A Little Fresh Perspective

Through a trip with the Arab Academy, some of my peers and I met a girl named Rachel who seemed very interested in our work with St. Andrews and the refugees and asked me if she could come visit our site one day. I told her what channels to go through to get permission, she did so, and the next thing I knew she was sitting on the metro with me on Wednesday heading to Ain Shams. As we approached the site, she confessed to me that she knew nearly nothing about the situation of refugees here or what’s going on in Sudan. I assured her that I, too, knew very little about the subject. Yet I went on to explain to her that northern Sudan is Muslim and that southern Sudan is Christian and where Darfour falls in all this. I explained how you can tell from looking at my students that most of them are either Darfourian or northern Sudanese but not southern. We finally made it to class and during the break halfway through, as she was getting to know some of the students, the subject of gangs somehow came up and I expressed my surprise at her not knowing about the gang violence that has arisen from the uprooted Sudanese youth. I immediately checked myself and realized that there was no reason she would know. There was no way she’d have learned about any of this from just living in Cairo. I was actually caught pretty off guard by how much I did know- while I’ve been enjoying my work, I hadn’t really taken notice of how much experiential learning I’ve been doing in the process.

It’s not just about Sudan or refugees either. As I was walking Rachel back to the metro after class, she told me I should really consider being a teacher. I would have normally replied with a polite thank you and awkwardly changed the subject, but she said it so genuinely that I asked her why she’d made the comment. She explained that when she observed Brendan and me in class, it seemed like we knew the strengths and weaknesses of our students so well and like we knew exactly what was appropriate in what situations. I was not only flattered by what she said, but also began to see how naturally someone learns things like that. The process was so gradual that I needed another westerner to be dropped in midway through to give me a point of reference. The whole experience got me excited about what else I’m going to discover I’ve learned once I get home and encounter an even starker contrast.