October 27, 2003

It is difficult to believe that it has only been five weeks since my last monthly message. Much has happened since my last message. I have traveled to Mt. Sinai, Alexandria, and Minia. This month has been a month of transition from orientation to starting my work assignments. It has been a good month, and to top it off it is now grapefruit season. Those of you know me well know that I lived on grapefruit and grapefruit juice in the United States. Much has happened in the past month. I will try my best to describe some of my experiences, but I am still trying to understand it all myself.

Egyptian Arabic is a fascinating language. It is written right to left and therefore people think in terms of right to left. Timelines are generally written right to left, and books start on the page that would be considered the end of an English language book. I have started going by Robert again, since I found out that "Rob", as pronounced in American English, is a word for God. Most accepted that it is just an American name, but to save them any possible embarrassment in talking to "God" in public, I have started going by Robert again.

Many Egyptians have difficulty with pronouncing the letter "P". They will pronounce it as the letter "B". I don’t mind it, since there are many more Arabic sounds that are difficult for Americans, including several that I have only made when clearing my throat. In general, many Egyptians speak good English since they are required to study it in school. Just realize that if you ever hear of an Egyptian having a problem with Colin Bowel, he or she is likely talking politics, and not letting you know of a digestive problem.

I have always considered myself open to different cultures, and did not expect to find some areas where my expectations would be wrong. In case I am not alone, I want to share a couple. First, I found that just because a woman wears a heads scarf, does not mean that she is not as outgoing, educated, or have the same ability to take leadership. The other one was a clear separation between Christians and Muslims in their opinions about the United States. I have found some Christians and Muslims that are very critical of the United States government, and Christians and Muslims who defend the United States government in going to war in Iraq, and Afghanistan.

I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to travel to Mt. Sinai at the end of September. I was taking four hours of Arabic classes each day at a Catholic school in Cairo. The school organized a bus trip to Mt. Sinai, and since I was a student there, I was able to join the trip. It was a great opportunity, since the school would pay part of the cost, and it would allow me to go to Mt. Sinai with some friends I have met in my Arabic classes. This was my first trip outside of Cairo since I arrived in Egypt. I found the scenery of the Sinai desert to be amazing. It was good to go hiking again after over a month of not hiking in Egypt.

After I returned from Mt. Sinai, I attended and participated in the Middle East regional retreat for mission personal from the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Mission personnel serving all over the Middle East, and support personnel from the United States participated. The retreat was held at the Beit El-Salam retreat center in Agamy. Agamy is only a few miles outside of Alexandria. The retreat center is run by the Evangelical Church in Egypt, and is as nice as any retreat center I have seen in the United States. The retreat was also a great opportunity for me to learn from the experiences and work of other mission personnel in the Middle East. It was inspiring for me to be able to hear of the work and partnership they bring to the local Christian churches in the Middle East.

As I have been gradually finishing my orientation activities, I have started my work assignments for the year. The first assignment I started is working in the library at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. It is the largest Protestant Seminary in the Middle East. There are students from all over Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. My work there has given me the opportunity to meet many of the Seminary students.

I started tutoring English for a high school girl at a local Catholic orphanage. Life there is difficult, and consists of spend much of their time studying. This is very important for the older girls. Adoption is virtually non-existent in Egyptian culture. Women living on their own are also not socially acceptable, except for foreigners. This means that the only way out of the orphanage for girls is to get married, or go to University. Egypt has a policy of free education for all Egyptians, regardless of social status. This includes University, as long as the student has high enough exam scores to get into a University. The public education system functions, but is overloaded by lack of teachers, schools, and funding. Many students, who can afford them, take private lessons from teachers after the school day. This supplements the teaching from school. In many cases it is where much of the learning takes place, since teachers make a lot of money (compared to their teaching salaries) from providing these lessons.

Since children at the orphanage can not afford private lessons, volunteer tutors help to give these children some of the same advantages as their richer peers. I only tutor one girl for two hours a week, but there are many others who also volunteer at the orphanage, from several different countries. Life there is difficult, so the volunteers also try to make sure that the girls know that we are not there just to do a "service", but because we really care for them as people. This is often as important as the teaching in cases where some of the children have been abandoned or abused by their parents.

I have also started teaching English to the staff of the Better Life Association for Comprehensive Development (BLAD) in Minia. This is a NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that works on water and sanitation project for Minia and surrounding cities, worker safety (especially for quarry workers), women's' issues, and child labor issues. The employees are Christians, and I am impressed with their dedication to serving people in Egypt. They are fun to work with, and are open to newer western style teaching techniques that I use. Minia is located about 3.5 to 4 hours south of Cairo. The part of Egypt south of Cairo is referred to as Upper Egypt, since it contains the upper part of the Nile River. The Nile is the most important geographic feature in Egypt, so up is south, and down is north, unlike in the United States.

I have experienced Egyptian hospitality many times in the past month. The main feature is large quantities of food. Egyptians will insist and paying for food and dinners. They will also prepare or buy more food than an entire family can eat for each person, and insist that you must eat it all. The food is always very good, and consists of a wide variety. I am trying to figure out how to be able to stop eating before my stomach hurts during these times. This hospitality is true for both Christians and Muslims.

My hosts have opened up their homes and treated me as a member of the family (except that members of the family seem to get away with eating less). I have been told, and my limited experience seems to show, that Egyptians always have more than one bedroom in their apartments. This is the case even when only a couple live in the apartment. The purpose for this is to always have a room for guests. To have a guest sleep on a couch or, even a hideaway bed, in the living room would be a dishonor to the guest. I have been told that even having a guest take the bedroom, while the hosts sleep on the couch, would not be acceptable, since it makes the guest feel that he or she is an inconvenience.

It has been very enjoyable for me to be able to work in both Cairo and Minia. Cairo, like most major cities, has a very diverse population and culture. This is due to its importance as a national and regional center. There are many foreigners who live and work in Cairo. I can eat in authentic Korean, Thai, or European restraints, and meet people from these countries. Living in Minia is a different experience. There are fewer crowds, traffic is lighter, and they actually obey traffic lights (usually). Minia has a great park that runs for a few miles along the Nile. It has green grass, tress, benches, and birds. All of these are in short supply in Cairo.

I spent one evening sitting in the park enjoying the evening. I noticed a group of High School girls with head scarves walking by. After they passed I could hear them practicing English. About 10 minutes later they came back by. A couple minutes after that they passed by where I was sitting and one of them said "hello". She was quite startled when I responded with "hello". They then came by wanting to speak. It turns out that they were not the only ones interested in this new foreign visitor. There were several High School boys who were not ready to try to talk to me until they saw that it was safe. I was then surrounded by a large crowd of students. Soon a few University students came by as well. The students were interested in knowing what I thought about everything. It was a different experience for me, since people in Cairo are used to seeing foreigners.

Egyptians view beauty differently than Americans. I have heard several people tell me how they like my eyes. My eyes are blue, and blue eyes are very rare among Egyptians. I have also has a girl tell me how beautiful my skin is, since it is lighter than Egyptian skin. She was surprised when I told her that many Americans spend a lot of effort to make their skin darker. I don’t know if she even believed me when I tried to explain about tanning booths.

There is more I would like to write about, but I will save that for my next message. I have been fighting a cold or sinus infection this past week, which has delayed me in finishing this message. If you have any specific questions, or want to tell me anything, I welcome your emails at therob@npl.com. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Peace,

Rob