Wow.

So we just got back from Israel and Palestine. (Just got back meaning i just woke up....we arrived at around 6 am and didnt sleep most of the way back). It was incredible. Im already itching to go back. We all had incredibly experiences and Im not entirely sure how to write about them...but I'll try for the sake of Mama K (who is always here in spirit!!!), Ahmed and my Mom. We arrived in Jerusalem about 12 hours later then we expected to because we were held at the border. The experience of having no control over the situation was unbelieveably frustrating. The worst part was that we were planning to get Egyptian visas at the border (which we had thought was possible) but couldnt (Apparently it's not!) and spent 7 hours wondering if we were going to get into Israel so the big question was "Um what if we dont get in to the country?". We would have sort of been stuck in between to countries....so thankgoodness we got in. When we were finally handed our passports we were all jumping up and down and clapping and in some cases crying. From there we took a cab to the egyptian consulate, got our visas to get back to Cairo, hopped in a cab, headed to the bus station and got on a bus to jerusalem. We stayed in this awesome awesome hostel in the old city. It was great because we ended up meeting and befriending a bunch of people. Seeing all the religious sites shoved in next to each other was incredible, we were all impressed. I could say more about it but....
Anyway, the second day we headed into Palestine (West bank). We went to bethlehem, Jericho, the dead sea, and Ramallah. The great thing was we went with a group of 3 other people all of whom were young journalists, one of whom was Palestinian but Had never visited, It was an incredible experience. Amoung many things we got to see yasser arafat's tomb. We spent that first night in an outdoor coffee shop in Ramallah talking about everything from politics to travel experiences. When we finally foced ourselves to get up and get out we headed toward the "checkpoint" that divides Israel proper (Sort of....) and Palestine. It was pretty crazy. You have to go through this "terminal" that honestly looks like it was created for barnyard animals. After watining in line, getting checked, getting our bags checked, wwaiting, waiting, waiting, getting verbally harassed, and getting nervous, we were finally on the other side. Of coarse once you get in a bus to head back to the old city you get i.d-ed a whole bunch more (by 18 year olds with huge HUGE guns to boot). The whole thing is disturbing and really gives you something to think about. Of coarse since were not really supposed to be in the West bank anyway we had to moniter what we said, what we bought (or rather how we pack it), and take our camera chips out of our cameras (They will go through it....). That night we hit the town ( quite the scene they have in J-town), got locked out of our hostel (we missed curfew), hung out with some boys from Italy, and had great food. It was fantastic.
The next day we went back to Ramallah, this time just the 4 of us. It was another amazing day. One of the coolest things we saw was the otherside of the wall (which is in the process of being finished) which is covered in really thoughtful and interesting grafitti, poetry, quotes, and pictures. When we were walking around Ramallah this really intense crazy thing happpened- a young guy came up to me and kept insiting he knew me. "We were in the Palestinian solidarity group last year! Remember?" I kept telling him that I had never been to the west bank before but he kept insisting we had worked together. Finally we got to talking about where we were from and when he heard I was from New York his face lit up and he pulled out a packagae he had just recieved. The package from from NYU (Where i go to school!) and it turns out he had just gotten his visa to go to school there starting in September. When he told us he had never ever left Palestine and now he was headed towads NYC (And NYU!) i was completely BLOWN away. I literally spent the rest of the day in a fog....What a crazy coniciidence. Fate! It must be fate!!!!! Obviously we all exchanged info and I cant wait to see him again. Anyway theres so much more to say about this crazy trip but suffice it to say that I will definitely be going back. Inshallah I'll see Jerusalem and Ramallah again...and soon!
Sharon W.

PsSsssSss (Hissing sound)

So far, every weekend seems to top the experiences of the last weekend - and this one (inshallah) will do the same.
Last weekend was Mt Sinai wonderfulness - has anyone blogged about the food there? it was bliss on a plate - exactly what our bodies needed to detox the Cairo pollution. it was simply perfect - vegetables, salad, beans, bread mmm just thinking about it makes me hungry.
Its so so so so so hot outside. Lets take a hot (literally! ha ha ha) second to ponder it.
Lately, I've been experiencing how small this world is - a random girl we met in Mt. Sinai who moved there and married a bedouin - we convinced her husband to bring her to the bedouin camp so we could all chat and she turned out to be a Soas alumn! not only that but she has the same Sufi sheikh as one of my best friends from Soas - and they know each other from childhood.
The classes are chugging along just fine, they are grammar kings and queens and I'm really starting to get the hang of this lesson planning business. I can't wait to make some solid contacts to spread LE Egypt to more institutions!! Outside of class, I am really getting to know the students on a personal basis, there is so much to be learned and they are so eager to participate in a cultural exchange... my student invited me to his brothers wedding (which we saw the latter part of due to a prolonged visit by Mohammad, the guy who cleans our flat). We also had Kushari with some of my students (my new favoritestestest food in the whole wide world!), and we chatted about religion and world news which was one of the most fascinating eye opening conversations I have had in Egypt... I can finally wrap my head around what teachers really go through - holding back opinions, facilitating conversation, not getting personally involved - it is a really challenging thing to do! Especially for someone who gets riled up really easily (me).
I love walking around the streets of Cairo!!!! today I got lost trying to find fresh juice 'taaza a'aseer' on 26th July (todays date, AND the streets name = awesome) and although I didn't find it, I did find the Metro Mart - a western super market that sells chocolate digestives.
We are off to Taba in an hour via minibus, and we will be crossing the Egypt/Israeli border tomorrow afternoon....

HIBA

So, I need to renew my visa...

Ok, well, when I applied for my visa in the US, the consulate only gave me a month visa and told me that I would have to renew it in Egypt -easy right? Well, if it hasnt been that evident yet, Things that should be easy in this country usually have the tendency to be very complicated... So, I wake up about 8am so I can get to the 9am opening of the Mogama (The building I go to get the visa renewed). I get there, bright and early - go through security to enter the building - go upstairs to the 2nd floor, where I get a even more intense security screening. I wonder around the floor trying to see where the visa area was, but to no avail... I see this HUGE area with lines already 20 people deep at each station. (Just a side note, when I say lines, I mean masses of people - there are no formal lines) So, I ask "where is the visa extension area" and wouldn't you know it, it was the same area that the masses of people were at. I push my way through the line after about 30 minutes and being shoved literally halfwat accross the room by a lady who was probably 80 years old. I get to the window, only to be given a form and told to come back when I finished it... I finish the form, go to window again, to be asked for 2 photocopies of my passport and visa... so, off I go outside the building to find a copy machine - after another 20 minutes of wandering around the streets, i make the copies and head back. I finally get to the window a fourth time only to be told to come back in 2 hours... After a considerable time waiting and waiting... did i mention waiting? I finally go back, get in an even LARGER line to retrieve my passport. 4-5 hours later, I FINALLY get my visa and am on my way back to my apartment.

Walking back, I passed the same shop owner who asks me everyday to come into his shop and when I say no, he says "WELCOME TO EGYPT!!!" What I dont understand is that Ive lived here for almost 5 weeks and have told him many times that I in fact live right around the corner from him - yet he keeps going... I just dont understand! :)

Totally different from this story, I had the most wonderful meal of kosheri while waiting for my visa today, I must say - If you ever get the chance, please visit Egypt if for nothing else but the kosheri!!!


-Ken

A few more...

Im starting to get nervous about how little time we have left here in Egypt. Theres so much I still want to do and every day I start to enjoy myself more and more.

This past weekend we went to Mt.Sinai. It was fantastic. Probably one of my top 3 trips that I have ever taken. We took a rickety old bus on the way there (About 7 hours). You can now add Egyptian buses to the very short list of things I am afraid of. The bus driver had absolutely no concept of safe driving. On about 88 ocassions during the bus ride I was sure we were going to die. Anywho, we made it along with some other girls we've met here who are from England. The first night we stayed (Stayed- not slept!) at this Bedouin camp. The camp was aweeeesssooommmmeeee. We took cat naps outside in a tent with a fire going while we waited for our guide to pick us up. He came at around 3 am and we started hiking the Mountain. It's pretty rocky and it was tough going at some parts (Especially the end!) but we made it. Funny but I could totally see the toll that Cairo pollution is taking on me (And Cairo food....). That night we ended up going to a Bedouin party of sorts were we got to dance to music played on drums, a harp-y looking instrument, and some kind of guitar. Oh and singing! Lots and lots of singing! We were definitely sorry to leave...

Yesterday was one of my favorite days in Cairo so far (despite realizing that I lost my debit card....a testement to the wonders of Cairo!). We started off with breakfast in Maadi with Jon and then found this adorably little used-books store where we I bought 4 books for 100 pounds. On the way home, on the metro I was trying to learn how to say "I have a skin allergy" from a phrase book (so i could suggest getting a little henna done and then coming back the next day to see If I had an allergic reaction) but I couldnt quite pronnounce it correctly. There were a bunch of young guys standing behind me so I turned to them and pointed at the Arabic version of what I was trying to say. One of them sort of smiled and goes (in arabic of coarse) "I have a skin Allergy"". I still didnt get it so I asked him to repeat it slower. "I....Have....a.....Skin....Allergy". I motioned for him to repeat it again and the entire group of boys all at once repeated "I.....HAVE....A....SKIN....ALLERGY". So at this point Im trying to repeat it as well as various other people around me, meaning were sitting in a train car full of random people repeating in Arabic "I HAVE A SKIN ALLERGY". In the middle of all of this I turn to Rachel who's laughing at me so I say "What?" and she just responds with the obvious "Your sitting on a Cairo metro repeating over and over again that you have a skin allergy. Everyone is laughing at you". Sure enough I looked around and everyonnneeeeee was giggling. At that point I just bursted out laughing realizing how bizarre what had just happened was. Did I say how much I love Cairo?

We went to the center, ended up meeting with HIbas students for dinner downtown (Finally finally had Kushari!!! Delicious!!!!!!) and pastries at this amazing pastry place. Since we were outside of the context of the community center and the students know us fairly well they felt comfortable enough talking to us about religion (which is central to everything here in Cairo). It was really really facinating (as always) to have a conversation with them about things they had never been questioned on. At one point I was talking to one guy Michael and literally had the most amazing powerful conversation I have probably ever had. We both walked away saying "Wow I never thought about that....I have to think about that some more" which is really the sign of something changing isnt it?

So this weekend we are headed to Israel and Palestine- SO SO SO EXCITED! Like jumping-out-of-my-seat excited. Woootttt wooottt!!!
OKay i have a box of pastries to polish off.....
maa'salama,
sharon w.

Musings...

So in the past week I've really been coming to like Egypt, a lot. The odd thing about any place you travel to for an extended period of time is that there are always going to be ups and downs -- great, warm people you meet and some who try to rip you off, cab drivers who are helpful and fair, and some who get lost and then try to follow you down the street when you give them a 'normal' amount of money instead of the jacked-up prices they expect from tourists. These daily experiences with people, places, and the system of life in a country inevitably inform your opinion of a place, or at least how you feel about it on a particular day. We, of course, continue to have both encouraging and frustrating experiences living in Egypt, but overall, I feel I have really come to enjoy many aspects of life in this country, and for those aspects I don't like as much, at least to accept them as 'normal' aspects of life rather than as strange and complaint-inducing.

Case in point -- our students are some of the most generous, kind people I have ever met. In addition to stories that have already been told (i.e. Sharon and I having a six-hour dinner with her student, Mary, and her family at their home in Ain-Shams, Hiba getting herself and all of us invited to an Egyptian wedding), I continue to have wonderful experiences with my own students. Office hours have turned into a time for cultural sharing, debates, and student-led tours (in English, of course) of the many churches in Coptic Cairo. These experiences have, in turn, brought invitations to visit homes and other parts of the city, and many, MANY interesting conversations. One of the more recent conversations I had involved me announcing that I will be rescheduling a class this Saturday because we are going to Jerusalem for the weekend. Copts are forbidden by their Pope from entering Israel due to the Coptic church's support for the Palestinian cause (and they can be expelled from the church if they are known to have done so). However, all my students were very excited and interested to hear that I will be visiting the most holy city for their religion, and many of my students asked me to pray for them and their families. As I am Christian (and many of the students have asked me about my religious beliefs outside of class before), I don't mind receiving these types of requests, but I was surprised to see what a predicament it is for them to even consider visiting a place as important to their faith as Jerusalem. As Christians in this country, the Copts are sequestered off from many sectors of public and political life, however, as Arab Egyptians, they are also sympathetic to the injustices raised against the Palestinian people from a conflict that is so central to EVERYTHING in this region. The students all were encouraging of me going to Israel, and expressed that because I am an American and a non-Arab Christian, then it is something I should do. However, our conversation also re-enforced for me the extent to which peace in the Middle East is essential for a return to normalcy for the lives of people of every religion and nationality in this part of the world. It should definitely be very interesting to see Jerusalem (and, inshallah, Ramallah) for myself this weekend...there will definitely be a lot to mull over (sorry, I am forever the Political Science major here).

So, my students are continuing to reveal to me a lot about life here, and as I have finally learned how to (mostly) gel with Cairo, I am really very happy and comfortable living and teaching in this city. Oh, and in other news, we hiked Mt. Sinai last weekend (one of the coolest, most beautiful and spiritual things I have ever done), and got some good leads from Jon yesterday over brunch about some other churches and schools in Cairo that could be good potential partners with future LE programs. I am also talking to an American friend (Lindsey, who Kathy introduced us to before she left) who worked with a program teaching English to Sudanese refugees called STAR (it's organized through AUC), and who knows of an English language school for refugees that one of her students started. So will report back on those later...

Salaam for now,
Rachel

Goin Native

This post is way over due, but it is a testament to how wildly busy I've been and how fast the days go by... faster than you can say 'Inshallah' or 'shukran' !!!
Alex - as the girls have said - was a refreshing break from the Cairo pollution. I think I am allergic to the pollution here, but I have the hookup for all the Bennies (or Bennadryl) I need from my dealer from Queens - Sharon Weintraub, party of 5.
It was a blur of beaches, libraries, catacombs and sufi's but somehow we got through it even though we were staying at the hotel from a Hitchcock movie - complete with creepy hallways and no air conditioning. yea.
After we came back from Alex on Saturday, and I taught a class discussing public transportation in Cairo - and surprisingly (sarcastic) my students didn't know what a driving lane or a traffic sign was. Of couse, the reason they don't know what it is is because NO ONE here believes in them, and the traffic signals don't work. My experiences with cab drivers here have been amazing to awful, but you live and learn and I am definitely learning a lot.
On Monday, I went to City Stars and then the Citadel with my SOAS friends (the juxtaposition of new & ancient - a theme of sorts here in Cairo) and then I went to go teach my class, but I was early so I went around the shops in Coptic Cairo.
I met a social worker named Mustafa that works in a shop there, he spoke perfect english and was interested in what LE was doing here in Cairo. At first it was difficult for him to grasp the idea of 'Volunteering' - working for no money - but we exchanged email addresses and he is going to research and ask around to see if any English centers here in Cairo would be interested in having LE work with them. Rachel and I went by his shop yesterday as well to say hello to him.
My classes went really well, we wrote 'letters to the editor' - another concept I had to explain - about the public transportation in cairo and the students got really into it.
After class, my students and I went to have an authentic Caironese dinner at Gad - a Cairo chain that locals love, and then we went to El Abd - a veryy popular dessert shop. They made me try Basboosa - a yummy grainy dessert, and we then boarded a two leveled boat that went up and down the nile, passing Zemalek - the island we live on. I saw Sequoia - our most visited hot spot so far in Cairo. Downstairs they had a DJ playing traditional Tabla (drum) music - which I thought was live, and I was sad when I found out it was a DJ but thats ok :) It was an amazing way to see how the real people of Cairo see Cairo, I loved it!! I was nativeeee. But then they became really 'native' and wanted to walk home, and the American in me came out as I said umm... Taxi!!!!!
All in all, its been a whirlwind couple of days, and tomorrow we climb Mt. Sinai. Only in Egypt. :)
Missing Kathyyyy like whoa!
PS - im trying to upload a video of a little girl dancing to tabla on the boat, hope it works!

HIBA

Really In Egypt now....!

Yesterday was an awesome awesome day. One of my students (Mary who is 19) invited Rachel and I to her house for "Egyptian food" which we were pretty psyched about. We met her on the metro and took a looooong metro ride out to where she lives. On the walk from the metro to her house i had a real urge to blurt out "We're not in Kansas Anymore!". It was totally what I thought Egypt was going to be like before i came all condensed into this 10 block walk (no tourists-yay! At one point we saw a pair of what looked like tourists and Mary commented "Oh look foriegners! They neve come here!". We were walking through this crazy market (outdoor markets are EVERYWHERE in Egypt) that sold incredibly ripe-looking fruit, vegetables, slabs of raw meat, crates of live birds chickens and ducks, and plastic shoes. I was in heaven. We also went to her Church (She's a coptic christian, for anyone reading who's totally lost the copts are a minority here in Egypt but have a hardcore community. Intresting fact- when they are 4 or 5 they get a coptic cross tattooed on their wrist or hand). The Church was fun because it was so gaudy- thre were crazy embellished pictures of saints and jesus all over the walls. It was sort of like a church in LasVegas style. Of coarse I adored it.. When we got to her apartment her mom, dad, nephew, and 2 sisters were there to greet us (another sister came to join us later). They also had a ROOM fulll of dozens (i kid you not) birds flying around, and a dog! I was really excited about the dog part because there are NO dogs in Cairo (Islam religion/culture dictates that you shouldnt keep dogs in the house). And i adore dogs. Everyone was incredibly sweet and welcoming despite the fact that they spoke limited English, plus the sisters had studied German so I got to speak In German with them. The food was insane! We had this macaroni type dish with cream and beef (instead of explaining that I dont eat beef or pork I just ate around), Molokhiyya ( a green soupy thing made from some type of vegetable thats got a glutinous consistency. You eat it with rice, bread, and chicken), Hamam (PIGEON stuffed with rice), pita-like bread (of coarse), chicken, and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten. Rachel and I were trying to figure out how to eat the pigeon with utensils when we realized that everyone was using their hands and finally got a "USE YOUR HANDS!!!" and a round of laughter. Laughter as in Oh-you-siilly-utensil-wielding-girls. After lunch/dinner we went to Mary's sisters house to (surprise surprise!) have tea and eat mangos (ohhhh you cant understand how delicious they are). On the walk there we passed a juice stand (everywhere here!) and Rachel commented "Oh is that a juice stand?" Next thing you know it's JUICE FOR EVERYONE! And we were all sipping sugercane juice. We hung out with the family for a while just talking and relaxing before headng home. On the way back to the Metro Mary and her sister brought us back to their Church. Rachel and I made a few religious-faux-pas (Who knew you had to kiss the priests hand AND the metal cross!?) before getting blessed by the priest (pretttttty cool!!) and heading home.

Tonight were having dinner with some people we met in the catacombs in Alex (Yeah thats how you meet people here...) and this weekend we'll be climbing Mt.Sinai! Pretty psyched for that since you hike it duing the night, sleep on top, and then watch the sunrise from the top. Wooo hoo!

I'll be spending the day in Islamic Cairo ( the name of a section of Cairo, totally bizarre since ALL Of cairo is Islamic) taking pictures and taking in some sights.

Maas Salaama!
Sharon W.

Visit to Saint Demina Church and Community Center

So Hiba and I just returned from visiting two English classes at the St. Demina Church and Community Center in Giza. Overall, the experience was positive -- the teacher from St. Barbara who invited us (Sadeq) met us at the Giza metro station, from which we caught a minibus for about a 10 minute ride down Al-Ahram street to where the chruch is located, close to the 'Cairo Mall' (which has a McDonald's, movie theatre, etc.). The students we met in the classes were very welcoming, and ranged in age from about 18 years old to a few in their mid-30s.

The center is very similar to LAMB in that they offer inexpensive English classes to Coptic community members, and even teach the same curriculum that LAMB uses. However, instead of covering 4 units in 6 weeks (with 2 hours of class per week) as LAMB does, the St. Demina center covers 8 units in 8 weeks, with 3 hours of class per week (broken into two, 1.5 hour classes per week). Hence, although we visited a level 2 and a level 4 class, they were actually more like level 4 and level 8 within LAMB's system, so the students in the second class actually spoke pretty good English. Hiba and I led a 45-minute discussion at the start of each class, in which we introduced ourselves, asked the students several questions, and then allowed them to ask questions of us, etc. We then observed Sadeq teach the class for the remainder of each period, and, overall, the style of instruction is pretty much identical to LAMB (i.e. following the book to a T rather having spontaneous discussions and alternative exercises, etc.).

Overall, I think the center could be a good potential partnership for a futue LE program. The students all seemed very eager to learn from native English speakers, and the center has only been established for a year, so they are definitely looking for new teachers to come in and run classes (and might have a particular demand for instructors who can teach the higher levels come next summer). I think it is a plus, as well, that the center is in Giza (a poorer suburb of Cairo), so it would give volunteers some exposure to a different side of life in the city (i.e. there were definitely no tourists walking around the area where the church was located). The drawbacks, of course, are that the center is really not that different from LAMB (in that it is centered around a church and provides instruction to members of the Coptic Christian community), and also that it is not terribly accessible -- although taking the metro to Giza station is definitely no problem, navigating from the metro station to where the church is located via minibus or taxi is definitely more challenging then simply walking from Mar Girgis to the LAMB center...although this extra bit of commuting shouldn't be seen as insurmountable.

Due to time constraints, Hiba and I had to leave without getting a chance to meet the director of the English language program at St. Demina, but Sadeq (who we see weekly at LAMB) said he would be able to introduce us to the director at a different time to talk about a potential partnership with LE and what the center would be able to provide, etc. I plan to follow up with him on Tuesday, when him and I both teach at the center.

Rachel

Alex and more....

So we spent the weekend in Alexandria which was interesting. It's sort of like taking Cairo and putting in on the coast. Still a city, still super busy, still kind-of poulluted, still dirty, still fantastic and crazy....ha! We seemed to be having a series of strokes of good luck while we were there since we kept on running into the right people at the right time. First we went to check out the cities synagogue (interesting fact, there are about 30 jewish people in the entire city) which turned out to be closed. Yet in the last second we ran into a man who worked inside the synagogue who took us on a mini-tour. It was amazing. I felt like i had walked out of Egypt and into some secret little tiny country. The synagogue was sitting on a bit of land that was completely gated in and covered in manicured plants, trees, and flowers. It was pretty great. Then we wanted to go to a beach but the beaches were COVERED in people. I mean Coooooooovvveeerrreeeddddd. You couldnt even see the sand. It was one of the most upsetting things i had ever seen. So we kept on walking down the coast until we saw this really nice seperate beach with very few people. We tried to get on it but alas- it was a private yacht club (fancy fancy fancy!). No matter what we did- from smiling to beggining to baksheeshing- we couldnt get on the beach. We were about to give up whennnnnnnnn a man asked us where we were from and lucky for us he was from New Jersey (!) and a member (!!!). He got us onto the beach for 50 pounds (about 10 dollars) and we spent the rest of the day swimming in our very sexy Egypt-approved bathing attire. In case you were were wondering that would be a black bathing suit under black gauchos and a black tank top.
Well it's back to Cairo in all it's glory and I've just realized that in a week I only have three weeks left (Eeeek!) so I'm gonna have to start some major major sightseeing. Yesterday night we went to a mosque (on the advice of a sufi HIba met in Alex) where we were quickly shuttled out of our shoes and into the womens section. Once there we were told to sit and sat around watching women pray, sing, and talk. It was pretty awesome.
Well I'm off to finish lesson planning- three classes today!
Sharon W.

Pluses and Minuses of teaching...

So my classes and office hours yesterday brought both their share of teaching rewards and challenges. The challenge was that I had my first 'off' class -- the opening activity I selected seemed to be a bit over the heads of my section 11A students, they were less focused (and more chatty) than they had been previously, and only a few of them turned in their homework (which was frustrating, since I had stressed repeatedly at the last class that it was very important for their grade, etc.). However, the 11B section (which I teach right after 11A) was much more on the ball and picked everything up very quickly. So, I suppose I'm finding it a bit difficult to know how to adjust the classes and material to appropriate levels for individual students (who seem to vary a lot in their level of comprehension, despite all being in the same 'level' class), and also to know how to discipline adults, as I felt a bit awkward requesting (firmly) that some of the students whispering to each other show respect for their classmates, and turn their homework in when it's due (which I thought that was basic...). So I suppose we'll have to go over rules again at the next class, and I'll also have to start preparing a few back up-materials/alternative activities for my lessons in the situation that something I plan draws blank stares again.

Despite that small frustration, my office hours were fantastic. Two girls and one guy from my Saturday 11C class (and his financé, who he wanted to introduce...how cute) all came to visit and we chatted for the entire two hours. It was really fun to get to know them better, and I got to learn a lot about the Coptic community in Egypt, which I find very interesting. For instance, I was very surprised to hear from my students that none of them have good friends that are Muslims, and that, in Egypt, businesses are almost completely segregated on the basis of religion (i.e. a Chrisitan cannot get a job in a 'Muslim' company and vice versa). I knew the Coptic community was very tight-knit and (perhaps understandably) private before coming to Egypt, but I was surprised to hear that there is not much interaction between Muslim and Christian neighbors in communities, for example. I think that's unfortunate, and I am curious as to what has caused such a sharp divide over the years (i.e. is it because the state purports more Islamic values and laws discriminate against Christians? or has the Coptic community chosen to self-segregate?). I will be interested to learn more about this divide from my interactions here over the next several weeks. However, overall, I am very much enjoying the opportunity to help my students practice their English and also learn so much about a foreign culture and place -- the office hours are going great!

Anyhow, we are all off to Alexandria for the next two days, which should be a nice break from the hustle, noise and pollution of Cairo. On Sunday, Hiba and I will also be visiting a community center in Giza that one of the other teachers at LAMB (Sadek) also teaches at. We will be sitting in on two English classes and getting a feel for what the center does/who it serves to see if it might be a potential, future option for LE programs in Egypt. We'll report back to let you know what we think!

Ma salaamah,
Rachel

This is how we roll

Ok so at the moment we are receiving 'backwards' prank phone calls - where they call the apartment (I didn't even realize we had a land line phone number) and speak in arabic but get upset when we dont answer in arabic, even though they are calling us. its actually very amusing. also, Sharon is on the phone with her family discussing her phone drama and how she can't hang up on anyone bc her phone won't let her so they have to hang up on her. I'm still laughing at the arabic prank phone call it was hilarious.
Today, we went to City Stars with Sharon, Rachel, Kathy, Zehra (my sisters friend), and Sadya & Henrietta (my friends from SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies in London) - city stars is quite the 'happenin' place, let me tell you - except everything is overpriced, which is really sad considering some of the stuff in there is how much a regular egyptian makes a month. I even think its expensive with the american conversion rate! the huge gap in the social classes of cairo are a very interesting topic, especially from an outsiders view on it. It seems as if the gap is getting bigger, and now they are building bridges over the poor parts of cairo , so the upper class merely can peer at it below them as they cruise above it in their luxury vehicles of choice - interesting, no?
Todays class was awesome, we had a really fun time learning about the phrase 'used to' - past tense! The students were at first hesitant to participate in the 'used to' game where they had to find people who 'used to' do certain things, but then they got into it when Sadek & Kathy - two visiting teachers :) helped pushed them along :) it was so cute. Then Sadek volunteered to show a movie that was relevant to my lesson, it was all about immigrants in the States and things they miss from home, so it was a really nice cultural exchange.
Then during my office hours, my two students Michael and Michael sat and chatted with me for a while, they they wanted to show me Santa Barbara (the church we teach at), and on the way there we saw the children practicing drums near the Monastery where the Nuns stay. The church was so interesting and very very historic, you could feel it in the air... on my way home, they invited me to a concert on july 15th with them at the Cairo Opera for Mohammad Munir, which is apparently Cairo's latest super star, so that should be interesting. Also - all of my students are on facebook, and that is kinda weirding me out hehe.

HIBA

Adventures in Grammar

When John, Diana and Kathy warned us that our students would probably know more grammatical terminology than us, and call us out on it, they were completely right! I taught my first grammar lesson to my level 13 classes this past Sunday, and, to be honest, it was pretty uncomfortable. I thought I had prepared sufficiently--I looked up grammar terms, pronouns, definitions, special worksheets and anything else I could find! When I started teaching, however, I realized that I was confusing both myself and my students, and I had to work hard to clarify. Looking at English from an ESL perspective is challenging because my students don't "just know what sounds right" (even though I encouraged them to develop this skill during an awkward pause in my grammar lesson!) Despite my discomfort, I was amazed with my students' ability to ask specific clarifying questions and to challenge answers that they thought were wrong. Many of these students are really intelligent and driven, and I get more convinced of this each time I teach :)

Still, there are some not so driven students, as I found out when grading my first round of quizzes and homework compositions. Most of the results were excellent, and I could tell that most students studied for the quiz, mastering difficult words and concepts, and many handed in great compositions that impressed me with their level of grammar and vocabulary. However, one or two students suprised me by handing in work that they had clearly copied from each other, and mediocre quiz grades. Suprisingly, this work came from two of my OLDEST students (the ones I expected to be most driven to learn English). I was suprised at how angry I got when I saw my students cheating themselves in this way--it doesn't make sense that they would make the effort to come all the way to the center (some live more than an hour away) just to cheat and not work hard. Luckily this is the minority, and the effort made by other students more than makes up for the slacking few.

I'm looking forward to testing my students' listening skills tomorrow (and NOT with the 80s dialogues courtesy of the book) :)

KATE

Student Love up in this Piece!

Great day! Today Hiba, Rachel and I headed to coptic cairo/old cairo (after a looooong breakfast/lunch obviously) to do some sight seeing before Hiba's class and my "office hours". We saw some amazing stuff and luckily ran into this guy who had studied in the states, spoke perfect english, and was super eager to tell us all about the coptic "hanging church" (read up on it, it will blow your mind!) We checked out some other churches and sites before heading to the community center. I hadnt really advertised that I would be around today so I wasnt expecting anyone to come in but two of my students did! One of them- Mary invited me to dinner at her house. I wasnt sure if it was a genuine invitation so i was like "Oh just ask your mom" to which she enthusuastically replied "I already did!" so woot woot for Egyptian food! I cant wait! Buchoy (sp?) is another one of my students and as soon as he sat down he was all business- "Ms. Sharon I want to talk about marriage in the United States of America". Woah. So we had this conversation about marriage in Egypt versus marriage in the States. It was pretty facinating. About 45 minutes into this convo we heard drumming and rachel and I were all "Woah whats that?". So Mary and Buchoy brought us along the winding paths that ARE coptic Cairo and we ended up in this tiny alley were 20+ students were standing in a circle around this older man who was teaching them to play drums! It was AWEEEESSOOOMMMEEE. I got to take some pictures and the students were just sort of smiling in that "oh you silly american!" way. It was very very sweet. And the teacher was just teaching away, while the students drummed away. Apparently they get these free lessons in exchange for playing on major holidays. Love it.

On another note, we finally had our apartment clean. Seems like the tub is ACTUALLY white. Who woulda thought!

with thoughts of love, peace, and lots of bottled water,
sharon w.

LE does Khan al-Khalili!...and Sharon wears a scarf ;-)

I hope this is 200 words and 'candid' enough

These past couple of days have been quite the trip! It has been so fascinating navigating the streets of cairo and familiarizing myself with ways to direct a taxi in the right direction - 'yimeen, shamaal, a la tool!!' - and I think I finally know my way home to Zamalek now :)

Last night was such a random amazing night with the LE crew - Mama K, Kenneth, Rachel, Sharon, moi - we went to a party of my sisters friend whom I had never met before, and it was fantastic - complete with a traditional Yemeni feast of a big rice platter with chicken eaten on the floor, chai, desserts, hummus, and Charades!! A majority of the people were students studying in Egypt (our kind of crowd) and we learned how competitive we can all become. Our team (Rachel and mine) lost miserably unfortunately but we are planning to have a game/party/rematch night at our apartment.

Today, I taught one level 9 class, the highlight of the class was trying to describe what an attic is in the simplest terms which somehow stemmed into discussing ghosts. The students have opened up a lot since the first class, maybe its because I had them discuss their childhood in detail :) that will crack open almost anyone. I'm still working on trying to get them to participate willingly so I don't have to call on students that have a deer-in-headlights look on their face. I was told that it is customary for Egyptian students to just be lectured and then they go home and memorize - rather than the more hands-on American approach I am accustomed to.

After class, I jetsetted my way home so Sharon and I could make it a Sufi dance show at Al Ghuraya. It is free and open to the public 8:30pm on Wednesdays & Saturdays. It was phenomenal - the songs that were sung really hit my core and I found myself swaying to the out-of-control beat of the 'tabla' drum played by a musician there - I really don't know how its humanly possible to create a beat so fast, but he did it and he did it well. There were a lot of tourists, and that made it awkward bc they clapped after eveything and the sufi dance is so personal/ religiously profound to me that it felt weird to demean it to just a 'show', but it was definitely applause worthy!!

Tomorrow... we conquer the pyramids of Giza :)

HIBA

First week in Cairo

Wow. So it's hard to believe I've already (and only!) been in Cairo for a week now -- the experience has definitely been a whirlwind of new experiences and ideas, and not without its fair share of challenges. One piece of good news is that I am absolutely LOVING teaching. I have 3 classes of about 15 students each, and they have all been wonderful so far. Although I was nervous at first to teach students who are in my peer group or older, I have actually found it quite engaging to teach young adults, as we can have debates about issues relevant to our age group and relate to each other very easily. For instance, I started all my classes today by having the students read a BBC news article about the new ban on smoking in public places in England (which went into effect July 1st). In addition to allowing the students to learn new vocabulary words (such as 'ban,' 'prohibit' and 'second-hand smoke'), the activity also provoked a lively debate about whether smoking should be banned in public buildings and gathering places in Egypt, which was a question a lot of the students said they hadn't thought about before, but found very interesting. The jury was out, however, on the question of whether or not something like this would ever be possible in Egypt ;-) Introducing the new grammar for the unit and doing some activities from the book also went well. In general, I am finding the students eager to learn and also very respectful, and the class time seems to just fly by -- for instance, I just got back from 4 hours of teaching, and am actually feeling energized rather than exhausted, which is great!

Cairo, in general, has also given me a lot to mull over. It is truly overwhelming how big the place is -- we've been exploring different neighborhoods over the past several days, and, literally, everywhere you go there are just skyscrapers upon buildings upon people upon traffic...it seems endless, which I guess makes sense, seeing as the unofficial population of the city is estimated to be somewhere around 20-22 million. So there is definitely a lot to do here, and also a lot of luxuries to be had, which I didn't quite expect (for example, we took a trip to Maadi yesterday to enjoy an excellent American-style diner, which is featured in this month's Time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1639839,00.html). It's really amazing to me how many American chains they have here, in general -- everything from Coffee Bean to Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chili's, Cinnabon...it is definitely amusing to see all those brand names written in Arabic, as well. I think I have actually been a bit surprised by Cairo, because I have found it a lot more developed than Delhi (where I spent some time volunteering a few years back). For instance, though there are definitely beggars on the street here, there seem to be a lot less in the downtown areas and they are less aggressive than they were in India. There are also not nearly as many animals cruising the streets (haha) or as much crime as I expected...I guess that's just part of not knowing what to think of a place before you get there, but overall I've found Cairo to be rather comfortable, in ways.

However, that is not to say that Cairo is not a VERY different place, as certain things have definitely caught me off guard. For instance, it seems a bit contradictory that the city is trying to be very cosmopolitan, yet the society is very conservative (and, arguably, becoming more so) and the government is one of the most repressive in the region -- there are literally security forces stationed on every corner, and the whole place has a kind of "Big Brother" feel to it. For instance, although we've never met our landlady who lives several floors up from us (she is a Coptic Christian from the church we teach in), she has complained about our comings and goings and occasionally having boys over (that being Ken, 99.9% of the time). It's just weird to think that you're always being carefully watched and scrutinized by people who don't know anything about you...but I guess that's how things go in a quasi-religious/conservative state. So we're learning a lot, too, as we take in both the familiar and the foreign. It's definitely been a trip so far!

Rachel

Cairo begins...

Yesterday was my first day of teaching. And it was FANTASTIC. Im teaching 3 classes of two different levels. The students in the classes exploded into conversations and debates about everything from professions in Egypt to movies. Everyone was really eager to teach me about Egypt and what it means to be Egyptian- it's good and it's bads. And just to reiterate what Kate said below, every single class asked me what my religion was. Actually I think it went something like this : "You are Jewish" thanks to my name...ha! I had to explain to them that my father is Jewish and my mother is roman catholic and that i was basically raised catholic. But they didnt really get the idea of two religions and the idea of religion as seperate from culture. Interesting. The students discussed the role of religion in Egyptian society (in English...) in a really interesting way. I just sort of stood back and answered questions about grammer. It's cool to see how these young people here think. Anyway the students are really eager to better their english which is awesome and the classes all have their own unique dynamic so woot woot! Everyones really interested in learning more idioms....so if anyone thinks of any good ones let me know!

Day before yesterday Rachel, Mama Kath and I explored a little bit of Islamic Cairo. Woah. W.O.A.H. It's such a trip. We went to buy more headscarfs (Which im slowly starting to realize are more vital than i originally thought...they are the only way to semi-ward off potential marriage proposals/claims of love/general actions of sexual harassment) and had tea with the man selling them in his little tent/stall. It was pretty fantastic. One thing Im quickly realizing is that if you tell a Egyptian that you like something of theirs they will literally take it off/remove it and give it to you. Apparently it's bad luck not to. The correct thing to do is then to give it back with a response of "Mashallah". I like that. It really tells you something about this culture which is soooo community orientated.

Having a lot of conversations about religion too. Mostly it's just me listening and people teaching me. So I guess you could say im just learning a lot. A whole lot.

Ma'as-salama,
Sharon

First Day of Teaching!

My first day of teaching yesterday was absolutely amazing! I couldn't believe how well my three classes went and how much fun I had. The only bad part is getting to the center on the metro, I could do without that part of the experience. Yesterday I started wearing the abaya (long black robe like thing) on the street and in the metro. I was attacked on the street recently and I don't want anymore trouble from depraved men. Wearing the abaya seemed to help, but it seems like a ridiculous solution to the problem of male harassment.

Anyway, teaching started off great. I taught three level 13 classes. My students were much better at English than I had anticipated. Many of them have large vocabularies but need to work on their speaking . Many of them have studied English for 12 or more years in school and university. Most of them told me that they practice at home by listening to SLOW English music (Celine Dion and Bryan Adams are big favorites!) or by watching English movies and shows on TV. All seemed eager to learn, so I decided to jump right in by giving new vocabulary and homework! The great thing about teaching adults is that it is their choice to be there, and they come from far and wide to learn English-from us! I don't want to disappoint them by making my class too easy or not expecting enough from them.

I was suprised when my students asked if we could pray before the class as I had never been asked that before. Luckily they asked me after so I didn't have to make an on the spot decision. Does anyone have any opinions on whether or not prayer before class is appropriate? As a liberal American I would tend to say no, but this is Egypt, and whether you're a Christian or a Muslim Egypt is anything but secular! I guess we'll see what happens.

I am teaching level 7 today and looking forward to that challenge as well! KATE

Asalaamu Alaykum :)
So Cairo is crazy. Crazy Cairo! Its been quite a ride - everyone is sooo super friendly!!! They want to know everything about you and its confusing/daunting at first but then when you jump into and use a little bit of arabic vocab it all works out and everyone gets habby (happy). My friends have been visiting from London, so I had a chance to explore the city with them a lot last week when no one except for Kate and Kathy were here. I even got to visit a hospital (supperrr long story)!! I had lunch with a sheikh, got a VIP tour of Al Azhar (the second oldest university in the world) and got to go to the top of one of the minarets with the most amazing view of the city. I taught yesterday and today - its amazing the students are so eager to practice that my class today went 20 minutes over time! Its so refreshing, because you can just start a lesson and take a back seat to watch the magic unfold. yayayay :)
~Hiba

Why I love Cairo/Things I've learned...

1) I've been here for less than 4 days and boab (doorman) and I have already had a conversation about why he doesnt wear shoes...of coarse I dont speak Arabic and he doesnt speak english so his opinion of the conversation may be a little different.

2) When my luggage got lost the airline reprsentative told me that it would be delivered "Tomorrow". When i relayed this information to Jon and Kathy they laughed and explained that "tomorrow" means anytime after today. They were right.

3) There is no such thing as exact change in Cairo. Sometimes this works in you favor, sometimes it doesnt.

4) Headscarfs are cheap....very cheap. And wearing them helps to blend in.

5) Dont drink the water! Except inevitably you will- ice cubes/washing fruit/restaurants etc... And you'll live.

6) When you sit on the OLDEST chair in the universe thats lurking in the corner of the room and it breaks underneath you within your first hour in Cairo, someone WILL come to fix it...not that that happened to me or anything.

7) Every single man knows at least two things in english: "WELCOME TO EGYPT!!" and "BEAUTIFUL!"

8)Probably when your waiter asks you your name you shouldnt make the mistake of saying "Islam Sharon!" instead of the actual "Ismee Sharon"

9) Everyone loves tea. Drink it. Everyone will love you.

10) Waiters are pretty agressive about teaching you how to write in Arabic...

11) Taxis are cheap...and scary. And by scary I mean exciting!.....um......


....loving Cairo! Teaching starts tomorrow and I'm super excited. I'll be teaching two level 15's and one level 11 (out of 16). woot woot!!!

-Sharon W.

Navigating Cairo - Part 1

To say my experience thus far in Cairo as been interesting, would be the largest understatement of my life.  Although my time here so far has been fantastic and thoroughly enjoying, I have been rewarded (or plagued, depending on perspective) with living in a more "Authentic" area of Cairo known as Giza, in particular, Teletini.  In the week that I have been navigating the city, I have had so many wierd things happen to me that are, although trying at the time, hilarious later.  One such example happened just last night...

So, as everyone else has stated, yesterday we went to visit where we will be teaching for the first time.  We all met at the girls apartment in Zamalek and went from there to the LAMB center via the subway.  After seeing the center and getting a short intro as to what all we would be doing, I was really excited and ready to start teaching.  Since we were all together, I figured I would go back to the girls apartment again, spend some time with them - and then go home later in the night.  Well, Kathy and I thought we should go to the  local coffee shop for a quick drink and to set up our lessons for the following day - Great Idea right??  Wrong...  As you will see, this was the first mistake in my list of horrible decisions last night.  Some time passed and I realized that should probably be going otherwise I would not be able to get a ride home (where I live is not such a good area, so not many cabs want to go there, especially late at night)  I walked down to the end of the street and hailed a couple cabs before I found one that would take me to where I live. (Mistake number 2).   As we travel down the bridge to cross to the main part of Cairo, the driver pulls out his cigar case to which I thought, "ok, he's going to smoke, everyone does"  until he pulls out what might be the largest blunt I have ever seen, of course, I havent seen more than 5? so Im not really an authority - but still, you understand.  As we drive, he continues to take hits of this enormous joint, then he proceeds to push it in my face and say something repeatedly in arabic which I had no idea, I just said, "no, thank you" over and over.  At this juncture, I suppose I might also mention that thus far, he has not been the best driver (speeding, swerving, etc:)  and I could only imagine how much better this 30 minute drive could get.  We continue to drive erratically throughout the streets of Cairo while Hassan the driver smokes his joint and yells what I could only imagine were bad words to all the girls not in vales as passed them on the street.   We finally get to my street, in one piece I might add, only to have him drop me off right in front of the phone store that I bought my Egyptian SIM card from.  Although at the moment this means nothing to you, it might help to have a bit of background...  So, when I first got here, I bought a SIM card but the store owner needed a copy of my passport for his files to submit to the government.  Well, I didnt have a copy and it was like 3am so the store owner let me go and said bring it tomorrow, well, I couldnt find a copy machine - I swear they dont have them here !!  But anyways, Ive been avoiding him for 4 days now, walking down other streets, running past the shop, etc:  1) because I dont know arabic, 2) because I cant find a copy machine to just give him a copy.  So, he literally drags me into the shop and starts talking in arabic (like I am going to understand him if he just keeps talking)  THEN, two more people come in and they start talkiing to me over and over again, occasionally throwing in the english words "phone" and "number"  as if because of that, I will obviously understand the other words... right?  After about 10 minutes of them talking to me, or yelling as it where, I finally threw down 5 pounds and my passport and said "YOU MAKE A COPY" well, as much as you wouldnt think that would have worked... He said "come" and I followed him down the street, to the back of a store, where he made a copy of my passport for me - had I known it would have been that easy, it would have saved me 4 days of dodging the mobile store owner and his cronies. . .  

Well, anyways - I suppose that I should end with saying that although Ive had some rather trying times in Cairo so far, I am REALLY excited about teaching and cannot wait to explore more of the city for what im sure will be many many more fun stories...

-KEN

Cairo Through Fresh Eyes

Living in Cairo for the past two semesters as a study abroad student at the American University, I didn't realize how comfortable I had gotten with my routine, or how little I had actually stepped out of that routine for a long time. For the past 8 months, I have spent my time shuttling between my house in Zamalek and the American University campus just across the bridge. This afternoon, I got to see Cairo through fresh eyes, both my own as I experienced a new area of Cairo, and those of my fellow teachers, as they got to explore the city for the first time. Today, going to Coptic Cairo to visit the LAMB center, I had the chance to step out of the comfortable routine I had established for myself, and into the challenging new area I will be adapting to over the next 6 weeks. Riding the metro, navigating the alleys of Coptic Cairo, and dealing with a classroom full of students older than myself is daunting but exciting, and I can't wait to get started! I have the feeling that I am going to see more of Cairo during these 6 weeks than I've seen during the past two semesters, judging by the group's enthusiasm for all types of sightseeing and cultural exchange. It feels great to be embarking on a new experience with my amazing fellow volunteers, and to be seeing Cairo through fresh eyes.
KATE

LAMB Center

First trip to LAMB

Our first few days in Cairo have certainly been interesting! The whole group has now arrived, and despite a few bumps along the way (i.e. Sharon being without luggage and battling the Alitalia Cairo office for the first 24 hours, and Ken drinking out of seriously the WRONG cup at his host's residence...long story), we are all rested and excited to get started teaching -- tomorrow! We made our first trip to LAMB today to get a taste for Coptic Cairo and an introduction to the program we will be working with over the next six weeks. Each of us will be teaching a different level of English, and in charge of 3-4 classes which will meet either twice a week for an hour, or once a week for two hours. Personally, I'm a bit nervous as to how the first few sessions will go -- although I've had some teaching experience before, I've never taught students in my immediate peer group, nor taught advanced English grammar (I will be teaching students in level 11, meaning they have taken 10 semesters of English beforehand). Although I am sure there will be lots of learning occurring on my part, as well, and adjustments made along the way, I'm very eager to meet the students and energized for the challenge ahead.

Yallah guys!
Rachel