Discovery #24: Loving others does the soul much good.
Unfortunately, I was definitely not anticipating a long bus ride and I got incredibly car sick on the way to the orphanage because I was trying to play with and speak to the three young girls who were sitting in the back with me. They were so sweet and I pulled out my phrasebook and tried to communicate with them as much as I could. One of the girls was only about three though and didn't really understand the whole language concept. So she would look me in the eye and go on and on in Arabic. Much to my dismay, I had no idea what she was saying!
I feel I would be amiss if I said this was just a time for me to love them because, honestly, I feel it was a very mutual time of loving on each other. For those of you who don't know, I'm a pretty hug-y person and -- given that I've only know the other MESPers for about 2 weeks now -- I haven't had the opportunity to give many of them lately. So, when these girls came up and gave me hugs and sat on my lap and just thought I was the coolest person in the world, it brought me so much joy and peace. I hope it brought them the same.
The club had basketball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a high dive, two play grounds, a grassy area, and some nice gym facilities. Here in Egypt, sports clubs are a very social thing, much like a yacht club in the U.S. minus the sail boats and golf course. For these girls, it was a wonderful time to just run and play!
After going to the club, we drove back to the metro station with all of the girls. I took a little nap in the van so I'm not sure exactly how long it took...but it was at LEAST an hour and a half, probably more like two. We were basically in stand-still traffic for forty-five minutes. Not very fun. The bus driver did notice that all of us MESPers did start singing along when the song Jingle Bells came on and so he replayed that a few times for us ;)
Last Tuesday (yes, I AM that far behind on blogging!) was the first day of our service projects here in Cairo. Service projects are an integral part of the program here and all students volunteer at an organization in or around the city for the next 8 weeks - until we leave for the travel component of our semester. My placement is teaching English to adult learners on Tuesday evenings from 5 - 10 pm. I will be co-teaching the class with Jordon Hufford, another student in my program. Neither of us have TESOL (teaching English as a second language) experience so teaching a five hour class should be interesting!
Since Jordon and I will be teaching at an organization called St. Paul's, which also runs an orphanage, we spent Tuesday with a group of 13 wonderful young women. The sisters wanted us to do this as an introduction/orientation to the organization as a whole. So, Tuesday morning we headed to the outskirts of Cairo with a group of other MESPers who will be working in different branches of St. Paul's.
After taking a taxi to the metro station, riding the metro 10 stops outside of the center of Cairo, and a ten minute walk, we made it to the St. Paul's office. We were met by Nancy, a very sweet Egyptian lady who volunteers at St. Paul's. After giving us a brief tour of the office and classroom facilities she told us she would go get the van driver and have him take us all to the orphanage. Though everyone in the group came into the day without any idea of what would happened, none of us expected an hour long bus ride to New Cairo!
Unfortunately, I was definitely not anticipating a long bus ride and I got incredibly car sick on the way to the orphanage because I was trying to play with and speak to the three young girls who were sitting in the back with me. They were so sweet and I pulled out my phrasebook and tried to communicate with them as much as I could. One of the girls was only about three though and didn't really understand the whole language concept. So she would look me in the eye and go on and on in Arabic. Much to my dismay, I had no idea what she was saying!
Once we reached the orphanage, my group met all the other girls. Nancy told us that most of them were orphans but some of them were brought by their parents because they were unable to care for them at home. The girls were so sweet though and came through one by one to introduce themselves. After introductions, some of the girls came and sat with me on the couch. Some took turns sitting on my lap. We all had a little conversation in ArLish (Arabic-English...yes, I did just make that up).
I feel I would be amiss if I said this was just a time for me to love them because, honestly, I feel it was a very mutual time of loving on each other. For those of you who don't know, I'm a pretty hug-y person and -- given that I've only know the other MESPers for about 2 weeks now -- I haven't had the opportunity to give many of them lately. So, when these girls came up and gave me hugs and sat on my lap and just thought I was the coolest person in the world, it brought me so much joy and peace. I hope it brought them the same. Discovery #25: (almost) anything you do in pants you can do in a long, flowing skirt
After spending some time with the girls at the orphanage we got in the bus again and headed to the sports "Club." This time we all had to squish in the car so I was surrounded by little ones. We reached the club in about a half an hour and as soon as the girls walked through the gate, the started running at full speed! They were headed for the playground.
The club had basketball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a high dive, two play grounds, a grassy area, and some nice gym facilities. Here in Egypt, sports clubs are a very social thing, much like a yacht club in the U.S. minus the sail boats and golf course. For these girls, it was a wonderful time to just run and play!Nobody seemed to be bothered by the fact that I was wearing a long skirt and sandals and a few of them grabbed my hands when they started running. The next few hours were a mix of slide riding, swinging, duck duck goos-ing (which we changed to cat and dog and played in Arabic!), and blowing bubbles -- and the girls wanted me to be involved in everything! Thankfully, my skirt was long enough and loose enough that my poor wardrobe choice didn't seem to affect me too much!
Discovery #26: Whining is detectable across language barriers.
Though the girls were wonderful and brought me so much joy and peace, as the got hungry for lunch they got quite whiny to me and mean to each other. Though I couldn't understand 98% of what they were saying when they whined to me, I could definitely tell they were whining. At one point, of the girls looked at me with her big brown eyes and went on a whining rant for about 30 seconds. I had no idea what she said but my best guess was that it was something about me not letting her hold the tube of bubbles. And, since I am NO fan of whining, I looked her right back in the eyes and said, "Bababa wawaaawaawa mamamama" in a very whiny voice. I caught her off guard and she looked at me pretty funny. She stopped whining though :)
Discovery #27: Cairo traffic can be ridiculous!
After going to the club, we drove back to the metro station with all of the girls. I took a little nap in the van so I'm not sure exactly how long it took...but it was at LEAST an hour and a half, probably more like two. We were basically in stand-still traffic for forty-five minutes. Not very fun. The bus driver did notice that all of us MESPers did start singing along when the song Jingle Bells came on and so he replayed that a few times for us ;)We got dropped at the metro station and said goodbye to the girls. Unfortunately, I won't see most of them again since I will be teaching the adult language classes. They were so precious though and I'll remember them for a good long while.
Discovery #28: Food delivery in Cairo is awesome!
I finally got home around 6:30 pm and was exhausted! Since the program was not providing dinner that night, my flatmates had decided to order-in. Chris explained to us on our first night here that nearly ALL restaurants in Cairo deliver for a very reasonable price....she wasn't kidding! My flatmates ordered from Pizza Hut and I used the dining guide to find a restaurant that had my favorite Egyptian dish - koshary.
Much to my roommates dismay, my order arrived at my door before theirs did....even though I ordered it afterwards. Once everyone's food arrived, it was great though! We sat down for a nice "family" meal and even had desert delivered a little later. it was called Ghost: rice pudding, ice cream, peanuts, fruit, caramel and chocolate. Yummm yummm. So convenient and so yummy. Quite cheap too. I could definitely get used to this :)
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