Continuing to Serve

In some ways I feel like I've become selfish since I've been back. When I go to classes, I feel like it is all about me. It's about me absorbing the material and then spending a lot of time studying it so I can do better. I know in a lot of ways that it is pretty irrational to feel like I'm selfish because I'm using my time to open up more doors for my future, but coming back from Egypt kind of changes my perspective.

Tonight, I was doing room check and one of the guys on my hall got to talking with me. I've been pretty sure for awhile that he is depressed, but I came to a full realization that he was depressed when he randomly mentioned to me that he hadn't been eating and he gets really tired all of the time. We chatted a little bit more and then I realized that I was 5 minutes late for our RA Meeting.

I ran over to the dorm and got heckled by an authority figure that I just don't really click with, but it was worth it because the guy on my hall is worth infinitely more than the AF being annoyed about my untimeliness.

The meeting got out and I got this idea in my head (God?) that I would give my taco's from "Taco Tuesday" to the guy on my hall. I came back to the dorm and grabbed some fruit, oatmeal, cereal, and some canned food from my puny stash of food and brought it up to him. I think the look of his gratefulness will probably stick with me for awhile. There are some people that just say "thank you" because it is a cultural custom, but he was genuinely thankful. Giving him some food reminded me of the finer things in life- helping people because, for me, that's practical Christianity.

A Morning Sat Remiscing

I woke up this morning and was thinking about what my focus is in life right now. I've pretty much summed it up to this: STUDYING, finalizing the details on a solid, ENJOYABLE career, deepening my relationship with God, starting healthy, straightforward, honest relationships with people, and becoming a good athlete again. I look at where I am this school year and where I was in the 2007 school year and I my priorities have changed.I still feel my demons in the closet struggling to get out and go wreak havoc on my life, but they don't speak to me as loudly or maybe I'm just learning to tune them out.

I'm back at Walla Walla U. and at times it feels like I didn't even go last year. The school is the same and none of the buildings have disappeared. The good friends that I made are still here. The cafeteria food hasn't changed. They still serve Sobe's in the SAC for outrageous prices and I'm still disappointed by the fact that the ice cream machine still isn't fixed- damn, but maybe that is best since I'm trying to be an "athlete" again...

Everything seems the same, but I know I'm different. Sometimes I feel like nothing has changed, but I know I've changed in a lot of ways. When I got back to the US for my first two weeks of being home, I struggled with acting like the person I was in September 2008 and being the "Eric" that had grown up a bit while being in Egypt. The two seemed to clash a little bit and since the "Eric" prior to going seemed the most normal and could blend in with the family, so I chose that. It didn't last long until I realized that the two don't go together very well and my sense of peace was going away.

So here I am back at WWU and I've been thinking about the experience of being in Egypt. I remember the distinct musty, stale, polluted taste/smell of the air in Cairo. I remember my laughing, excited "hellions" for students. I feel the hot sun and the nights of not being able to fall asleep because my sweat made the sheets stick to my skin. I taste the morning beans for breakfast and the scrumptious Egyptian version of spaghetti, Kushary. I'm to the point where I actually wouldn't mind having some rice with Ayesh and a nice eggplant sauce. I hear the blown-out speakers of the mosque making the "call to prayer". All of it is so far away, but somehow I've been changed by it. As I sit here recalling all that happened around me, to me, and inside of me I can't help but think that somehow on the 6th of October, 2009 I'm a different person. I'm still figuring out how, but one thing that I am certain of is that Egypt did change me.

Giardia = Fun???

Yep, the title says it all. I've evaded all the nasty stuff that Egypt has to offer: Schistosomiasis, Rabies, Malaria, etc. but I finally got hit with the one of the smaller guys- Giardia.

Over the past weekend we went to the Field President's house, which is something we SM's always look forward to because they feed us tons and we just get the chance to relax. The weekend wasn't so relaxing for me this time around. I shamefully ate a minimal amount of food and sat and my butt because I was just straight up SORE! I'd lifted weights two days in a row before, but I wasn't expecting the kind of soreness I ended up getting. I figured I'd just run my body into the ground by the week's activities and didn't think much of it other than wow my body aches. Then, the fever started, then the diarrhea, then the bloating, then the absolute loss of appetite, and then somewhere in between all of those MAJOR gas issues smelling like rotten eggs. At first I kind of enjoyed making Monte and Daniel suffer, but then it just became overpoweringly obnoxious.

So, by the end of the weekend I hardly ate anything and then came back to the school and was thinking, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY STOMACH!?!" Then I remembered that the school nurse had put out a notice that Giardia was running through the school. So I checked it out and, YEP, all most all of the symptoms lined up.

Now, I'm on my first does of "flagyl" ( the pills dissolve really fast, pretty bitter stuff) and I'm relishing the fact that this parasite that is causing me to suffer is also joining me in my suffering. The saying is all too true- misery loves company. Well off to the toilet and then to classes again!

It's Getting Hot in Here

108 degrees yesterday. 104 degrees today. Ahhh, yes what I was expecting when I left the US. It is finally starting to really steam up here and I will be honest that I am glad about it. I was expecting it to be 115 degrees when I landed here and to be coming to the desert, but my haphazard research on the weather turned up to be QUITE inaccurate.

When I got here it was pretty hot and it kept me awake at night for a week or two, but ever since then it has just gotten colder and colder. I will admit that about 75% of my time in Egypt I have been cold! I didn't bring any proper winter gear because I thought to myself, "Pah! I'm headed to Egypt, it's the desert and deserts only get cold at night and in that case I'm just going to cuddle up in my sweet little sleeping bag." Wrong, DEAD wrong. It got down to about 40 for a lot of winter and I was just going IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE COLD!!!

Anyways, enough said about the weather other than I am excited about it, but I'm guessing by the time I leave I'm going to be crying about how I miss the cold. However, for the meantime, I'm going to attempt to use up the wild amount of deodorant that I brought with me.

Slammed, BUT Ready for Some More

The last few days have been SO BUSY!! I'm in charge of a field day for 156 Sudanese kids from a nearby grade school and it has been quite the challenge to organize the day. The kids are coming tomorrow and today I'm asking myself, "Do I have everything ready!? Is it all taken care of? Did I make any mistakes?" I'm such a procrastinator by habit and I don't want to put anything off on this one. I want it to be good. I want it to run smoothly and the kids to have a good day.

Anyways, so as to why I'm feeling slammed. I've spent over 20 hours on this thing for the past three days and my body flat out told me, "NO" last night. I worked on this project from 1pm-12:30am, with a two hour break to go workout and eat dinner. So, when I finally had everything completely lined up I decided to go to bed. As soon as I stood up, it was crazy, I just started feeling cold and by the time I got to my room I was shivering. I ended up shivering until 3:00am and the whole time I was thinking, "Great... I work on this thing like a donkey and now I've got a fever... Fantastic."

I woke up this morning at 6:30 and I feel just fine. No symptoms of fever. I'm not even tired and I've actually got a bit more..."spunk" to me than I've had over the past two days. I'm excited about this field day. My students are excited about it. The other staff are excited about. All the excitement gives me the energy to push on or my body is taking a serious beating and I'm going to feel it when this is all done, but for now I'm alright and ready for some more!

Jordan Day 5: Returning to the "Adoptive Motherland"

Petra to Aqaba:
I woke up early again and got on a bus headed to Aqaba. The bus driver wasn't the nicest guy, to put it nicely. He told me there weren't any seats left- even though there were six of them- and that I needed to take a taxi. I told him that it was REALLY important for me to get on the bus because I'd miss my ferry if I didn't. After about two minutes of me practically pleading, he said, "fine, but you have to pay an extra JD." I laughed inside because the whole time he just wanted more money, but I couldn't do anything because I was a captive to his game.

The ride was embarrassing, to put it lightly, because my feet stunk REALLY bad. I hadn't taken a shower the night before and made the bad choice of wearing flip flops. Let's just say that I had a refresher in "Hygiene 101". I laugh now, but the smell was so bad that the guy next to me was covering his nose with his jacket!!

When I got back to Aqaba I jumped off of the bus in quite the hurry because I was embarrassed about my feet. I got in a taxi and headed for the port to Nuweiba. When I got to the port I went to a bathroom and washed my feet off! After that I got my ticket taken care of, with a few hang ups. Evidently my $50 wasn't good anymore because it was the old one and so I had some challenges there, but it all got taken care of. When I was on my way out of the office, I stepped on a kitten sitting by the door. I will admit that I jumped and the ticket agent joined the throng of one of many Jordanians that laughed at me. I said goodbye and walked out of the place.

I asked around for where I should be going and they pointed me towards the bus depot down below. While I was on my way down there I ran into the guy that was my traveling buddy at the beginning, Andrew. It was good to see him because he was a familiar face and we sat down to talk about our adventures of the trip.

Time passed by and soon we loaded up on the ferry to Nuweiba. Once again, it left two hours late, but it was all good because I wasn't in a hurry. If I couldn't catch a night bus to Cairo, then I knew I would have to stay in Dahab for a night and do some free diving the next day while I waited for the bus out- bummer! The ferry ride was good. Andrew and I talked about life, traveling, he gave me advice on careers, recommendations on places to see in countries, the character of God, how things change in life, swimming, and smoking. It was a good conversation!

When we got to Nuweiba, somehow we ran into a German guy, Matthew, and he decided to stick with us since we knew the place. We went to get our re-admittance visa and the guy canceled my 12-month visa since I left the country. I'm still not sure if he was just trying to scam me for $15 or not, but I'm leaving in 6 weeks so I'm not too worried about having a Travelers Visa. We walked through security without any problems, even though the "metal detector" went off. I love the security checks in Egypt! I always get a laugh every time.

After the security check we jumped on a mini bus to Dahab with two other Australians and three people from New Zealand. For the life of me, I can't remember their names and it's killing me! The bus ride was quite the party since all of us had a lot of stories to tell from our trips. The two Australians, a couple, had been traveling for five months and had six more to go before their world tour was over, or until they ran out of cash. The three New Zealander's, a guy and two girls, were on a three month travel through the Middle East and Egypt was their last stop.

When we got to Dahab we all decided we'd go out to eat together after they'd gotten their rooms. I went for an hour and a half swim that was truly amazing! I felt like I was thrashing about for the first half of the swim, but as time went on "the feel" came back and I just cruised. That's one thing I've missed a lot here, swimming!

After my swim we went to dinner and relaxed together. I gave them "the lowdown" on Egypt and they told me about India because I have an immense amount of interest to travel there. We finished up with our dinner, said our goodbyes, exchanged our emails, and Matthew and I headed off to the bus station. The bus ride to Cairo went by fast since I slept the whole way. It ended up that Matthew came and stayed with me at the school for a few nights, as he explored Cairo. Then he went to Luxor and came back for two more nights to stay before he headed back to Jordan. He was another really good guy I met on my travels.

In conclusion of my travels to Jordan I will say that I really did have the time of my life. I don't think I enjoy traveling alone very much, even though I met a lot of people, but it's just nice to have a friend along. Jordan will forever stand out as my first time really going out on my own, though, and what a good first experience!

Jordan Day 4: Petra

Petra:
I awoke early for my exploration of Petra since I was in the habit of waking up early anyways, it came really easily. It turned out that my hotel wasn't the 3km from the park that the hotel manager had said, it was about 8km! I walked for about 6km of them and was just like, "there is no way I'm this slow!" I stopped and ate at an all you can eat breakfast. I was an absolute pig! I ate four bowls of cereal, five pita bread sandwiches with vegetables inside, two cups of coffee, three cups of orange juice, one slice of breakfast cake, and two bowls of fruit salad. What can I say? I think I was hungry from my exploits the day before or I'm just a glutton. Most likely a combination of the two...

Once I'd finished eating I went on my way and finally got to the entrance. I bought a two day ticket which was a mistake because I only stayed for one day. I was like a maniac when I got in the park. I explored everywhere, I'm guessing my breakfast of champions helped- Wheaties have got nothing on my breakfast of champions, there's is a poser breakfast! The place was really magnificent, I will say though that I was pretty jaded by the carvings and all that because of my travels through Egypt.

When I got to the Treasury (the building from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" or the place where Lawrence has his funeral in "Lawrence of Arabia") was pretty darn impressive! I was really disappointed that I couldn't explore inside of it, you can't win 'em all :) After the Treasury I went and bartered with an old Bedouin woman smoking this huge homemade cigar. It was really funny, she had this huge smile, probably five teeth, and then this beast of a cigar coming out of her mouth.

I moved on from haggling and went up to the Monastery, which was also really impressive. I met four Israeli guys, Mordecai, Avi, Ori, and Pel. We ended up eating together. They were interesting guys for sure. They wouldn't eat anything I offered them because they weren't sure if my food was kosher. We talked about military, the joys of traveling, America and it's influence on the world, Arab's, future, education, religion, and the meaning of life. They were really good guys for sure! I ended up spending the day seeing stuff with them.

After eating with them we went to a ton of different places, "The View of the End of the World"- the name isn't accurate at all, "The High Place of Sacrifice"- I climbed an obelisk here, and the "Spring"- turned out to be a six inch deep pond and was disappointing at the least.

The day came to a close and I said farewell to my newly made Israeli friends after getting there email addresses. When I got back to the hotel, I kind of just got this impulse of wanting to get the heck out of there and back to school. I decided to leave the following morning at this point. The idea of 20 or more hours of travel wasn't too inviting for me.

I went to the "Petra by night show an hour after getting back to my hotel. It was really gorgeous and almost soothing. The Siq was lined with candles and they had some local talent doing a musical performance by the entry way of the Treasury. After the show, I snuck into the Treasury and had a look around. The tombs didn't have secret tunnels like I was hoping, but it was fun. I soon left the park and went to eat at a local place. It was a good cultural experience. There were locals getting up and singing together with a guitar and drum. I ate another huge meal and then headed back to my place exhausted. I slept GOOOOOOOOD!!

Jordan Day 3: The Long One

Al Karak to Ma'an:
Once again I woke up at around 6:00 to get on a bus headed to Ma'an, the connection city that I needed to go to get to Shoubak castle. I got on just in time as the bus was just filling up. The trip was comfortable and pretty short. When I got to Ma'an I wandered around for an hour trying to find the bus station to Shoubak. On my way I bought a pair of socks and literally took off the ones I had on right then and there because they stunk so bad. I'd worn them for three days in a row because I only brought one pair of socks with me- "I is Eric, need no socks on trip..." I don't know what I was thinking, but I felt like a retard. The guy laughed at me when I threw away my socks and put on the new ones I'd just bought. I also bought some of their little pastry things there to try them, disappointingly they were the same as the Egyptian ones.

Ma'an to Shoubak:
I finally decided to get a taxi to the bus station, which was a good call because there is no way I would've found it had I not. When I got there, a taxi driver tried to convince me to ride with him because it would take two hours to fill up. He ended up being full of it. It took 15 minutes and we were on our way. He was a pretty persuasive, shrew old man though. He almost convinced me.

The ride there was good, except two boys tried to steal out of my bag before the journey started. I told them to not touch my crap. They didn't speak English, but I think they got the idea that I wasn't messing around. Other than that it was a good ride. I shared my pastries with the people on the bus and got dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

Shoubak:
Like I said before, I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a "T" in the road. They kept driving the other way, so I figured the other way led to Shoubak. I'm guessing I walked about three kilometers before finally seeing the castle way off in the distance. When I saw the castle, I cut across the terrain towards the castle. It was quite the adventure and really relaxing. No touts trying to sell me stuff, just me and wide open space. Beautiful.

When I got to the castle, I got a firsthand experience of the pain invaders had to have taken to attempt to seize the castle. There was this huge slope to climb up the hill leading to the castle and it was one heck of a brutal climb to the top. When I got there and looked down on the trek I'd just taken, I smiled in defiance and then began my quest to explore the ancient Crusader castle.

I will say first off that I haven't felt like a kid in a playground like I did in this castle since I was seven years old and we went to this HUGE playground in Estes Park. There were secret passageways, dark tunnels weaving down towers, turrets to climb, and a final secret passageway that went for 400 steps all the way to the bottom of the castle that took me right outside of the castle. I will admit the return journey wasn't the best, but it was better than doing it in the sun. Exploring the castle is what I would describe as a pure delight!

Once I returned to the top of the 400 step secret passageway there was this Jordanian family sitting there eating. They invited me to come eat with them and at first I was going to decline, but I just decided to get off my high horse of American custom and join them. It was great, I shared my candy bars with them and they gave me some sandwiches. The father was an old military officer and joked with me about giving one of his two daughters in marriage that was sitting there. I asked one them what they thought about it, and she replied, "I don't like talk to the boys." It was a great time!

After eating with them I did a bit more exploring and then decided to call it a day. As I was walking out, I decided to stop at the "Historical Center" to see if I could find some water. While I was there I met a couple from New Zealand and they offered to give me a ride. It was a serious blessing because I wasn't looking forward to walking another 3k with my pack and then however many it took to get to the town of Shoubak. They were contractors that were working in Dubai and another set of just cool people. One I got out the guy said, "I didn't catch your name fellar, but I wish you the best." We exchanged names, I said thank you and his reply was a variation of what I heard from one of my coaches, Jim Nash, four years ago, "My pleasure, mate. Just pass it on to somebody else."

They drove away and I negotiated a taxi ride to Petra for 8 JD. I bought some sandwiches at a local place and the two boys running it laughed at me when I saw that they had hot sauce and I asked for a lot. They told me I'd cry and I replied that I was a girl so it would be okay for me to cry. We joked around a little more and I jumped in my taxi.

Shoubak to Petra:
The "taxi ride" aka "ride in a 4runner" was relaxing. The guy didn't speak too much English and so there was no need to talk, which was nice. We got to Petra and I checked out the Musa Spring Hotel. I paid him and he drove away content. When I got to my room, I was fried! I had the ambition of going to the "Petra by Night" showing, but I just didn't care. I laugh at myself as I write this, but I honestly just sat there and watched TV for four hours. I was in one of the most historic places in the world and I watched TV for four hours there! I guess in my defense it was appealing at the time. Once again, I slept SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!

Jordan Day 2

Aqaba to Al Karak:
After a good nights sleep Andrew and I got an early morning start on our travels at 6:00am since the bus transport leaves early in Jordan. He was headed to Wadi Rum and I was headed further North so we went to the bus station together and planned to meet up in Petra (Wadi Musa). I wandered around the town for a little bit and decided that I was going to fast that day. It was nice taking a break from eating, I feel like it helped me get things in proper perspective.

While I was wandering around I talked to a shop owner that I bought some pens from. He told me that Christians, Jews, and Muslims were the only good religions because they believe God is one. He told me that Israeli's weren't evil people, which was a change of pace because Israeli's aren't so popular in Egypt. After my brief 5-minute conversation with the man I said, "Salaam" and went my way.

I jumped on a mini-bus headed to Al-Karak and while I was on it I ended up joking around with this kid. I gave him some candy I had and ended up sharing it with about a third of the people on the bus. This was also out of the ordinary for me because in Egypt everybody always refuses, in Jordan they accept because they want to be polite. Different meanings of polite in different cultures... REFRESHING!! Something I found really interesting along the way is that there are pictures of Kind Abdullah everywhere and the people legitimately love him. He's quite the celebrity, THE CELEBRITY.

Al Karak:
When I got to Al Karak, I walked around for a long time and finally found the castle with the help of some local boys; really friendly and they weren't looking for anything but to be helpful- refreshing. I wandered through Al Karak castle for two or three hours and I've got to say that it was a pretty darn impressive castle! After that I came outside and got to talking to this guy named Trad. He was giving me good information about transport and a really friendly guy. I asked him about the Dead Sea and he offered to take me there for 20JD after a little while I accepted. It was quite the trip, he took me to his brother's house where I had Turkish coffee and then we stopped to get some snacks, cool guy. I'm sure the fact that I was giving him a great deal was a strong incentive, but still he made it fun.

We got to the Dead Sea and I swam around for a bit. It was a really indescribable feeling to not be able to sink. I tried standing on the water, tucking myself into a complete ball, and any position I could think of, but I wouldn't sink!! I wouldn't get my head wet though because I got some of it in my mouth and the stuff was SICK and stung, too. There were things that looked like ice embankments all along the shore, but in reality they were salt rock, I took a piece for a souvenir.

On the way back, Trad kept joking with me and wanting me to talk like a "black man" because he listens to rap. It was hilarious the way he would try to imitate "ghetto Ebonics". We got back and I ate dinner with him at his restaurant. He made some hummus, lamb kofta, and tea. It was a good dinner. After that I went back to my hotel that Trad had brought the lady down from 18JD (when I went in during the morning) to 10JD (after he talked to her). I think treating him well worked out nicely. He gave me information on all prices and made sure nobody in town ripped me off. Pretty cool guy all in all. I lost my key while I was at the Dead Sea and instead of going and making a new key the guy broke the door lock- really flimsy! I gave him 2JD to fix, I should've given him only one, but I felt bad for inconveniencing him. I slept AMAZINGLY that night!

Jordan: Day 1

There is so much I could write about Jordan, but I will keep things brief so I don't end up blogging for two hours. Jordan was, however, the most adventurous I've been since I've come to this part of the world because I went there without knowing anybody, but I definitely wasn't alone. I met a lot of interesting characters along the way! Here's day 1:

-The Ferry Ride from Nuweiba to Aqaba:
Like most everything in Egypt, the ferry ride was on Egyptian time. It was supposed to be leaving at 3:00 pm, but didn't depart until 6:30pm. A perk was that the Jordanians really cater to their western tourists and so they pulled us out of line to the front to get our visas. It was a nice change of pace since it is just the opposite in Egypt. I did ended up meeting a really cool guy at the ticket booth by the name of Andrew. A great guy from Australia and a seasoned traveler that was also traveling by himself. We sat by each other on the ferry and talked on the ride over. I also met a couple from Australia as well that ran tours all through Africa on this beastly truck. They were quite the interesting couple since they've been doing it for the past 10 years.

Aqaba:
When I got to Aqaba, I was pretty darn tired of traveling and all I wanted to do was eat and then sleep. Andrew and I took a taxi with the tour guide couple to the wrong hotel that we wanted to go to, but the guy drove off before we could get him. Andrew and I wandered around on foot through Aqaba for about an hour trying to find the cheap hotel that his travel guide was talking about. We eventually found it and had quite the hassle getting the guy to back down on the price, he wanted 15 JD each ($40) to stay in a room with two beds and a shower outside the room that didn't even work. We got him down to 8 JD. This one experience completely DECIMATED the travel guides statement that, "the Jordanians are straight forward and rarely haggle." After that we went and got "shawrma" aka chicken in a fried shell that tastes really good, maybe it was because I hadn't eaten anything besides a bag of potato chips in 12 hours, but it was still fantastic!

Random Experiences II

Once again, so much has gone on and I haven't recorded it so I figure I will write it all in now.

-One Friday Monte and I were cooking our traditional breakfast and everything was going just fine until we actually started to cook. We were cooking the potatoes and they were sticking so hard to the pan that I seriously got a shoulder workout trying to keep them from sticking and burning. Monte and I made up a commercial for the "Man Pan", keeping men fit in the kitchen. We figured we might be able to out do Bowflex with the right marketing. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that we just forgot to heat the pan and the oil before adding the potatoes. We still might give it a shot though :)

-One Thursday night I was on supervision and the guys decided they wanted to play this mega enhanced version of leap frog. Basically, it is where somebody bends over and then you go and jump over them and make sure your legs don't touch them or then you're it. In which case, everybody gets to jump up and do a butt drop on your back. So I decided I'd play with them instead of being a bump on a log. Anyways, it was my first time to go and jump over the guy that was it. I started running, I jumped in the air and just as I was flying over him he stood up and I straight up kicked him in the head. I felt bad at first, but we got so much laughter out of it that it was worth it.

-One of my cats, Bigfoot (an ironic name since she doesn't grow and still looks like a mini-cat), whenever I pet her she gets so excited that she starts rolling around and then she starts drooling! It's pretty gross, but lovable in its own right. Kind of like the little kid that gets spaghetti sauce all over his face and then gets this huge smile.

-I was walking around downtown Cairo and this guy came up to me to talk. He spoke a little bit of English and so we talked for 20 seconds until his English reserve was exhausted. I in turn talked for another 20 seconds and then my Arabic reserve was exhausted and so I decided to say goodbye "ma is salaama". I shook hands with him and before I was about to go he held onto my hand and asked me for a tip. I laughed and said, "Lay?! (why)" and he replied, "Ashen(because) ana(I) speak English you." I then retorted that I wanted a tip because I knew four different ways to say hello in Arabic and he knew only one. He laughed, I laughed, and I walked away. Fun times in Egypt.

-One time I was in the metro and this guy across the tracks was giving me the middle finger. I laughed, made eye contact with him and asked, "Lay?" He smiled, did it again, and walked away. I still don't know what he was doing or if he even knew. Another fun time in Egypt.

-One time Monte, Daniel, and I were in the grocery store and Monte decided that he wanted to punch me. It's kind of a game between us and so I turned around and punched him back. It went back and forth a few times, then Daniel joined in on punching me so I started hitting him, too. When we finished our tussle in the candy aisle I looked up and there was a woman with a veil over her face and there was this humored look in her eyes of, "What is wrong with you!?" Truly refreshing.

-Yesterday, I learned how to make Egyptian bread from Om Fady, the cafe lady. Yes, I'm really proud of it because it was my first bread making experience! Anyways, while I was trying to make a ball out of the sticky dough for a loaf I couldn't really get it to become a ball without sticking to one hand or the other. Turns out I needed to put flour on my hands like she had before touching the dough- WHO KNEW!? She laughed at me and had the girl that was translating tell me, "You aren't supposed to make people not want to eat your bread!" This is just an instance of how many goober-like mistakes I made while cooking with her, but it made it a great time. She is a really sincere, fun-loving, and caring lady. She took the time out of her schedule to teach some kitchen inept guy how to cook.

Finally, I will say that I usually only talk about the tough times on my blog, but there are the awesome times, too and I'm grateful for both. The good times do make this place oh so sweet, though!

City Stars

We went to the “City Stars” (the MEGA mall of Egypt, ABSOLUTELY HUGE!) to grab some groceries and goof around this Thursday night since that is basically our “big night off” here. We were tired of staying in Gabel and so we decided to shake things up.

On a random side note, it blows my mind how this monstrosity of a mall and Gabel Asfar (the place where I live) can exist within 30 kilometers from each other. City Stars is this huge mall overflowing with overpriced brand names and teeming with affluent Egyptians, then there is Gabel Asfar. Guys are working their butts off for 15 hours a day driving a minibus to hopefully make 100 LE ($18) and there are donkey carts everywhere. The contrast is… for lack of a better word I will say shocking. I go to City Stars and it is almost like I’m back home, it was REALLY weird going into the mall the first time I was back because I hadn’t left Gabel in about a month.

Anyways, back on track, as we were walking around we heard this really loud hip-hop music and since we had time to kill we decided to go and check it out. It turned up that there was this modeling show going on and they had these two models riding up and down seven floors in the glass elevators. I don’t know what got into me, but it just sprang on me that I want to go and tell them they are beautiful. So I did. The first one was trying to do her, “I’m the Sex Goddess of the World face”, but when I said in the obnoxious manner that I did she actually broke her serious face for a second and giggled. The other one, no such luck. She gave me this cold stare and then just kept doing her rotation of poses. The big, bouncer guy by the elevator started joking around with me and was saying, “If you spent more time in Egypt, then you would see women like this everywhere.” I replied enthusiastically, “Oh ya, I’m suuuuuure!” but anybody who truly knows me would’ve picked up sarcasm everywhere.

It was funny to me as I walked away from the whole modeling gig going on. I had mixed feelings. I will admit that I was slightly proud that I got the courage to go say something random to the model, but more over-powering was my utter repulsion to the whole “glitz and glamour” of it all. It was so fake and just empty! There was such an empty, cold, lifeless look in that girl’s eyes. As I write this, I kind of feel a tinge of guilt for fueling her burning desire to be beautiful. Who cares if she is beautiful!? It would have been better if I’d told her she was more than that. I was probably out of hundreds of guys that was a enabler for her emptiness and, most likely, a regimented ED. Crap, another mistake.

I remember back when I was in 10th grade and I was walking through the mall with Missy, my girlfriend at the time, and this “modeling agent” came up to us and asked us if we were interested in making some money being models. He gave us a card and I ended up going to the thing which just turned up being a thing to teach you “how to be a model or advertiser”. My turn came and they had me animatedly read this thing to test my abilities. I finished reading it and I will never what the guy said to me, “Bud, you definitely need our program if you want to make it in the modeling world. You think you know how to walk? You can’t even crawl. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.” I remember walking out to the car and laughing with my Mom.

The whole “modeling world”, Hollywood, and hip-hop culture became empty to me after that. Ever since then, I’ve never really cared to meet anybody who is famous. I’m sure if I had the chance to take a picture with Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie, I’d do it in an instant, but there is no way I’d ever want to live their life. The condition of our culture is sickening. It is bent on chasing the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but completely neglects the true needs of people. That model didn’t need to ride up and down in an elevator to be beautiful or cut weight to wear her size “2” dress. Maybe, the girl was doing it to get away from poverty, I don’t know, but I do know she was empty. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes if I was given a couple million dollars!

That whole experience last night re-opened my eyes to the following things:

1.I don’t want to be a wealthy person, spending money on more and more crap to keep up.
2.I hate shopping malls and I don’t want to get caught up in materialism. I saw a lot of clothes and thought “That would look good” and it just triggered the mentality of “I want it, I want it…” There’s so much better stuff I can spend my money on.
3.I don’t want to be a fake person and wrap myself up in an identity of exterior confidence based on sex appeal, money, etc. That isn’t what life is all about- forget pretending, I want to live!!

A Short Morning Thought

I woke up this morning from a really weird dream. I'd lost one of my best friends in a strange event and I was left torn apart. I actually cried in my sleep! I can't really write too much on the details, but you get the idea.

I'm sitting here thinking "Gosh, I really wish I could see her and talk to her, but I can't." I'm here in Egypt and I have my amazing email to stay in touch. Until the time comes to see each other once again, I will use this as fuel to remind myself that I'm here and although I'd love to see my friend- I can't. I'm going to make the best of this day and do what I can to make Egypt a better place, God willing that I can be patient enough! The day will come for me to talk with my friend that I'm sure hasn't been obliterated like my dream portrayed.

Time for staff meeting. Let's go day, here I come!!!

The Red Sea = Sweet

I'm sitting here in an internet cafe and life is good. I have had the day of my life! I swam in the Red Sea and snorkeled around for nearly three hours and it was amazing. I never thought I would miss swimming this much, but I guess I was wrong. It feels funny to actually try to swim here, because my stroke feels SO weird. I feel good for about the first 15 strokes and then I remember, "Oh ya, I haven't seriously swam in 7 and 1/2 months..." Weird or not, it was still great just to swim around and observe the awesome nature that the Red Sea has to offer, except the Jellyfish! I got stung by one yesterday. I didn't see how big it was, but I'm guessing it was at least the size of a semi truck because it left me seven welts on my arm. Anyways, so needless to say I have animosity/"respect" for jellyfish now. I dodged them all day long today as I was swimming, which was difficult because they were all over the place.

What else happened today?... I did "free diving" for the first time and I'm going to say that I absolutely loved it! There were these two people that were putting on these "monofins" today and I was thinking, "What on earth are those for?" Anyways, I watched them go out from the shoreline as I basked in the warm sunlight and decided that I was going to go see what they were doing. After watching them swim out 1/4 of a mile they stopped and then went underwater. I swam to where they were and was just watching them dive down on the line that was hooked up to an inner tube.

They saw me watching and asked me if I wanted to try. At first I refused, but they insisted and so I tried it. I went down the first time and I don't think that I got very far, but the second time they gave me a depth gauge and I went 21 meters. The trip down is fun, but the ride up is amazing because you should put your head back and let your lungs take you to the top. It's a really, really, really, really, really cool feeling! I want to see if I can rent the equipment for it tomorrow somewhere. I talked to them for a bit and their names were Sven and Gutrude- they were German. They didn't speak very much English and I don't speak any German other than "Donkashun" which I used in a practical manner for the first time today.

The other thing of note that I did today was as I was swimming along, I saw these scuba divers down at the bottom of the Sea and I decided to swim down to them. Just as I was about to go down Monte said, "It'd be really funny if you went down there and gave them the "out of air" sign and then came up." I decided it would be a good experience to go for and so I did it. I swam down about 40-50 feet, tapped on the guy and gave him the "out of air" sign. He handed me his regulator and then I swam to the surface. I never realized how much the air out of the tank fills up your lungs! Since I didn't have any scuba gear on it was really easy to just shoot up to the top. I felt my lungs expanding and so I had to seriously exhale to even it out. Even when I had gotten to the top, my lungs still felt like they had a lot of air in them.

Well, that is the sum of my stories for the day. I'm tired and I can't wait to sleep, but I'm on vacation from a long stretch of school and so life is VERY GOOD!

Distrust

I realize that for the past two weeks I don't trust:
-God
-A few friends
-Many of my students
-Some of the local staff
-Some of my roommates
-Anyone in Egypt trying to sell me something
-Even my pet cat
-And the list goes on...

It has been a really long time since I've written on this blog. There have been days when I have something that I think "wow! I've got to write about this on my blog" but then I just lose my taste to do anything. In all honesty, I think I've been pretty depressed over the past two weeks. I wasn't too sure why I was so down for the past little while, but I've finally realized it now that my Spring Break is here and life is slowing down. It's funny to me how when life becomes so busy that the most obvious answers become so elusive.

This week has been the 2nd longest week that I've had in Egypt. The 1st longest week was when I first got here. That week was crazy for me because time just stood still. I couldn't sleep at night and was getting about two hours of sleep. I remember just laying in bed thinking to myself, "Am I going to become a sleep insomniac?" Anyways, I'm digressing from the point that I'm trying to make- this week has been long, REALLY long. As of today, I am finally on vacation and now I can just think about last week.

Last week I was distrustful of almost everybody. I know my problem with a frienda has tripped it off and I think that the situation I have with my students makes it pretty easy to get into this state of mind. The teacher-student relationship is an awkward one because unless a student has an immense amount of courage to face his/her mistake they will blame it on the teacher and therefore seek to show the teacher how wrong he was. Many of my students often try to take advantage of me and it is so aggravating. Even the ones that I think to myself, "Ya, I've established a good connection with that one. He won't try to manipulate me." and then he ends up trying to pull a fast one on me.

Up until the past two weeks, I was pretty much over my feelings of betrayal by students, but the problems with my friend just tripped it off. I took so many things way too personally this week- it was ridiculous! If a kid acted up at all, then I hammered him.

I was edgy with other staff members, too. I have a hard time trusting a few of the staff members here because I don't understand them... AT ALL! It's hard to not just let myself assume the worst. Assuming the worst never leads anywhere worthwhile...

I'm glad it's break, I'm going to take the time to process what's going on.

Losing

There is something to be said for losing. Have you ever been involved in something and you work hard for it? You do your best and you strive for greatness, but you just don’t get what you want? This was the story of the school basketball tournament.

It all started out when the teams were “chosen” aka “selected” by a group of four of the students. They got together before the tournament started and divided up the teams the way they wanted them to be. They each picked their favorite players that they liked to play with and then gave the rest to Monte’s Team. This would have been fair if Monte had a choice in who he wanted on his team, but there was no choice they just said, “The teams were picked and here are the people on your team.” Monte and I had been playing together in the mornings and we wanted to be on the same team, but they had put me on a kid’s team that everybody calls “50.” He actually does look a lot like 50 Cent in all honesty…

Anyways, it wasn’t fair to begin with and so I told Monte that they should make sure the teams were actually not selected, but picked. He didn’t want to make a fuss about it because he isn’t a very “confrontational type guy” and so he just went to 50 and asked him if he could trade his best player for me. Naturally, this was a terrible idea because before this tournament I could hardly even dribble! The player Monte wanted to trade is a really good player, so naturally, 50 obliged.

So now, let me describe what is left on our team. We have Gonjowk, a 14 year old boy who played basketball for the first time in his life one month ago. We have Jerald, a super star soccer player who tried basketball for the first time in his life about a month and a half ago. Then we have Wajkir, a kid who can shoot alright, but can’t really dribble. Then there is Nahid, a girl who complains if you don’t pass her the ball a lot, even though she can’t catch it, and has a really negative attitude. Then there is me, “Mr. I Swam in High School” and never really developed his basketball skills. Finally, there is Monte a guy who played in high school and was a killer post, but also can’t really dribble. There’s our team.

Now let me describe the basic gist of every other team. Every team has at least three kids that play regularly here at school and then there is us.
We played our first game and got completely demolished by 50’s team because it was made up of 7 guys who play regularly. We played really hard and got it to where they only beat us by 20 points, but still we got rocked. I took on the position of the team leader because I had the most energy and tried to encourage them as they walked off of the court with their heads bowed. It didn’t do much because we had made a ton of mistakes during our game and were straight up laughed at by the students watching.

Monte and I decided we’d have a team dinner and so we had our team over. They came, we had a great time, and the bonding began to start happening. It didn’t matter so much anymore that we’d gotten our butts kicked because we had a great time together and the game was over.
The next game came along and, once again, we lost, but only by nine. We played hard and got to the point where we were working together alright, but we couldn’t beat the ability of the other team because they could actually score; even though we were an offensive juggernaut. This time we didn’t have a team dinner because we didn’t have the time and it also just seemed like the students were too discouraged. Monte and I were pretty pissed off about it because the teams were chosen so unfairly. We both don’t really like to lose. At this point I was thinking about how Monte had screwed everything up by not being aggressive about choosing teams, but I let it go because “let the dead past deal with its own dead” to quote my good buddy Dickinson!

The 3rd Game came around and this time the game was CLOSE! We started to really start to work together and reach the point of where we could play together as a team, but I’m going to call the excuse that most sore losers call- the Refs. This tournament was pretty much bogus on the end of fouls. There was no limit to how much you could foul and there were no free throws, just a pass from out-of-bounds. We ended up losing by only six because they literally fouled us so many times in the last two minutes that they ran down the clock. We had a team dinner and had a great time once again. Monte and I made great food and I promised them ice cream if we won, but decided to buy ice cream anyways.

The final game came today in which we played another team that had lost all of their
games, but not because they have a bad team. The team captain is one of those guys that is a serious ball hog and they had no team chemistry; just a bunch of individuals. I was stoked going into this game because I knew this was our chance.
The game started out pretty good and the score was even, we were playing pretty well, but one of the other SM’s started getting really mad at me during the game and was telling me to not touch him- IT’S A GAME OF CONTACT! I kept right along defending him, but he started throwing elbows and just straight up pushing me. I wasn’t too worried about it because I’m a lot bigger than he is and I was still winning the ball so I wasn’t worried about it. The game progressed and it began to get pretty rough, the other SM straight up pushed Gonjowk for defending him and the guys on the other team were playing really rough with our team girl.

The score stayed close until the last quarter. They started just making every shot that they would throw up and half of the students stopped playing defense. I rolled my ankle in the last six minutes, again, but kept playing anyways. We ended up losing the game by 14 points and that was it.

I walked off the court just straight up pissed! I wanted to play another quarter, I was still ready to go, but it was over. A lot of the kids watching rubbed it in our faces that we’d lost, I just said, “Ya, they played well and walked away.”
The other team was made up of 7 guys who knew how to play and then there was our team. We didn’t know how to play, but dang we were playing hard! I’m not used to losing, but there is only so much you can do. I high fived my team and said, “We did great guys. We played hard.” I was feeling the same way they were, angry, but it was over.

Losing is something that is never easy- especially when things seem so unfair. I can walk away from this proud though. I went from making four points in the first game to making 18 points in our last game and I know that each one of the students on the team gained more confidence in themselves from it. They can actually play basketball now! I will end with a quote I read one time and truly do hold dear, “A man can learn more from one defeat then a thousand victories.”

Worn

Today is one of those days that I am just straight up beat down. I’m tired and I’m pretty darn impatient with my students. I’m so glad that I’m finished with my classes, oh wow, I am glad I am finished. I’m to a point where I’m trying not to get so annoyed with them, but I’m just tired of asking the same people to be quiet and then being nice to them. I just want to look at them and say, “You are an idiot, you keep talking and I really feel so little respect for you because you give so little respect to me back.” Of course I can never say this because I don’t want to hurt my students… I make such an effort to show respect to my students, but at the same time I ask myself, “Why am I even doing this? They just take my kindness as an invitation to take advantage of me.” At the same time, I can’t really complain and say THEY so much because it is only a small group of kids that does this, but at the same time I just add it all together and let it overwhelm me.

I think I just need to sleep. I’m getting frustrated about things that I usually turn into opportunities to bond with my students. For instance today one of my students, Kuny Andrew, comes up to me with a scarf in her hand and says, “Mr. is this yours?” as she is laughing away. I have been missing my scarf for two weeks! Evidently, she decided it would be funny to steal my scarf while I went to grab something during their study hall and it was WHILE I WAS HELPING HER!!! I looked at her with straight up malice in my eyes. I was missing my sandals a week ago because she also figured that it would be funny to hide my sandals from me and then a week later give them back.

Come to think of it, even though this was an opportunity to joke around- I’m just sick of my stuff being messed with period. Egyptian’s that stay with us use my towel, all of the guys, except Miguel, use my soap and shampoo, Somebody- I don’t know who- is eating my beef jerky, and finally another Somebody keeps taking my pens out of my box. Since I haven’t being selfish with my stuff or my time I feel like the guys in my villa just want to take advantage of it. When we first moved into the villa I wasn’t clean, but Someone complained that we needed to pick up after ourselves and I decided that he was right. Now, I clean up after Someone more often than not! I’m almost always the one that is initiating getting stuff done. I feel like a parent, “Ok guys, let’s go and get this cleaned up as a group.” It’s gotten to the point where I honestly feel like I’m the only one that takes action, it’s stupid. All of these things are TRIVIAL, but they build up and I’m ready to go ape!

I need to rest and that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve busted my butt to be on top of my lesson plans and now I’m going to leave the pile of history papers sitting by my computer. It’s clear my head time!

Fight

A few weeks ago a fight broke out between a few boys. The fight developed because one of the boys, Romany, threw a volleyball behind him and it hit another kid in the head. The kid that got hit in the head, Bassam, turned around and assumed that it was a guy that he had been arguing with earlier, Abanoub Dief. Bassam yelled at Abanoub and said, "I'm going to tear this ball." Abanoub is a joker of sorts and said, "You can't tear it, not you and your whole family." Bassam's cousin and brother were nearby and heard this. In a few moments they went into a wild rage because they were so offended about the insult Abanoub had made on their family. First of all there was yelling and then eventually they started chasing after him. The fight got stopped when one of the seniors came out with a stick, yelling, and telling them to get in their room.

Things went back to normal when suddenly Bassam, his cousin, and brother came bursting out of the dorm with sticks and a five or six pound sharp rock. They started chasing after Abanoub as one of the staff members tried to get Abanoub to run away. To make a long story short this went on for a few minutes. They ended up pursuing and it took about 15 guys grabbing them and carrying them back to the dorm to keep them from assaulting Abanoub.

It's funny to me how things can escalate in the mind that anger takes over completely and all clear rationale goes out the door. I talked with Maged, Bassam's cousin later, and he openly admitted that he was so angry that he was planning on smashing Abanoub's head in with the large rock that he was carrying. Maged is a really good student and, for the most part, a good kid, but he just got carried away in his anger. The idea of how things would have been different if he hadn't been stopped is crazy to me. I'm just glad things were contained.

Anger is an interesting thing to me. It completely tears down any piece of rationale if it isn't controlled, there's some text in Proverbs that always pops up in my head when I'm finding myself getting really ticked, "A man who gives full vent to his anger is a fool."

Being a Complainer

Today, I'm just sick of it. I listen to kids complain every day and now I'm going to be the complainer. I laugh at how childish I feel for doing this, but there's just so much junk that's going on.

Here are the things that I'm tired of:
1. I'm tired of taking the blame for things that I didn't do.

2. I'm tired of Monte and I being the only ones in the villa that initiate clean up.

3. I'm tired of being nice to people. I honestly feel like giving some people the middle finger today, I really do. The idea of stooping to these native's level is SO INVITING and nearly intoxicating.

4. I'm tired of all the expectations that I'm starting to set for myself.

5. I'm tired of moochers. I hate it when I'm generous and then people just walk on me- what is that!? I can't judge too harshly because I am also guilty of doing this at times, maybe that is why it makes me so mad.

6. I'm tired of the utter ridiculousness of the Upper Egyptian culture. The whole idea of how everything is centered around honor and reputation is a breeding ground for arrogance without merit, cockiness without confidence, and, most importantly, fake people who are obsessed with making themselves appear devout.

7. I'm tired of students trying to convince me to give them less homework, I give them homework so they won't fail my tests.

8. I'm tired of my students acting like it is my responsibility to bend over backwards for them. I don't understand why it is that if I am blatantly caring, then they are so manipulative with me. That is the tragedy of teaching, really it is. I care about these kids and I want the best for them, but there are those that will just try to exploit me all day long because they see somebody who cares as weak. It's such a "catch-22"... To care or not to care? I can't take things personally.

9. I'm tired of feeling obligated to listen to one of the crazy, psycho woman here that is ALWAYS finding the bad in everything. I just want to tell her, "Life is good, there doesn't always have to be fault in things and you sure as hell don't have to point it out!"

10. I'm tired of feeling bad for myself. I'm tired of complaining about this stuff. I'm not going to be like the crazy psycho woman. The time has come for me to get off of my soap box and make it happen. I'm in control of this day.

Meals... Egyptian Style!

Yesterday, I was sitting in the staff room making lesson plans for a my Algebra class three weeks from now. Yes, in all honesty, I am bragging because I'm never organized beyond 40 minutes in advance for a class. Anyways, as I was making my lesson plans, Marian Nady (one of the Egyptian staff who graduated last year and is my same age) came up and said, "Eric!!! Let's go eat!" I had already eaten breakfast an hour earlier and I wasn't hungry, but I'm always up for eating.

We went into the cafeteria and there was the girl's dean, the cafeteria ladies, Medhat and a feast waiting for us to eat. In Egypt, you usually have a lot of bread and then stuff to eat on your bread for meals. You don't eat eggs on their own or lentils on their own. You eat them with bread, and lots of it. It makes meals a lot of fun, because you dip your bread into the food and share bread with each other. It's a really social time.

As I was sitting there eating, they were all talking in Arabic, for the most part, because the "cafeteria ladies" don't speak any English. I could hardly understand anything that was being said, but I was having a lot of fun just being with all of them. I didn't like the "cafeteria ladies" when I first got here because they were really controlling with me about how much food they'd give me at lunch or they wouldn't let me eat at breakfast if I came late. I took this all really personally at first, but I just quit letting it bother me and made sure I said "THANKS" after each meal. It's funny how I've never had a conversation with any of them, but I feel like I know them because I've had so much time to watch and observe the way they interact with people.

I'm going to miss the meals here. I'm going to miss a lot of things about this place. I've got 13 weeks left and it will all be but a memory that has defined my life in so many ways. To be cheesy and so corny, I'm going to leave it on a note that I'm going to "eat it all up" while I still can. Only 13 weeks to go.

Prayer

I've had some experiences with prayer recently that are altering my whole view on the idea of prayer. I used to think to myself, "Oh crap, I guess I should probably go and pray to God today because that is what's necessary to become a better person," but things are different lately and I'm glad. That way of thinking is not only a load of religious stupidity, but it is also wrong. I've finally realized that it honestly doesn't matter how good I become in this lifetime because I'm still going to miss perfection by a long-shot.

The other day I was about to start class with a short prayer before we jumped into the lesson, but I decided that I'd do things differently. I told the students to just take a few minutes to talk to God and tell Him what was on their minds. While they prayed, or just sat there, I seriously begged God silently for the strength and patience to deal with my students for the day. It was a shift from what I'm usually asking for in prayer, generally, I ask for the strength to do this and that, but this time I was asking it to be what my students needed for the day.

I will be forthright with saying that there are a lot of kids at this school that have REALLY MESSED UP histories. Some of the Sudanese students have seen their parents shot in front of them, many of the Egyptian boys haven't seen their fathers in years since they are off working in Kuwait, a shocking amount of the Sudanese girls have been raped, and many of the Egyptian girls are treated as inferiors in their home. As you can tell from the descriptions of these students that they've had it rough and when it comes down to it they need to be loved. I will be honest and say that it's hard to love a kid that is openly disrespectful, even if he has had it rough. That is why I seriously ask God to work through me to be what these kids need.

It has made my "prayer life" a lot more enjoyable because FINALLY it isn't such a selfish motion to go through. I'm not asking God to make me patient so I'll be a "nice guy" but because they legitimately NEED somebody to be patient. I can't even begin to understand the feelings of pain and chaos many of them go through and so I'm going to ask God to be what they need for the day.

I also had a good experience of praying with the boy's dean today. I don't really get along with him very well because we disagree on a lot of things, but the one thing that remains the same is that we want to help the students. I prayed with him today for some of the students that are struggling and even though it was only a few minutes; I feel like it changed things between us. It made me realize that, YES, he does care about the students and we're working towards the same goal- even though I couldn't understand what he was praying!

The concept of prayer is finally starting to make a bit of sense to me.

A Hard Day

I'm not sure why today is such a particularly hard day, but it is just one of those days I guess. I life at myself almost everyday because I'm still a bit of an "emotional roller coaster." Last time I checked I'm still not a 13 year old girl, but sometimes I really do feel like one! I guess today would be one of those times.

I keep going through two different phases. I'm really stoked when I'm interacting with my kids and I can feel that I'm actually doing some good, but then there are the times when I start to think of home and my friends. I was chatting with some of my friends on line and I was thinking to myself, "I just want to see them!!!" Which is ridiculous because I know that in all reality there is nowhere in the world that I would rather be than right here. I'm learning about myself and I'm growing from my change of pace, but man it kind of sucks at times. I guess I just miss the people that are so important to me.

I know that when I go back it will be the same thing about at the six month time period of my return I will be thinking, "Wow, I wish I was back at NUA doing a fulfilling job and really having the opportunity to mentor!" I think probably one of the most important things for me to realize is that it doesn't matter where I am to enjoy life. I utterly love being here most of the time and then there are those other times when I just want to get away from the craziness of love deprived, desperate, and confused kids. I love it when I've got the strength to be there for them, but then there are the times like today that I just feel like I have nothing to offer them other than a "QUIT TALKING and PAY ATTENTION!" Maybe a sense of order and stability is what they need, but I get so sick of the disrespect.

I had a thought the other day how funny it is to me that nearly 85% of my students are within a year or two of my age and I'm in charge of them. I think that is one of the things that really gets me down is when I take it personally with the disrespect. I can't do that! So what if they're my age, they don't know it, and they see me as "the teacher" not "their buddy" even though I make so much effort to connect with many of them one on one. I guess that is a hard part of doing this whole "teacher business" because the ball game of being in control of the relationship is so much different. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome when connecting with these kids. I have to be an authoritarian, but still have the sensitivity and care to be a mentor. It completely alters my method of dealing with people! That statement doesn't do it justice, it rocks my world of dealing with people!!

The good days come and go, so I guess I will be grateful for the good times that I've had and I will just move forward and push through the day. Who cares if my emotions are a little out of whack, I've got to keep going! I'm in control of this day, nobody else- not my students, not the principal, not the staff I disagree with- only me. I'm going to take charge of today! Bible class here we come!!! Wooooooohoooooooooooooo!

Random Experiences

These are random experiences that have happened during my time here, but I never wrote them down and they are quite memorable.

-We were in a huge hurry to get to vespers one night and we had just moved into villa 4, but we still didn't have a key. So we were standing outside the door talking about going and getting the key from Mr. Dwight when "BAMMMMMMMMMM!!!" I didn't get to see it in full view, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Daniel kicking in the door. Beautiful. I was jealous of him then and I regret to say that I am still jealous of him now!

-After every staff meeting Monte and I make a point of going out into the town to buy a Berill. It is our way of making a tradition of "celebrating the guts to stand for freedom" because usually some of the local staff have some pretty outrageous ideas of how to run the school. Monte and I always stand behind Mr. Dwight because he is hands down one of the wisest guys I know! Anyways, we go out and get our Berill's and then make a toast to "freedom and liberty." It's a great tradition.

-Ever since Christmas Break, Monte and I have made a tradition that we go and eat pancakes, eggs, and potatoes on top of our villa roof after we teach PE on Friday mornings. It's a really relaxing time for us to just talk about life, the experiences that we're having, and our thoughts on the stuff we go through with our students. I think it is one of the things I'll miss most about Egypt when I leave.

-I've got this song that has become my theme song being here "Live to Win" by Paul Stanley and every time Monte or I plays it in the villa- we belt the song out as loud and obnoxiously as we can. I have really grown attached to that song, I've got to admit it.

-One time I slept in and Monte threw one of our cats, Bigfoot, on me and I woke up to the feeling of these claws on my face. In a blind panic I ripped the cat off of me and threw it because I had no idea what it was, but the thing was that I threw it over on Daniel and then Daniel woke up really angry and threw the cat against the wall. Monte was laughing so hard! That poor little cat, it has been through a lot...

-One morning I was sitting around in my boxers, checking my email, and Miguel (the guy from Spain) comes up to me with this completely stoic, sincere expression on his face and asks me, "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I replied, "Ya, go for it." Then he says to me, "Why do you always walk around in your underwear?..." I don't know why it was so funny to me, maybe it was because he was so honestly wondering, but I started laughing so hard!! It was just something I would have never thought of as being different, because to me there's nothing wrong with walking around in your boxers at home. I'm guessing, ONLY GUESSING, that it is slightly different in Miguel's home!

-Finally, one time after I had just finished up helping the student's at study hall I was walking back to our villa when the need to use the bathroom came upon me. I figured- "Well there is a tree right here and I might as well water it!" I just finished up giving the tree the sweet nourishment that it needed for survival and I turned around to see the girl's dean walking by!!! I won't deny that is the most embarrassed I have been in a long time. I said, "I'm so sorry!!" She just waved her hand across her face- embarrassed as I was, laughed, said- "Mish mushkilla (no problem)," and kept walking. Needless to say, I'm a lot more cautious when I choose a tree to nourish!

Work

I've got to say that there are few things in life that are fulfilling as working hard. Over the past few days I've been working my butt off and they've been some of the best days that I've had in awhile. Thursday I ended up waking up late and went straight to the Ad Building at 6:50am and I didn't finish up my work at the school until 8:20pm. It was a particularly busy day because I gave out tests to all four of my classes and so I had to grade all of them to have them ready for class Sunday. At first I was dreading the idea of having to get all of the work done, but once I got started on it- things just started to flow.

I would do class preps in between my classes and then the grading started during my lunch break. After I worked through my lunch, the day just kind of melded into one mass of grading. I definitely know that I need to quit giving so many essay questions to my History class, but back to what I was saying! I was getting really agitated as the day went on, but I had a break from the grading to go and teach a class a 4:00 and it was the PERFECT break.

I wasn't looking forward to going to the class because the period before I'd done something that I never wanted to happen- I took a nap and I didn't wake up until the class had been over for two hours! I knew that I needed to tell the class why I wasn't there and once again I didn't really feel like admitting my mistake. It turned out being great, none of them tried to hold it over me that I'd missed the class or give me a bunch of trouble about it. They just laughed, said, "That's OK Mr!" and the class was just fun from there.

When I finished that class, I went back to the staff room and put my "nose to the grinder" and worked straight through until 8:20. I won't deny for a second that it felt great to be done. It was something that I could have put off, but I didn't and I feel that I "earned" my right to relax this weekend- even though I worked pretty hard on Friday, too.

Monte, Daniel and I ended up working like animals to get the villa cleaned up. I cleaned the bathroom for the first time since we've moved into villa 4 and arguably scrubbed down the shower for the first time in its life. It took me two hours of scrubbing, scrubbing, and more SCRUBBING to get the place clean, but when I finished the place honestly looked brand new. The tiles were all nice and shiny, the shower didn't look like somebody had painted a white bath tub brown anymore and the toilet was no longer coated with a brown glaze beneath the water. I stepped back when I was done and I smiled because I knew that I'd basically remodeled the bathroom. Now when I walk in there, I smile each time because the place is glowing and my work got the job done.

I don't know exactly when my psyche got reversed to feel so obligated to get work done, but I'm glad my "software is getting reprogrammed." There are far too many fulfilling things in life that I know I'm going to miss if I'm always trying to just get by and do what it takes to get the job done. Life with all of its daily work, difficulties, and demands included, is GOOD!

Slide Show of Mar Girgis, Dahab, Mt. Sinai, St. Katherine's and School Life

Eric In Egypt

Valentines Day

Today is another one of those holidays that is a big event back home, but it is just another day here. I woke up this morning, saw my watch, and the thought hit me- "It's Valentines Day!"

I've been pondering Valentines over the past few moments and I've come to the conclusion that I still don't like Valentines Day! I feel immature saying that because how can you not like Valentines Day?! It is a day that you show others how much you love them! It has always been such a big day for me to pursue a girl or do something romantic, but I just don't care about the day. I always joke with my students when they complain about homework that, "I don't care because I have no heart and I have no soul, so why are they still whining." I'm starting to believe my own words.

It's not that I have something against telling people that you love them, but it is that it often feels like an insincere holiday. It has often been that way for me- buying chocolates, flowers, or Teddy Bears to do my "relationship duties", but it has always just seemed like an obligation. I want to be a person who is genuinely loving to other people, not because I want something in return, but because I want be a positive influence in that person's life.

I've come to the conclusion, one that I hope I can retain, that all in life is meaningless with the exception of a few things. First, is that life isn't meaningless if I'm trying to mirror a God who is powerful, accepting, true, and PERFECT. Second, life isn't meaningless if I am living life for someone other than myself because that is what I truly believe the character of God to be. God isn't some being that is judgmental and angry at me because I'm so imperfect. He is somebody who "came so that we might live more ABUNDANTLY."

I want my Valentines to be a reminder that I choose to follow God not because I want to go to heaven, be saved, be so devout, or some crap like that. I want to follow my God because He is who I want to be more like. I used to be always driven to God out of obligation, like my "relationship duties" on V-Day, but I'm tired of that mentality- it's decapitating!! I don't want to be "obligated" to Him, because, in my experience, things that are done out of obligation are rarely loving. In all reality, I don't think God wants me to be obligated to Him either, where is the fun in that!?!

I want to legitimately love God, forget obligation! I can follow something that, soul-deep, I love it. So on V-Day, I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day because there is a Guy who loves each of us so deeply that our frivolous understandings of love can't even compare to the kind of fulfillment that He offers. I'd like to have some of that!! Happy Valentines Day :)

Blur

I'm in that time of the year where the days just fly bye. I've just finished up my classes for the day and I'm asking myself "WHERE DID THE WEEK GO?!" and at the same time I'm so glad tomorrow is Thursday. Thursday night is the equivalent of a Saturday night in the US because there aren't any classes on Friday, except PE. The days are flying! I'm pretty amazed about it honestly!

I'm beginning to realize that I'm going to be on board a plane on my way home in no time. I have mixed feelings when I think about that. In the aspect of missing my family, friends, mountains, swimming, cleanliness, and what has been normal to me for my whole life- I cannot wait to get out of here. Although, it's a bittersweet because this place has become "normal" for me. My time here has helped me further my understanding of who I am, the things that truly make me thrive, and a standard of beliefs that make sense to me.

I've had the chance to "give back" this year. I feel that so much has been given to me and this year has been an opportunity to continue the cycle. One of my coaches, Jim Nash, told me something I will never forget, "Eric, whatever you decide to do with your life, don't compromise yourself and give back." I've always kept my coach's words with me because they make sense to me.

My only problem was that I didn't know what they meant. I hadn't figured out my convictions, to prevent myself compromising, and I didn't have the mentality to give back. The past five months, as of today, I've had the opportunity to figure out my convictions and give back. I've learned so much here and I know it is the time that I will look back on as defining who I am.

I'm still here though and I'm only half-way done, but I know that time will continue to fly. I'm just going to keep soaking it up, do my best to leave nothing behind and let God lead.

Exercising

I have to say that there are few things that make me happier than exercising. I just finished lifting weights with my two amigos, Daniel and Monte, and I just feel good about life. I always feel great when I'm finished exercising. I feel accomplished, happy, and sore. Those three make quite a killer combination for me.

I've come to a good realization being here. In times past I used to look at exercising as an obligation to get strong for my sport or a way to look good, but those aren't my reasons anymore. It is funny because I've been intensively exercising since I was in 6th grade and I now finally realized this. I have no obligation to get "buff" because I couldn't care less. I like being active because it makes me feel good. I like the feeling of getting a good workout. It isn't an obligation, it is a simple pleasure that I've got the opportunity to do daily.

It is ironic that I came here to teach, but honestly I think I've been more of a student here. I've learned a lot about life and, especially, about myself. I've come to enjoy the simple things in life and truly just soak them up. Everyday here is tough, in one way or another, but I think this is what life is about. The obstacles have made me realize the smaller things in life that I really enjoy- such as exercising.

I know I've said this before, but thank you so much to those of you that supported me and got me here! I know I will look back on this time as one of the defining points in my life, definitely the greatest yet. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Bad Influence

There is something to be said for responsibility. I came to understand a new point of leadership tonight, but before I talk about it I will fill in the details.

A few days ago I had just finished up teaching my 11th grade class about the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis, and the Battle of Plataea. I had decided that a movie would be a good thing to give them at this point so why not show them some of the clips of 300!?! That's a great idea, right?! Wrong.

I cut out a lot of the stuff that happened in the movie, but still there really isn't much to 300 than blood and fighting. One of my students told me that she couldn't sleep the night before because the of the fighting in the movie. She is an exaggerator by nature, but still there is an element of truth in every extravagantly told story.

The following day after the movie, I apologized to my class for the stuff in the movie. The guys yelled and hollered about how they wanted to see the rest and the girls gave me a nod or a "that's ok Mr." I decided that since the guys didn't get to see all of their movie I might as well show them an action movie back at my house. Hey another great idea, right?! Wrong.

I feel like I was the epitome of that verse in Proverbs tonight- "Just as a dog returns to its vomit, so one man returns to his foolish acts." At first I was going to show them a relatively innocent film- "Transformers"- but then one of the SM's suggested we watch "Equilibrium" instead. I'd seen "Equilibrium" before and I knew that there were some intense scenes in the movie, i.e. the hero chops another guy's head in half. You'd think that would have been warning enough for me, but NO I decided to show it anyways.

This was an interesting experience for me. I know why I showed it. I gave into my friend and my two students that wanted to watch a killing movie. The rest didn't really care and were more in favor of a comedy, but since I'm closer to the two students and my friend, I didn't want to make them upset by choosing something else. Although, I knew that it wouldn't be good to show them this movie. I knew it.

There were a few key lessons I learned from this:
1. Don't make promises you are unsure that you want to keep.
2. When I know that something can be harmful then I have to put my foot down and make the right choice. This is the true form of leadership. I'm not trying to "toot my own horn" but I am the unspoken leader of the villa. They look to me to be the decision maker, even though I look to Daniel because he is the oldest and he has been here for two years.
3. I, and only I, can make my decisions. They wanted to watch a movie that I knew wasn't the best. I was in charge and so it was my responsibility to make sure everything was "kosher".

Anyways, we started watching the movie and we were about 1/3 of the way through when some of the 9th graders came in with Miguel. I wasn't too opposed to the 11th graders watching it, but the 9th graders it is something different. The Egyptian students aren't NEARLY as desensitized to violence as American kids are. It doesn't even bother me if a guy gets his head chopped off and a spear jammed through his butt in a movie. I'm used to it.

So these guys start sitting down to watch and my head was screaming at me, "JUST TURN IT OFF!" I didn't have the balls to stand up and make a choice. About half way through the movie Dwight came in and he came in at the worst possible seen in the movie. The guy in the movie is beating the crap out of a ton of henchmen and blood is flying everywhere. In complete definition of the word, I felt ashamed. It didn't bother me so much that Dwight was seeing this, but that his presence was an blunt amplification of what I was already feeling. Dwight told Daniel to make sure they were all in bed in the next hour and walked away. Dwight had put the responsibility on Daniel, but I knew it belonged to me.

About 15 minutes later, I finally got my kahunas together. I stood up, walked over to the projector, and turned off the movie. I apologized to them for showing them this crap in my house and that in a few weeks I would make it up to them by showing them a decent movie. Two of them really wanted to finish the movie, but I feel like the rest agreed with me. They got up said, "Thanks" and even one of them said, "I used to watch stuff like this, but I don't anymore. Thanks for stopping it."

After the students left the house I did something I didn't really ever see myself doing. I deleted all my trash movies. If I can't show my students this stuff, then how can I watch it myself and not be a two-faced fake? Dwight called Daniel to make sure the students had gone home and Daniel told him that we had stopped the movie. I apologized to Dwight for showing them the movie and I'm never going to forget what he said- "That's alright. In the future let's avoid stuff like this, but for now we'll just leave it as an experience."

That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave it as an experience that I can learn from and use it as food to feed my growth because that is all I can do.

Failure

I hate making mistakes, I hate it.

Today was a day that I finally made a huge mistake in teaching my Algebra I class. The idea of making a mistake while teaching a math class was one of the things that haunted me when I heard that I would be teaching math classes. I was teaching inequalities today and I made a big mistake in one of my operations that I was showing them on the board. I don't think that it would have been a big mistake, but it ended up being one because it was at the end of class. I didn't have the time to clarify the truth with them and now I feel like a retard.

I've taken these classes before and all the way up to Calculus III, but I still doubt myself in Algebra I! I don't know why I let myself get so easily rattled when I teach this class... It is going to be difficult to say to my students tomorrow, "I made a big mistake teaching you guys how to solve an easy problem yesterday." After I say that, I'm curious how they will react. I'm sure there will be the kids that are failing that will use it as fuel to justify there cheating behavior and lack of effort this quarter. Some might not even care. Others probably won't even notice.

The biggest problem is that I screwed up on something that I'm supposed to be an expert at. I have always been my biggest critic and I hate it when I screw up. Such is life and I know what I need to do to fix the situation, I just don't want to admit that I'm wrong. I laugh at myself, I feel like such a child saying that, but that is really what it comes down to. I don't want to admit my mistake.

This will be good for me.

Camping = Man Time

Last night was one of the best times that I've had with my students thus far. A few weeks ago one of my 11th grade students, Peter Reda, came up to me and said, "WE HAVE TO GO CAMPING!" I said, "Ok, let's do it." It took us a few weekends to get it together and go do it, but we eventually got our stuff together. We went into the center of Cairo to buy some pancake mix and marshmallows the other night, because what would camping be without marshmallows?!?

Anyways, so we were talking about what time we would go out when two of my rowdy 10th graders, Wagdy and Malak. Malak is a short, stocky, really well built 19 year old who loves to mess with me and tell me he's going to beat me. Wagdy is 18 and is really loud, loves to try to push my buttons, and is always trying to show me how strong he is. Unfortunately, he isn't a bit like Malak and is pretty scrawny. I have to say that they are really annoying in class, but I love these guys. They're my type of guys, but not too much in class ;). I decided to invite them to come with us. They were naturally interested and so I told them to go grab some blankets and mattresses. It turned up that we had a group of nine guys, Malak, Wagdy, Wael, Maged, Peter, Daniel (the French SM- GREAT GUY!), Medhat (Egyptian staff member- also a good guy) and myself.

To summarize the night, instead of writing huge paragraphs, we:

-Built a fire and roasted marshmallows
-Lit our farts on fire; and now you understand the title. Daniel was the only one who really got a round of applause.
-Made Bedouin Tea with our steel ladle
-Wrestled a lot; I think that was especially good because I can't beat my students with a yardstick like I would like to, but I can wrestle with them in the free time. It was my first time really wrestling around with these guys and I feel a different bond with them now. I can tell that they have more respect for me, since I beat each of them, except Peter because we don't wrestle around. There's a different type of relationship, he's 17 but he's probably the most mature Egyptian in the school.
-Got completely jumped! Wael, Wadgy, Malak, and Maged decided that since they couldn't beat me individually they'd all take me on. I wish I could say that I took them on, but there wasn't a chance! Wael and Malak easily subdued my arms while Maged and Wagdy sat on me and tickled me until I honestly had tears coming out of my eyes. I'd forgotten how you could actually cry if somebody tickled you relentlessly. Needless to say, I remember now!
-Had some good talks about spirituality. The topics of freedom of choice and why does God change so much in the way He deals with people from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It was good stuff, they're guys who have the courage to admit they doubt the character of God that has been portrayed to them and it was great to think things out with them.

We went to bed, I didn't sleep too well, but it was DEFINITELY worth it! We woke up and made some pancakes and headed to church. This will stick out as one of the "good times" from my experience in Egypt. My students make my experience here. I hate the stuff they do at times, but I love these kids. I laugh at myself as I write this because I'm getting really sick of the culture here, at times, but I know that it will be really tough to leave Egypt.

Christmas Break Part 11: The Return to Cairo

The morning that we headed out of the White Desert also happened to be the morning that we decided to go back to Cairo. We were originally planning to stay another night in the desert at Beharaya Oasis, but Monte got 300 LE stolen from him when we were at the Anwar Hotel and we were kind of ready to head back to the school anyways. So we made the decision to take the trip back to Cairo.

When we arrived back in Dakhala from the desert our guides took us to a place by the side of the street that was supposedly the stop for the bus headed to Cairo. They helped us with our bags and Monte gave them 50 for all of us for a tip. We were about to go when one of them put out his hand and said, "Baksheesh." I'll be honest that whenever somebody asks me for baksheesh, I rarely want to give them anything because they always give you this puppy dog face and want more- no matter what amount you give us. They'd charged us 50 LE extra to go to a free hot spring that was on the route back to Dakhala so we figured they'd be doing just fine in the area of tips. We told them on the way that we wouldn't bargain on the price and whatever was left over from the expenses (nothing) we'd give them in tips. I was already personally planning to give them 20 LE, but I changed my mind and put my money back in my pocket.

I'd say that is one of the most frustrating things about being here is that a lot of people are just trying to exploit me. They fight dirty, too- pity parties, guilt trips, anger, and other creative methods of manipulation. I understand their situation, but it gets tiresome dealing with them and still trying to show respect for them as human being because they stoop REALLY LOW. I guess desperation can have that kind of effect on people...

Anyways, we were waiting a big guy that walked with a bit of a swagger told us to come with him to his bus. I was really skeptical at first that he was going to take us to Cairo, so I double checked which direction the bus was headed on my compass. He was actually headed towards Cairo and I felt a bit of trust towards him. We asked him how much, he told us 35. I double checked and then Daniel asked him again, just to make sure. We didn't want a repeat of the day before.

We boarded the bus and it was CROWDED! Every seat was taken once we sat down and almost everybody was carrying some type of luggage. I don't know why, but it seemed like 90% of the bus was hostile. When I'd look around and make eye contact with somebody, I'd smile and get a glare in return. I'm not sure if my distrust of the bus owner was shining through to the other people or my own feelings of frustration were more visible than I realized, or maybe it was because the book I was reading had an American soldier on it. These are all attempts at a guess, but I won't deny that I was getting pretty annoyed. Usually when you smile and say, "Hi", the Egyptians return a smile and a hello. Not this time.

I decided I'd just smile if I made a contact and show respect in what way I could, but I'd resign myself to just talking with Kevin. We had some good conversations, but everytime we'd laugh or get excited in our talk these guys would look over and glare at us. I started to just get flat out angry because it happens at times on the metro, but never on a scale like it was with this. These guys knew nothing about me, what was their problem?

The swaggering bus owner came through a few hours later to collect money. He put out his hand and said authoritatively, "Give 35 pounds." I got out a 50, he rolled his eyes at me and said, "Give small money" I told him that was the best I could do and he begrudgingly sifted through his wad of bills and handed me change. He waddled off to his seat under the weight of his rotund belly and I was just thinking, "What is wrong with these people?"

The bus ride went on and we stopped at Beharaya Oasis. I walked around and bought some dates and Beharaya grown olives. I got a great price for the olives -20 LE for a 3 kilo jar!! I was pretty happy about my purchase, but I ended up leaving them on board the bus when we arrived in Cairo.

We got back on board the bus and once again more glares. The trip continued and eventually though one of the guys looked at me, I smiled and he smiled back. I thought, "hmmm... maybe this guy isn't so bad after all." It turned out that by the time we got to Cairo they were all really helpful with making sure we found our way back to the school (even though we knew it, but we figured we'd just take the good intentioned help).

I learned a lesson from that bus ride. I'm still not sure why those people were so hostile towards me in the beginning, but I feel good that I walked away from that ride victorious. It proved to me yet again that you can't control other people, but you can control yourself. I had better control of myself than they did and they eventually came over to my "conditions" for our short temporary relationship. It worked because I showed the most respect to them. They weren't giving me any respect, but I gave them respect anyways. I prayed a decent amount on that ride and I know I didn't do that by my own because usually I would've just said, "forget them. I'll glare back, too." This time was different and I'm glad it was different. I'll remember that bus ride as the beginning of a journey to alter my mentality of dealing with people.

Christmas Break Part 10: Farafra and the White Desert

Once we arrived in Farafra and waved goodbye to our dishonest mini-bus driver it was nearly dark. We'd decided in advance that we wanted to do a trip into the desert after a night in Farafra, but once we realized how utterly small it was we decided to see if we could get out on a night safari into the White Desert.

We started out with trying to go through the Sunrise Hotel aka "Sunrise Dump". The guy told us it would be 1500 LE for all of us and we said, "No, 100 LE each". He laughed at us and said, "There is no way you will be able to go to the desert for less than 900, but he would give us a special price of 850" I took it as a challenge and suggested we leave and then come back. We eventually found a guy that would do it for 700, but take us out the following morning. We didn't want a day tour, but we used it as leverage with the other guy.

After a series of bargainings and telling him that we would go to the other guy, but "we really liked him" (that's the way they talk here, "well because you seem like a really nice guy I'll give you an outrageous price for something cheap!") and wanted him to make money. This is really great after a series of "phone calls" where he was holding down the receiver!!! We had a tour out to the desert for 600 LE- I'm once again quite proud of the negotiations we pulled off as a team. Daniel and I have learned to work really well to pressure sellers in a bargain as a team and it has saved us a lot of money! I still think he got a good deal out of us, but we got the trip we wanted and for 250 LE cheaper.

We headed out into the desert with the two best Egyptians we met the whole trip (besides Zowek). They weren't obnoxious about trying to sell us stupid stuff and they were just laid back. They weren't dying to entertain us and they were both just "down-to-earth" guys.

The White Desert was the best way to end the trip! The stars were ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. You hardly ever see more than two or three stars in the sky at the school, but in the desert you could see SO MANY! I haven't seen the sky that lit up in a long time and it was a really good experience. It's funny how you don't realize how cool somthing is until you don't have it anymore. Oh life lessons.......

I had a good talk that night with one of our guides about the character of God. He was a Muslim and had a practical view on God. He said he really loved everything about the Koran, but somethings confused him. He said that a loving God is the only God that made sense to him and I talked with him about my views on God. We were both from VERY DIFFERENT backgrounds, but we somehow had a similar view on God. It was good to talk with him.

The following morning we went to a place called "mushroom" rock. A huge rock that looks like a, guess... Mushroom! Who would have guessed. After that we went to a hot spring in the desert and then boarded a bus headed to Cairo. The trip could not have ended any better! I saw a lot of cool things during my break, but the White Desert stands out as my favorite experience.

Christmas Break Part 9: The Trip to Farafra

The trip to Farafra was probably one of the more intense experiences that we had on our trip. We had asked one of the guys waiting at the bus stop what the price to Farafra was and he told us it was 17 LE. So we got on board and headed towards Farafra.

Three quarters of the way there the driver started getting money from all of the passengers and we passed up our 17 each. He said back to us "Arabic, arabic... give me more money.. more Arabic I didn't understand, Arabic I can understand - you need to give me 25 LE each." Daniel replied back, "No."

Let me give you a background on Daniel. This is his 2nd year SM'ing in Egypt and he is a really independent, strong willed, justice inspired, and sometimes really stubborn guy. He values fairness in all situations and doesn't have much tolerance for the crap that a lot of the Egyptians try to pull on us.

Back to the story. The drivers assistant or co-pilot as I like to call them started yelling at us and telling us to give him more money. I told him, "No, 17 enough, all pay 17." He turned around and started talking to the driver, then suddenly the guy slams on the brakes and stops the car. He gets out of the car, comes to us and starts demanding more money. We argued back and forth with him for a little bit and at first the Egyptians were either silent or on our side, but somehow the co-pilot convinced them we were cheating the driver.

The arguing continued until eventually the guy said our bags on the roof is what cost us the extra 8 LE, but there were also many other packages on the top. I laughed at him really obnoxiously because the guy was being so ridiculously dishonest. Even the guys that had "sided" with him started laughing because they knew he was being dishonest.

After this, though, things got pretty serious. Some passengers started yelling and swearing at us in Arabic. Daniel wasn't willing to budge because he didn't want to pay more, but I realized the "chemistry" of the mini-bus was changing. There were only two Egyptians left on the bus who weren't yelling at us and the prospect of getting thrown out of a bus in the middle of the desert wasn't appealing. I gave in for Daniel and paid his extra 8 LE because I didn't want to get thrown out of the mini-bus.

Looking back on it there is a part of me that feels I shouldn't have paid them the extra based on principle, but then the other part of me knows I made the right choice because the area we were in wasn't the most "Western-Friendly". There were 12 guys yelling at us and the fact that we were four in the middle of nowhere didn't seem like a good time to start a fight over a total of 32 LE ($6). I was really tempted to leave a ton of trash in his bus, but I decided against it because I don't want to be a revenge driven person. It seemed so fair at the time, but I'm glad I didn't.

Once we gave him the money he started up the car again and we continued to head towards Farafra.