Homestay

The week with an Egyptian family is over, and it was a great week in general because of the change of pace. It can be easy sometimes in an apt with a bunch of cool guys to not get out much, especially when we have a lot of homework. But, just living out of the flat means a daily commute to and from school, and my family lived in Hadeyek El Maadi, which is a nice little trip. A taxi ride, a metro ride, and a walk. I feel like I know my way around the city pretty well by now.

Going into the home-stay situation I only had a little information. We would be put into families with a same-gender kid around our age who would be our main contact in the family. They were also presumably all Muslim families. My family, however, did not speak ANY English, and only has a 9 year old boy. They are also Coptic Christians, so the first activity from when they picked me up was to go to church. It was a cool experience to go to church with them, even though it didn’t understand a word of it. I met some of the youth afterwards and some of them spoke good English (learned from movies). It was fine that the family didn’t speak any English because it forced me to use my Arabic a lot just to let my needs and plans known. The family was great, but, actually not that engaging with me. They more or less just gave me a bed to sleep in, and fed me every now and then. It was a good opportunity for me to get some hw done though. I was getting a little jealous of some of the other kids experiences because many of them were able to communicate more since their families spoke
English, and were learning more about the culture and making friends with their same aged brothers/sisters.

There was also a girl from my program, Abby, staying in the same area as me; she lived a street down from me. We happened to meet on the street the first day on the way to the Metro which was cool having some company for the commute. Since then we always commuted together. Her host fam is Muslim and her host sister teaches English and speaks perfectly with a British accent. They invited me to hang out with them, since they are always going out having epic times in Cairo while I am left to chill in my room in my house. Friday was probably my favorite day here hanging out with their family.

I walk in the door to a plate of breakfast and dad telling me that I am his new son, sit and eat. Their real son, Muhammad, was hilarious and we got along really well. Abby and I left for church in Maadi where I went in the past and have some friends there. After church we were walking around the town and spotted a Coptic guy we had met who took us on a tour of the American school where he works as a librarian. This school is for the embassy kids as well as anyone else who wants to pay $20,000 a year for the best education in Egypt. I was AMAZED. This school was the nicest school I’ve ever seen in my life. Like, good enough reason to join the State Dept is that your kids get to go there.

Later just talked with the fam and learned a lot more about the culture here from a legit Muslim perspective. Talking to Muhammad about his journey to find a suitable wife had me just about rolling on the floor laughing as he described meeting the girls that his mom or sisters had picked for him. They helped me a lot with Arabic since they were able to explain it well in English. We went downtown and goofed off and chilled on a bridge like all Egyptians do. So, now I have joined Abby as being part of this family. Even though I’m back in Agouza now, I’m sure I will visit them regularly.

I am really happy with the language situation now. I had been kinda frustrated about my progress, but I’ve definitely turned a corner. Just within the last week everything has come together. I am able to have real conversations and can speak in all tenses. It will just take time to add vocabulary and fluency, rather than stopping to think about number, gender, etc…

This Tuesday we are going on a trip to Luxor and Aswan by train. It is about a 17 hour ride, but I think we have sleep cars, which will be awesome. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the ancient temples that are there. Hope you are well!