Dear friends and family,

My semester in Egypt has officially begun. I say that because things our now starting to get busy with classes, trips, homework, etc. The first two weeks moved by quite slowly as we were adjusting to this new life and culture. Now after the first trip outside of Egypt, several classes and guest lecturers, increasing homework, and seemingly less and less free time I feel that my semester is now officially beginning.

That said I would like to share a funny story that happened this last Tuesday. Every Tuesday each of us goes to our respective service projects. I go to the geriatrics center with another student, Thomas. However this time two additional students, Abbie and Brita, came along with us because they could not go to their service project because it was located near the rockslide. This was our first time traveling to the service project by ourselves because the first time one the staff members drove us there in his car to show us how to get there. We did have a half sheet of paper with rather detailed instructions in English on how to get there.

So we all piled in to a taxi at around 8:05am and told the taxi driver Nasr City, which is on the opposite side of Cairo from where we live. The expression on the taxi driver’s face when I told him we wanted to go to Nasr City was one of uncertainty, but nonetheless we left Agouza and headed off to Nasr City. The fun began when the taxi driver took the wrong exit off the 6th of October Bridge, a bridge that runs east/west through Cairo. We told him this was wrong in very broken Arabic. After realizing it he stopped along the side of the road to ask a man how to get where we were going. The man also could read English so he read the directions we were given and thus ensued the first of many conversations between the taxi driver and various other Egyptians. After talking to the man we (we meaning the taxi driver, the other students and myself) drove off seeming confident of where we were going. However it soon became apparent that we had no idea where we were or how to get there. After unsuccessfully asking several other people on the side of the street if they knew English and could help us we found a women who could read English. She as well as many other Egyptian men who crowded around our taxi began giving there opinions, insights, and general help on how to get to our destination. Mind you this was all in Arabic and many times at once. After talking with close to a dozen different people our taxi driver headed off again. This time as we drove it seemed more and more familiar until we really believed we had found the place only to realize the building we thought we were going to see was a park. Frustrated and confused our taxi driver drove on all the while talking to us in Arabic trying to figure out how to get to this place. After asking yet another man for help we made it to the main road through Nasr City that looked both familiar to Thomas and myself. We tried one last time to ask someone for help. The taxi driver stopped by a group of taxi drivers parked on the side of the street and one of them came over and started speaking to us in English. After telling him where we wanted to go he brought over several maps and I was able to point in the general direction to of where we should go. He then preceded to tell me where to go, then gave me his business card, and off we went again. Thankfully, il-Hamdulilaah, over an hour and half later and 50 pounds poorer (twice as much as it should have been if we didn’t get lost) we made it. Now I really know how to get from Agouza to Nasr City.

This last Thursday we left for Mt. Sinai and the Red Sea at 6pm. Eight hours later we arrived at Mt. Sinai after suffering a flat tire and a 45 minute delay. So around 2:30am we began our ascent up Mt. Sinai. You climb in late evening early morning because one its cool and two, the sunrise from the top of Mt. Sinai is beautiful. We were led by a Bedouin guide named Salaam and made it up to the top just before sunrise. It was very beautiful. What was interesting was the hundreds of other people of varying nationalities who made the same trek as well. Many of them were Christians and sang various songs in their native tongue as the sun rose. Another group even had communion and prayer at the top. After we came back down from the mountain we waited at the bottom for St. Catharine’s Monastery to open. St. Catharine’s as the most original iconography dating back to the 1100 and 1200s second only to the Vatican. It also claims to house the burning bush.

After we saw the monastery we got back on the bus and headed for Dahab, a town along the Red Sea. There we swam in the Red Sea and dined in a restaurant that was right next to the water. The whole area was beautiful. The water itself is very clear with lots of coral and tropical fish. The next day we went snorkeling at this place called the Blue Lagoon just north of Dahab. It was quite an amazing experience and a lot of fun.

Well definitely need to end it here because tonight we are going to a soccer match between two of the best two teams in Cairo. I’ll try and post some pictures tomorrow. Ma’salaama.

Scott