Meeso and Me

It is kind of funny how the more I have to write about, the less I want to write. Finding time and energy for this kind of discipline is a little bit more difficult than I would have expected.

Life has definitely gotten a little crazier. I met all (except for two) of the other teachers. I instantly bonded with one of the girls, a 28-year-old lawyer-turned-travel-bum who has spent the last few months hanging out in Cambodia and Thailand before she decided to live in Egypt for a while. Two of the other American girls are a little more similar to me in that they are both fairly-recent graduates looking for some life experience to help guide their understanding of what should come next. I have not spent much time with them but they both seem like nice girls. There are two Scottish girls who both taught at the school last year and decided to stay on for another year. I did not bond with them as well as I would have thought considering the time that I have spent in Scotland. Neither of them were big fans of Glasgow, which I think was what caused our friendship to go awry. Like my roommate, one of the Scottish girls is a recent convert to Islam and they have kind of bonded over that. The last of the teachers that I have met was another girl from America. She is also a new Muslim convert and moved here to learn Arabic and I guess immerse herself in a more Muslim culture. The other two teachers arrived after our little teacher get-together and I guess I will meet them tomorrow.

I feel like I have been very fortunate in the friendships that I have been accumulating. They are definitely very diverse. The interns from the church have been amazing and have included me in several of their meals as well as some of the youth activities. I think I am going to be helping out with both the junior high and high school youth groups. It has been awesome getting to know them and having such an awesome group of young Christians to spend time with. Beyond the interns, I have also spent a couple of evenings hanging out, talking and watching movies with Josh, my “good conversation” friend. It seems that we have a lot in common academically and we have been able to have some good international, political, you know… whatever… conversations over a beer or a martini. It has been really nice to have someone to just have good, chill conversation with.

Lisa, the 28-year-old teacher, is hilarious. I am fairly certain our lives could not be more different, but we have great banter and get along really well. She doesn’t really hold anything back and I don’t really get offended… and I am definitely not afraid to share my opinion…so it works out well. The night that we met she wanted to go downtown to find a place that we could get a glass of wine (most restaurants do not sell alcohol). We got into a cab and started heading into the city. The tricky part was that our cab driver did not really understand where we wanted to go… a rooftop bar called Nomad that was located at the top of the King Hotel. We kept saying, “King Hotel” and he kept saying, “No, Sheraton… 4 stars!” and we would say “No, King Hotel.” And he would say… “Sheraton!” Other than that, he spoke no English. And we spoke no Arabic. So we would get into this funny pattern of me shouting in English, German, Spanish, French… really any words that I knew that I thought might help. Then Lisa would start shouting in Russian, Cambodian, etc… then our cabby shouting back in Arabic. It pretty much ended in the three of us laughing a lot until the cab driver pulled over and we found a man on the street who spoke English. I feel like a total failure for not knowing Arabic. I am extremely excited about beginning classes. Anyway… we did eventually get where we wanted… and the view was fantastic… and so was the wine.

The next day Lisa called me to see if I wanted to go to the pyramids with her. I did. So we met up and walked over to Road 9 to get some coffee before we headed out. While we were there we discovered that the pyramids were going to be closing early because of Ramadan and decided to post pone our pyramid adventure for a day. Instead we went over to the Maadi House (the country club for Embassy people) and met up with Sheryl, Becky and Ryan. Lisa and I ended up swimming for a while and then having a few beers with Ryan. Later that night the three of us met up with Ryan’s friend Joe that he had met in some hostel in Alexandria. Suffice it to say that Ryan and Lisa will be my going out and drinking friends. I am DEFINITELY the most mild of the three of us. I think they really get a kick out of me because I am obviously very comfortable with them and have a blast going out… and then I will be like, “Sorry guys… I have to go… I am helping out with youth group.” They think (correctly) that I am super innocent… but I think they also kind of enjoy it. Like I said before, I feel very fortunate to have such great diversity in my friendships here.

Thursday Lisa and I went to the pyramids with Ibrahim, my amazing tour-guide Egyptologist friend. Honestly, I don’t think I will ever get over how cool they are. It was insane. Egypt is insane. I am in love with this country. We did the whole camel ride thing when we were at the pyramids. My camel’s name was Meeso. I think I would have enjoyed the camel ride a lot more had I not been wearing a skirt…. The carpet was a little rough on my legs…. And I’m pretty sure I flashed the Sahara… but when I was in the middle of the dessert looking out on the pyramids juxtaposed against the sprawling city of Cairo none of that really seemed to matter. The world is an unbelievably cool place. After the pyramids Ibrahim took us out to Memphis to see the largest remaining statue of Ramses. It was gorgeous. On the way we stopped in the Egyptian countryside at this beautiful restaurant for my first traditional Egyptian meal. I had this unbelievable bread with all of their crazy dips and some skewered beef, chicken and lamb followed by fresh dates for desert. It was all really delicious.

Yesterday I walked to church for the first time by myself. I was a little terrified I was not going to get there considering I had an incredibly vague understanding of where it was located… but I made it there in about 15 minutes. Brilliant. This week was “Kick Off” week and there were several tables set up for people to sign up to get involved in a number of things. In addition to the booths, the service consisted of the testimonies of members as well as some explanations of different ways that we can get involved. The service also discussed some of the changes for this year and the character that the church wanted to portray to the community of Maadi. I do not know that I have words to describe how meaningful this experience was for me. It seemed as if all of the vague prayers that I have had for myself for the year following my graduation from college as well as the specific prayers that I have had for myself from the moment that I have arrived in Cairo were the same exact prayers of this church community and the body that this church is aiming to create is the picture of what I have been looking for. It is a little insane to know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I am beyond excited.