My job

This is an old post that didn't get posted for some reason...but here it is anyways...

A few of you have asked what exactly I am doing....so I thought I would post a video of me giving a presentation just 2 months after I arrived here about my research project. It is now 6 months later, and I will be giving another one in just a few weeks before heading home for Christmas! Hard to believe I have been here almost 10 months....

Another holiday weekend is fast approaching here, it is Eid Kabeer or the Big Feast. This year it happens to fall on the weekend after Thanksgiving Thursday, so my friends and I are planning to combine the celebrations into one long holiday! The weather here is starting to get cold, actually the other night I was freezing while watching the qualifying games for the world cup between Egypt and Algeria. Although the match was here in Cairo, because of safety reasons my friends and I decided to go to a cafe to watch it instead of the stadium. After the win though we went near the stadium to celebrate with the city... here are some videos I took while we were out....

It was so exciting being in the midst of the celebrations! I must admit when they scored the goal needed to win in the last minute of the game I was jumping and screaming as loud as my Egyptian friends around me. I will update the slide show on this page with some of the photos from the last few months, including ones from that night.

*Okay sorry the videos are not posting for some reason. If I get them to work later I will post them again.

Culture differences

After 8 months of living in Egypt, I can say somewhere around month 7 I realized that I was adapting more and more of the culture around me.

Riding on the metro a few weeks ago I realized that I was now staring at the foreigners on the train rather than being the one stared at. While waiting in the customs lines in the airport (I took a quick business trip to Amman, Jordan for a few days), I was asked twice if I was "masyrain" (egyptian) because I was responding in arabic to the conversations around me. (No my arabic is not that good yet, but I am able to understand about half of what is being said in simple conversations and respond with a few broken phrases with an Egyptian accent apparently :-). Although my skin, eye and hair color all are dead giveaways to my true genealogy, I can tell my mannerisms, thought process, dress style and minuscule habits are beginning to reflect the society around me.

It is sometimes a struggle to find the balance between the culture I was raised in and the new culture. Sometimes habits, values, or ideas need to be reinforced, discarded, or replaced. Though sometimes, it is just plain missing some piece of home. :-)

Here are some examples...

Inshallah....translated it means something close to "if God is willing". If you are asked by a friend to meet for coffee later that night (plans are rarely made more than a few hours in advance, most of the time they are made in the moment), the appropriate response is inshallah. Will you be at work tomorrow...inshallah. I asked my roommate for rent this morning...the response...I will be paid this afternoon inshallah. This phrase is used for just about every occasion, but more than just a lofty ideal it is a realistic part of life here. Sometimes it is used just to avoid commitment to an event or not wanting to ever give a negative response to someone. But more and more I am realizing that the lack of efficiency in systems tends to feed this idea of "inshallah". My roommate wasn't using it as an excuse today, sometimes she receives her paycheck on the 1st, and sometimes on the 15th, or sometime in between, depending on when the manager, finance person, etc all happen to get around to preparing the checks. As an American I find myself saying...it is my right for this or that...and then I realize I have no rights here (okay maybe a few since I hold a US passport, but even that is limited in its reaches). The options are for me to cling to my "rights" or learn that "rights" don't get things done here. They only get done in God's timing, and if it is not God's timing then what can a person do about it (this is a strong opinion here in Egypt).

So along with the attitude..."inshallah"...comes another piece..."mafeesh mish kella"...no problem or no worries...kind of like the Lion Kings "akoona matada". In order to survive without pulling your hair out, or having daily arguments with every social encounter you have, it is necessary to adapt a somewhat "mafeesh mish kella" attitude. The easy thing to do is become quite complacent then. "inshallah" and "mafeesh mish kella" do not really work well with the overachieving, goal oriented American society. So how do I as a person of both cultures now learn how to blend the best of these societies into my own lifestyle now.

Sometimes it is the simple things like greetings that make me homesick. Coming from a small town in Kansas where the front door is only used for strangers (even the UPS guy/gal delivers to the back door) and everyone except strangers are greeted with a hug, I grew up a "hugger" :-). I know about half my friends in St. Louis shudder at the thought of hugging someone in greeting, but it is a habit that runs deep in me. Here however any PDA (public displays of affection) are unacceptable between opposite sexes. Greetings between girls are usually two/four air kisses on the cheeks, between guys sometimes a brief hug or the air kisses, and occasionally you will see a limp handshake between a guy in girl during an introduction (ooops I can't tell you how many hands I have wrangled with my firm business handshake out of habit). So I miss my "American hug" greeting as my friends here have come to call it. My closest friends have adapted to it for me and I have adapted the greetings of Italy and Germany for my roommates :-) into my routine for them.

The hardest one for me though is the "I'm sorry" difference. My friend and I were laughing the other day because after a disagreement we were apologizing. I responded with "I forgive you" as I was taught growing up, and they responded with "words are not enough show me with your actions" as they were taught. Now before you are offended at one or both of these responses, you should understand that my response provoked the same reaction from them, that their response provoked in me. We both viewed the responses as being very arrogant. We were both familiar with the differences in the cultures prior to this exchange so we were able to laugh about it, but although I know and understand this element in the culture, I struggle to see past what I think is arrogance to the heart of the matter, especially since "I'm sorry" is not usually used in pleasant emotional situations already.

Daily the realization becomes stronger in me that the more I adapt to this culture and way of life, the more I will not fit when I return back to the states. Currently I am trying to decide where to call home for the next year or so, but the more I look at my options the more I realize no matter where I am, I will just not quite fit anymore.

There are strong points and weak points to any society and culture...living here in Egypt has definitely brought a new dimension to my life and who I am...

Ramadan...

Time has flown again, my visa expired a few days ago...means I have officially been here 6 months! Wow! Just a little over 15 weeks until I will be home for Christmas! That is really crazy to think about now!

The summertime here was full of visitors :-) Yipeee! And good times with friends! I have two new roommates since my last blog! Vale- an Italian girl working here in Cairo, we have known each other for about 2 years now, and Kayla- an American girl who just arrived in Cairo a few weeks ago to study for a semester (the same thing I did 2 years ago). Both of them a fabulous ladies, and we have a lot of fun and laughs!

Now that summer has ended, work has resumed back to its normal pace. I am writing a piece to be published in our annual journal called "The Chronicles". It is based on a 5 part interview I had last spring with a Dr. here in Cairo. I am excited to see its completion! I will also be conducting a "round-table" discussion or conference on microfinance or tourism here in Egypt sometime this fall, as well as presenting my research topic of microfinance to a group of scholars in late November. So a lot of work to come :-), which is exciting and challenging for me!

Arabic class is still going well! I am so happy with the progress I have made in the 3 months! I can understand so much more of what is being said and am able to communicate very very brokenly in conversation (I know about 80 verbs, past, present, present continuous, and future). The plan is to be able to communicate clearly in conversation by December! So far I am on track for this! More and more of my Egyptian friends are resorting to having at least one conversation completely in Arabic when I meet them :-), this is good as it forces me to practice and learn new vocab :-). Because of this I learned the verb for diving :-) so now I can talk in arabic about my trips to the Red Sea!

Ramadan began here on August 22. It is the month that Muslims believe the Qu'ran came to the prophet Muhammed. Muslims spend the month (lunar month) fasting from sunup (here around 4 am) to sundown (6:30ish), no food or drink (including water) during daylight. They spend the month reevaluating their life, trying to live in the way they know is right, helping the poor, visiting the sick, etc. Living in a city of 20 million, where 90% of the population is fasting, creates many interesting dynamics. The entire city changes for the month. Colorful lights are strung on houses, mosques, and buildings (reminds me of Christmastime), Ramadan lamps are hung from awnings, and there is a sense of celebration as the month begins. Work and class schedules are adjusted for the month. Each night families and friends gather to break fast together with Iftar (breakfast). So, normally people are released from work between 2:30-3:00 to prepare the evening feast. Sohour, the second meal of the night, is usually served around 2:30 am, but can start as early as 11 pm. So a typical schedule during Ramadan looks a little like this...

8:00 wake up and head to work

9:00-10:00 arrive at work (chat with friends, check email, etc and start real work around 11)

11:30ish 2nd prayer of the day

2:30-3:00 begin the long drive home (traffic is always bad when the entire city is on the same schedule)

3:30ish 3rd prayer of the day

6:30 Prayers then IFTAR! After fasting all day and eating a big meal, many people sleep for an hour or so to prepare for a night out with friends

8:00-9:30 5th prayer of day (they read the entire Qu'ran during the month of Ramadan, so each night a section of the Qu'ran is read over speakers across the city)

10:00 head out to hang out with friends and share Sohour together

3:30 head home if out with friends

4:00ish 1st prayer of day then head to bed

Yeah if you do math, it means little sleep and lots of time with friends! Even for those not celebrating Ramadan everyone seems to get caught up in the schedule. haha like my roommates and I went to Cinnabon (which closes at 2 am during Ramadan) down the street from our flat at 1:00am last night for a late night sandwich and cinnamonrolls! Oh I will miss the late night openess of everything :-)! I can say these last few weeks I still am learning so much about this culture. Life here is always an adventure!

Small things that go un-noticed

First of all new pics! here are the links...they are on my facebook page, but for those of you who don't have facebook, no worries just click on these links and you can still view them without signing your life away to the electronic beast of connections...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058620&id=71906336&l=f070522fc1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058618&id=71906336&l=09875cb712

now for the good stuff :-) I enjoy writing, just wish I did it more often.

The other day my roommate and I stopped by the metro supermarket about a mile from our house to pick up some groceries. When I went to check out the lady in front of me was obviously new to the system. From her accent I could tell American, which means in Maadi (the area of town I live in) the probability of her being in a military family is high, though she could be a teacher, or a skydiver (joke), but I like to try and guess. :-) As she was going to check out her total came to 102.10 LE (Egyptian pounds). She looked through her money a few times and finally settled on giving the cashier 102.50, with the explanation that she simply did not have any smaller change. The cashier tried her hardest not to laugh, she was a very sweet girl (I must admit I was tempted to break out a laugh as well, I am sure a grin did escape). The lady looked very concerned and explained it was her first time going shopping for groceries since she arrived. The cashier welcomed her and explained the amount of money she had given her was perfectly fine. I have long since forgotten the days of trying to pay to the penny (or piaster in the case of Egyptian money).

Here we usually round up to the nearest quarter, even then most of the time there is not change for those small amounts, so a few sticks of gum or a "mafeesh mishkilla" (no problem) is exchanged. If you go to the same shops frequently, one day they may be short a pound, the next day you are...so in the end it usually all washes out. The funny thing is I don't remember when a few pounds here or there stopped being a big deal, but the incident at the market reminded me of a change that has occured in my life without me even taking notice. It makes me wonder how many other things, perhaps even larger things, have changed without me noticing.

Wow...way too long

Okay...okay...I know it has been awhile. That one busy week turned into a crazy month of drama and happenings. Both good and bad. While I can't catch you up on all the happenings, I will at least attempt to pick up from here...

My Arabic classes have been going really well! I am so excited about continuing. My goal is to be at level 5 or 6 by December, and I am already down to just 2 lessons left in level 2, just 6 weeks into class (I meet 2 times a week)! My Arabic has improved so much that I notice even a difference on the street. People respect you more, and it is a lot easier to avoid getting lost.

My friend Joanna came to visit for about 10 days, and we had a ton of fun traversing the city and the Sinai Pen. I think she may have experienced more of life on this side of the ocean than she was planning, but it was great having her here! God knows what you need when you need it, and He sent her at the right time.

During Joanna's visit we went to Dahab for 3-4 days (one night we spend climbing Gebel Moses- moses's mountain). It is a quaint little village on the Sinai pen, situated between the mountains and the Red Sea. On clear days you can see the mountains in Saudi Arabia on the other side. Joanna quickly saw why I have fallen in love with this little resort. Usually I travel with small groups when I go, this is the same place I go scuba diving, but this time it was just Joanna and I. It was a very relaxing weekend, laying on the beach chairs, reading Harry Potter (book 4) and absorbing as much free vitamin D as we could :-).

Summertime is flying by here. Hard to believe the hottest part is already gone (temps of 110 everyday almost). In just over 5 months from now I will be home for Christmas and my little bro's wedding. I have officially been here longer this time than I ever have been before. And everyday Egypt becomes more like home.

Tonight one of my roommates and I are going out to Chili's for dinner, on a boat on the river. It is one of her last nights here in Egypt, so we are celebrating her making it one year and still maintaining sanity and living. I am sad to see her leave. In such a short time we have become good friends. I look forward to Christmastime in hopes I can visit her in Germany on my way home.

My new roommate will move in on Sunday. I am excited because it is a girl I met almost 2 years ago when I was here before. She is Italian and always tons of fun! And a good cook too!

I know I need to be more diligent about writing updates, stories, adventures, and customs from here. Hopefully this next month is a little less dramatic, and I will get a chance to write more. :-)

New pics to follow soon!

Busy week ahead...time of transition

Transition seems to be a permanent adjective of my life. Transition from work to school, school to work, one country to another, one place of living to another, new friends, old friends, etc...this week it is time for transitioning again. 

The end of the semester here at AUC has arrived. Which means almost all of the study abroad students (including my current roommate) will leave to return to the states sometime this week.  The majority of the friends I have made in my short time here has been with these study abroad participants, so unfortunately that means I will be saying goodbye to almost all my friends.  And since my roommate is one of them leaving, I am also moving to a new flat (apartment). It is just down the street from where I live now, but there is still the process of packing, moving, etc. 

The point of transition though is to move from saying goodbye to the former and look in anticipation for the future! 

I have met with one of my new roommates! (It is a 3 bedroom flat so there will be three of us!) She is from Germany and a super sweet girl! I am excited about getting to know her over the next two months (when she leaves to return home). My other roommate will arrive here in Cairo on June 2. She is from the states and will be here until the end of July. (So yep I will be doing this transition thing again in August :-). We have emailed back and forth, and all of us are looking forward to spending the summer here in Egypt! 

I started attending Arabic class today! Finally! It went very well and I was encouraged by how much I understood and where I was at in the material.  It seems by the end of next week I will be advancing to Level 2 already! It is my goal to make it to level 5 or 6 by Christmas, which is the late intermediate level.  If I acheive this I will be fluent in everyday situations! 

Pray for me as I say goodbye to friends and build relationships with new ones, as I move to a new flat, and of course with my Arabic...the sooner I learn it the easier my job and getting around the city will be. 

a very short post :-)

Today is THURSDAY!!! (the last day of the work week here!) Humdililah! 

Word of the week: Ossify (thanks to my interviewee for expanding my vocab)

And for the record, my hot water still only works intermittently :-( sorry mr. professional (he actually came back yesterday when we complained it hadn't worked the  next morning, he turned on the facet, pointed at the water coming out, laughed at me and left :-(, so much for getting it fixed before we leave...) 

Tonight is dinner party with friends! Yipee! 

That isn't logical...

The past few weeks have been full of mishaps and lots of not fun unfortunately. I am hoping soon my life will be filled with joy and laughter...but to share with you how the grass isn't always greener...here is a few stories. 

The other day a friend posted on her website about enjoying a beach in a foreign country. I turned to my roommate to comment "A trip outside of the county sounds really nice right now" in midsentence I realized the irony of the statement. I live out of the country! The urge to travel comes from a want to escape the mundane, or overwhelming issues of life for just a little while and immerse myself in a culture full of opportunities to learn and be inundated with something besides "me" for awhile. Happens even while I live abroad apparently :-). 

One of the strong attributes I know about myself is that I am a very linear thinker, meaning I connect my thoughts directly from one point to another until a solution is reached.  Egyptians as most Arabs tend to not be linear thinkers.  They think more in circles, each circle growing until a solution is found, but inbetween there can be many unrelated subjects, thoughts, statements, or even the solution may seem unrelated. This is very confusing for me when conversations or solutions are translated to me.  I am always asking the question "how is this logical"? Confused yet? Let me give you an example.  I awoke yesterday to find our shower no longer had hot water. It wasn't that the water wasn't hot, there was simply no water coming from the hot spiget or shower head. A man arrived this afternoon to fix it. He changed the "hot" knob on the shower and said this was the problem. I tried to get him to explain how the knob on the shower made no hot water come from the hot water heater to any of the facets in the bathroom. But all I got was "I am the professional". 

The same type of situation has come up multiple times, always leaving me with a very confused look. I must admit two nights ago when two boys showed up to put cement down one of our pipes because it was leaking to the flat below us, I am sure this was one of the most confusing. Pouring cement down pipes? I wish I had taken some classes on home repairs!

Today I was in an unfamiliar part of the city, and due to bad directions and banks with the same name being located in the same area, I arrived at the wrong one.  When I called a friend for directions and she couldn't help me I gave my phone to an officer (which I have been told not to do before, but my friend insisted this is correct- this is an example of how everyone gives you different instructions on what to do and not to do).  The officer told her he knew where I needed to get, but it was to far to walk, so he would put me in a taxi.  We walked to the end of the street one direction, then turned around and walked down the same street the other direction. I stopped a taxi, the officer waved him on to leave us. Needless to say I was confused and not happy with the situation as the officer didn't speak english and wasn't explaining anything. So I walked off leaving him. I phoned another friend who helped me arrive at my destination 1.5 hours after I started my journey and 40 minutes late for my appointment. But I am thankful for my friend who helped me arrive safely and for the cooler weather today since I was walking a lot. (Yesterday it was 104 degrees F, today it is suppose to be closer to mid-90s! Yipee!) 

Okay so that is it for a quick post. There have been other good things recently, like meeting some new friends that are staying long term and not leaving in 2 weeks to return to the states! And I am looking into a language school to learn arabic! Oh and I move sometime next week to my new place! So lots of fun and busyness! Hope you are all doing well! 

the rest of the mosh pit...

Okay so the quick run home to finish the last blog didn't quite work out, as is typical here in Egypt! My boss was just telling me the other day, "Lauren, we are not going to make any plans from now on, they never happen".  Well, unfortunately this is true! (Although I am slowly adapting to this way of life, it is so different than in the states, and I am sure when I return to the states even for a visit I will frustrate those around me with my disregard for time, appointments, etc.) 

The mindset I find here is that if something doesn't happen, it is because God didn't will it to happen, and if it isn't God's will than there must be a reason for this. (Now I know there is a big theological debate about this in the US, I am simply stating what I observe to be the belief that is apparent here.) I think my landlord said it best last night when she said in her broken English, "We leave what happen to God, he do a better job of it". 

Time has such a different feel here. Even when I am in a hurry, I feel as though I am in a time warp moving at slow motion.  I live in a city of 20+million people, and it has all the hustle, bustle, noise, pollution, etc that one would expect from a city that large (St. Louis is 3.5 million, and Wichita 350 thousand roughly? to give some comparison) and yet the busyness of it feels so unfamiliar.  People walk faster here than anywhere I have been in the world, partly because so many people walk at least 5+ miles a day here (and I climb over 300+ stairs a day here), but even with the fast pace of walking, there is a lack of urgency in the steps. There is an attitude of I will get there when I get there, no hurry. (Maybe this is one reason my nickname for Cairo is the city of contradictions.) 

On the other hand, once you leave the city limits of Cairo and cross the threshold onto the Sinai Peninsula, time evaporates and ceases to exist. You arrive in Sharm, Dahab, Basata, etc and you forget there is such a thing as a clock or watch. Even when you have an appointment (like boarding a yacht or getting your diving gear from the diving center) a watch is not a governor demanding your obedience, but simply a device that gives the slightest hint of what exists outside of your current world; time. 

so to finish up the mosh pit, here are a few random facts, or funny instances that I wanted to share....

1) I was riding a bus with 12 Egyptians and 1 Sudanese guy on my way to Dahab for a weekend. When a cell phone began "ringing" with a unique ringtone...it was President Obama's voice and a clip from his inaguration speech "America, it is time for change. Answer this call" LOL! I died laughing the first time I heard it. The owner of the phone (an Egyptian) would look at me and say, one sec I need to take this call to change America...LOL! 

2) I have been interviewing a Dr. who works with an NGO here in Cairo.  He was born and raised here in Egypt, spent some time studying in England and married a British woman. He has been living here in Egypt again for the last 50 years.  His English astounds me, and I learn new English vocab every time I meet with him. I was going to post one of the words, but I can't remember them right now.

3) Another thing I have learned is hope much of an impression JFK made on the world.  One person here said "He gave hope to the world, not just the US." That is definitely not a viewpoint I was taught in school. Regardless of political party affiliation, I can never get over how active Egyptian people are in seeking out information and being involved in American politics.  (I think more of my friends here have memorized President Obama's inaguration speech than friends in the US.) 

4) okay and last little tidbit of mosh pit for today...a quote from a recent interview that I am still pondering..."Dictators are established out of love.  People are so captivated and dependent on them as leaders that they force the person to higher and higher levels of power. Saying "we can't do this without you. You can't quite we need you. There is no one who can do this as you can." It is this dependency/love that gives them the power to dictate." Not sure what I think about this yet, but it is an interesting perspective to think about. 

Alrighty, I am off to grab some Cinnabun and coffee for breakfast :-)! Enjoy your day! (Oh and I have more pics for the slide show, but I have to upload them. They are on Facebook already if you want to see them now.) 

Reason for hope and a mosh pit of other thoughts...

usually by the time I sit down for a few minutes to write on this blog, time has flown by as usual, and there are so many thoughts, experiences, memories, feelings that have passed that I feel as though if I open the tap just a little, they will all pour out without much order, and will probably not even make much sense. So is the case today...so I apologize in advance for the lack of continuity in themes, and for the horrible grammar that I am sure will follow. I am going to attempt to get all my thoughts out in the next 20 minutes before the bus leaves....which will only add to the beautiful mess this may be. :-)

okay where to start...first...I celebrated Easter Sunday on a yacht! Sailing south from Dahab to Gobry Bent.  There we went for a few dives about 20-25 meters deep to see God's beautiful handiwork in the coral and fish! It was so amazing! 

But honestly Easter weekend was one of my hardest weekends here so far.  Not just being away from family, and what is familiar, but being surrounded almost 24/7 by Arabic only speaking. Many of the people I traveled with could speak English, but without realizing it after only a few words in English, the whole group would transition back to Arabic (their native tongue of which I know very little-fruits and colors I joke). I was looking for a weekend of relaxing, but instead I incurred a weekend where even what should have been the easiest of conversations were difficult. I wanted a chance to build relationships, instead I found myself feeling very alone on a boat of thirty people. Even when I could understand the conversation occuring, I couldn't contribute to the conversation because of the language barrier. It is very hard for me in these occasions not to just pull away and not try to interact. It is not that these people didn't want me apart of the group, quite the contrary, a number of them would come to have conversations with me one on one to make me feel welcome. But still it was hard. By the end of the weekend I was in tears with frustration at the situation.  I sat down to have a conversation with Sam about it, and he gently reminded me I have only been here a few months and to stop giving myself a hard time about it. He is good at putting things back into perspective for me. I was able to let go of the frustration and enjoy the long bus ride home. I even sang a song in Arabic for the group with the help of one of my new friends. :-)

The day after arriving home I had a long day scheduled at work. Two interviews in different areas of the city and a meeting on campus. It was during the first interview, that the interviewee mentioned one of the greatest struggles of working in development is reminding the staff and yourself that there is a reason for hope. Not to become overwhelmed by the work to be done, or the lack of progress being made, but to remember why you started and celebrate even the small victories.  This coming the day after Easter (the day many people celebrate the greatest reason for hope), and after my long struggle of disappointment with my Arabic, was so encouraging. It is so easy to lose sight of a reason for hope, whether it is in your daily job, development work, homework, life, relationships, etc. 

Okay time to catch the bus, so I will finish this post later tonight :-). 

Picture update

The new slideshow on the sidebar is of my office and the new AUC campus! Hope you enjoy! More photos to follow soon!

The third car

I can't believe it has been 10 days since my last post! I am headed out tonight for a trip to the Red Sea for some R&R over the Easter holiday (Eastern Orthodox celebrates this weekend, and since that is the root of most churches here this is when it is recognized here)! 

These past few weeks I have spent a lot of time on the metro (subway as it is known in some areas of the world, the one here alternates between above ground and underground).  This is because I have been doing more and more interviews.  Instead of taking the bus out to campus, I travel downtown or across town to meet various NGO leaders. 

My time on the metro is hard, inspiring, and always eye opening.  The metro is very cheap, about 18 cents to anywhere on the line.  Because of the cheap cost, this is a popular way to travel for many of the lower income citizens. My ride to Doqqi takes about an hour.  At times the metro becomes so crowded that my feet don't touch the ground.  I stand suspended by bodies around me.  Segregation of sexes is a strong value here.  Especially if a woman is traveling alone (or not accompanied by a man).  So the third and fourth cars of the metro trains are dedicated to women only.  (If a man happens to jump in one at the last second as the doors are closing, they tend to blush and stare out the window, hoping for the next stop to come as quickly as possible so they can move cars). 

Being surrounded for an hour by people who live on such a small amount of money (probably 50 cents a day), always reminds me of how blessed I am to have a job, and the ability/health to work the job.  But I never leave the metro just feeling sorry for those around me, they inspire me.  I see women taking small children with them as they fight the crowds that I find difficult to get myself through.  Or the sensitivity of the women for each other, giving up the few seats for women who are elderly, pregnant, or physically challenged.  Or holding each others children so a mother can get a break, or entertaining a crying child to relieve a stressed mom. 

The hard part comes from being the foreigner.  When I step on the train, it doesn't matter what I am wearing, my appearance screams foreigner. Then there seems to be some unspoken rule when a person gets up from their seat, they choose the person to take their seat by motioning to someone standing.  I get the impression that because I am a foreigner it is assumed I am rich, therefore I shouldn't be riding the metro.  So why should I get a seat. (I know this isn't what all the ladies are thinking, and some even smile at me during the ride.  But since I am trying to be sensitive to culture, I don't want to step on toes if I can help it). So rarely do I get a seat.  The other day however, I was chosen. An elderly lady picked me, out of the 10 young girls standing in my area, to have her seat as she got up to leave the train.  I almost broke into tears. There is such an honor in being chosen when you least expect it. 

This post is a little messy.  Maybe because the metro ride is always so emotionally stretching for me that I am not sure how to put it all in words. But it has become such a routine part of my life, I wanted to capture at least a piece of it. 

The other side...

I am sitting here at my desk looking out the window to the desert, (it is a beautiful cool sunny day outside), enjoying the view and trying my best to remember what has filled the hours of my last week. Apparently this has become a once a week blog :-), well at least I am doing that much! I have some photos on my camera that I need to download as well. I was waiting until I got around to taking some more, but I have a feeling that I should go ahead and post some :-). So hopefully I can do that in the next few days.
What inspired this post was a statement made yesterday by a man I was interviewing about an NGO he started with a group of friends. He said something along the lines of when public speaking or speaking in front of a group there is a pressure to present your personal experiences in such a way that the audience will relate, or in an orderly process, but the truth of it is, the process is usually not orderly whether you are developing an NGO, or living day to day. So while the previous posts have been filled with stories of adventures and experiences, I feel the need to add a disclaimer that not all of my life here is portrayed in these posts. It is difficult to remember the tough moments once they have passed, or the fleeting thoughts of homesickness or lack of patience with cultural differences and miscommunications. So while this blog may make the grass here appear greener, this may not always be the case. The last few years I have been trying to learn that happiness/contentness is a state of mind you choose, not something you happen to fall into, and it is by God's grace we can choose this. And I am happy here :-).
Spring break begins this weekend. I will be working the first part of the week, but I think I will run away to the Red Sea for a few days to see if I can squeeze a dive or two in and relax on the sunny beach (my apologies to all of you who are still up to your eyeballs in snow ;-).
Since this post has been more my thoughts, than experiences I will leave you with this short story...the other day, after returning to Maadi (the area of town I live in) from a meeting downtown I stopped by RadioShak to pick up a powerstrip for my computer. After an interesting Arabic lesson with the salesman in which I learned the difference between mooza (banana) and moozah (pretty girl) (much to the anger and dismay of Sam), I was walking home and passed two boys 11-12 years old on the street. As they walked by me they grabbed ahold of the jacket in my hand and pulled it. I held onto it, but it made me so mad that I turned to run after them, yelling AYB ALEEK (where is your shame) at the top of my lungs, for those of you who have heard me yell, yes I am sure the entire 10 block radius heard me. People stopped to watch as I am sure it was a funny show to see a foreign girl running after two young boys. A man down the street stopped the boys, but at this point I had given up running in dress shoes and returned towards home. Another man stopped in his car to apologize to me for what the boys had done. I laughed at this experience as I retold it to Sam later, but he was horrified that this had happened in such a nice neighborhood. With a puzzled look on his face he asked, "how do all these things happen to you?". I guess I should have put a warning label on myself, "prone to unusual trying experiences and adventures". LOL! Please no worries...I am safe(not that I ever really felt in danger)! I made it home without any other adventures for the day.
I guess that is all for today! Thanks to you who are my faithful readers. I hope this blog is a glimpse of life outside the US.

Scuba and more

Wow! Another week has flown by! It is amazing how quickly life became "normal" here.

The scuba diving last week was amazing! I went down 30 meters/100 feet! The coral was beautiful and the fish amazing! I took a few classes to improve my scuba skills...the deep dive (you do math skills and motor skills to show the effect of narcosis at 30 meters)...and the drift dive (you allow a drift current to carry you along a long distance so you can cover more ground and see more beauty)! They were both breath-taking! Sharks had been spotted in the area both days we were diving (at the Blue Hole Dahab- an internationally known diving location) but unfortunately they decided to stay away from us, so my excitement was limited to octopus, coral, blow fish, lionfish, etc. :-) too bad. I have a hard time conserving my air underwater... I blame it on how fast the guys all swim and I have to kick 4 times to their 1 to keep up...haha...so on my last dive I ran low on air and had to use my buddies alternative (don't worry at this point we were only 5 meters under water) and this is the reason for all the review and practice, so no danger just me giving myself a hard time about not being as good as the guys :-). They have promised to help me improve my proficiency so I can dive longer and not use as much air! Yipeee! Since I am still improving my diving skills I do not get to use a camera underwater yet, but I promise pictures as soon as I take the underwater photography course!

I returned back to Cairo a day early and spent a day sleeping to catch up from all the diving/traveling exhaustion...and then it was back to the normal work week. But a normal work week here is not boring :-)! Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview a fairly famous man here in Cairo and international known in France and U.K. (He is even on wikipedia- the ultimate fame test. jk) My coworker and I will meet with him again next week to continue our interview and oral history recording. (Basically it is just asking him questions to get him talking about his life and then I get to sit back and listen to the stories for as long as he feels like talking :-) such fun!) I always enjoyed biographies and hearing people's life stories of how they got to where they are in life and who influenced them.

Last night my roommate and I went to the market to go grocery shopping. Her vocab this week is fruits/veggies/meat so we took extra time in the store pointing at everything and saying its name in Arabic. This is my strongest area of vocab so it was fun because I could keep up for once.

Well time to go catch the bus! See ya later!

my job :-)

As a person who loves to learn, I was always impressed when I heard someone was a Research Fellow. It was almost as if they had acheived a status in life when they didn't have to "work" for a living, but could spend their day "googling" to their hearts content about subjects the rest of us only dreamed of getting the chance to learn about. While it wasn't on my top 5 jobs to have (honestly I never thought I would be qualified for such a job since my writing skills are not the best), I was very excited when the opportunity came up to work with the Economic and Business History Research Centre at the American University in Cairo.

My job is very much like writing a term/research paper. Only the deadlines are more flexible, and the topic can evolve more so than for an assignment that you have to stick to the outline you turn in the first week of the class and four months later realize the subject is a dead end. Currently I am researching the first microfinance NGO that was completely funded by Egyptian finances and volunteers: Fathet Kheir. As well as looking into social entrepreneurship here in Egypt, microfinance as a whole, and other NGOS. The first few weeks were slow as I learned more about my topic, but now I getting into normal routine and realizing research has its slow and busy times just like any other job. Overall...so far...I am enjoying my job!

Tomorrow is another holiday :-)! Yipee! A three day weekend! Some friends and I are going to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the long weekend and head to the Red Sea tonight. I will be taking my second scuba diving course to get my advanced open water certification with PADI! This means by the end of the weekend I will be able to dive up to 100 ft/30 m! Will take pictures to post soon!

Day to day

I have offically been here two weeks! Hard to believe!

One of the things that I love the most about Egypt is the people: their generosity, warm welcoming spirit, enjoyment of each others company, the absence of the American rush to get things done. (Life moves at such a different pace here, not that it can be described as slower or faster as in the difference between St. Louis and Kansas, but perhaps smoother, with more liquidity. There is no switch that is required from work to personal to religion to family, it all blends so closely that you don't notice the change.) Since my arrival a number of Egyptians that I just met have offered to help me with anything I need. Inviting me to their homes for weekend getaways, or over for a meal. I love it!

It took me about 10 days to get on the right sleep/eat schedule. I would be wide awake in the mornings, but by 2 pm I couldn't keep my eyes open without propping them open with toothpicks, and again by 8 pm I would be dying for sleep, but come 10 pm I would be wide awake until 3 am. But now I am back to normal, needing a coffee just to keep my eyes open all day! :-) The effects of having stayed up too late watching tv, talking with my roommate, or going out. As I write this my body is screaming Caffeine! Please! or SLEEP! which definitely sounds the better of the two :-)

My normal routine here during the work week (Sun-thur) is wake up at 5:30 am to get ready, then be at the bus stop at 7:15. It is about a 45 minute bus ride to campus. The new campus is located out on the edge of town (the old one was right in the middle). Once on campus I sometimes stop for that coffee then head to the office. My work day is from 8:15-8:30 am until 3:30 pm. (I will write more about my job in another post.) At 3:30 I climb back onto the bus for the trip home, depending on traffic I get back to the bus stop between 4:30-5. My flat is only about a 5-8 minute walk. Once home I usually crash for an hour to quiet the scream of my body for sleep or caffine :-). My roommate gets home usually around 7 and we fix supper and watch some tv. (Some of the tv shows are old reruns of House, CSI, ER, etc. but American Idol is usually that week's episode.) Overall I would say my usual routine is fairly close to what it was at home. :-) At least until the weekends come :-).

Hope you have a great day!

P.S. The chocolate chip cookies turned out half-way decent! Yipee! Just a few tweaks and they will be almost as good as my brother's!

No Room for Pride...

So I think the first rule of living in another country is having no pride-keeping a learning spirit-being able to laugh at yourself all rolled into one...

This week has been filled with humorous lessons that can either cause me frustration or I can learn to laugh at myself....

Simple things that I have done for most of my life (laundry, cooking, shopping) can easily make me look like a fool. :-) 

Okay so I will start the explanation with laundry.  My flat has a washing machine in it (Yipeee!), however it is a front loader with only one dial on the front and a drawer for the detergent. (Oh by the way, there are very faded picture instructions on how to operate this antique, but unfortunately they are so faded they do not assist me) Opening the door is easy enough to figure out, but then the challenges start....In the drawer for the detergent is three slots, which one does the detergent go in I wonder?...I choose the first one, seems reasonable enough...I put my clothes in and search the machine for a temperature gauge, finding none I assume that the machine must be cold water only. The only dial has numbers 1-17 with occasional breaks in the numbering where it says stop.  I assume these are for different cycles, but again I am not sure which is which, so I guess again...1 seems to be a good idea again since it is the beginning.  Two hours later the washing machine finally stops running.  I reach in to pull my clothes out and they are really hot to the touch, (this is a bad thing since they are darks) and I notice a few of my things are now all the same shade of purple! Okay seriously I have done laundry for at least 15 years, and none of my clothes are new enough to bleed, but evidently when you wash clothes in 95 degree water something is bound to bleed. I hang my clothes out to dry (btw if you know how to get jeans soft even when hanging them on the line please let me know :-) and go back to study the faded instructions...somehow I make out that the different numbers are indeed different cycles based on water temperature and slot one for the detergent is for prewash, slot two for regular, etc. Oh well you learn something new everyday :-)

In our kitchen we have a gas stove/oven. Like the washing machine it is ancient, but it works! The dials on the front have no numbers (acutally there are no dials on the front just metal knobs LOL!) so it is complete guess work when it comes to cooking.  Big flame=boiling, mid flame (if you are talented enough to get one)=not burning or underdone, small flame=this could take hours to finish cooking :-).  Same with the oven, but at least it is a kitchen! And I finally complete d my search of the city for all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies so tomorrow or Monday we will celebrate with our first attempt at cookies in our temperamental oven! (Btw I must acknowledge my deep gratitude to my roommate who helped me search 4 stores for baking soda...who would have known to look for biocarbonate next to the garlic?) 

Please do not think this is how all flats here in Egypt are :-). Just like the US you have places that are more up to date than others. I chose this flat because it fit my salary and although the furniture/appliances haven't been updated since 1970 :-) it is still home for now. 

I love hearing from you! Hope you found some humor in my stories. 

Another Glimpse

LOL! Okay so it just took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to make this keyboard stop typing in Hindi (an Indian language, not Egyptian), and another 5 minutes to figure out which Arabic word to click on to create a post...yep a lot of things here are trial and error, just one of the reasons you are excited when you complete one thing a day on your to do list. :-)

Yesterday was a national holiday here! Yipee! A day off of work! Not that work is much yet, I am still learning about the project I will be working on, but still a day off is a day off! Sa7? (Right?) The weekends here are Friday and Saturday, so just 3 days left in the work week!

Back home I would be given a hard time occasionally for my tendency to run late for almost everything, here it comes in handy :-) ! An example: on Sat. I met with a guy who works with CEF (my former employer) here in Egypt. He has a car, so he was nice enough to meet me in my area of town (Cairo has a recorded population of 18 million people, so the city is quite large). We agreed to meet at 11 am at a coffee shop not to far from my flat. It is about a 20 minute walk to this coffee shop and keeping with my habit of being a few minutes late, I left the flat at about 5 minutes til 11. Just as I was leaving the flat I received a call from him saying that he was on his way but it would be another 20 minutes or so before he would be at the coffee shop. LOL! Of course you can't say this is for all Egyptians, but it definitely helps if you are flexible with time here.

I am still learning the area around my flat, but it is a good area to be in. There is a small grocier, a coffee shop, bank, electronics store, music store, veggie stand, fruit stand, juice store, etc all within a mile or so. And as I mentioned before, there is an unusual amount of foreigners in my area, which has some interesting results. :-) Aside from the clothing differences, I have also noticed that there are quite a few dogs in our area. It is strange to hear dogs barking here all of the time, because normally people do not have dogs as pets (cats are the preferred pet here). But alas the foreigner in me is strong :-) and I too would love to have a dog.

The weather here has been a beautiful 65-80 degrees! With cool evenings! I haven't made it to the Red Sea yet...:-) but hopefully soon!

Arrival and first week :-)

It is hard to believe a week has almost passed already. Wow! Time has gone so quickly! This week has already been full of stories, experiences, laughs and lessons. So many that I am afraid I have already forgotten. I will try to be more diligent in getting it written down so you may enjoy it with me. Thank you for all your prayers, emails, and postings that so many of you have already sent. This is just the beginng of the journey :-), come along for the adventure! 

All my flights went well, and I arrived in the middle of the night last Sunday, along with all three of my bags! Woohoo! With three flight connections, it has become routine to loose a bag or two along the way. Since Sunday I have settled into my new flat. It is in a very different part of town than what I am used to, many more foreigners are in the area.  Today I even saw foreigners wearing shorts out on the street.  Although it was probably 80 degrees today, you just don't see very many people wear shorts here in Egypt, except of course at the Sea :-). 

That is just a quick note of the beginning of my time here. I will post more in the following days! I hope to post some new pictures as well!