the low down

I was looking over my blog earlier today and I realized that it was lacking some essential information about my daily life in Cairo. In a journalistic sense, I was lacking the ‘what, where, when and how’ that is necessary to any story. So, to remedy this fact, here is a little overview of what me being in Cairo actually looks like.

I am currently participating in a program called the Middle East Studies Program (MESP). There are thirty of us here in Cairo from a variety of schools in the states. We landed on August 26, 2009 and will be here until December 10, 2009. MESP is a multifaceted approach to vastly misunderstood region. In addition to studying Arabic, we are taking three other classes centered on life in the Middle East: Middle East People and Culture, Middle East Conflict and Change and Islamic Thought and Practice. All our classes as taught by professors from the American University in Cairo. Our program, however, is not directly located on the AUC campus. Our apartments, and the villa where we go for classes, are located in a neighborhood in Cairo called Agouza. Thus, we have no contact with AUC and never venture out to their campus (which lies about 30 min outside of Cairo). This means that we are the only white faces walking the street. If you have never found yourself in a situation where you are the absolute minority, I would suggest you try it out sometime (nothing furthers understanding and empathy faster than personal experience). Each morning, I walk approximately two minutes from my flat to our villa. It is at the villa that we eat our meals, take classes, and listen to speakers. We have classes four days a week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). In Egypt, Friday and Saturday constitute the weekend, with Friday mornings being the time when services are held in the Mosques. On Tuesdays, each of us spends the day working for a local charity organization or NGO (non-governmental organization). I was assigned to a local NGO called The Episcopal Training Center, which teaches both English and Arabic. My friend Ryan and I have somehow become the technology experts and are contracted to do jobs that we have absolutely no qualification for. Ah, the joys of NGO work. Supplemented within this already busy schedule are the frequent speakers we have the pleasure to hear. From local Muslim human rights activists to Reverends in the Anglican Church, the speakers provide an incredible to expand our learning outside the context of a classroom. But wait folks, there’s more. In addition to our academic commitments, we also get the opportunity to play tourist (previous blog entries highlight these excursions). Starting next Monday, we will enter into another aspect of our time here in Cairo: homestays with local Egyptian families. Our stays will last for five days. After these homestays, it is a nonstop sprint to October 28th. From October 28th till November 25th, we will be traveling around the Middle East spending one week in Turkey, one week in Syria and Jordan, and two weeks in Israel. After spending Thanksgiving in Cairo, we will all bunker down for finals week, spend another couple days debriefing, and then board an early morning flight on December 10.

Cheers.