...is not about what people think and do, it is about finding time in the schedule to meet!”
-Just some wisdom from my program director.
What not to do in Egypt:
1. Take 24 students out to an oasis in the middle of nowhere during an Egyptian holiday when all the hotel rooms are booked
2. Get your passport stamped in Israel when you have future plans to travel to Syria and Lebanon. Turns out Canada doesn't give second passports (although America does) so I just have to get a whole new one - dang it. When I told the woman at the Canadian Embassy my situation, she looked at me as if I was three years old and said, "Well, why did you let the Israelis stamp it?" I could only stare back and in a flustered voice try and explain that of course I didn't LET them stamp it. I wonder if she's aware that a) Israeli soldiers carry large guns and b) Israeli soldiers don't always speak English and c) I don't speak Hebrew.
3. Send emails to important people from an account that sends them 20 times over.
I need some sleep. And maybe one of those crazy oxygen bars, where you pay to breathe. I used to think they sounded like a ridiculous idea, until I moved to Cairo and discovered that my body doesn't enjoy getting 2/3 of the normal amount of oxygen it needs because I'm breathing in pollution instead.
Irregardless, today was still a good day.
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"A dream worth having: To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."-Arundhati Roy, from her speech entitled "Come September"
Currently Reading
- Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation - Miroslav Volf
- Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths - Paul Gordon Chandler
- The Body and the Blood: The Middle East's Vanishing Christians and the Possibility for Peace - Charles M. Sennott
5 comments:
Oh habibi! How's Siwa?
I'm jealous that you're having all the fun, while I'm toiling here at Dordt.
dener, dener, quite the dreamer--
(that's right--i'm in poetry class this semester!)
good thing you still had a good day, even after all the stress.
good luck with your passport, lady.
i miss you.
Oh Dena! Siwa what memories, that is a difficult place to take students...remember the tourist police?
Sorry about the passport issues I have to figure out what to do with my defaced passport :-) Israel isn't the most accomodating country to visit!
hey woman.
thanks for the hook-up to a place to stay in San Fran.. woo hoo, wish you could come too.
I hope you're having a great time right now.
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