day 5 & 6
after i got back to the hotel from the last time at the internet cafe (it's a real cafe, with sandwitches and ice cream, in addition to having 7 computers in a corner) we saw the rest of the group sitting in the lounge, so we went down a floor to join them and stayed up late talking about anything and everything - from adoption, being minorities, high schools and families, to gossip about other people at drew - mostly a did you know this person kind of thing.
friday we got to sleep in late, and my stomach was bothering me, so i got the super pills from prof taylor to avoid getting full blown pharoh's revenge. i still wasnt feeling that great though, so just walked with people to lunch at hardy's and then the entire group took taxis - big station wagons holding 7 passengers, to the al jeel center - its a kids center in a poor area of cairo, founded and run by an egyptian cambridge educated political scientist to improve the area that he grew up - he's technically muslim, although extremely humanistic and secular, and ran in the recent parlementary elections, although didnt win, since he's an independant who wouldnt pay for votes. he and his vollunteers held an arts and crafts program for working kid - some pretty little kids work to earn some extra money for their family, and now the program is for extra education for school-going kids, since the public education is really bad. he talked to us for a while about the political climate of egypt and mostly about the political side of his projects, which disappointed me cause i wanted to learn more about his work with the children. we then came back to the hotel and i took a nap, since i still wasnt feeling well, before getting dressed up and going to coptic christmas eve at the very big church - its either the first or second largest church in africa. we had fancy invatations, written in arabic, welcoming each of us individually to attend this service from the coptic pope's secretary. when we got out of the bus at the church, the guys went up one side of the church and us girls were sent to the other side of the building to enter. we were initially seated in the section with deaf people, but after maybe 45 or so minutes, we got moved to the normal women's section. the service was all in arabic or greek, so we didnt understand a thing - lots of chanting and incense, with a speach from the pope welcoming all the foreign dignataries - there were high political officials, episcable bishops, and greek orthodox patriarch, as well as others i couldnt name. i spent a good bit of time baby-watching, as the egyptian kids are so cute. we got there maybe at 9:30, and didnt leave until almost 1 am, after the pope's address, before communion. i crashed when getting back to the hotel.
this morning we again slept in late, then walked to the egyptian museum for a tour at 11. our guide showed us the slab commemerating the unification of upper and lower egypt, the slab mentioning the isrealites in egypt - the only one found in existance, and then the stuff from king tut's tomb - it truely was impressive what all was there. unfortuanitly i was feeling really sick while there, so didnt really enjoy it as much as i wanted to, but we're going back at the end of the trip, and i may go back on my own sometime. the group went to pizza hut for lunch, and after eating something then i felt a lot better. we came back to the hotel and had a group meeting, talking about all our projects - i'm focusing on the influence of religion on family life. then hung out at the room while people decided what to do. we ended up going out to wander around town, hoping to run into mohammad, our friend from the perfume shop, to talk to him more about egyptian life. we did see him and his brothers again, so hung out for a while in his office, drinking tea and talking, before going to a spice shop and then coming to the internet cafe. there was a long line for the computers, so we ended up ordering dinner and desert (strawberry sherbet with real strawberries) and now am on the computers. i'm feeling better, so hopefully will be fine tommorrow after what is hopefully a good night's sleep.
friday we got to sleep in late, and my stomach was bothering me, so i got the super pills from prof taylor to avoid getting full blown pharoh's revenge. i still wasnt feeling that great though, so just walked with people to lunch at hardy's and then the entire group took taxis - big station wagons holding 7 passengers, to the al jeel center - its a kids center in a poor area of cairo, founded and run by an egyptian cambridge educated political scientist to improve the area that he grew up - he's technically muslim, although extremely humanistic and secular, and ran in the recent parlementary elections, although didnt win, since he's an independant who wouldnt pay for votes. he and his vollunteers held an arts and crafts program for working kid - some pretty little kids work to earn some extra money for their family, and now the program is for extra education for school-going kids, since the public education is really bad. he talked to us for a while about the political climate of egypt and mostly about the political side of his projects, which disappointed me cause i wanted to learn more about his work with the children. we then came back to the hotel and i took a nap, since i still wasnt feeling well, before getting dressed up and going to coptic christmas eve at the very big church - its either the first or second largest church in africa. we had fancy invatations, written in arabic, welcoming each of us individually to attend this service from the coptic pope's secretary. when we got out of the bus at the church, the guys went up one side of the church and us girls were sent to the other side of the building to enter. we were initially seated in the section with deaf people, but after maybe 45 or so minutes, we got moved to the normal women's section. the service was all in arabic or greek, so we didnt understand a thing - lots of chanting and incense, with a speach from the pope welcoming all the foreign dignataries - there were high political officials, episcable bishops, and greek orthodox patriarch, as well as others i couldnt name. i spent a good bit of time baby-watching, as the egyptian kids are so cute. we got there maybe at 9:30, and didnt leave until almost 1 am, after the pope's address, before communion. i crashed when getting back to the hotel.
this morning we again slept in late, then walked to the egyptian museum for a tour at 11. our guide showed us the slab commemerating the unification of upper and lower egypt, the slab mentioning the isrealites in egypt - the only one found in existance, and then the stuff from king tut's tomb - it truely was impressive what all was there. unfortuanitly i was feeling really sick while there, so didnt really enjoy it as much as i wanted to, but we're going back at the end of the trip, and i may go back on my own sometime. the group went to pizza hut for lunch, and after eating something then i felt a lot better. we came back to the hotel and had a group meeting, talking about all our projects - i'm focusing on the influence of religion on family life. then hung out at the room while people decided what to do. we ended up going out to wander around town, hoping to run into mohammad, our friend from the perfume shop, to talk to him more about egyptian life. we did see him and his brothers again, so hung out for a while in his office, drinking tea and talking, before going to a spice shop and then coming to the internet cafe. there was a long line for the computers, so we ended up ordering dinner and desert (strawberry sherbet with real strawberries) and now am on the computers. i'm feeling better, so hopefully will be fine tommorrow after what is hopefully a good night's sleep.