Kids Hit You With The Darndest Things

There are many things in Cairo that can hurt you. A rogue McDonald’s delivery scooter zipping along the road can clip you on your way to class. AC condensation has this nasty habit of dripping and pooling on extremely smooth parts of the sidewalk, creating a hazard for those of us wearing worn out Rainbow sandals. You could be waylaid by a pack of mangy cats on the way to buy much-needed supplies and if you somehow manage to limp away from the attack the rabies will do you in. I came into this trip knowing that dangers such as these would be possible and although you cannot “expect” such things I at least accept them as part of living here. One would think that after a few weeks here I would be prepare for any danger, but I was not even close to being mentally prepared to cope with being attacked by the children with whom I am working.

In America, children are normally such sweet things. They are full of joy and laughter and they are generally a source of happiness for us Big People. I came into this program expecting Egyptian children to be the same and I am happy to report that deep down they are, but a dark film of “Street” covers this bright inner child. They have a wild air about them, and they respond to pretty much anything with violence. I knew these children had rough lives, but I guess I was just ignorant about how such a life can affect a person. I realize now that my life experiences up until this point had just not exposed me to poverty of this magnitude. Sure, I have worked in food banks and with homeless shelters in America, but that only acclimated me with the American Poor. Some say that we in America have the richest poor in the world, and Egypt has proven this to be true. The Egyptian poor have lived lives that I had only previously encountered in Children’s Fund commercials that try to get you to sponsor a child. Let’s just say that I have a far greater appreciation for the Children’s Fund.

In the same way that it is painfully obvious to you that you are drowning I knew I was way in over my head with these kids. We are punched, kicked, jumped on, bitten, hit with wooden boards, and flogged with pieces of rubber from God knows what that they found God knows where. Most of the Duke Students find the biting to be the worst abuse, but my vote is with the rubber whips. On a pain scale of 1 to Child Birth, these whips fall right below 3rd degree burn. Anyway, as this was going on I kept thinking that I just had to show these kids some politeness and respect and they would change. This train of thought came from what I consider now a very ignorant Western upbringing. Politeness and manners were not things that these kids needed to survive in the street, so why should they respond to these? I was exasperated by my ineffectiveness until one day I received a revelation.

Sayed is one of the older boys at Ana Al-Misri and likes to tease us. One day he was really pestering me. He pretended to steal my iPod and kept pretending to steal my bag of stuff. Right before we left, he grabbed Lindsey’s water bottle and began to play keep-away with her. Though her P-Wild fitness and training is formidable, she could not keep up with her agile street-tested opponent. I saw this happening and I am a sucker for a damsel in distress so I pulled off a successful sneak attack on Sayed and wrested the water bottle away from him. He was really angry and jumped me. We fell to the ground together and as we fell I launched the water bottle away from his grasp towards Lindsey, securing my victory. After Sayed got off of me and we stood up, the strangest thing happened: he stuck out his hand and gave me bro hug. I have not had serious trouble with Sayed since then, and now I understand why. These kids grew up in a harsh environment where survival of the fittest reigns and strength is the only attribute that is respected. Once I realized this, I started thinking like another street dweller: a dog. If you wanted to command the respect of a pack member, you have to be the Alpha Male, and that means you have to show them that you are stronger and worthy of their respect. Yes, my real goal is to teach them politeness and manners but I realized that I could not achieve this until I showed them that I was an authority figure in a language that they understand. Now whenever I’m attacked, instead of passively defending and waiting for them to get bored and leave, I grab them, immobilize them, and then ask them to say that they are sorry until they apologize. For the little ones I just hold on to their hands until they submit. With the older boys I have found that grabbing them, gently forcing them to the ground, and pinning them until they submit works the best. It may seem a little rough, but I am careful not to hurt them, it produces results, and since some of the staff at Ana Al-Misri tends to just smack the children and yell at them, I find my methods far more humane. In fact, most of the friendships that I have made with these kids have been a result of me showing them up in a tussle. It has taken awhile for me to overcome this violent situation, but I am happy to report that this top dog is seeing a vast improvement.

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

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

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 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)

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 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