this one was ENORMOUS and absolutely gorgeous inside, though it does look very old and plain from the outside.  following that, we walked through more of medieval cairo, which took us right in the heart of the soukh.  there was so much to see and too many things that i wanted to buy.  it was really fun to walk through and see all the pretty, colorful stuff there.

1/10/07
during the week, things are pretty slow because we're just in zamalek working inside the compound of Refuge Egypt.  Yesterday (Tuesday), I got sick so I had to stay in for most of the day.  I'm okay now though.  today, i went to do arts and crafts at the preschool and had tons of fun.  i'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow during the day, but at 10pm, we're going to make our way to Sharm el-Shaikh, which is a resort town on the Red Sea.  I'm SOOOO excited for that, just for the change in scenery and being able to relax, instead of chasing after c-tay through cairo (he's the speed-walking king of egypt).  a bunch of the other drewids are going diving/snorkeling, but since ben jr. and i are both not excited about not being on solid ground, we're going to hang out on the beach and wave everyone else off.

egypt has been totally awesome, although there are definitely things about the culture that i could do without, like the hassling of the women, near-death cab rides, risking my life every time i wanna cross the street, and the food!  the food in egypt is soo good!  i've really taken a liking to kosheri and falafels.  i think they're making this experience really worthwhile.

as far as prayer requests go, please continue to pray for Refuge Egypt and the work they do.  Also, continue to pray for the Drew students on the trip who aren't Christians.

we finally went to see the pyramids yesterday and they were AMAZING!  they were huge.... and everything i had expected from my art history classes and more!!  the class also did rode a camel caravan (4-5 camels together, with me leading one of the caravans).  the caravan went along the desert in front of the pyramids and we have a great picture of the caravan with the pyramids in the background...  we've taken a lot of awesome pictures, by the way... which will all be posted on facebook at some point.  after the pyramids, we went out to the outskirts of cairo to see a refugee neighborhood.  i was rendered speechless at how poverty-striken some of these people are. it was a good experience to see how some of these people live, and i'm glad we went out there.  we had to take a bus back to zamalek, which was an experience on its own.  it was PACKED.  and people were jumping on even with the bus moving already.  that just blew my mind.  i stayed in last night while most of the group went out to the market place and had some kosheri.  i was SO tired from the day, so i just read my book and napped.

today, we went to see the coptic museum, a coptic christian church,  a greek-orthodox church and a synagogue.  the coptic museum was really cool, although none of the works were particularly impressive, but i did get to see some Roman fortifications, which were quite breathtaking.  we took the metro out to these places, which was a very interesting experience.  the first two cars in each train is solely for women.  it's really interesting to be in a society where that's necessary.  it's funny because during one of the rides, a man came into an all-woman car and he was yelled at by the police and had to leave and go to a men's car.  at the metro, we had surreal experience of the day #1 when the PA system randomly started playing german techno music.  very trippy....

after that, we came back to our apartment before we decided to head out to dinner.  the girls and the guys split tonight.  the girls went out to chilis and then a local pub, while the boys went to an italian place.  it was interesting going out without the boys.  it didn't feel as weird as i thought it would be, but i did kinda wish that we had at least one guy there.  although, we were in zamalek (a safe part of cairo).  if we were in downtown cairo, i wouldn't have felt comfortable enough to walk down there sans a dude.

tomorrow, we're going to medieval cairo (as in, the part of cairo that WAS cairo back in the middle ages).  we're going to see a citadel, some mosques, and maybe some of the places that maimonides stayed at when he was in egypt.  that blows my mind, and i'm really excited.  wow, i'm a religion-major-nerd.

today, our plans for sharm al-shaik were finalized, which means that next weekend, i'll be laying out on the beaches on the red sea... can we say AWESOME!?  anyway, good night!

today was the first working day at Refuge Egypt.... i worked at the workshop for the craft store where they make all of the crafts.  it was really fun to see everything in the process of being made.  we started the day off with prayer and devotions, which is apparently how they start every work day.  and then, we worked around the shop, doing some odds and ends.  at night, we "sat in" on an english class, and we were able to be conversation partners with some of the students.  the cultural gap is so different, but it was really interesting to hear about their life in sudan.  there was also a wedding at the cathedral, and that was interesting to watch.

here are some requests if anyone wants to lift up the work of Refuge Egypt (RE) and the trip in general:
1 - Sudan youth: youth who are coming over to Cairo are getting into the hip-hop culture and are forming gangs, based on their home tribes in sudan and they are killing each other.  Refuge Egypt is working on getting the Christian hip-hop culture to these kids to try to send a more positive message.
2 - teachers for the school: lack of education is a huge issue here, and RE has problems finding teachers.
3 - RE runs a health clinic and a counseling center - lift up the patients of these two places
4 - discrimination: there's a general sentiment that refugees are unwanted here.
5 - non-believers in the Drew student group... they are SATURATED with people of faith (both the refugees and people who run RE), i hope their hearts are opened.
6 - i need to better at arabic.... we've actually needed to use it!

by the way, in case you wanna know more about what RE actually is and the work they do.... http://www.refuge-egypt.org