I will be on US soil in less than 24 hours!!!!!!! I am more excited about this than I think I have ever been in my life! I just can’t wait.
So I’ve been carrying around a notebook with me here in Cairo, writing down all sorts of thoughts, quotes, and questions that I’ve had here. Today, I decided to go through my book and share a few of the random things I have written about.
When I was having a hard time adjusting to life in Cairo, I made a list of things that I would have liked to receive in a magical mythical care package.
– Sports bras
– Gatorade / Crystal Light / Kool-Aid
– Granola bars / Power Bars
– US Weekly
– Multivitamins
Later on, I got the recipe for the lentil soup that we ate every day for lunch during the first half of the trip.
– Red lentils
– Potatoes
– Onion, Garlic, Fresh Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Chile Pepper all blended in a soup stock
I thought the soup was okay the first day that we had it. But it quickly became evident that it is not the greatest soup recipe.
Egyptians are very big on teamwork here. One day, we saw a boy riding a bicycle and balancing a humongous tray on his head while going through a narrow alley. In keeping with Murphy’s Law, the boy stumbled and all of the bread fell on the street. All of a sudden, at least 20 people around him stopped whatever they were doing and helped the boy pick up every last piece of bread. This was such a kind gesture from the people. However, I’m now a bit apprehensive about eating the bread here.
Refugees aren’t what you think they’d be like. Somehow in my mind, I had thought of refugees in the National Geographic sense, but I was totally wrong. They are just normal people like you and me, aside from the circumstances that lead for them to be refugees. They carry cellphones, are on Facebook, and listen to the same music as you and me. Most of them don’t like foul (pronounced ‘fuul’) anymore than the rest of us. However, one aspect of refugee life that is far different from what I consider a typical life is their diaspora. Many of the refugees that I’ve met this summer have siblings and family members all over the world. Some of the Somalis we worked with have family members in Somalia, Cairo, Europe, Canada, and Texas, just to give the example of one of my students.
Okay, subject change! New subject: Last night in Cairo
So we spent our last night here in probably the best way possible. A few of us went grocery shopping and then used a key that our professor had loaned us weeks ago to break into his apartment and make dinner for everyone. We had the boys distract our professor for a few hours and tell him that we had dinner reservations at some restaurant. But, before they were to go to the restaurant, the boys were supposed to tell him that they needed to print something at his apartment. As it ended up, our professor needed to stop by his apartment anyway, and so the boys didn’t have to deceive him as much. When our professor walked into his apartment and saw all of the decorations we made and the dinner table set, he was absolutely surprised. We had bought 2 rotisserie chickens and then I made some rice and a veggie stew for dinner. And then for dessert, we had some fresh fruit and ice cream. It was soooooo tasty.
After dinner, we showed a powerpoint of funny photos of him and some of the crazy things he’s said this summer. It was hilarious and so much fun! For instance, our professor has a crazy hat with feathers on it that we had all modeled at least once or twice throughout the summer. Therefore, the hat had a few slides in honor of it!
Anyway, I think that is all for now. It’s about 2am here and we leave for the airport at 8am. So I guess this is it. Over and out.
-B