The holiday season

Another few weeks have passed so I figure it’s time for another update on goings on here in Egypt. Since my last post I’ve had a visit from my grandparents, made a little progress on my work here, and had a week holiday as most of the country celebrates the Eid el-Adha, the holiday on the Muslim calendar that is equal in significance to Christmas.

To start, I got to spend part of an evening with my grandparents while they made a brief stop in Aswan as part of a two-week tour of Egypt and Israel. While it was a short visit it was great to see people from home, as well as receive a hand delivered care package. While I appreciate any mail sent my way, this tops them all as amongst a few special requests I put in myself, my mom sent along a gingerbread house kit for me to put together. For anyone who is aware of this longstanding tradition in my family you’ll know how happy I was. I spend the better part of an evening putting this masterpiece together. It doesn’t really fit my current context, living in the desert, but it’s a little piece of home.

On the work side of things I’ve been able to work with a translator over the past few weeks and will continue to do so for the rest of my stay. My Arabic continues to improve (I think), but I obviously have a long way to go. She has been really great, not only for bringing more clarity to communication between myself and my coworkers, but also great enthusiasm and friendship. Since she has started it feels like there is a growing mutual understanding of the work we’re trying to do which should help things move along more smoothly in the next few weeks as well try and complete some of the stories we’re developing with the kids.

Leaving the best for last, I spent much of last week in a desert oasis in the far Northwest of the country. I traveled to Siwa, a small town on the edge of the Great Sand Sea, aka the Sahara Desert. An amazingly peaceful place on the edge of the desert I met up with friends, made new ones, and had a great time along the way. We spent a day in the desert, rented bikes to explore the oasis, and ate great food…way too much of it I might add.

me in the desert

Emily on top of the Shali ruins

Brianna and I in a very cold spring

Even the donkeys get to relax in Siwa

I'm now back at work in Aswan where it is much warmer than the desert.  I know I get no sympathy from those of you back in Canada, but my body has started to acclimatize and winter isn't so hot here, especially at night.  The next few weeks will be busy with work which will keep me busy as I count down the days until my parents arrive on the 31st!

Another learning experience

Working at EACID I’ve been able to learn a lot about working directly with those receiving the benefits of international development assistance. Last week I was able to see another side of the development system when two representatives from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) came to visit the project. Richard and Reem were up from Cairo and we spent most of the morning on Saturday with Dr. Mamdouh, EACID’s director, and the CIDA reps. After that they heard from the kids who had put together a puppet show about the project and got a demonstration of the computer game that has been developed to teach kids business ethics before we all got into a taxi to visit some of the business that are receiving loans from EACID and who have children working there who participate in PPIC Work programming.

The evening had a more relaxed feel to it, we took a felucca ride at sunset which, even thought it was my third time, never disappoints. The difference this time was that the water level has dropped considerably and we had a small problem getting upstream at different points. One time we had to back the boat up and taking a running start but we made it with a little extra work from the motor.

The next morning’s meeting was more forward looking at the plans once the current project ends in June. I was also able to share the work I’ve started here with the photo documentation with a presentation from some of the kids and then an explanation of some of the steps were trying to take now. The visit ended on a very positive note and was quite successful. After all of the preparation I think it was a relief for some to hear the positive response. The principles of the project were really well received and continue to push into areas that many organizations don’t believe are possible to do with any level of success.

It is looking like I'll be around to see some of our activities through a little longer than expected.  Project activities will be wrapping up in June and the details are coming together for me to stay on a little longer than the original plan of finishing up my work at the end of January.

A weekend in Cairo

Two weekends ago I took a little trip to Cairo for a change of scenery and to see friends. It still blows my mind that I went to Cairo for the weekend, and talk about it like it is nothing out of the ordinary. While I went for the weekend, it is by no means close by. It took a little over 13 hours on the train, which probably sounds long and uncomfortable, but the sleeper trains that travel over night are quite comfortable and you can get a half decent sleep while saving a lot by not flying. Dinner and breakfast are included in the ticket and the beds were comfy. All in all, a good experience.

I arrived in Cairo, known as a chaotic, dirty, polluted and crowded, and found almost none of these things. The haze I remembered was still hanging over the city, and is a little worse at this time of year when the fields nearby are being burned, but the city had a feeling of relative calm and quiet. This is the beauty of a Friday morning in Egypt before noon time prayers after which the city really comes back to life. As well, the trip on the metro after leaving the train station and the short walk to Rachel's flat was familiar, lessening the feeling of chaos I often felt in my first few weeks here. After making a tentative plan for the day Rachel and I met Reem (another colleague who lives in Cairo) for breakfast. Reem took us to a little diner where we had an 'american' breakfast...bacon and eggs with hashbrowns and toast, and free refills on the coffee. Our next stop was al-Ahzar park for a potluck picnic for Carolyn, Akino, and Rike, friends who by tomorrow morning will all have left Egypt for the foreseeable future. Round two of the goodbye gatherings happened on the rooftop terrace of a downtown hotel, after which I fell right to sleep (the sleep on the train was good, but not that good).

Saturday we mixed a little work into the weekend and went to Doweika, where a week or so of training for new staff was wrapping up, but by Sunday I was back to exploring more of the city. Carolyn, Rachel and I visited the home of two of the n

ew staff in Doweika who later took us through their neighborhood to an amazing amphitheatre church carv

ed in to the mountain. The community in the area is about 80% Coptic Christian and it is also home to a group called the

 zabaleen, the community of people known to be some of the world's best recyclers, making it their daily work to collect the garbage of the city of 20 million, bringing it back to their home where it is sorted and recycled. While they do provide an important service to the city, they are often sorting decomposing materials in or just outside of their homes and they also have to live with the smell on a daily basis. Once we finished there I left Rachel and Carolyn and took the metro to Coptic Cairo to visit 3rd and 4th century churches in old cairo. It was the most hassle free tourism I had experienced so far I Egypt where you take a set of stairs down below street level and wander narrow passage ways finding small churches around corners and in small doors in the wall.

The last stop of the day before getting to the train station for my ride back was the grocery store, supplemented by Rachel’s fridge, for things that I haven’t been able to find in Aswan. Those of you who I traveled with in South Africa will understand why peanut butter has been a highlight of the week.

A better picture

So my last few posts have been less than visually stimulating, mostly because my the internet connections I've been using haven't been strong enough to upload pictures...even at McDonalds (it's the only remotely western establishment here, it opened last spring...and offers free wireless and delivery). Hopefully this gives everyone a better picture, literally, of life in Aswan.

A shop in the market selling a variety of things 

including spices, dates, pumice, etc...

                                                             

One of the many horse and buggy combos around 

town, used for tourists and weddings

A man smoking sheesha from a water pipe...extremely 

bad for your health but a permanent part of cafe life

The produce stand where I buy 

my fruits and vegetables

Natasha, Reem, and I on a sunset felucca ride...normally

 I'd be smiling with my teeth but I've got a mouth full of cookie

Playing the Menno Game

For the most part, as I go about my day here in Aswan I don't expect to have many conversations in English, never mind meet people who know my grandparents or who went to high school with my parents and their siblings.  But, as I'm learning to anticipate here in Egypt, you have to expect the unexpected and the unexpected happened last Friday when the MEDA tour group came to town.  The fact that it was a MEDA tour group kind of takes away from what would otherwise have been a chance encounter but it was somewhat ironic anyway. And, as always happens when you discover you're in the company of another Mennonite from the same city, you have to find out whether you know any of the same people or if you might even be related.  I found no relatives but the rest played out as it usually does.  One of the couples knew my grandparents, and the tour leader went to school with my Uncle Herb and knew both my parents.  It's a small world after all!

The MEDA tour is an opportunity for MEDA supporters and friends to experience another country while visiting MEDA supported projects around the world.  The group that arrived last Friday morning to visit the EACID office and meet some of the children involved in programing were a combination of first time and repeat visitors to Egypt.  The children presented some of what they have been learning and the key components of the program, followed by a Q&A time for tour members to have their questions answered by both the kids and staff.  At that point all but two of the group headed off to get some sleep.  The couple who had been on the tour last year stayed for another hour or so to share some photography skills with the kids who have really taken to using the cameras that were donated with funds brought along with them during the previous tour.  The kids had a blast, including Mohamed who had the chance to use Delmar's professional quality camera.  Hopefully they will be just as excited when we start trying to help them document their stories through pictures in the coming weeks.

Starting to feel like home

Any time you move to a new place you have to expect to feel out of place, out of sorts, and that everything is unfamiliar. Put that together with moving to a foreign country and you add a whole other dimension to the feeling of being an outsider that doesn’t quite belong. One of these things is not like the other? So you wait and watch for the small moments when something feels normal or familiar that tell you that maybe you can feel at home in your new surroundings. Yesterday evening as I unlocked the door and entered my flat and wondered where the smile on my face had come from I realized that I had just experienced one of those moments.

The rest of the story requires a little background. On my second day here I stepped into one of the many spice stores in the market looking for the basics…it’s amazing how little you can make when you have no salt, pepper, sugar. The man working there spoke English and gave me his business card in case I needed anything, but having my guard up in a strange place I tossed the card into the bottom of my bag and hadn’t thought of it since. That was until I decided that I wanted to make chicken noodle soup from scratch and needed some dried parsley. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at the shops near my building I ventured a little farther to first store I had been in since half the problem was that I didn’t know the word for parsley in Arabic. While the man I had originally met wasn’t there, another man, who also spoke English, and French for that matter, was and said that while he didn’t have any he could get it for me if I could come back later in the evening. So, a few hours later I ventured out to the market once again. This time they were both there although not with the dried parsley I was looking for. Apparently dried parsley can’t be bought here, but he did have some fresh parsley, which is not at all hard to find, he said would dry out in about 3 days. That was besides the point though as the first man I had met started asking me questions about the correspondence course he was taking and was studying for there in the shop. The next 45 minutes involved him pulling up a stool for me to sit on, asking someone to bring me some tea, then asking me explaining the price elasticity of demand lesson he was working on and other related topics I learned 4 years ago in Intro Microeconomics. As I got up to leave having reached the end of the handout he was working on he asked if the next lesson could be tomorrow…to which I gave the typical Egyptian response, God willing.

The feeling that I was no longer stranger here was already setting in when, as I had almost reached my street I heard a familiar voice and looked up to see one of the loan officers from the office, only adding to feeling that I might actually belong here.

Getting down to business

My work at EACID in Aswan is now fully underway with the end of Ramadan and the Eid holidays. The past week was a flurry of activity as all of PICC Work’s staff were in Aswan for a variety of meetings and a training from Street Kids International. My week was mostly spent with a film maker/editor named Ahmed Hassouna, filming various aspects of the project along with stories from the kids and staff about the project. It was a good opportunity both to further ground myself in the different parts of the project and the work that has already been done, as well as to get to know the people and places that are now my home. The videos that will eventually be finished in a few months are to highlight the impact of the safety and hazard mitigation training, the use of a business simulation computer game, and the individual stories of a couple of the kids who have been part of the project from the beginning. I got to visit three different businesses, a home bakery, a carpentry shop, and a laundry facility. In two of the cases I had already met the kids and so got to get to know them a little better. The visits also allowed me to visit parts of the city that I would otherwise never frequent since aren’t in walking distance and my central location means I don’t have to walk far to get what I need. That is one disadvantage to my central location, that it feels a bit like a commercial bubble that isolates me from the experience of the majority of people living here. This may be a feeling I’ve created, but I feel this way regardless.

Sunday things will return to normal and it will be just me and the EACID Aswan staff. They are all really great and I’ll be putting my Arabic to good use, the little that I have so far that is. I’m really excited to get started on the photo documentation work I’m here for, as well as all the other things in between that come up with the kind of work I’m doing. It means that every day is different and there is little time to get comfortable in any routine, keeping me on my toes!

Some time under the sun

I've now been in Egypt for a full month and October will bring about a few changes to the normal routine...although the last month hasn't quite been what I'd call routine.  Ramadan has ended with yesterday and today being holidays for everyone, so the streets are full and everyone is out.  Things have been a little slow in starting up since Ramadan slowed everything down, but this allowed me to join Rachel, together with her mom and aunt who were visiting for a couple weeks, for a little sightseeing.  I met them on the Red Sea coast in Hurgada which involved a 3.5 hour train ride to Luxor and then a 6 hour bus ride to Hurgada.  We stayed at a small hotel on the water and spent the first day lounging on the beach and getting massages, and then the second day we spent the day on a boat visiting different reefs for some great snorkeling.

After three nights there we went on to Luxor which is located on the Nile between Cairo and Aswan and spent a day and a half exploring some temples in the city and then the west bank of the river where the valley of the kings was built.  We arrived at our hotel around 2pm and then went out to take some pictures of the Luxor temple.  You are able to get in to see it right up close but we didn't feel like paying and you can get pretty close from the outer fence anyway.  This was followed by an amazing meal at a place called the Oasis Cafe, which was very relaxing and had excellent food if not a slightly overly friendly waiter.  The next day

 we were up early to attempt to beat the heat...a lost cause if you ask me...to visit the West Bank.  Our guide for the day was Mohammed who has his masters in egyptology and he was excellent.  Our first stop was the valley of the kings where the pharaohs were buried.  They keep eleven tombs per year on a rotation and a ticket in lets you see three of them.  We also paid a little extra to see the tomb of Tutankamon because they actually had his mummy on display in his tomb.  So after seeing those four tombs we moved on to see 

Hatshepsut's Temple, significant because she was the only female to rule Egypt, although she did so dressed as a man.  The last stop was the tombs of the workers who built all the tombs in the valley.  When they started building tombs they moved ten families permanently to the west bank and they were never allowed back to the other side so that they couldn't give away the secrets they knew about the tombs.  On their one day off during the week (a week then was 10 days) they would work on their own tombs which are amazing since obviously you'd take much more care with your own tomb than that of another, even if it was for a pharaoh.

That evening we took the longest train ride you could imagine back to Aswan.  What was only supposed to take 3.5 hours took about 7...3 of which were for the last 10km of the trip.  That then brings us to yesterday when, after sleeping in since we only went to bed at 3am, we went out for lunch, rested in the afternoon for a bit and then took Rachel's mom and aunt to the Nubian museum while we had some juice at a hotel close by.  Then today we went to see the Philae Temple which is on an island between the two dams south of town.  The actually moved it while the dam was under construction to a higher island as the one it was originally on is now almost completely submerged.  So now, we've dropped Jan and Betty at the airport and are back at the flat and will be getting ready for a workshop that will start in a few days.  Rachel will be staying with me until the 7th and I'll be glad to have the company.  After a nice holiday hopefully I remember how to work!

A bird's eye view

So directly in front of me when I look out from my balcony is an ugly hotel but if you look to the left or the right you see the Nile or the city...the Nile to the left, city to the right.  So I try to look to one side or the other because the view is much more pleasant.

Home Sweet Home

Now this blog can officially be called Adventures in Aswan because I moved in Thursday night! It was a bit of an adventure getting here, our plane had technical difficulties so we got to sit in a hot airplane for almost an hour past our departure time. After we finally got in the air things went smoothly, but it is a little strange arriving in a new city in the middle of the night…I didn’t leave the airport until a little after 1 am. The director of EACID met me at the airport and took me to my new flat. It feels really big for one person so it’s good that I’ll have visitors now and then. It’s right downtown and when standing on my balcony the is in front and to the right, and on the left is the Nile! I’m also only a couple streets over from the main market street and about a 15 minute walk to the office.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. I tried to sleep in but my window faces east and needless to say I’m going to need to figure out a better way of blocking out the sun than the tissue paper like covers the windows have right now. I spent most of today cleaning, not that the place was dirty but it hasn’t been lived in in the last little while and since the is pretty much in the dessert things can get a little dusty. So after sweeping and moping the whole place I decided I need a few essentials so I took a walk around the block and came back with a case of bottled water and toilet paper. Very exciting I know, but I go through water like crazy here. My next task was the kitchen which I figured I should wipe down before starting to keep food in. one I had finished that I needed some food so I went looking for that next. It’s a little more difficult than walking into a grocery store…no one stop shopping here. And I think I’m the only non-Egyptian buying things other than souvenirs so I’ve been getting some funny looks.

Today i was able to sleep in a little...till 9:30 as opposed to 6...so I guess I just needed to get used to a new place. Had a shower and was please to find out that the water heater works, and I've got great water pressure. I then went out to find some more food, things like sugar, pepper, salt, etc...it's amazing how much there is to buy when you're starting from nothing. I also found a good fruit stand and bought mangos, pomegranate, and apples.
Right now I’m thankful for less traffic, air conditioning in my bedroom, living by the water, and the Arabic lessons I took in Cairo…they’re already coming in handy. I feel some how that I belong here a little more now that I can communicate without needing someone else to speak English. I actually understand Egyptians better than the foreigners around here who are mostly European.

And finally for those of you who are interested some pictures of my new abode...

As promised...pictures from the last week

ALEXANDRIA

Caroyln, Rike, Max and Akino on the train to Alexandria

Akino and Rike sitting along the Corniche

me in front of the pool in front of the library....it took

 everything in me not to want to jump right in!

the sun starting to set over the harbour 

with Fort Qaitbey in the background

KHAN AL-KHALILI (Islamic Cairo)

The moon over al-Ahzar Mosque from the steps

 of the underground pedestrian walkway

vehicles speeding down packed alleyways faster

than my camera shutter can capture the light

Bab Zuweyla, the last remaining southern

 gate into the medieval city of Al-Qahira

 from the roof of the al-Muayyad Mosque

the non-tourist Khan market...much less hassle, but people kept telling us we were wanted the bazaar and were going in the wrong direction.  Kind of sad that they don't think foreigners would be interested in a market that doesn't cater to tourists

Breathing Deep

Week two in Cairo has come and gone and I feel much more comfortable in my surroundings.  Still no real routine to speak of except for my daily arabic lessons.  Julie and Jennifer, two MEDA staff were around for four days having discussions about new potential projects in the country.  We had dinner with them one night and had a couple meetings.  One of those was meeting the accountant and his family at their home.  It was a great evening with some of the most hospitable people I've met here.  Egyptians are in general very hospitable and this was another experience of that.  He also works with MCC in Egypt and so I may have a chance to connect with them while I'm here which could come in handy when I'm looking for traveling companions as there will be no shortage of things to see here.

The highlight of the week was a day trip to Alexandria with Carolyn (Rachel's roommate and therefore mine for the time being) and a few of her coworkers.  It's a three hour train ride north to the sea.  We got there at 11 am and booked a return trip for just before 9 pm and then set off to explore the city.  As a place that has been held by many different civilizations including the romans, and being just across the water from Greece, it has a much more European feel.  There was still lots of traffic, but less than Cairo, and most of all no smog!  There were a few clouds in the sky, but otherwise it was clear, and hot enough to get a little extra sun on my face.  We grabbed a coffee at a square near the water and then sat along the corniche (the street along the water no matter which city you're in).  We also got to see the great library (from the outside) that they have there, as well as some catacombs and Fort Quaitbey.  The catacombs were discovered when a donkey fell through the ground of an archeological dig and were at one time the resting place of 300 mummies.  In use since roman times you can see from the carvings on the walls which period different areas were from, Christian, Roman and Egyptian.  We sat along the water to watch the sun set and then ordered fresh fish at a restaurant before catching our train back to Cairo.  All in all a relaxing day withr room to breathe, sea breezes, and good company.

Saturday was a down day, and then Sunday I met with Richard (my sometimes in-country manager) to discuss some logistics, both regarding my move to Aswan and getting started on my work here.  Yesterday and today have involved a couple more meetings, a my new phone up and finishing up my Arabic lessons.  I can now successfully get around in taxis on my own, buy food, the essentials.  Sunday night Rachel and I also visited the Khan al-Khalili market.  It consists of both a tourist and regular market and is in the old, Islamic part of Cairo with lots off ancient architecture, mosques that make it feel like a maze of narrow streets.

That's all for now.  The next time you find something new here I'll be in my new home since yesterday we finally secured a flat for me to live in in Aswan! (a flat is an apartment for those of you who might be confused)  Yesterday I went and got a flight so it's now official and I'll be on my way there Thursday evening.  That will be when the heat really begins....clean air to breathe, 42 degrees and sunny, here I come! 

Stay posted for pictures...we're leaving the cafe before they finished uploading so I'm going to try from home tonight.

Through the haze

So, I don't like hearing myself on camera but I'm trying to get over it in the interests of keeping you all entertained.

Why am I here?

I’ve realized that while some of you are caught up on what I’m doing in Egypt, others aren’t quite sure, and perhaps my first post should have been a bit of an introduction to why I’m here.

So I guess to start, I graduated this past spring with a degree in international development studies and in business administration. After applying for a few different positions, I was offered an internship by MEDA (Mennonite economic development associates) for 5 ½ months here in Egypt. MEDA doesn’t have an office here but works with PTE (Partners in technology exchange) and EACID (Egyptian Association for Community Initiatives and Development) on a project called Protecting and Promoting the Interests of Children work Work (PPIC-Work). There have been and are other partners in the project, but these are the ones I will mostly be working with. I will be based in Aswan, working with EACID to document the stories of some of the children who have been part of the project in that city through pictures, text, and perhaps video. There are links on the side to the websites of the organizations I mentioned if you want to read more. That’s my basic understanding of my role here over the next 5 months. The plan right now is to be here until the end of January. My work will most likely cross over into other parts of the project such as ‘learning through work’, which is Rachel’s primary task, as well as networking, which is done by Reem.

There you go, better late than never I guess. Feel free to ask any questions you have…although I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer them just yet.

While many of you are enjoying the last few hours of your weekend, mine has been over for a day now. Here in Egypt, and in the Middle East in general, the weekend starts on Friday instead of Saturday, so Sunday is like Monday and today we were back to work, and my Arabic lessons.

But the point of this entry was to recap the weekend. Friday evening we went to a place called Al Ahzar Park. It’s a kind of oasis in the middle of Cairo with fountains, grass, and palm trees. Along with my roommates and some friends we had a picnic dinner in the park, along with many other family scattered across the park enjoying their Iftar (the meal to break the fast) meal. Then on Saturday Rachel and I played the role of tourists and visited the Citadel of Salah al-Din, home to a few mosques, one of which we visited (see picture).

That had not been the end of our plans for the day but we received news while at the Citadel of a rockslide in the neighborhood where the project I am working on operates in Cairo. It is one of the poorer areas of the city, homes are not well built and the neighborhood is built on, below and around some large cliffs, one of which broke off Saturday morning crushing many homes and taking many lives. Go to http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80205 for a good article from the United Nations. Rachel and I met some other colleagues and went there to see if there was anything we could do but since the rocks were massive (some up to 70 tonnes) and they had not been able to get an heavy machinery in there was nothing we could do. Rachel and I went back today for a workshop with the children she is working with. With the main road into the community blocked to traffic it is much quieter than my first visit. The closing of the road also means that business in the community has also slowed which will be an added burden.

To end off the weekend, Carolyn, Rika and I took a walk through the city to a couple places both Rika and I had not yet visited and then came home to make dinner. With Ramadan may shops are decorated and people string up lights like we might do at Christmas. Once the sun sets the streets become quiet, and you can watch people eat Iftar on street corners, in cafes and on balconies all over the city.

The last thing I’ll say is that while walking down side walks it is not uncommon to feel water droplets on your head. One should not be fooled into thinking it might rain…this is Egypt and the sun is always shining….it is only the air conditioner dripping on your head.

Some First Impressions

Now that I’ve been in Cairo for almost one week…don’t be confused by the title of the blog, I won’t be in Aswan until mid-month…I thought it was a good time to give some thoughts and reflections of my temporary new home.

First of all, and to get it out of the way, Egypt is hot…anyone surprised? Oh, and it’s humid. I know some of you are thinking “but Egypt is mostly a desert??”, however the Nile is a big river, big enough to have islands. So yes, it’s humid. Also, and this may be surprising, no one talks about the weather. Hot and sunny is kind of predictable. Oh, and Aswan is hotter.

The second thing that is affecting life here right now is that it is Ramadan, which for those of you who don’t know, is the month of fasting for Muslims who fast between sun up and sun down each day for 30 days. In general this means that business hours start a little later and end a little earlier, and pretty much everything is close between 5:30/6 and 9pm. Around 6:30, probably a little before, the call to prayer happens and everyone eats. It feels a little like Christmas, people put up strings of lights, everyone eats with their family, people serve meals for others in the neighborhood. On our way to a picnic lunch in Al Ahzar park yesterday there were tables set up on sidewalks and along the streets. It is really the only time that the city is ever quiet.

For my first couple days in Cairo I was with Rachel. The first day we went to the neighborhood where the project is operating in Cairo, called Dowiekha (you don’t pronounce the k), and to a meeting with a potential partner in some research. We also went to a massive building called Mogamma to my visa extended for the year, and Rachel’s renewed as she has now been here for a year. Otherwise, I’ve been reading up on the project and taking Arabic lessons, which have been going very well. I go two and a half hours per day, five days a week.

That was my first week, the weekend (friday and Saturday) has been very relaxing and a lot of fun, but this is getting long so you’ll have to wait until next time.