9/30/09

This week we are having home stays. This pretty much entails hooking every student up with an Egyptian family and then just sending us off. Some of them speak English and some don’t. Some are Coptic, some are Muslim. Some are big families and some very small. They are from all over Cairo, with some students taking an hour and a half to get back to the Villa for classes. One guy is even staying with a family that has had some gang involvement. It has been amazing so far.

I am staying with a guy named Sherif Gamil. He speaks broken English, and he lives by himself. This is very rare in Egyptian culture because they are so family oriented. But his whole family passed away, with his mother being the most recent three years ago. But he is a really cool guy. We hang out at his flat or out on the town at night. So far I have had an awesome time and hopefully will have some pretty sweet stories by the end of the week.

One thing that has been really helpful with these home stays is that we get extreme Arabic practice. My Arabic has increased more in the past two days than it has over the past two weeks.

We have also been able to engage a lot in the Coptic culture while we have been here. It is really cool to here how they are so ingrained in Egypt’s history that you really can’t separate the two, and yet most Christians have never heard of these brothers and sisters. I have come to admire their traditions and beliefs and they have given me such a new insight into my own personal faith.

Well, I got to get back to Sherif so until next time…

Dahab and Mt. Sinai

September 17, 2009

So this past weekend was absolutely amazing! Wednesday night, we all packed onto a bus and headed out for an overnight trip. We arrived at Mount Sinai at 2 in the morning and started out on a hike. We hiked for about 2 and a half hours til we got to the top of the mount and we were there for the sunrise. That was absolutely spectacular. Then we hiked down and headed out to Dahab.

I don’t think that I will be able to call any place beautiful again after seeing Dahab and the Red Sea. It was easily the most beautiful view I have ever seen. The blue was deeper and clearer than anyone could imagine. We went snorkeling at a place called the Blue Hole. It is a reef that forms a hole about 20 meters wide and hundreds of feet down. The coral was in every color imaginable with fish and sea turtles. In the background you have the red mountains of the Sinai Peninsula. Across the sea you are able to see the Saudi Arabian shore. It was majestic!

We spent the majority of Friday there and just walking the beaches. We had dinner on the roof of a restaurant under the moon. Then we left Saturday and made it home late that night.

Things have gotten extremely busy this past week. Once we got back we had lecture after lecture and our readings have piled up. We have so many readings and papers that it is getting to be overwhelming with trying to do all of it and take in Egypt at the same time. Hopefully we can get it all done.

Tonight we are leaving for Luxor on an overnight train. We are there for the weekend so I should have some pics from that sometime next week. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

Maa Salaama

Quick Note...

9/8/09

Today was another service project day out at the orphanage. It was a lot of fun and we talked with some of the sisters and decided to put on a skit for the elderly women next week. A little nervous about that, but it should be a blast.

We are headed out to Mt Sinai this weekend so I will update after we get back.

Peace