My Friend

I just got to hang out with Monte for the weekend and I've got to say that if there is one person's friendship that I truly value from my time in Egypt, it would be Monte's. There are few people in this life that you meet and thoroughly get to know and all I can say is that I have been blessed to have a guy like Monte be one of those people. The guy is is an inspiration with his discipline, dedication to not short changing himself with life, his conviction, his courage to follow what is right, and his honesty. I feel like I am lucky if I find a friend that has one or two of the traits that I just listed and that is why I am blessed to have a friend like Monte.

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.