Trip Highlights

I call it "highlights" because that takes the pressure off to come up with an exhaustive report!

Wednesday, May 19

• Much of the day was a bit stressful because I was trying to accomplish so much in so little time. Thanks to Gretchen assigning Kayla to help me, we finished everything in time for Craig to drive me to Boston around dinner time! Whew! My suitcases were each exactly 50 lbs, and my carry on was pushing the limits of weight allowed, according to airline web sites.
• Craig dropped me off in good time, and my wait in the Boston airport was uneventful. My Air France flight left around 11:00 PM. I sat next to a Moroccan man on the plane who spoke only French. I communicated with him a little in my minimal French. Afterward I wished I'd been braver and attempted more.
• I was thrilled to discover that "Invictus" was showing on the plane, so I watched that. Later I threw all attempts at setting my body clock to my new time zone (seven hours ahead of the old one) and slept the entire rest of the flight.

Thursday, May 20

• Had a two-hour layover in Paris, of which nothing in particular stands out. I didn't get to see any Paris landmarks when landing or taking off, alas.
• Once again, I slept virtually the entire flight from Paris to Cairo. Crazy. My seat mate was a lady who divides her time between Atlanta and Cairo. We mostly talked as we were landing in Cairo.
• One of my dreams--it would have been on my 40 by 40 list, if I had one--is to see the Pyramids. Well, it didn't cross my small mind that I could see them as we flew into Cairo. As they came into view, I still wasn't sure that they could actually be The Pyramids. But they were. And I saw them. And that was sheer bonus.
• My Cairo airport experience was, um, interesting. The bus from the plane deposited me in an arrival hall. I knew I was supposed to catch a connecting flight, not go through customs as everyone else appeared to be doing. So I inquired at a nearby desk. The men there seemed to speak enough English to understand, but one instructed me to sit and wait. Okay. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, but I had a four-hour layover, so no need to stress yet. In a few minutes, a girl came and asked if I were transferring to Egypt Air and told me that we were waiting for my luggage. Okay. My travel agent and the Air France ticketing agent had both assured me that my luggage was checked through to my final destination, but my travel agent was in Doha and the ticketing agent was in Boston, and my luggage and I were in Cairo, so I didn't argue. After 20 minutes or so, the lady reappeared with my luggage, and what appeared to be another airline rep helped us all on a bus.
  
  This bus deposited me at another terminal, where they sent me and my luggage through a metal detector and handed us off to an official at another desk. He didn't speak much English, and he promptly collected my passport and instructed me to sit and wait. A few minutes later he walked away. Okay. So here I am surrounded by people who do not speak my language, and now I don't even have my passport. Comfortable feeling. After half an hour of waiting, another bus driver arrived. The official with my passport reappeared, returned my passport to me (whew!), and packed me off with the new bus driver. He was very kind to help me with my luggage, and drove me for ten minutes or so to yet another building. In hindsight, I wonder if he  just drove me around for a while, then returned me to one of the first two buildings. Probably not, but I could never say for sure . . . When we arrived, he asked me for a tip. I smartly replied, "I don't have any Egyptian currency." He smartly came back, "Any money." Grrr. He had helped me too much and driven me too far for me to turn my back on him, but the smallest denomination I had was a $20. So a $20 he got, as I cringed. (Note to self: travel with smaller bills in the future!) At least he had taken me to the correct building, and I checked in successfully for my connecting flight.
• I had been advised to don a scarf in Cairo, and I spent a pretty little while in the restroom trying to figure out how to make mine work. I had practiced with Kayla on Wednesday, but I still wasn't much good at it. The result made me look Jewish, I feared, not ideal where I was going. But what to do? I tried asking two girls in the restroom to help, but they either didn't speak enough English to understand or weren't inclined to take pity on me. Ha. I stayed in the restroom long enough to witness a fair number of women fuss with their scarves in the mirror. Well, yes, this is a consideration in the Middle East. In the West, women mess with their hair in the mirror; here they mess with their scarves! That made me feel a little less self-conscious about messing with mine. They didn't know that it was a first for me!
• I think I met part of the Eritrean women's soccer team in Cairo. I will never know for sure, but there were clusters of girls walking around in purple warm ups with "Eritrea" emblazoned on the back. The man sitting on a bench next to me stopped three of them, wanting to shake their hands. So they shook his hand, his wife's hand, and my hand, smiling and acting like celebrities. After they walked off, I asked him who they were, but he didn't speak English.
• When the boarding call came for my final destination, I started to feel much more conspicuous. Over half of the women were veiled, only eyes showing. The rest were wearing head scarves that looked a lot less--ahem--Jewish than mine. I was wearing long sleeves and a long skirt--I had been told to do that much--so it could have been worse.
• I completely forgot to take my full water bottle out of my carry on before it went through the scanner . . . but the only thing they asked me to do was drink a little, so they could verify it wasn't explosive material, I guess. No gesturing, yelling, patronizing, like I would have deserved back home for my absentmindedness . . . guess this flight wasn't high on terrorism risk.
• As I boarded the plane, I noticed that people didn't seem to have any problem cutting in line.
• I sat next to a women who spoke decent English. Her college-aged daughter beside her did not. Or if she did, she didn't give me any hint of it. The mother is a businesswoman in the city where I was headed. Apparently she was more progressive than most. Though covered completely except her face, she clucked about how bad it was for the country for these women to cover everything but their eyes.
• I slept more on this flight. I must have been tired, 'cause I slept for hours and hours on all my plane flights combined!

Friday, May 21

• My arrival around 2:45 AM was uneventful. My seat mate kindly pointed me toward the entry forms in the airport. I choked momentarily when I saw that it was all in Arabic and hoped the man with the entry stamp would interpret for me . . . then I turned it over and realized that it was in English on the back. My seat mate stayed with me until I stepped up to the counter, and she said something in Arabic to the official, probably, "She is visiting for the first time. Make sure you help her out." He looked at my passport and said to her, "American--no problem," as if to be American gave me an automatic welcome. (I was told later that the government actually does like Americans very much, so this made sense in hindsight.)
• I collected my luggage quickly, and no one pestered me to help me with it. There were luggage carts, which eased transporting it significantly. No one asked to look at anything. I walked right out of the arrival hall.
• I had tried to text my host on arrival, but my texts weren't going through. As I stood in the outer hall trying to figure out how to make the text go through, I heard my name and turned to see my host. He was there with a local friend, who helped me get my luggage to the car. Ralph is outgoing and easygoing, which prevented long, awkward silences on the way to the house. He explained to me first that the only rule in the country is not to shame your family. He went on to share that I would not recognize the streets of the city we traveled on when I saw them in the day time, because traffic is so chaotic.
• I went to bed when we got back to the house. Everyone else was asleep, and I was still tired . . . and I slept! In fact, I think because I had slept so much en route, then slept again until it was morning in local time, it was easy to stay awake all day. Thus I avoided severe jet lag once again. In this I am blessed.
• In the morning I met Tara and the five boys. They are gems--full of energy, as boys are, but sweet and easy to talk to.
• Our first activity of the day was to attend a home fellowship with a group of westerners. The worship and teaching were both good, and I felt at home. Afterward I talked with a couple of ladies, then Reba, in her early 20s, who offered to show me the "fun side" of the country. We never did get a chance to get together later, though I did see her again at another activity.
• After lunch, Ralph went to pick up another girl who was visiting the country to explore the possibility of returning longer-term. Turns out that Ali is exactly my age, though her life experiences are far different from mine. A nurse from the Pacific Northwest, she has been involved in a lot of NGO work in diverse places in the world--Indonesia and Darfur, to name two. And she studied in China for a year after high school. And she's now in language school in Jordan. Slightly intimidating! :-) (I told her that, too.) But she herself is not intimidating. I liked her almost immediately, and can see us being friends for a long while!  I roomed with her for a couple of days, and it was fun to share stories . . . She was an excellent listener one evening when I was processing uncertainties about being there and was a bit weepy. (Who, me?! :-))
• I had a nice time in the afternoon helping Tara do dishes and hearing some of her story and how she came to be there.
• Later in the afternoon we drove out to the campus of the city's international school (not the one where I would teach--the more elite one for diplomats' and businessmen's children and others who can afford it) so that the children could play. Tara, Ali, and I walked and talked.
• The whole family, Ali, and I went to a western-style fast food joint for dinner with a British couple who have a couple of children around R & T's children's ages. I really liked Liz. However, Liz was the one who pointed out to me that, if I return to teach here in the fall, I won't have time to study the language! Hmmm. That started me thinking, "Yikes! I don't know if teaching is really more important to me than learning the language. Learning the language is so vital to interacting with the people, which is what I want to do!" That started giving me second thoughts about teaching.
• I had a headache and was feeling a little bleary at dinner, so maybe I didn't escape jet lag altogether. :-/
• Ali and I were in our room for the evening when we heard booms outside the window. My first thought was "gunfire," but I really wasn't scared and realized momentarily that it sounded like fireworks! Indeed, it was! Saturday was a national holiday, so the fireworks were to kick it off, and we had a first-rate view of an impressive show from the patio. "This is where a good percentage of US aid money went," Ralph joked. It may be so. I've seen a lot of fireworks shows, and this was one of the best. 'Course maybe that's because we speculated that they were Chinese fireworks, too.

Saturday, May 22

• It was a pretty quiet morning. Though the children normally would have started their school week today, they didn't have school due to the holiday.
• We had a yummy Ethiopian dinner prepared by one of Tara's housekeepers. She has two Ethiopian housekeepers (who come at different times of the day), and I love them. We ate dinner on the floor, and with our hands, in proper form.
• After dinner, Ralph's local friend returned and we all packed in the car (more like an SUV) and went sightseeing! We first stopped at the top of a wadi and checked out the view, then drove down into the wadi to a place called House of the Rock, where a sheikh built his house many years ago. Pretty impressive. You can see pictures below. I wouldn't mind my place looking like that, though I'm having a hard time picturing Mt. Monadnock as a fitting backdrop. There were a lot of local families visiting, too--again, it's a holiday, so it was a good day for an outing.
• When we returned home and the children went to bed, we adults had time to hear Ralph share some of his vision for being there.

Sunday, May 23

• Ali had plans for the morning (including balto shopping), but I was supposed to go to the school and meet my next hostess, so I couldn't tag along. Instead I joined Ralph and Tara for their Arabic lesson, which was fun! I was actually understanding some of the words/phrases by the end of the lesson, though I could not repeat very many to you now. They're using a method similar to The Learnables, so it brought back memories of Spanish classes in the ITC board room! :-)
• I did meet Sabine, my new hostess, mid-morning at the school. She was helping the younger elementary students with their reading, which I observed for an hour or so. Sabine is on the board of directors for the school, and she invited me to her place so that I could have more space, and so that she could answer questions about the teaching position I was there to check out. I loved Ralph and Tara and Ali and was disappointed to leave them, but it probably worked out for the best in the long run for me to focus on the school possibility before me. Ralph and Sabine were gracious to chauffeur me back and forth so that I still did get to do things with Ralph, Tara, and Ali even after I moved to Sabine's.
• I had lunch with Sabine and her husband, Alan. They've been in the country for nearly two decades, and I loved hearing their story of how they met and got together, and of some of their earlier years. They both encouraged me that we don't have to knock down doors--we can trust God to open them. Love it.
• I joined Ralph & Tara's family and Ali for an evening fellowship time at some friends' house. Ali gave me the balto she had bought for me. Sabine also lent me hers, but I was glad to have the one Ali bought me to wear to the airport when I left the country! And I'm glad to have it here at home with me to show off to you all.

Monday, May 24

• In the morning, Sabine set me up with some great books to read on the country. The weather was gorgeous, so I sat out in her courtyard, sunglasses on, and read. It got a little warm toward mid-day (though not sticky warm), so I retreated to my basement room. From my reading, I learned such interesting facts as:
  *The city where I was staying was 7,500 ft above sea level, which is why the climate stays nice and people don't need air conditioning and malaria can't spread
  *The facades of the houses are typically white gypsum plaster, and the white coloring is supposed to deter evil spirits, as well as flies and mosquitoes (hmmm, which would you rather deal with?)
  *The traditional houses are made on vertical plans--that is, they go up rather than out. The windows are low-set in the walls, designed to see out when you're sitting down. There are colorful glass windows above the windows known as "qamariya." Some say this is after the word for "moon." The windows spread colorful light inside the houses during the day. At night, they make the houses appear bejeweled, as the inner light shines out onto the street. They are very pretty. (See pictures below.)
  *Some of the windows used to be made out of thin alabaster sheets. These let light into the houses, but they protected privacy, especially that of the women. There are also box windows designed so that women can see out them, but they cannot be seen from the street. (This society is all about guarding the women.)
  *It's a tradition here--and in other nearby countries--for the women not to leave home for 40 days after a child's birth. I think they welcome lots of guests to the home, but they can't go out.
  *It's considered a great blessing to a man to be able to marry his cousin here. (I learned this from Ralph, not the book. Someone once blessed him with being able to marry his cousin.) I guess the idea is that you can see your cousins and know they are pretty before you marry them--not everyone has that luxury!
  *This country birthed "mocha" and algebra--hooray for the former, hmmm on the latter. Wait! I can't knock algebra since I make a living off proofreading math texts. :-)
  *Store clerks are not inclined to cheat you here because there is so much competition (and it's a poor economy) that they know you will find out you were cheated and they can't afford to have you take your business elsewhere. (Sabine told me this, not the book.) She also said that the men are publicly more respectful of women. For example, it is not proper for a man and woman to sit on the same bench seat in a bus, but the men will move--even crowding together--to make room for a woman without complaining. Sabine says that she hears it is not like this in other countries.
  *Cross walks don't mean much here. People cross the street--even busy highways--anywhere, anytime. It's wild. (Okay, I learned that from observation, not the books.)
• Sabine invited Kathlee, the teacher currently in the position I am considering, over for lunch. I plied her with oodles of questions, and she obliged by answering them all. Alan rejoined us again after lunch (after leaving the conversation for a bit), and it was helpful to have his perspective as a parent, too.
• Later in the afternoon, Sabine took me on the "hash," a group walk that gives mostly westerners a chance to get out into the countryside, probably more safely than going alone. I hadn't brought the right shoes for a serious hike, so I was wearing some of Sabine's, which kept threatening to fall off. So the hash wasn't as fun as it could have been. Well, they also set out to hike what looked like straight up a wadi and I am not in good shape. Fortunately, because of the shoes, I was relegated to a group that took an easier walk, which was still not entirely easy. The views of the city below us were phenomenal! Silly me did not bring my camera, because I didn't realize that the walk would be so scenic. Sabine's daughter did capture a picture of me with the city as a backdrop, and we e-mailed it to my parents, so perhaps I can get it from them and post it later.
  
  Our purpose in going on the hash was actually to catch up with the finance man for the school, the school rep who has actually corresponded with me most over the past couple of months. He was able to answer more questions about how finances would look if I came, which was a big help. There was some question still hanging in the air after we spoke due to the fact that school enrollment is changing significantly next year due to external factors and they don't know entirely how that will affect the finances. But at least it helped to have an idea of what kind of stipend the school has in mind.
• On the way home, we saw a boy who appeared all of 10 years old driving a taxi, cheek bulging with qat. He could barely see over the wheel. Sabine called out and asked him how old he was, and he grinned and drove off. I also saw children whizzing down the highway, riding in the back of a car's open trunk . . . and boys riding on top of a garbage truck. This is not a country of high automobile safety standards.
• I went back to Ralph & Tara's in the evening, and they, Ali, and I shared life stories together. We have some pretty cool stories of what God has done for us and how we have seen Him work! Good stuff!

Okay, this is getting long, so I'm going to break it up and start a new post! Whew! If you've stayed with me this far, you're a true fan! If you haven't, no worries. It's good for me to document for my own sake, too! I'll give the Very Short version in my update e-mail. That I force upon people. But it's entirely voluntary for you to visit my blog, so I don't apologize for length here.