Day to Day Life:

I haven’t really written anything about what our everyday life looks like here, maybe because it seems to vary so much. Here is our schedule though:

Sun, Mon, Wed, and Thur:
7:30 – Breakfast
8:15 – Devotions
9:00 – Arabic class
11:00 – Class (twice a week we have Islam and the other days we have speakers or discuss an issue)
1:00 – Lunch
Afternoon: cultural activites (I have a cooking class once a week)
Evening: occasional speakers

We have had a wide variety of amazing speakers – diplomats, ministers, professors, journalist, etc. They have informed us on issues of American foreign policy, poverty and human rights in Egypt, Muslim-Christian relations, and salvation. They have definitely challenged and enlightened us, forcing us to look critically at such a wide range of controversies.

Tuesdays are service project days, in which people go all over the city to teach English, visit a prison, help in schools, or in my case spend the time at an orphanage. It was started by Mother Teresa’s organization and functions as both an orphanage and a daycare for people who have nowhere to take their babies while they work. We spend the mornings with 1 year olds – wiping snotty noses, trying to keep them from hurting each other too much, and attempting to give them attention. It’s an overwhelming task trying to give love to those who are often neglected. Most of the time I feel like I’m doing little good for these children and wonder with the lack of staffing, how they can possibly be well-cared for and nurtured.

Afternoons and evenings somehow fill up quickly as well with homework and hanging out with people. We were each given an Egyptian ‘buddy’, so like last night a few of us went out with a group of our Egyptian friends for dinner and had a great time together.

Weekends are Friday and Saturday (due to the nature of when people around here have their days off). Most of these we end up being gone on trips. Today we start our ‘spring break’ (we’re halfway done with this part of the semester before travel component), and we’re taking the train to Luxor where most of the great temples and such are from the Pharonic period.