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