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