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.