The last month has been a busy one but I'm back to blogging (sorry to those of you who have been checking only to find my now month old post) and at work after two weeks off while my parents were visiting from Canada.
I'll start with work and end with the fun stuff...not that work isn't also fun! Now in my fifth month in Egypt I can say I'm feeling more connected to life and my work here. Relationship building in a new place always takes time but I feel like I'm slowly creating a place for myself at work and in my friendships both at work and otherwise. The week after the feast holiday we took the kids on a small field trip to one of the islands in the Nile that has a botanical garden. You'd think that living beside a river would mean that people would be fairly comfortable in a boat, but I realized that assumption was misguided as there were many nervous kids and adults whenever the boat was rocked by waves from some of the larger boats on the water.
The photo documentation of the kids stories has taken a bit longer than I thought to get up and running, but what has started to come in has been really great and has helped
me to get to know the kids better and see the impact of the project over the past number of years. It also looks like I'll be testing out my teaching abilities as some of the staff and older kids want me to start holding English lessons. Schools in Egypt to teach English, but as in Canada with French, most people don't use it enough to actually learn and retain the ability to speak it well. I think I'll be learning a thing or two about English grammar along the way too!
Now for the past two weeks that I spent with my parents. They arrived late on New Years Eve and actually took the same flight from Cairo to Aswan as the director and accountant of EACID so they were well looked after for the last leg of their journey. After getting back to my flat I got to open my Christmas presents...they actually had a whole suitcase just for me! Even though I live in Aswan, we didn't actually spend much time here and by the second day we were packed up and off until the day my parents left for Canada.
We started with a felucca trip down the Nile which didn't actually get very far because the winds meant we had to track back and forth across the river all day, only actually making it 10km downstream. Despite the short distance we had a great time, ate well, and slept on the boat on a beach on the bank of the river.
The next morning we were picked up and taken to Luxor, stopping in to see the temple at Edfu along the way. We only spent one night in Luxor and spent the next day touring the we
st bank with Mohamed who is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the hist
ory there. He also invited us to eat with his family later in the afternoon and we spent the rest of our day with them and I now have an adoptive family in Luxor where I'm welcome to visit anytime. Next on our itinerary after taking the night train to Cairo was the pyramids at Giza. While some of the significance was lost since my lonely planet book was our only guide, they really are amazing to look at. Before that day I had only seen them from afar when they looked like little minatures of the real thing.
The next day we took an early morning flight to Sharm el Sheik where we were met by our guide for the next 3 days. We drove to Dahab where we ate and collected supplies befo
re driving on the desert road to meet our camels who would be our transporta
tion for the next two days. We met them in the middle of no where and after we packed up...and they snacked on the card board boxes that had been carrying our water...we were off into the wilderness of the Sinai desert.
We stopped in a bedouin village and Naiomese tombs before setting up camp for the night. Sleeping under the moon and stars was amazing, if not a little cold, and after 7 hours on the camels the next day I was ready to rest muscles I haven't used in awhile. We
left our camels and camelier in the desert and drove to Saint Catherines for a quick meal and then an early bedtime. After only four hours of sleep we were awake and dressed for our hike up Mount Sinai with about a thousand othe
rs to watch the sunrise. We were told that is is "scientifically the best sunrise in the world"...which we decided afterwards might be a slight exageration, but the novelty of seeing the sunrise from the top of Mount Sinai was worth it and was made even better by the fact that we were taken up the back way and were able to hike most of the way up and down all on our own.
After coming down off the mountain we changed into clean clothes, had a good breakfast and then went to visit St. Catherine's monastery, said to be the oldest operating monastery in the world and the place that preserved the Christian faith through numerous attacks and persecution. My dad was determined to actually talk to one of the monks there to ask if he could "borrow" his prayer beads as a gift for someone back home, but we had to settle on some from the monastery gift shop as the monks time was dominated by a greek couple who appeared to be there for the day. Our trip then came full circle as we drove back to Dahab. We had decided the day we arrived that an extra day there instead of in Cairo might be a good idea and it was well worth the $10 each to change our flights and relax in Dahab the next day. Reading and relaxing on the beach and watching the sunrise over Saudi Arabia then next day was well worth it as we braced ourselves for returning to the chaos of Cairo. We spent the next two and a half days in Cairo visiting the old Coptic Christian center of the city which contains churches and synagogues from the 3rd and 4th centuries, braving the bazar at the Khan al Khalili, and exploring the churches at Manshiet Nasr, or Garbage City, as it is sometimes more commonly known. We also had dinner with Reem and Rachel who work for the project and live in Cairo. My parents last night in Egypt was spent on the train back to Aswan where I took them to see the office, meet my coworkers and watch the sunset over the Nile. We had a great dinner and then walked back through the bazar (much more calm that the one in Cairo) so my parents could pick up a few last things to bring back. After repacking a few things we were off to the airport and they started their 24 hour journey back to Winnipeg. Just like that I'm back on my own, and back to work. It's been great to reconnect with people here. Even the guys at the grocery store and vegetable stand have asked where I've been.
That pretty much sums up the last month or so. Christmas came and went fairly uneventfully since people here don't celebrate until January 7th, but I did get to skype with my family while they opened presents on Christmas morning and talk to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins while they were together to celebrate Christmas. A year ago I never thought I'd be blogging from Egypt and the next months most likely take me place I can't yet imagine so stay tuned! ....I promise to be more regular with my updates!
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.
