airif hamawetak! (you know, I kill you!)

The last few days…

Tuesday: I went out to Nasr City for training. Farek – our hotel taxi driver friend agreed to take me out there. After dodging through traffic and hunting for the address, we found the school. I went in and immediately saw several seemingly very happy and friendly higabed (wearing headscarves) women. The quickly ushered me into Miss Shelly’s class. Miss Shelly is a larger blue-eyed American woman in full Islamic robe and higab. She was teaching a class of 9-10 year olds. Her teenage daughter came in soon and started talking to me as well. It turns out this family moved from Virginia to Gaza to Egypt (because the conditions were so bad in Gaza). Miss Shelly is American and her husband is Palestinian.

I watched a class of teenagers after this (the boys were awful and the girls were terrible suck-ups). Then they fed me a hotdog sandwich (interesting stuff, let me tell you). I met another girl who was 16 and moved her from the states indefinitely with her mother. She doesn't think she'll ever go back because of the stares that a woman in full Muslim dress gets there, not to mention the death threats and comments like, "are you related to Osama bin Laden?" She asked me if I was Muslim. I informed her, "no I'm a Christian" (I learned later evidently the only one working there). She then asks me, "what do you think about Islam?" (umm what kind of a question is that?) I tell her I'm interested in it and she then proceeds to tell me all the books she will bring me to learn about it, she has ALL the Muslim books in English. They also all proceed to show me this virtual tarot card reader on the internet named Peter who uncannily answers every question you ask it, but I think the trick has to do with the person typing... hmmm

So I met this awesome group of teenage teachers down on the street and they bought me pineapple juice, water, and helped me buy a cell phone (and pick out a good number). I felt kinda bad for this other teacher that had just come from California like two weeks ago but lived next to the school and basically never left the building, even on his day off, because he was scared of the language barrier. I mean he paid people to get food for him. Weird.

So after that I watched an adult class and realized, hey I can totally do this. It really is pretty easy looking, and everyone is extremely nice, although perhaps a bit eager to convert me to Islam or ask me out, as the gender and case may be. They did give me awesome advice though from: "watch out for the men, they just want your blue eyes and a visa" to "don't drink the water" to "don't go fishing in the Nile with a net" to "you can get sushi in Cairo." Although I won't be working in that branch most likely.

So after this I met up with Freddie, this is my Egyptian friend from Calvin, and it was super weird seeing each other out of context. Like neither of us belonged there for the other person. Ok anyway, I watched him and his church friends play soccer forever on this crazy clay field at a church in the middle of all the Cairene high rise apartment buildings, we had a good catch up talk and his best friend drove us to this drive in fast food place, haha, and then took me home, American music through all of its history playing on the radio. So weird! Being in a car in Cairo (this was my first time I think) is so much different than any other experience I've had of the place. I talked to my old host brother Mohammed on the phone, its so weird having a phone here with like five numbers in it, and I can talk to people I couldn't talk to in the states but can't talk to people I could in the states. Argh.

So yesterday Eunice came in and immediately our driver Farek told her she must change her name because it sounds exactly like a man's name in Arabic (the English equivalent is Jonah, from the Bible/Qur'an). Her arabic name is now Euni, haha. Farek also explained to us why Egyptians say "welcome to Alaska" and "I kill you!" so frequently, as well as how to succesfully use that phrase in arabic conversation without offending, not that Egyptians seemingly ever get offended. So last night we went out for some gourmet kosheri again at Abu Tarek and caught up on the last two years, where our waiter discretely slipped Alissa two movie tickets in a tourist guide, haha. Then we went out for some tea and hookah (shai w shisha) at this awesome place in a side alley that allows women. I felt totally relaxed for probably the first time since I got here, and not just from the shisha I don't think. These little kids started climbing all over us demanding food, money, attention, and pictures. We gave them a little of each until a man that worked there picked up this little toddler by the arm and hauled him through the air to the other side of the street. Crazy! But evidently the kid was fine, and used to it.

Today I spent most of the day learning arabic from the guys that work at our hotel after Amir told us last night to please not waste our time here because we won't learn arabic unless we really want to and we won't learn it in the states. Ali, my favorite of the guys that work here, this smiley old skinny man that barely speaks English taught me a ton of vocab, and was really excited about it, and wrote it all down for me. He taught me basically every object in the hotel and the human body and quizzed me about it all day. Eunice and I went to our favorite chain coffee shop here and now she's passed out from jet lag, Alissa's at a movie premier at the opera house with her ambassador friends from the Arab league and I'm sitting in our dark room avoiding this sketchy Nigerian who forced excessive amounts of peanuts on me and now wants to "go into business" together. Sketch. Although, there was a peanut in the mouth tossing competition that was pretty amusing among me and this other non-sketchy Nigerian and Farek and Amir that work there which I'm sad had to end.

So conclusions on life in Cairo so far:

1. You can't control anything. This makes it much easier to live in the moment, and if you can deal with ambiguity and chaos makes life much more laid back and fun, which is what I love about it.

2. This forces people living here and visiting to adapt what Alissa calls, "a certain Egyptian fatalism." Example: "I might die today in about 100 different ways, its alright, as God wills it."

3. People here love each other. They especially love children and old people and seemingly foreigners. This means any old woman can be walking down the street, whisper something to a strange young man loitering with his friends and yelling at girls next to her and he immediately helps her up onto the curb, telling her to go with peace (I saw this the other day). Everybody also kisses everybody's children and makes sure they stay out of trouble. This does not mean they stay out of trouble.

ok I think that's enough for now...