The Luxury of Theory

Today at each of our sites, we welcomed a speaker who discussed refugee determination procedures and the UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). As we listened to her speak, both of us were struck by how utterly Western were the concepts guiding this process. The overarching theme we found is that often governments fail to live up to the theoretical guidelines mandated by the UNHCR. For starters, most of these refugees are living in Cairo “temporarily,” meaning that the Egyptian government cannot send them back to their home country. Yet in reality, few will ever be resettled in Egypt or elsewhere, and thus will never receive full citizens’ rights. A particularly telling quote from the lecture: “You [refugees] have rights, but they often aren’t carried out in practice.”

In the West we have the luxury of believing that all the agreements we make and treaties we sign will become reality, and that our humanitarian efforts will be fulfilled. Thus we have the luxury of theory – debating the finer points of wording while ignoring the failures and imperfections in implementation. But how do theoretical rights, agreed to on paper but not respected or adhered to in real life, help our students who suffer on a daily basis? Today we heard about our students’ first hand experiences in Cairo: being hit on the shoulder by an Egyptian and being unable to respond, being disgustingly overcharged while buying juice in a market, and having to pay the police in order to avoid arbitrary arrest.

We are not intending to diminish the efforts of the UNHCR, or our guest speaker, or AMERA (Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance), an NGO with which we work closely. Today’s lecture simply made us realize the gap between Western ideals and the true refugee experience. The language of UNHCR policies is laden with ‘maybe’s and ‘might’s and ‘probably’s and ‘possibly’s, but this legal jargon does not account for the real lives of our students. Successful theory, that which on paper solves problems and grants rights, does not necessitate happy and healthy lives. These policies certainly are the jumping off point for a solution to the suffering of refugees, yet they need to be tweaked to suit the infrastructure of the non-Western world. Trusting in theory – pretty pieces of paper that hypothetically eliminate injustice – is a luxury that we never knew we had.

Today's Tidbits - June 28

Today's Titles:

• The Group Vs. The Fender-Bender
• Brendan Gets Bit on the Butt
• The Spit-On-Andi Game
• John Starts a Barbershop Quartet
• Arab Academy vs. Going to the Cinema
• Rho Phi Gamma
• Fernando and the Giggles

Songs of the Day:

• "I'll Make A Man Out of You" -from Mulan
• "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne

Quotes of the Day:

• "Fi Amreeka naqul DUH." Translation: In America, we say DUH. -Ruba
• "Hatha explains katheer." Translation: That explains a lot. -Andi
• "Ya'll.....ya'll......ya'll......" -John teaching "ya'll" to his students
• "Ah Nusaibah, it's your birthday." -Professor Lo
• "Maheen, I thought your birthday was yesterday." -Professor Lo once again

Favorite Moments:

• Nusaibah's Birthday (and all THREE cakes)
• Lindsey and Fernando get documented by a random guy
• Robert Doyle's President Broadhead Impersonation
• Our security detail scaring off street salesman
• The Ain Shams kids singing "I Believe I Can Fly"
• Seeing the Mediterranean
• John Making Popcorn

Week 4: Max's Reflection

Walking through Tahrir Square, one is struck by the massive presence of the Mogamma, the headquarters of the Egyptian bureaucracy. Tahrir Square is a giant crossroads located near the Nile, filled with western fast food chains and ringed by hotels and tour agencies. The Mogamma sits incongruously on one side, with a small courtyard accenting its utilitarian facade. It sits there as a rather ugly landmark. Sometimes I see people doing their laundry on the roof.

According to its Wikipedia page (in English), there are fourteen stories and 18,000 Egyptian employees work there. I've never been inside it, but if I needed to renew a visa or get an Egyptian drivers' license I'd need to go there and likely waste a few hours waiting in line. It would be an inconvenience.

Walking back the other day, I reflected on how casually I dismiss the Mogamma as simply another unattractive presence in a city not known for its aesthetic appeal. For the refugees we work with - and for the average Egyptian - the Mogamma is the manifestation of the inefficiencies of the Egyptian state and the difficulties of life here.

I first heard of the Mogamma in my Arabic class, where we watched the video Al-Irhab wa al-Kebab (Terrorism and Kebab). (Arabic classes, especially those at Duke, place a huge emphasis on teaching cultural proficiency as well as language. The first vocabulary word in our Arabic textbook is "the United Nations".) In the film, an Egyptian everyman becomes so frustrated by the bureaucracy that he ends up taking over the building. He is labeled a terrorist by security forces outside, but becomes a hero to the disillusioned "hostages" inside. Whenever I see the Mogamma, I am reminded of the film's satirical analysis of Egyptian society.

I don't know a whole lot about the refugee status determination process, and what I do know is from hopelessly academic sources. I imagine having to wait in line for hours to plead my case to an overworked, underpaid Egyptian employee. I imagine being intimidated by the crowds and inhumanity of the process. If I were from Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Somalia, as many refugees here are, I might not even speak Arabic well enough to understand what was going on.

I can't even begin to imagine how scary the Egyptian state can seem to someone without a foreign passport and an embassy to advocate for your rights. While we were in Alexandria we saw dozens of armored cars and surrounded by riot policemen - apparently in response to protests related to the death of a teenager at the hands of policemen. That's all I've heard and that's all I know about the situation, although I believe it was covered in at least some Western media. (EDIT: for a great analysis and description of the events related to the death of Khalid Said, I refer you to the amazing Andrew Simon. Andrew just graduated from Duke and has a fellowship to spend a year studying Arabic in Cairo.)

Foreigners must content some governmental unpleasantries as well: foreign women will often find themselves stared at by bored policemen with guns; security forces will go out of their way to escort western tourists with the tacit understanding that they will be given compensation for their troubles; there are security checkpoints on the highways where passports are inspected; foreign tourists must pay many times the Egyptian price to visit museums and historical sights. These minor annoyances aside, Egypt pretty much bends over backwards for tourists. This isn't just the cold economics of tourism - Egyptians seem to genuinely love hospitality and their charm in receiving guests is remarkable.

Anyways, I started out hoping to write about the teaching process but once again I've found it far easier to write about buildings than to write about people. I know a lot of our readers (both of them probably!) are curious about what we're doing. I'd like to explain this, but it's difficult. I'm not exactly sure where or how to begin. Before arriving in Egypt, I had sort of implicitly assumed that our role would be more along the lines of an internship, where would be given a role and expected to fulfill the duties of the job. While we have partners here we work with, it's not the same thing as having a "job". Any job requirements we have are our own creations. We have immense flexibility, but this incredible freedom is, at least for me, extremely challenging. Far from the instant gratification of receiving a letter grade at the end of the term or a paycheck every second Friday, we have to come up with our methods, our own goals, and our own ways of measuring success.

I'm probably rambling somewhat, but I think the point I want to make is this: the question "what does Duke Engage Cairo do?" is a question that has 13 different answers. Everyone one of us has, after nearly a month, begun to realize the needs of the communities we are working with and our ability and capacity to engage. We are all developing our own curricula for teaching and making our own choices about how we can best spend the brief time that Duke Engage provides us. Hopefully some of us can begin to define our personal answers on this blog over the next month, and I'm going to make it one of my goals to provide one answer to this question - I think I owe it to Duke Engage and to our readers. I hope to write another post again soon.

Faluka Ride With AUC Students

I’m sure one of my peers has mentioned it on this blog already, but in case they haven’t- a faluka ride is one of the most serene experiences in Cairo. Any boat ride is calming, a respite that can be hard to find in this city, but the fact that this specific boat ride is on the river we’ve grown up reading about and that people have been in awe of for generations, it just never gets old. It kind of reminds you of your presence there, something like the opposite of an out-of-body experience. I’m not entirely sure if that makes sense.

DukeEngage has a strong relationship with the American University of Cairo, particularly with a professor named Brooke. She’s already had us over to her apartment twice now for various lectures and invited us to this particular faluka ride, our 3^rd, to meet some of her summer students. I have heard some pretty accusatory stereotypes about AUC students and I don’t feel particularly inclined to take them at face value, but one thing is for sure- they’re not your everyday Egyptians. The fact of the matter is that in this country you have to be wealthy to go to AUC. I’ve heard things like the Egyptians students there don’t really live in Egypt or have a completely sheltered and unrealistic understanding of what the country is like. Honestly, I never really asked them what they think about President Mubarak or how to solve poverty in Egypt; we stuck to more kosher (or should I say halaal?) subjects like music and school. So I really couldn’t tell you how grounded they are. They were obviously more well-off than most Egyptians we have encountered so far, but they also seemed like intelligent and capable students. I think a fortunate background is no reason to harbor animosity towards or lay blame on someone, which I suspect is a strong influence on the development of the stereotypes I’ve mentioned. The group was very friendly and we’ve planned to meet up again sometime soon for dinner. I intend to have more substantial conversations with them then and I hope that they will, insha’allah, show me a different AUC student from the one I have been hesitant to accept.

This Week's Tidbits - June 21

This Week’s Titles:

• Teaching Troubles
• Crying and Smiling Children
• Journey to the Center of Hai al-Asher
• Homework Vs. Lesson Planning Vs. Sleep
• Professor Lo and the Eternal Battle For Interwebs
• The Birthday Party
• Street Fighter: The Victorious
• The Twilight Saga: Cairo (cause the kids at I the Egyptian are routinely getting bitten)

Songs of the Week:

• “Hot ‘n Cold” by Katy Perry
• “Down” by Jay Sean
• “Jump On It” by Apache

Quotes of the Week:

• “What do you mean by Hello Kitty drugs?” –Zuri, befuddled by her teacher’s story
• “Where’d the blondes go?” “Where the pigs went.” –John, on how beautiful blondes like Andy aren’t seen around here because they continually stop traffic
• “Don’t lose your stuff, or else it will end up on some old man’s Christmas tree,” –Hannah, on the moral of story she read in her Arabic class
• “I freakin’ love unicorns…I probably shouldn’t have admitted that…It’s like 10 Galleons a hair.” –Brendan
• “Pregnant is just a dot away from being camel.” –John, on spelling Arabic words
• John’s Vader Voice, in Arabic: “Luke, I am your father.”

Favorite Moments of the Week:

• Street Fight in Khan el-Halili
• Zuri Eating in Class
• Moana Caking
• Zoe’s Birthday
• Working at the NGOs
• Coptic Cairo
• Lecture with Raymond
• Teaching Time to St. Andrew's Students
• Teaching "Ninja" to the Kids at I the Egyptian

Reflection - June 20

In case you are one of the loyal followers who stuck with us even though we haven't posted this week, I send you my thanks. It's been a tough week for all of us- each with his or her own difficulties- so hopefully I can post a few updates later tonight about what's been happening in The Victorious (the meaning of "Cairo"). We have been saving up some things for Today’s Tidbits, so be on the lookout for them.

Before I write anything, though, I will say that my opinion does not represent everyone in the group; it is my opinion, and others may agree or disagree at various points. As much as I might want to see the world in black and white, I realize that there are indeed shades of grey. But I digress...

If I could encapsulate this week in one word, that word would be "frustration". Earlier on in the trip I wanted to try to explain how Cairo is an organic force directly intertwined with our work and our lives. This is not Durham, where you make your own fate. This is Cairo, where things don't ever happen the way you expect and there's no way to change it. Someone is late? It's Cairo. Your class is full of students you didn't expect? That's Cairo too. Constantly changing your lesson plans? Definitely Cairo.

My personal problem dealing with this frustration is that I can't fix it. I am not a control freak, but I like having control over my little kingdom. Cairo wants to teach me spontaneity and I am not an eager pupil. How can you tell if your students are learning? How do you deal with them when they don’t want to learn what you feel they need to learn? How about when you think they don’t need what you originally thought they needed? How should we discipline kids when we don’t have the linguistic and cultural capability of how to do so? Should our goal be to break up every fight and attempt to affect every kid in at least a small way, or skim over the whole bunch and invest in a few shining stars? How do you judge being a good cultural ambassador and is it okay if being one is our only goal?

These are the answerless questions that have been rattling around my head this week during the treks to I the Egyptian and Ain Shams. I do realize that I skipped discussing the bright spots in the week- how Maheen and I are the Batman and Robin of teaching English, or how I met one boy who wants to learn English as much as I do Arabic- but warm fuzzies don’t sell newspapers (or attract blog readership). I battle against Cairo with an open mind and a newfound patience, and in that I am quite impressed with myself. That being said, I currently feel unable to deal with the fact that tangible goals are- in all likelihood- unattainable. There is no way to measure- to touch, to taste, to smell, to see- success here. There is no way to say, “Look, here is what I am accomplishing.”

And that, at least to me, is frustrating.

Always Something New

Every day in Cairo is a little bit different. There are new adventures to be had, a new bawab guarding the entrance to our apartment building (a bawab is like a doorman or bellhop, and they chill on the ground floor and open doors for us), new bug bites to be futilely ignored, new types of street food to be attempted, and new places to explore.

When Fernando and I go to Ardilewa (or, Ard al-Liwa), our new adventure is the trip over. The metro ride is pretty standard, give or take the different looks and/or comments I receive, but the microbus ride is always something special. Our first real microbus ride was on the way over, just the two of us, with no one to explain as everyone in the bus began to pass money to a random passenger on the bus. At first, I didn't notice. I was too busy looking out the window, worrying that we were going to miss where we were supposed to get off, and ignoring the man who would not stop staring at the arm I was using to brace myself. Note that we were in the front of a quite crowded bus, facing the rest of the passengers, in an area where very few foreigners venture and certainly, if they do, they don't take the minibus. When I eventually realized that money was going around the bus and I had no idea why, I gave Fernando a panicked look. Did he actually work for the bus driver, but just sit in the back? Was it a low-key holdup that none of the Egyptians cared about but was going to rob us of all of our money? Was I missing some vital, culturally significant activity?

Turns out, it's just easier for everyone on the bus to pass their money forward to someone close enough to pass money to the driver, so my initial fears were unwarranted. But every day on the microbus presents some kind of new puzzle, whether it's how to get the driver to stop, whether or not we should just jump off, how to get around the fold-down seats full of people blocking our exit, or discovering which microbus we should actually get on.

The microbus isn't the end of our adventure, although the market area through which we weave in order to find the correct alleyway down which we meander in order to arrive at the building containing our site is actually usually less exciting, despite its overflow of people, vehicles, animals, goods, and food. But, all in all, pushing through all this is more than made up for by our students, because they are more than worth it!

June 13 - by Andi

Today, after our customary four hours of Arabic class, we returned to the apartments for a much-needed nap before setting off for the American University of Cairo.

After a rough wake up call, we all piled into the van for the hour-long ride to AUC (the University was moved to “New Cairo”, a developing residential area, a few years ago to escape the overpopulation and chaos found in downtown Cairo).

When we finally reached the university, we were in awe of the campus’s beauty. The calmness of the university starkly contrasted the hustle and bustle of downtown Cairo, and the buildings combined elements of both Mexican and Islamic architecture. Picturesque fountains and minarets dotted the campus.

After passing the student center, we found Mark Schleifer (also know as Abdullah Schliefer) for a lecture on his experiences as a foreign correspondent. In the past, Schliefer worked in various Middle Eastern countries and was employed by NBC and the New York times, among other news agencies. Many students were especially excited to meet Schleifer as he was mentioned in the book The Looming Towers, which was required reading for Professor Lo’s class on Al-Qaeda and terrorism.

From the beginning of the lecture, Schleifer’s charisma and anecdotes captured our attention. By telling stories from his personal experience as a reporter, Schleifer was able to explain what factors affect the media’s coverage of the Middle East and how this coverage in turn affects our perception of Middle Eastern society. According to Schleifer, the main factor in the public’s perception of a nation is whether or not a country receives general coverage or catastrophe coverage. Generally, only countries that are world powers or are perceived as such receive consistent coverage, or “general” coverage, by the media.

All other countries are only mentioned when catastrophes occur, which negatively colors our opinions of these societies. For example, although the Luxor terrorist attacks occurred about the same time as a terrorist attack in London, Egyptian tourism suffered a much heavier a blow because the story about the attack was the only story run on Egypt that week. On the other hand, England received general media coverage and thus various other stories were run on England that week. Consequently, tourists were less hesitant to travel there as the negativity of the attack was countered by stories with a more positive spin. In fact, the contrast between the reactions to the two attacks was so drastic that President Mubarak actually thought the media was conspiring against Egypt.

Apart from catastrophe coverage, Schleifer also described how denial of media access, violence, and logistical issues that arise while working in certain areas of the Middle East often negatively affect coverage. To illustrate his point, he shared various stories from the field, including the time an armed guard stuck a loaded weapon in Schleifer’s mouth after he violated his cardinal rule of Middle Eastern journalism: “Always smile at a man with a gun.”

By the end of the end of the hour and a half, we were all sad to see Schleifer run to his next engagement. Inshahallah, his advice and experiences on working in and understanding the Middle East will serve us well in our endeavors in Cairo.

Today's Tidbits - June 13 and Beyond

Today's Titles

• The Group Gets Busy
• There's A Bat In The Air Conditioner -or- Night Bird In The Air Machine
  
• Brendan vs. Getting Knee Capped, Dance Moves And His Shirt
  
• Pecos Bill : Tornado :: Yasin : Taxi Cab
• George vs. The Nail
• It's About To Get Crazy

Quotes of the Day

• "Zoe, you know the direction?" - Prof. Lo, after all of us were already in the van
• Wild Zubat appeared! -- Air Conditioner used Fan Blades! -- It's super effective! -- Wild Zubat fainted!
• "Always smile at a man with a gun." - Mark Schleifer
• "Power is an aphrodisiac." - Henry Kissinger
  

Songs of the Day

• "Easy Love," by MSTRKRFT
• "Buy You A Drink," by T-Pain
  

Favorite Moments

• The group learning how to Apache
• Watching World Cup games at the Four Seasons and the koosheri place
• Zoe explaining how to learn languages
• The Arab Academy group discussing swine flu in Arabic
• Floating on the Nile, reflecting back on our week
• Mark Abdullah Schleifer illustrates the reasons behind and consequences of conflict coverage in journalism
• Visiting and observing classes at St. Andrew's
  

DukeEngager of the Day: John, for his heroic patience with children

Observing the Classroom

Yesterday morning the group went to the St. Andrews site to observe some of the teachers and students in their classrooms. We've had a full week of getting to know St. Andrews as a community partner, learning what their vision is and how they see this program. This coming week, we start teaching! I think most of us are nervous, but excited. Although we can see that we're going to have our hands full for the next 7 weeks, I think it will be very rewarding throughout the process. St. Andrews is allowing us to make this project our own. My group has been brainstorming the lesson plans, ideas for projects, teaching methods, etc., but I feel that we're most anxious to finally meet the students we'll be teaching.

Observing the classroom yesterday was extremely helpful. I learned a lot of methods which worked and didn't work. Patience is definitely key. The teacher explained to us that patience is something we'll have to put into practice. One thing I noticed was that the girls were much more eager to answer questions than the guys. The teacher constantly had the students talking, which is excellent I think, especially for language classes. There is only so much we can do before meeting the students and getting to know what they would like to learn until we meet them. Wish us luck!

St. Andrews Community Centers

Unlike the past two years that St. Andrews and DukeEngage have been working together, this year the organizations are trying something quite different. Instead of all of the refugee children going to the main St. Andrews site in Cairo, the DukeEngagers will be splitting up into groups of two or three students and going to centers in the local refugee communities to make the instruction more accessible. Someone from each site wrote up a little blurb about their community center and their first experience – these blurbs are combined here.

Ain Shams Group:
Brendan and I (Maheen) were paired together to go to the community center in an area called Ain Shams, conveniently located right off one of the metro stops but three stops away from the end of the line. The first thing that both of us thought as we left the station (after taking in the odd combination of smells, both sweet and, uh, not-so-sweet) was that this is what we thought Cairo would look like. Perhaps we had an ignorant or backwards notion of what a city in a developing country would look like, but Ain Shams is more of the Cairo we imagined than anything we’ve seen in the past week. There is one thing we noticed, though. As we walked by the street vendors selling fresh fruit and a donkey cart pulling hand-made vases, we found that no one was staring at us. We’ve kind of gotten used to getting a deluge of odd glances as we walk by any street in Cairo, both because I’m a woman and Brendan happens to be a 6’4 white kid. This we’ve just learned to accept as the culture. We felt oddly much less out of place in this conservative area- one that sees many fewer foreigners. We’re really looking forward to working with Adam, our community facilitator, in this area starting next week.

St. Andrews Group:
While most of the DukeEngagers were out on their volunteer site visits today, my (Hannah’s) day was a bit more relaxed, as we were already in my future classroom! I have the pleasure of working with Nusaibah and Hillary at the St. Andrew's center downtown, the same location where we had the beginning of our orientation today and yesterday. Although we got to see the St. Andrew's school in action, we have not yet met any of our students. Our program is geared towards unaccompanied minors who are not enrolled in school, specifically targeting those who work during the day. Our students will be primarily Eritrean and Ethiopian, with about four Iraqi refugees in the mix. I'm interested to see the differences between the circumstances of the various nationalities. The chances of resettlement are much higher for refugees from Iraq than for those from Africa, so there might be a difference in outlook between the different populations. The three of us will be working with a wonderful community facilitator named Jamal, who is Eritrean. He filled us in on the current situation in Eritrea: the country is highly militarized, and soldiers have made a habit of entering schools, measuring all the students, and, if a student reaches a certain height, immediately enlisting him into the military. Thus, there is a high percentage of students who flee to Egypt before they can be enlisted. He also said that many of the Eritrean students speak some English, but are anxious to improve. Although this could make our task a lot easier, I'm a little anxious that the skill levels of the group will be extremely diverse. However, with some creativity on our part, we should be able to accommodate all skill levels. We won't begin teaching until next Monday, but we're very excited to work more with Jamal and write lesson plans until then!

Hayd Ashr Group:
Despite a structured, planned schedule, life in Cairo is really never what you expect it to be. Perhaps the real adventure of our trip to Hayd Ashr, the site where Max, Ruba, Zuri and I (Moana) will be teaching, was our mode of transportation to get there – the microbus.
The microbus ride in itself was fairly comfortable. A microbus is essentially a mini-van seating a maximum 10 people. I got to sit next at the back next to the window and embrace the dusty yet breezy Cairo air as we sped along unfamiliar roads out of the city and I became oblivious to our infrequent stops and people getting on and off, looking outside in awe of the city’s traffic. It was not until we were deliberating how to get back did I realize that microbuses do not have an actual stops – people are allowed to get on and off at the whim of the driver. The bus waits for no one; if you are lucky, you can get on and off when the vehicle is not in motion.
Then we were there. I had only imagined a place like Hayd Ashr but never actually seen something like it before. As soon as we walked into the compound, I was reminded of India briefly – mostly in terms of the communal feel of the place: children playing in the open space, small shops, a pharmacy, a butcher and an outdoor community space for residents to socialize. It felt like its own little world within this incredible city. The residents are primarily Somali and Sudanese refugees and we saw the large indoor community center space and nursery where we will teach starting next week.
I have never taught before and furthermore, our teaching sites are far from anything like a classroom environment and so I am nervous yet excited about the prospect of meeting the 40-45 children next week and getting to know them, building their trust and, hopefully, impacting their lives in some way.

Ard al-Liwa Group:
Fernando and I (Lindsey) had no idea what to expect as we followed our community facilitator, Abdullahi, out of St. Andrews and down the street. After a failed attempt to hop on a microbus, we ended up taking a taxi to Ard al-Liwa, a neighborhood near Sudan Street in Giza where many Somali refugees reside. Abdullahi is great, and has been wonderful in answering our questions and making us feel welcome at the center in Ard al-Liwa, but as he walked through the market towards the community center we had to race to keep up with him, dodging not only people and goods but also cars, motorcycles and the occasional donkey, because Abdullahi stops for no one and rarely looks back to see if his two wayward American coworkers are keeping up.
But we made it to the center perfectly safe, and chatted over Fanta in the small room where we’ll be teaching 20 Somali refugees – 11 girls, 9 boys, ranging in age from 14 to 19. We discussed what we should teach, what should be less emphasized and the probable skill levels of our students (little Arabic or English, little literacy). It was awesome to be able to finally see this place we keep talking about, and it really started to make our project a lot more real for us as we began planning in our actual teaching space.
Then, we were off back towards home – Abdullahi led us to where we could hop on a bus, and waved us off as we began our journey to the metro station. We were a little worried at first, since we really had no idea where we were or where we were going, but I think both of us are glad that we’re finally out of the hand-holding stage of living in Cairo. We made it back without getting lost, and, if we can learn a little bit of determination from Abdullahi, we think we’ll be able to teach without getting lost as well.

Reflection: June 11

Yesterday, I started scratching the back of my head. I had this little feeling- a sharp, soft pinprick, more like it- somewhere on my head. A mosquito bite? No. A tick? Can’t be. Then, slowly throughout the day, the feeling spread: down the back of my neck, into my arms and fingers, through my chest and to my stomach, where it circled like a hawk overhead before spiraling into a heavy mass. This daunting weight sat in my stomach all day as I watched the child refugees at St. Andrew’s and as I planned my attack on how to better serve them.

We began our morning by observing various classes at St. Andrew’s and luckily I was put into an English class. The children were learning about parts of speech- nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and all the wonderful things that I love to study in linguistics-, so needless to say I in exactly the right place. Along with Hannah and Lindsey, I had the opportunity to see these eager young kids figure their eager young ways through the English language. I’ve never seen so many smiling faces in a single classroom. Every time the teacher asked a question, at least half the class shot an index finger into the air- their equivalent of raising your hand- and shouted out, “Miss! Miss!” in hopes of answering it.

Chances are that these kids have no chance. They are refugees in a country that either doesn’t want them or doesn’t want to deal with them, or both. Maybe I’m not giving Egypt a fair shake, and the fact of the matter might actually be that Egypt is unequipped to deal with them, but these kids nonetheless have the deck stacked against them. Chances are these kids will have a brutal, challenging existence on this planet. Watching their eyes moon over prepositions was like seeing a beautiful flower that doesn’t recognize the winter two steps away from setting in. It was simultaneously soaring joy and crashing sadness. There was a kind of glorious innocence about it all that I wish I could capture in words or pictures or film. But I can’t. It was the most natural, most basic human reaction, the product of thousands of years of human experience programmed into my DNA. It transcended paternal instinct; it was a moment when you realize what makes you human.

It is our job to fight against all the forces soon to embitter these children’s lives- the government, xenophobia, fear, self-doubt- and to shield them from the coming storm. In all likelihood, our eight weeks probably won’t change things. We may teach 80 kids, but there thousands of others out there. But that’s not the point now, is it? The point is to try to affect them, no, to incite them to change their own lives. We are not teaching them English or Arabic, but rather we are teaching them the tools necessary to empower themselves. If even just one student goes on to lead a better life than they would have without us, then we’ve succeeded. Or, at least, that’s the goal.

Time to go do it.

Week 1: The City of Cairo

I heard the other day that architects have the highest suicide rate in Egypt. I’m not sure if that’s true or just a colorful rumor, but it certainly makes sense. Navigating Cairo is hard – the buildings here tend to run together into a brown blur. There’s been a trend in recent years where the wealthy move outside the city, escaping the noise and squalor of downtown in favor of mini-cities that spring up in the desert. Yet while the dirty, decaying facades of downtown have character, these new cities seem soulless and utilitarian. The rows of identical block housing and the Lada taxis filling the streets call to mind the ghosts of Egypt’s socialist past.

I’m not sure if Arabic has a word for “urban planner”, but I’m sure they must share in architects’ frustration. Cairo has virtually no public spaces. The sidewalks are littered with construction debris and the streets are cluttered with cars. Double parking is the norm, and I’ve even seen triple parking in some places. At night, people congregate on the Nile bridges, enjoying the breeze as well as some of Cairo’s only decent sidewalks.

The population is growing, but I’m not sure how Cairo will cope. Professor Lo told me he thought that in twenty years the government is going to have to start tearing down buildings. If I had to guess, though, I’d predict that affairs will continue in the unpredictable, laissez-faire fashion they do now. Many things about the city of Cairo don’t make sense, but Egyptians are resilient. They find ways to rejoice in the Kafka-like absurdities of Cairo. I love Cairo and I love the Egyptian people, but this is an extremely difficult city to live in. For those who relish constant challenge, Cairo is an amazing adventure. For those who want things to just make sense, this is not the country for you.

This post started because I wanted to write about running. Running is never something I’ve liked doing, and I’ve always nursed a secret jealousy for the motivated few who have the persistence to go running every day. I had wanted to join a gym, but after Gold’s Gym told me a two-month membership would be about $300 US, I was forced to change my allegiance. I’ve become one of them, getting up at 6:15 AM four or five days a week to go running. I love it.

Cairo is beautiful in the early morning, before it gets hot and the traffic becomes so thick you can’t walk between the idling cars. Crossing the Nile every morning is simply awe-inspiring. Yes, the pollution is bad and the heat is deadly, but in the early morning neither is insurmountable. From the apartment, I cross the bridge unto Zamalek Island and run to the Gezira Club, which has a giant running track. The dirt track is narrow, uneven, and covered with horse crap, but it’s better than the sidewalks. I’d guess the track is maybe a mile and half around, but I really have no idea. I’m not sure exactly if you need a membership or not to use the track, but I just do what Professor Lo showed me and give £E 5 ($0.90 US) to the guard at the side gate. I’m not sure whether I’m just paying the cost of admittance or bribing the guy, but it works without fail. Interestingly though, £E 5 seems to work regardless of how many people I have running with me…

Running in Cairo is also amusing because of the reactions you get. The bored policemen with AK-47s hanging loosely off their backs stare at you as your run by. Sometimes I get honks and thumbs-ups from taxi drivers. When I finally make it back to the apartment, the bawwab (custodian) sitting in the lobby gives me a standing ovation while I drag my sweaty body to the elevator. They think my mediocre jogging means I’m some sort of amazing sportsman – no one runs here. Greater Cairo has a population of perhaps 15 million people, but I’ve only seen about 3 other people running.

Today's Tidbits - June 8

Today’s Titles:

• FDOC
• Zuri Vs. The World, Part Ten(Thousand)
• The Girl’s Apartment Conquers the Stove
• Max, Ruba, Moana, and Zuri Vs. The Minibus
• Community Facilitators, Orientation, and Other Wonderful Things

Songs of the Day:

• “Pokemon Theme Song” in Arabic
• “Make It Through” by Sherwood

Quotes of the Day:

• “Don’t drive with Hannah. She’s a terrible taxi driver.” -Ingie, the Arab Academy teacher during a taxi-cab, role-playing game.
• “Legiternet” and “sly-fi” –John’s terms for “legitimate internet” connections and “possibly unsafe” ones

Favorite Moments:

• First Day of Classes
• Animal Toss Game at Orientation
• Minibuses
• We gave in…and went to McDonald’s

DukeEngager of the Day: Fernando, future bodyguard

June 8 - The Group Vs. FDOC

I thought jet lag was bad…until we started our first day of Arabic classes (FDOC = first day of classes) today. It is a four-hour mental marathon that is both something completely identical to and completely unlike physical exhaustion. Imagine your brain simultaneously understanding but not processing everything that is going on around you. John says it is like going to the gym for the first time in a while and finding out that your Arabic muscles aren’t as strong as you thought they were.

Our teachers at Al-Diwan were excellent, never switching to English to give us an easy way out. While I can’t speak for the rest of the group, I think I understood about 60-75% of what our teacher was saying at any given moment- and that’s a pretty good number. Max, Nusaibah, and I pushed our way through Chapter 15 in our book while also picking up a lot of new material (i.e. we discovered there are dual forms for pronouns aka pronouns for groups of two people). While I can’t say I was too excited about doing homework during my sacred summer months, I do indeed look forward to having class again tomorrow morning.

After a quick cab ride to St. Andrew’s- the primary NGO we will be working with- we had a second day of orientation activities. Today we learned about the services that AMERA (the African and Middle Eastern Refugee Assistance) can provide to refugees, such as legal and document services, psycho-social aid, protection, and sexual/gender based violence help. The presenter told us that her individual team works on about 8 cases every month, so we hope we can increase that number over the next few weeks by connecting refugees to the services that can help make their lives better. After a teaching and lesson-planning workshop, we split up and headed off to the sites we’ll be working at (look for another blog post from each group tonight about their individual sites).

Today's Tidbits - June 7

Today's Titles:

• Life Is So Much Better On A Boat
• Zuri Vs. Allergic Reactions
  
• Zuri Vs. Everything
• Crazy Taxi: Cairo

Songs of the Day:

• "How Bizarre" by O.M.C.
• "Come Together" by the Beatles

Quotes of the Day:

• "I don't know what you want, but I have what you need."
• "How can I take your money?"
• "It's kind of like a piggy-back ride." - Max

Favorite Moments:

• Fiona assuaging our anxiety
• Orientation at St. Andrew's
• Boat Ride on the Nile
• Mango Juice
• Dinner with Amr

DukeEngager of the Day: Zuri (she gets it two days in a row for her EXTREME patience and dedication)

Reflection: Week One

Before I get into my reflections and ponderings and whatnot, I feel like I need to give the background to how I reached them. It started last night when Professor Lo talked to me about the blog, specifically about how to make it less “touristy”. At first, I reacted a little defensively about how much fun everyone has had writing it but then I started to think a little more about what tourism meant. And, as usual, Professor Lo’s small statements opened up a world of introspective insights.

What is tourism? Is it spending 8 weeks in a foreign country? Is it exploring Cairo? What makes this blog “touristy”- is it our casual tone or our comparisons between home and here? If comparing the US and Cairo is touristy, then what is less touristy? Is there some deep insight that we (that I?) are overlooking? In a sense, we are actually tourists to Cairo. Eight weeks is not nearly enough time to make us natives of, or experts on, Cairo. So what is the difference between tourism and immersion – because, after all, this is an immersion program. Tourism is physically exploring a place but never becoming part of it. Immersion is exploring a place, in terms of its physicality, its culture, and its personality.

Circling back to the start of this entry, how has this physical, cultural, and personal immersion affected me so far? I don’t know. It’s hard to get perspective on something while you’re actually there, while you’re actually doing it, especially after just one week. What I can say for sure, though, is that DukeEngage has opened my eyes to a part of the world I would never have otherwise seen. Sure, I could have visited Cairo and the pyramids and the museums, but DukeEngage has opened me up to the people and individuals that enliven Cairo. Instead of hearing about poverty or imagining what street children look like, I can now say that the wool over my eyes has been pulled back.

As President Broadhead described in his address to the DukeEngage students, this service-learning project is a unique form of education. Personally, I’ve always found learning to be something you need to experience. I have trouble comprehending or understanding or believing something unless I witness it first-hand. Now I can say that I have done just that: I have seen Cairo. While there is a lot left to learn, and seven more weeks worth of experiences to have, I can see the problems that affect Cairo and I know my place in how to better serve the community. I guess I have just begun to see things in a different light.

Today's Tidbits - June 6

Today's Titles:

• Everyone Delivers
• Arabic 2 vs. the Placement Exam
• Andi vs. Invalid Wells Fargo Phone Numbers
• Nusaibah vs. The Stationary Store
• Fernando and Moana's Embassy Adventure
  

Songs of the Day:

• "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel
• "Apache" by Sugar Hill Gang

Anonymous Quotes of the Day:

• "What's the news, Fat-mah?"
  
• "You're lucky not to be a refugee."
  
• "I bet your father is part of the NRA."

Favorite Moments:

• Receiving the magic coffee wand (and the coffee with it!) at Arab Academy
• Meeting a soon-to-be-Dukie (who was way too nice to us!)
• Comparing ICS Majors to car dealerships ("Everything's pre-approved!" - John)
  
• Fry sandwiches
• Crown pizza (Pizza Hut + Cream Cheese)

DukeEngager of the Day: Zuri (who hopefully is feeling much better now)

Trip to the Tower - June 5

Andi, Brendan, Hannah, and Lindsey try to trek to the Cairo Tower but inadvertently end up wandering around Zamalek instead.

June 5: Crosses, Icons and Graves

Today, Hillary and I decided to go on an adventure and visit Coptic Cairo. We rode the metro four stops south to Mar Girgis. Coptic Cairo was there, immediately outside of the station with beautiful Byzantine-like churches all around. The Coptic Museum was closing in 2 hours so we stopped by there first. We were amazed by the beauty of the wall paintings, the column capitals, friezes and mosaics - all from old Egyptian Coptic monasteries. Also, there were gorgeous illuminated copies of the gospels in both Arabic and Coptic.

After leaving the museum, we explored the Church of St. George, who is known for his slaying of the dragon, and the Church of the Virgin Mary, which was built at the spot where she supposedly drank water from a well during her visit to Egypt. Within the Church of St. George, there were signs on which people wrote their names or prayers and icons of St. George that people touched, hoping for a blessing. Located in the middle of an immense cemetery, the Church of the Virgin Mary houses a well from which the faithful drink to obtain blessings or physical healing.

After leaving the churches, we continued our adventure by descending down steps – guarded by a very bored Egyptian tourist police officer - to a sub-alley. Here, Hillary and I entered a nunnery that was being remodeled, encountered our first beggar, and visited a souvenir shop, where we befriended one of the shop-keepers (Marian). After chatting (in English) with her for a good 45 minutes, we exchanged email addresses in hopes of meeting up with our friends and her friends later this summer. Our visit to Coptic Cairo was definitely a wonderful adventure and opportunity to use our Arabic to get around. We can’t wait to take everyone else back.

The Food (So Far)

I knew Cairo would be a taste-bud-opening experience but I really underestimated how good the food would be here. I pictured beans being used like peanut butter and random types of meat being served to me in strange forms. Although I do not mind beans and strange meat, the fare here has been a happy surprise. All of it has been good, but the Koosheri, the hole-in-the-wall chicken shop's chicken, and the sugar cane juice stand out.

Koosheri can be best described as Ramen fit for a king. It only costs three pounds and it fully satisfies our hunger. It consists of hearty macaroni, fried onions, rice, lentils, and chick peas. It also comes with a bowl of tasty tomato sauce and a bowl of extremely hot pepper sauce. Travelers beware: do not imitate me and slosh the hot sauce on your Koosheri in attempt to seem cool. The experience that my mouth endured was far from cool.

At Max's suggestion, we went to a tiny street chicken vendor for dinner. Max asked the kind shop owner for a chicken roasting on the rotisserie and the shop owner proceeded to chop it in half, put it on a plate with delicious rice and pita, and serve it to us. If you are into greasy, finger-lickin' good chicken like me, you would love this pleasing poultry. My father always said that the hole-in-the wall joints were the best and after tasting this chicken I agree with him.

There is a juicer shop nearby that takes various local fruits and, you guessed it, juices them. It only costs a pound for a glass and it's delicious. I have only tried the juiced sugar cane but intend to sample their entire menu, starting with the mango juice. The shop owners are quite friendly gentlemen and we had a fun time talking with them as I sipped my juice.

Speaking of shop owners, I am very pleased by how nice every shopkeeper has treated us so far. It is really fun trying out my Arabic with them and when I fail to remember how to communicate something it is entertaining listening to them trying to speak Arabic. Perhaps it is their attitude that makes their food taste so good.

Today's Tidbits - June 5

Today’s Title:

• Professor Lo Vs. Punctuality
• Get Lost…In Cairo
• Explorers!
• First Day on the Job

Songs of the Day:

• “Show Me The Meaning” by the Backstreet Boys

Quote of the Day:

• John: “I saw a zoological garden on the map. Should we go?”
• Ellah: “You mean a zoo?”
• John: “Yeah. Yeah, is it good?”
• Ellah: “No.”

Favorite Moments:

• Meeting the Wonderful Staff at Al-Diwan
• Making Friends in Coptic Cairo
• Exploring Zamalek and Cairo Tower
• First Day at Al-Kayan!
• Playing Backgammon with Hussein
• Experimenting with New Metro Stations
• Eating Chicken and Drinking Juice from Random Shops
• Eating at Taboula

DukeEngager of the Day: Andi

Back to Day 1: The Video

Sorry this took so long to get up, but here it is: moving into the apartments and a few stories about our first two days in Cairo. Thanks to Mr. Magdy for all his help in getting this online!

Today's Tidbits - June 4

Today’s Title:

• The Group Vs. Taxis
• Darn Those Apricots!
• Rap Like An Egyptian
• The Battle Against Jet Lag
• Vodaphone!
• There’s A First Time For Everything: Street Food

Songs of the Day:

• “Every Day I See My Dream” by LMFAO
• “I Want To Get Married But I Don’t Have Money” by the 3 Egyptian Rappers at the Concert

Quotes of the Today:

• “You Arab?” to Fernando by Mall Security Guard
• “You have the worst Arabic I’ve ever heard!” to Ruba, by Native Speaker
• “I just don’t understand you Egyptians” by Ruba, as a response to Native Speaker

Favorite Moments:

• Wust El Balad Concert
• Taxi Rides (on our own!)
• Street Food Adventures
• Sleeping, then Napping

(Former) DukeEngagers of the Day: Cosette and Andrew

Wust El Balad

The DukeEngage Cairo 2010 group has officially sampled the night life of Cairo! After meeting up with some Duke alum, who are here taking classes, we found out about a concert down at El Sawy Cultural Circle in Zamalek. We all, of course, jumped on the opportunity to wander around and see more of the city, so we braved taxis and found ourselves getting a glimpse of Cairo at night. We couldn't stop talking about how beautiful it all was, with the Nile right beside us and all the buildings and boats lit up in a variety of colors. People were everywhere and the city seemed even more full of life - if that's even possible.

Wust El Balad, the band, was amazing. They were fun to listen and dance to, and everyone around us knew all the words, showing how popular they are. We tried our best to understand what they were singing, with mixed results, and the people of Cairo once again proved how nice they are with how we were treated at the concert!

Afterwards, we all broke off, some back to the apartment (with only marginal difficulties with the taxi) and some to find a midnight snack (including some delicious chocolate crepes!). But we can't wait to continue exploring Cairo!

A Handful of Pictures

Click here to view these pictures larger

Today's Tidbits - June 3

Today’s Title:

• Hillary Vs. the Arm-Wrestler
• Professor Lo Vs. Directions, Part Two
• Orientation Day
• Professor Lo Does the Sorority Squat

Song of the Day: “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas

Favorite Moments:

• Max and Ahmed wrestling
• Hillary arm-wrestling
• Witnessing our first traffic accident (which is shocking in that we didn’t see one sooner)
• Eating at an Italian restaurant in Cairo that played 80’s jams
• Meeting the three NGOs
• Riding the subway
• Ordering Pizza

Quote of the Day:

• “Is Andi okay?” – to Andi, by Prof. Lo
• “Oh Look, Those Are Pyramids. No big deal.” – Anon.
• “I Don’t Ride Elevators That Don’t Have A Picture Of Cherie Berry” – Max
• “Do you speak al-Engleezee? [Pause] Ah sweet.” – John

DukeEngager of the Day: Moo-see-bah, err, Nusaibah…

This post is brought to you by Mohamed Magdy, even though he doesn’t know it.

The Orientation Marathon

Ana Al-Misri, or I the Egyptian, is an organization that takes care of children ages 2-16 that would otherwise live on the street. They come in with various backgrounds and needs, and it is up to the very capable staff of Ana Al-Misri to work with these children at a personal level, address their needs, and prepare them for a successful future.

The children have varying backgrounds, so the staff put the children into different categories when they are first interviewed to join the program. Stage 1 the lowest level, where children are behind in their education if it exists at all and may suffer from physical and psychological maladies that are a result of their life on the streets of Cairo. Though they often do not encounter problems like gun violence and drug use that are found in most other countries, these children sadly often have a background of neglect and abuse that leaves them emotionally damaged and with trust issues. Stage 2 children are more adapted to society and are current with their education. They are your average curious, energetic, and joyful kids. The last stage is where they are prepared with enough skills to live on their own, the goal of Ana Al-Misri.

Ana Al-Misri looks at three different levels of society when trying to help and understand the children. At the first level they look at a child’s personal development both emotionally and physically. The second level contains the children’s immediate culture and environment and tries to understand how the child fits into these social structures. The third level focuses on how the children fit into a global society at a macro level.

AWTAD was our second stop, an organization which focuses on a wide variety of cultural needs. Their main focus is on the mentoring of women entrepreneurs, fostering self confidence and facilitating the implementation of their business plans. One facet of this is entitled Anamel Misria, "Egyptian Fingers," which focuses on training artisans so that they can use their trade as a reliable source of income.

AWTAD is also acting to promote women's health within Egypt. They began by attempting to spread awareness about breast cancer, but ran into cultural issues and had trouble garnering public support. But they switched their focus to women's health in general, and work to spread awareness of basic health issues and disease prevention measures.

The friendly and engaging staff plan to give volunteers a lot of freedom with their responsibilities, so we will be able to choose our own ways of contributing. AWTAD seems to have a far-reaching influence in a variety of areas, so volunteers will be able to work directly within a specific branch, or work in a more administrative position as they brainstorm ideas.

The last of stop on today's orientation marathon was Al-Kayan, a center that works with disabled children in Cairo. In addition to running after school programs and daytime programs, the center also works to change the image of the disabled in Cairo to a more positive one. Although we were exhausted by the time we arrived, we were all impressed by the clarity of their presentation.

Our responsibility at Al-Kayan for the summer is two-fold: to increase the size of their English network, including updating their website with English articles and links and contact similar NGOs in Europe and America, and to teach their staff English. The Al-Kayan directors outlined these expectations clearly, including specific suggestions on vocabulary selections and a comprehensive schedule.

By the end of Al-Kayan's presentation, we were left with very few questions, and we paused only to take a brief tour of the facility and some group pictures before heading back to Garden City to relax.

By: John, Lindsey, and Hannah

Today’s Tidbits – June 1 and 2

I’m not sure how well this idea will play out, but bear with me: I want to try and keep the blog fresh by adding a little special something everyday. That special something is the new section titled “Today’s Tidbits” (sorry but I love alliteration). I want to have little things that will define our day in ways pictures, videos, and postings won’t. That being said, I now present you with the maiden voyage of “Today’s Tidbits”.

If today had a title, it would be:

• Professor Lo Vs. The One-Way Streets
• “Just Push It”
• It Wasn’t Me

Song of the Day:

• “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy
• “Sandstorm” by Darud

Favorite Moments of the Day:

• Getting lost going from the airport to the apartment
• Learning that when you park in Cairo, you should leave your car in neutral so people can push it if it is blocking the street
• Arriving safely.

Toughest Cross-Cultural Interaction:

• Buying fruit
• Crossing the street
  

Day 1: Wheels on the Ground

After months of preparation, we’ve arrived in Egypt. I stepped off the plane groggy and stiff from the 12 hour flight. From my window seat, the blurry tan of the desert below blurred into the clouds. It seemed unreal when the wheels of the 777 calmly hit the tarmac and slid to a halt.

It wasn’t until we actually left the airport that it hit me – we’re in Egypt now.

On hand to meet us was our beloved Arabic instructor Professor Lo. With him was Zoe, a Duke alum who works in Cairo and who will be serving as our on-the-ground coordinator. They ushered us outside into the heat and unto a microbus, which ferried us through meandering one-way streets until we reached our apartments. DukeEngage provided us with two apartments located in Garden City a district adjacent to the Nile. All we knew about the apartments was that there were two of them (one for boys and one for girls), they had formerly been American University in Cairo dorms, and that they were “nice”. “Nice,” though, may have been the understatement of the century, and can’t even begin to encapsulate how beautiful and spacious our accommodations are. If you’re curious, you can check out my video tour of the guys’ apartment. [Note: actually, you can't yet. We're having some technical difficulties getting internet so it'll probably just be text updates for the near future.] Suffice it to say that we’re all incredibly relieved, excited, and grateful about our living situation.

Our orientation starts tomorrow. For now, we’re just relaxing, unpacking, and getting ourselves mentally prepared for the next two months. Past participants in this program have told me that it constituted the hardest two months of their lives, but I’m sure it will prove to be the most rewarding as well.

Many thanks for reading, and please feel free to write us with any questions you might have! We’ll try to keep the blog updated as often as feasible –we don’t have internet in the apartments right now, but we hope to get wireless within a week or so.
- Max