Thoughts and Impressions

It's been an eventful, but great week in Cairo. It's hard to believe that I've only known these people for a month -- it feels like we've been a group for a lot longer than that.

Sunday and Monday were class days, so I had a lot of reading due for my Islam and Peoples and Cultures classes, and plenty of work for my Arabic class, too. I knew going in that living cross culturally would be a good experience for me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I'm not the "over-achiever" anymore. Meaning -- at home, people will come to me for study help and proofreading papers and such, but here, I'm the one asking for help and advice. The other MESPers are incredibly smart and talented people and it's been good for me to be able to get another perspective.

My service project has also been a wonderful experience for me. I teach ESL conversation classes on Tuesday nights to the people at Refuge Egypt. The classes are mostly comprised of Sudanese refugees, but there are also people from Eritrea, Somalia, and other countries in Africa that are experiencing conflict. I team teach the classes with three other MESPers, and the service project has also been a time to get to know them better, too.

Ramadan is over now. Yesterday was a holiday (Eid-al-Fitr) to celebrate the end of Ramadan. I had to go out to buy water, and I was a little shocked when none of the vendors that are usually around were there (I wanted to buy some aish (bread), but the lady I usually buy from wasn't out.). There were, however, small children riding horses in the streets and a man with an air horn carrying (what appeared to be) cotton candy on a pole... When I got to the store, I was able to have my first fully Arabic conversation. :) It was short, but I felt very empowered.

When I got back to the flat, my flatmates and I decided to order pizza. I ended up making the phone call and spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to communicate (in English -- my Arabic isn't that good) with the lady on the other end of the line... All became well, though, and we got our Papa John's pizza within a half hour. :)