Greetings from Cairo. Well Emily and I are back in the swing of things, experiencing Cairo in all its glory and, well, whatever is the opposite of glory. I will try to give you a picture of both, but I will start with the stuff that makes us miss how efficient, non- bureaucratic, traffic free, and unpolluted New Jersey was... yes you read that right.
So right now we are in the Middle of the holy month Ramadan, which has upsides, and downsides. On the upside, we got to do laundry this week, and the downside, it had been a month since we had had a washing machine. It took the repairman over three weeks to fix our washing machine, because it's hard to get stuff done when you only work a 4 hour day. During Ramadan life slows to crawl. Businesses open late because people sleep in, and close again at 3pm so everyone can get home in time to break the fast. Some business reopen from 9pm to 2am, but then again, some never open. Two nights ago Emily and I went to a swanky restaurant downtown, only to find that the restaurant is closed for the whole month of Ramadan.
But putting my cynicism aside, Ramadan truly is a wonderful time. Every night tents are erected in the street and filled with food for the poor. Anyone can stop in and eat for free. It is humbling to see how the Arab world insists that the disadvantaged are included in their celebration. There are also a few very practical things that are great about Ramadan. During sunset this city of 20 million is covered in quite; the streets are deserted and dining rooms are full. A few weeks ago we took advantage of this lull to have a special event for St. John's Youth Group. We rented an Ice Skating rink where we played(?) curling, but instead of big stones, we used massive Egyptian Cabbages. We then went bowling and had the place to ourselves. This kicked off our Youth program which is now up and running.
In other church news, the expat community is slowly returning to Cairo. This year more people have waited until after Ramadan to come back to Cairo (due in part to the later start date of the schools); this has meant that things have been quiet at church, but are starting to pick up again. I am really excited about having wonderful church school teachers and a great group of high school kids. We will also start our Young Adult group next week.
And in one last bit of news, Emily starts school this week. As I mentioned earlier, Emily is starting a MA in Nursing online from Gonzaga University so she can become a Nurse Practitioner. She is excited, but nervous, and figuring out how to deal with details like a newly introduced textbook that needs to make its way to Africa before her first paper is due. Good luck EM.
Thats about it for now, I put a few photos of the youth event below.
Ben
Curling with Cabbage
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