So much has been going on as you may have guessed and it is hard to find time to journal or process it all let alone write blogs about what I have been doing. Travel went well and was a good opportunity for us to get to know one another in names, schools, ages, and majors. We had a 7 hour flight from DC to Frankfurt then a 6 hour layover then a 4 hour flight from there to Cairo. When we arrived on Thursday night we greeted by the full MESP staff and taken from the airport to the Villa directly where we received some basic information and were given this week’s schedule .
We learned some basic Arabic rephrases and numbers. We then headed to a local market where the women went to a scarf store/stand and picked out a scarf each to wear at the mosque the next day. We then explored the market and looked at the many different spices and items for sale. We also got a tour around Cairo showing the old town area the shopping or modern areas etc.
The next day all of us women dressed in long skirts and shirts and brought our scarf’s with us to the Mosque. The men in our group joined other men at the outdoor portion of the mosque prayer area and the women were taken upstairs to a separate room. We sat in the corner and observed as women came in from different walks of life to worship. We could see what was going on in the male service with a television and heard the sermon and saw it through the same television. We spoke to some women but not many while we were there. We came back and discussed our experiences and the differences in our experiences based on gender as well. We then had a time of discussion about health from a nurse of a local schools who is Australian.
The next day we did a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood with a group of 4 of us and got a chance to eat street sandwiches and navigate traffic and other things. We did a lot of paperwork in the afternoon but then went on a Felukka (open and lite boat) on the Nile and had dinner at night. Then we went to the Khan a Khalilil one of the oldest open air markets/souqs in the world. We visited several very famous mosques there-which I can write more about later and had Turkish coffee in a restaurant there. All the girls had henna done on one of their hands also. We then looked through both the tourist and local market that night- I know I will return again soon.
The next day we went to the government building to get our visas then were sent out to explore the Metro system in groups. We had some great adventures picking random stops on the metro line. That night we were split into groups for dinner with the staff and I had dinner with Dena our assistant director. She took us to a Lebanese restaurant then we went to her apartment for dessert and coffee. It was good to get small group time and to spend time with her at her place which is near the Villa.
Today we went to Garbage City which is mostly run by the Christian minority who uses the garbage to feed pigs which Muslims do not raise. We visited the churches built into the rocks there which are world famous and I will give more information on later. The church there has old and long traditions which I hope to share later. We visited the sisters of charity there established by Mother Teresa’s order who works with orphans, elderly , and the severely handicapped. We also visited an organization that gives jobs to the local women by providing them with skills and looms to make rugs, purses, and paperproducts, quilts and other things. We bought some things to support their work. I will have more about this later with pictures soon.
And that was my orientation week in a very fast nutshell-saw much and did much.
This next week will start classes.
