How is it all ending so quickly?!

Sorry I haven't written an update in awhile -- the past two weeks have simply been a whirlwind of classes, trips, meetings, dinners, and, of course, last minute sight-seeing and shopping, which has been both incredible and exhausting. It's hard to believe we will all be leaving so soon (and Hiba's already left us as of early yesterday morning -- so sad!). I know I will definitely need a couple weeks back home to process everything we have seen and experienced while here -- Cairo has been an INCREDIBLE experience.

The good news is that I have been picking up a lot of interesting leads for potential future LE projects over the past week. I finally got in touch with the AMIDEAST program in Dokki, and Sharon and I went down to their office to meet the Country Director and Training Unit Director on Wednesday afternoon. Overall, the meeting went very well, and we found their office very welcoming, organized, and eager to host young, native English speakers from LE as volunteer teachers beginning next summer (I sent more details to Ahmed via email). On Wednesday evening, I also met a friend of Jon's (Herb Williamson) who is a contractor for USAID, and works with a school for Sudanese refugees in Maadi called the African Hope Learning Center (www.ahlc.info). In addition to putting me in touch with the school's director, Lineke (who is really interested in hosting LE volunteers to teach some of their high school students next summer), Herb also put me in touch with a pastor from his church in Maadi (Paul-Gordon Chandler) who works with a lot of interfaith initiatives and educational programs in Muslim communities, Mohsen Abu Seif from USAID, who is going to help us explore getting involved in public schools in Cairo, and another friend of his named Nasser from Assiut (in Upper Egypt), who will help us explore sending volunteers to some of the public schools in that city. I will be meeting with Paul-Gordon and Mohsen on Tuesday afternoon (Sharon will probably come along to both meetings, as well), and am excited that we could finally get the ball rolling on some interesting initiatives that would expand LE Egypt's network of service to new communities, and new parts of the country. I will write more detailed email updates/summaries and pass along contact information after we hold the meetings.

I am giving my final exam to all 3 of my classes tomorrow evening, and am honestly really sad to be leaving the LAMB center. I have come to really appreciate and enjoy my students, and despite certain frustrations working with the center (i.e. a final, all-program dinner we were hoping to do for the LE teachers and students fell through due to the office manager not getting things organized in time), I have found it a wonderful place to volunteer and wish I could stay longer. Who knows though -- I have become A LOT more interested in the Middle East since coming here (and to echo Hiba and Sharon's postings, absolutely ABSORBED with studying the Arab-Israeli conflict after visiting Palestine), so maybe I will be back in the region to visit within the next few years, insha'allah, depending on where my graduate studies take me.

I hope everyone reading this at home/in the States is well. I don't want to leave!

Rachel

Pictures!

Per Ahmed's request, here are public links to my Facebook albums containing pictures of our group's time here in Egypt/the Middle East:

Dahab: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081992&l=8a302&id=202962
Palestine: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081625&l=c5b31&id=202962
Jerusalem: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081619&l=b799e&id=202962
Mt. Sinai: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080028&l=5e45d&id=202962
Alexandria: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080020&l=49776&id=202962
Cairo/Giza: http://stanford.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078029&l=fc6a1&id=202962

I will add more as we finish out our time here in Cairo!

Rachel

An Ode to Omar, Palestine, Dahab, and kittens...

In no particular order -
This poem is for the Doorman (Bowwab in Arabic), Omar the great.

Omar oh Omar
the best Bowwab we'll ever know
you push the cars
you wash the windows
with your Bowwab power

You help everyone on Sharia Mohammad Mazhur
A Bowwab like no other
And although you think my name is Miriam
And Sharon's name is Habibti
We still Ahibbik you

Everytime we leave
You think we are going to Alexandria
On Thursday, you will realize
I will tell you, in broken Arabic, that I'm leaving forever
Parting is such sweet sorrow... but don't worry Omar,
we will meet again Inshallah

-------
In other news, we have been partaking in a lot of adventures,
From Taba to Eilat to Jerusalem to the West Bank...
back to Cairo, then to Dahab, and now we are back in Cairo.
I am off in a couple of days to go back to Washington DC
And I'm a little overwhelmed with how much is still left to do here,
so I'm just trying to get things done before its too late.
We have had such an insane couple of days that we are still trying to catch up
with sleep and haven't really had a chance to process what went down...

There aren't really enough words to describe how amazing the Palestine trip was,
We all learned so much in the couple of days - it started off at an incredibly low point
because - as everyone plus Israel knows - I was born in Saudi, and it says that on my
American Passport so I was holding up the rest of the group while I was interrogated
and probed by the Israeli police. That was an incredibly low point of my life, but I learned a lot
about the importance of patience. While we were getting our passports handed back to us after
seven and a half hours, a Palestinian family was waiting with us and they asked us to tell Bush what
happened, and they also said 'Now you know how we feel'. That was a really eye opening experience,
the start of an incredibly insane journey....
After that, it was a blur of spiritual highs, and I feel like it would do injustice to describe it in words...
It was amazing to see the three major faiths of the world coming together in a space of less than a mile.
The walls of the old city tell so many stories, and seeing the people of all different faiths living within them,
it was very powerful, I feel like I could have spent days and days wandering the inner walls... I definitely cannot
wait to go back and visit all of the friends we made...
As soon we got to Jerusalem, we had lunch at Pasha's with my friend Maher who works for UNRWA, who gave us
a crash course in the historical background of Palestine as well as a current update of the situation. He encouraged
us to go see it firsthand, and I'm so thankful that he did because seeing it is a whole another level to just hearing
about it. Even looking at pictures of the 'checkpoints' don't really speak enough words to explain what it feels like.
And the Palestinians go through it all the time... and according to a couple of other Palestinians we met,
it is just going to get worst before it gets better, because the israeli government is going to be introducing
Biometric cards to further handicap the ease of getting through the Israel/Palestine border... its mind blowing that
this is allowed to happen, especially in such a western and modern country...
Jerusalem and Palestine had spiritual beauty, and when we came back from Cairo we went to Dahab a day
later to experience natural beauty. It was amazing swimming/snorkeling in the Red Sea, its easy to see why
people from all over the world go there - it beauitifuuulll.
I'm going to spend hte next couple of days doing as much LE work as I can, and I have to wrap up my classes
and of course - pack!
HIBA