Agouza, Cairo

Today the call to prayer woke me up in the middle of the night and for a second I was startled, but when I realized I was in Cairo my heart was so happy.. I felt such peace and just leaned out my window untill it was over, then fell back to sleep.

I arrived Wednesday night. It was a loooooong trip. Left Dayton at 11:40am on the 28th and had stops in Detroit, New York, and Frankfurt before arriving in Cairo at 8:00 pm on the 29th. I met my team in New York. It was weird to me cause Im going to be closely living with these people for 3.5 months. I hate the pressure of first impressions. But after an hour and confusing names a million times, we ate and were friends. There are 29 of us. Seventeen girls and 12 guys. It doesnt seem like that many anymore. We're getting tighter. On Tuesday night we're having a community service where we commit to each other for the semester, to lift each other's burdens, to love each other, to serve each other... I'm in the planning committee and will be playing the violin accompanied by a guitar. I brought my electric violin and am pretty pumped about it. Every day we start out by having devotions on Dr. Dave's (our director) roof. Its covered, and we sit together on these cool legless rug chairs on the floor and there are colorful rugs covering the floor. The roof is covered and there are ceiling fans... it's very pleasant. I love it up there. I'm seeing that the poeople in my group have very different denominational backgrounds. I find that freeing. I'm going to learn a lot here.

From what I've tasted the food here is great. Karina, an Egyptian woman, cooks for us at the MESP vila where we eat most of our meals, and she does a good job. After this week we'll be making our own dinners in our flats and I think then Ill only be eating vegetarian. All the food in the market has flies on it... except the meat.... cause it's been sprayed with bug spray... =D We eat "aish" with every meal... it's thin pita bread. It's growing on me though the sawdust filler makes me a bit uneasy. Today I pulled a little peace of wood from a peice of aish. Nothing like splinters in your tongue. I like it with nutella though. And jelly. Or you can fill it with anything.

So for best stuff, here are my pics so far:

I saw the pyramids from the plane!!!! It was a pretty smoggy though. Cairo's a dirty place!

So far I've seen a Cinnabon, KFC, Mc Donalds, Chillies, TGIFridays, and the Pizza Hut and Hardies in the picture. It's a mini America. Well not really, but it's all there. No Walmart, but some pretty cool little shops that will be fun shopping at. We need TP in the flat so thats our next mission.

Whatever ground that is not being built on is being farmed on.

The buildings are generally cruddy. People almost never walk on cross walks. There arnt really lanes in the streets. Cars just go and then honk when theres something or someone in their way. I like it.

Giza.

We went hijab shopping for our mosque visit. There were so many and they were beautiful all together.


Heidi and I with our teal hijabs. They looked pretty on us the next day.

The veiling.

Hookah!! Or Shisha, as it's called here. (J was immpressed with my skills haha)

We packed the place out. Got a 50% discount too.

I had a picnic on a boat on the Nile today.

Lop sided. =) picture of the Hyatt hotel... one of the (if not the) most expensive in Cairo. We want to go to the round restaurant above and see the view and sip 20 Egyptian lb (4 dolars) tea. Things are pretty cheap there. You can get a meal for $10 in a nicer restaurant on the Nile.

No one fell, yay. We got warned about parasites in the Nile if you get in the water. Gross, Ill wait for our cruise to Luxor to swim. =))

This Nile was once blood. Many years ago. When God was freeing his people.

I was there. It's true. If I didnt have these pics, I'd think it was a dream.

Well, more later.

For now, know I know that miss you all and wish you were here.

Salaam.