Brian Cassels

I’ve been working on getting more photos and just got a good amount, so be sure to check out album for more goodies. I also know that others from the program and blogging and posting pictures of their similar experiences, so I will be posting links of those as I find out who’s got a site. I just added a link to my roommate Joel’s blog, so check it out for some more details and loads of pictures.

We all went on a trip to Alexandria this Friday. We left on the 8:00AM train, and it took about 2 and a half hours from Cairo. Got to see the Mediterranean for my first time, the library of Alexandria (from the outside only, it was closed), and best of all-the catacombs. I wish I had pictures but they took your camera away before you went in. It was just a maze of underground tunnels chiseled out of stone basically. We played some hide-and-go-seek, which was amazing. It is really elaborate down there, and all the walls have deep recesses for where they would place the dead bodies. Some of those recesses open up to others and for the adventuresome there is lots of fun exploring.

Most of the group stayed in Alexandria the night, but a group of us took a train back the same day to go relax in Cairo and enjoy one of those free days to goof off and catch up on HW. Everyone is starting to feel that our schoolwork is building up behind us and it will sneak up and crush us. They keep us pretty busy academically, which makes it difficult to fully engage the culture here. I will say I haven’t made many Egyptian friends (the language barrier doesn’t help), but the nature of our schedule also makes it very difficult.

I’ve been enjoying my cooking class here as well. I learned how to make chicken shwerma and basbousa (a syrupy cake) this week. I actually made some basbousa at my apt for everybody. When I was at the store buying some key ingredients the shop owner was asking if I knew how to make it and when I told him that I did he said I need to come bring him some. He approved of my cooking and insists that I stop bye and say hi everyday at his shop, its on my same street. I think all our neighbors have caught on to us using their wireless because I can’t find an unsecured networks anymore…we all miss having our own internet café on the balcony.

The trip last weekend was awesome.  We ended up arriving at Mount Sinai at class to 3AM, which was much later than we planned to because we got a flat tire on the way.  This meant we had to try to hurry up the mountain.  I give props to Moses for scaling this beast without the path that is there today, a Bedouin guide named “Salaama”, and other dudes waiting along the path the whole way up saying, “camel, camel, camel, camel, you want ride camel…”  It definitely isn’t a beginner hike and there were a good amount of people who hike this mountain on a spiritual pilgrimage.  The last section of the mountain is the “Stairs of Penance.”  Some sadistic monk made a stone staircase through the craggy upper portion of the peak with close to 1000 stairs.  I was impressed with some of the older travelers, who were probably in their 70’s, slowly being guided up this difficult section.

 The top had a beautiful view of the dry, rocky Sinai Desert, and we watched the sunrise together with people from many nations. After a brief visit to St. Catherine’s monastery to see the acclaimed burning bush, we went to Dahab.  Still a desert wasteland, the redeeming quality of Dahab lies in the red sea.  It’s right on the Gulf of Aqaba, and you can see the Saudi Arabian coast 12 miles across the water.  The snorkeling was unbelievable there with visibility about 60ft.  Had a great time with everyone taking a break from Cairo and soaking up the sun in this resort town.  Imagine hopping out of the water after a beautiful swim and walking on to the shore where a shaded cushion awaits where you can stretch out and sip fresh mango juice.  That’s Dahab in a nutshell.

More to come, but until then,
مع السلا مة
(That legitimately means goodbye, ma’ is-salaama)

I was able to go to the Cairo museum on Saturday. It was absurd how many priceless ancient artifacts they had there. It didn’t even seem fair. You see one ancient sarcophagus of ornately chiseled stone and it’s awesome. But when there are 400 of them placed haphazardly about like it’s a warehouse rather than a museum it gets kinda ridiculous and loses its luster. I was amazed though. Got to see all the goodies they found in Tutankhamen’s tomb. This guy had gold up the wazoo, I mean, his casket was made of gold not to mention all the jewelry they decked him out in. Very unorganized museum, but worth the visit.

We had our first class on Islam this Sunday. I felt really lucky because the first class we met at a mosque that was built in the 800s, it is the oldest mosque still standing in Egypt. (There are pictures…) We were learning about Islam there, in an Islamic country by a Muslim professor! It doesn’t get more authentic than that. We have gotten to hear from multiple speakers including a couple Muslim guys around our age who shared with us guys about life here. They talked about a bunch of controversial topics like women’s head coverings, as well as explained their whole guy-girl relationship norms here. It was helpful to get to hear what they had to say. The people here are awesome, and defenitely a people of faith and conviction. It’s humbling to see them sometimes as they live out their faith in daily prayer and fasting in Ramaddam. Everytime I am in a public place like a metro or something everyone seems to be reading from the Quran. One thing that I kinda envy in their faith culture is the constant reminders that thay have to focus on God (i.e. call to prayer 5 times a day). As a Christian I also believe that prayer is important-the ideal being ceaseless prayer, but often it can be easy to get distracted and not think about it.

We were also able to hear from one of the top diplomats here in Cairo this week about issues in the Middle East. This guy was a fountain of information, he just opened his mouth, and for an hour and a half we were taking notes interestedly. I had my cultural activity class, “cooking with Kareema” yesterday and made some makaroona bil forno, which is baked pasta. It also ends up being an Arabic class because Kareema does not speak a word of English, so it is really fun. Arabic is coming along well I think, but it is a long process…

I am starting to realize just how busy I will be this semester. The last weekend was one of 3 or 4 weekends that I will actually be free to do whatever around Cairo, the rest is travelling. We are going to be going on trips many of the weekends, starting this afternoon! We are leaving at around 6:00PM and taking a bus to the Sinai. As soon as we arrive, which will be around midnight, we’re going to scale the mountain and watch the sunrise. After that we are going to Dahab, a resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba across from Saudi Arabia. I am excited because it is supposedly an epic dive spot! So definitely gonna snorkel it up! It’s been great to hear from some of you, keep me posted on your life too!

This Monday we went to a town called “garbage city”. You are probably already picturing a big dump with a bunch of squatters living around it and living off other peoples trash. I know that is what I expected, and when I arrived I did see piles of trash lining the streets. However, there is a much more interesting story. In the mid-1900s a large portion of the community of Christians in Cairo were in the trade of garbage collecting. Their community was deported outside of the city where they had no access to water, schooling, etc…but over the last 50 years they have continued living off trash, not by eating old scraps, but by recycling and making goods out of scraps to sell, and created a well functioning community. They have made trash their trade and are actually better off economically than a large portion of the Cairene population. Just walking around this smelly town was so different than other places in Cairo because it is not a Muslim community and women don’t wear headcovers. They have an amazing church up the mountain that has been built in an enourmous cave in the cliff-it can fit thousands. There were actually a total of 3 churches that are built into these rock caves.

The schedule here is different than in the States. For example, the weekend is not Saturday and Sunday here. Friday and Saturday is considered the weekend here, and many people only have Friday’s off. We have Fri/Sat/Tues off of class. Tuesday’s are our service project day. I went to do my weekly service project at Camboni Father’s, which is a center for Sudanese refugees. There is a huge Sudanese community here in Cairo. Every Tuesday I will be co-teaching an advanced English class with a Sudanese teacher from 5-7, followed by another 2 hour class with another student from my program in basic English. We hope to be a big help since all the instruction there comes from people who are not native English speakers.

Class started on Wednesday. There are 7 of us who are in an accelerated Arabic class. I can already tell that I will be spending most of my freetime studying to keep up. But I am excited to learn, it will take some time. The group of students in the program are awesome and we’ve been having good times. After class the last couple days we all went down to a local field and played soccer or ultimate frizbee together. Last night was a game of Risk that went late into the night.

I have a friend from school, Collin, who has lived in Cairo his whole life and he told me where his family goes to church. So today I went on a journey to go find it. It was a taxi ride to downtown, then a metro to the right neighborhood and a bit of a walk but I could hear the contemporary worship music from the street. It is a non-denominational international church that is in English, so I felt like I was at home. But it has people from over 40 nations and 50 denominations that regularly attend. To complete my “US in Egypt” experience I went to McDonald’s after church (mainly because I was starving and nothing else is open accept Western style restaurants because it is Ramaddan right now and everyone fasts). I think in the past I might not have appreciated the church very much since everything is in English and it is all done in a Western manner. I mean, this is Egypt, why try to turn it into the US? Why do we have to segregate ourselves in their country/culture and not go to the Egyptian churches? But, I’ve defenitely softened my views on that and was really encouraged by the diversity there and the tight community. Also got to meet my friends family and will most likely reconnect with them at least one more time while I am here. Missing you all but having a good time and learning a lot.

Appreciate your prayers: health! I think everyone has been sick since being here-high probability of getting ill from food, and Cairo has pollution worse than Beijing (fact) which is a recipe for sinus infection.