What I'm Doing Now

I've realized lately that some of you who read this actually have no idea what I'm doing in Egypt, so I thought I'd give a brief run-down. I've been here since November, doing a wide variety of things including volunteering for a Refugee organization, teaching little Sudanese children at a refugee school, working part-time at a Communications company (to pay the rent), tutoring an Egyptian actor in conversational english, and studying a little Arabic (just for the first few months). I've included some links to websites in case that sentence wasn't enough to fill you in on the randomness of my life.

My current project is for my church, the Episcopal/Anglican Church of St. John the Baptist. They have a Spirit of Giving Charity Gift Catalogue, which is both in print and online. Through it, people can sponsor various development projects throughout Egypt. The catalogue is a few years old and has not been updated for a awhile, so my priest asked if I would be interested in visiting each project. For the last month and a half I've been travelling around Egypt (mostly in Cairo and greater area, but also up north to the Delta and Alexandria) and gathering stories, information, and pictures and seeing if the projects are still running or if there are new projects we should sponsor. I've visited women's literacy classes, schools for African refugees, a travelling medical clinic for donkeys and mules (very necessary in this country!), and a center for disabled children, among other places. This week I got to hang out with Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and African priests, as I attended the Episcopal Synod for the Anglican/Episcopal Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. I went with a friend and our pastor as representatives of our particular parish. Last night there was a falucca (sailboat) ride for any Synod attendees. I thought hanging out on a boat with a bunch of priests would be the chance of a lifetime, but I was in serious danger of vomiting due to some bad salad eaten the night before and didn't think hurling my dinner into the Nile for an hour would have made the best impression (swine flu anyone?). So, I passed. I did, however, get the Bishop's business card. This is big time people... But seriously, I met some very interesting people, including an Egyptian priest who has started one of only three deaf churches in the entire world (meaning a church run completely in sign language), and a Lebanese priest who lives in Tunisia and believes strongly that Muslims do not have to leave their cultural/religious context simply because they love Christ. I also discovered that a few years ago, the Bishop of the Diocese put the priests on a bit of a diet because too many of them were dropping dead from heart attacks and I admit, there were some rather large men there - but I hear they're half the size they used to be...

We also had a discussion about the ordination of women. Very interesting to hear opinions within a different cultural context. The final decision was that this particular diocese isn't ready, but they're keeping the conversation open and ongoing.

That's all for now-I'm off to a refugee film festival (I mean a festival with films about refugees). Happy Friday!