Garbage City and the Pyramids

So much has happened since I last wrote, it seems like I'm always running around doing stuff. Tuesday is service project day, and mine is to go into Garbage City (a poor community who do the sorting of trash for the rest of the city) to the Sisters of Charity orphanage. It is in incredible place, overflowing with babies who need love and care. We spent the morning there holding and trying to show love to these children. At times it was a bit insane with few caretakers and I definitely felt exhausted by the end of the morning. I'm looking forward to this chance to go in weekly to help lighten the load of the women who work there and give some much needed attention to the children. I only wish there was something more permanent I could do.

Street in garbage city:



Within garbage city are a few incredible huge cave churches. There are amazing stories behind them of God's work among those people. I really hope to be able to make it to a service while I'm here. There is a man who has been carving huge murals from the Bible into the cliff walls, and they are quite spectacular. In one of the churches, we all paused to sing the doxology together, which was a beautiful experience.

A view of the largest cave church (and I was only standing halfway up the pews):




We started classes on Wednesday, and I really like my Arabic teacher. It's definitely a challenging language! Thursday afternoon we visited a citadel that was built in the 12th century, which is a pretty incredible structure. We had a great time exploring until we got in trouble for being in an area we weren't allowed (there weren't any signs though!)

Views of the mosque at the citadel:






We also had the chance to go to the opera 'Aida', which is a very famous opera by Verdi that takes place during the Pharonic times. It was beautiful, but the translation was in Arabic, so I understood very little. It was a 4 hour opera, so by the end many of us were falling asleep.

After church yesetrday, (churches vary here in when their main services are, but many are Friday mornings), a bunch of us went to they pyramids. It was a lot of fun, but I have never felt so hassled as I have there. A few minutes after getting there, some men with camels asked if I wanted a picture, which I refused. They then proceded to grab me by the arm and pull me over to the camels were, take my camera, and lift me up onto the camel. Despite my protests, the camel had stood up before I had a chance to get off. They then started leading the camel off while I asked how much this was going to cost me. In the meantime, a child had apparently fallen down a well and there were people screaming, an ambulance, and all kinds of security. My camel guy ran off to see what was going on, leaving me perched on top of the camel with no way to get down. He soon came back and after much persuasion that I did not want to keep going or pay him $20, he let me off and I escaped without paying too much. Still, I'll never forget the experience!


Friends at the pyramids:


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