A Quick Look at My Day-to-Day

The view of the Pearl River from my balcony at sunset - not bad!

Sorry for the delay, folks. Going to start getting into a better blogging habit, as I (foolishly, it seems) promised before I left for China.

It's hard to believe that this is my three-month mark. There's no way I've been in Guangzhou for three months already! No way that it's been even longer than that since I was last in Tampa! But the date is probably more reliable than my perception of time, so I'll trust it.

I certainly feel settled now, and have some semblance of a routine. My days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, for those looking for the best times to Skype with me, although I try to fill my days off with adventures around the city or much needed errands.

My Work Here Has Begun

Hey, sorry for the shortage of updates. I'm sure any excuse you could come up with for me is probably close to one I could invent. But classes have started, and I'm starting up with my jobs and obligations, and Prague is still beautiful.

Recap of a Coptic Adventure

So, our day off yesterday was long-awaited and much appreciated. We had a chance to go to the bank, pick up groceries, clean up the apartment a bit, and do a little sight-seeing! My afternoon was spent wandering aimlessly through Coptic Cairo, the traditionally Christian part of Cairo which was more touristy than I had anticipated but still beautiful and worth seeing. The churches were intricate and people are allowed to wander through just about everything. I didn't go that far from the metro station, but that was mostly because I was too busy wandering through shops admiring the scenery and brainstorming on gifts to bring back. And a few of us found a lovely little cafe near a cathedral where I had some delicious chocolate ice cream and the local cats found us very intriguing.

Anyway, though I am tired, and sore, and covered in bug bites, I feel content. It was a trying afternoon at Ana al-Misri, but I don't feel that it was too terrible. And though we complain about our Arabic classes a lot, I don't find them to be necessarily bad - today one teacher randomly brought in a papaya and we made juice, which was really nice of him and absolutely lovely. Nothing here is perfect, but I'm okay with that.
Now, note that I wrote this before I finished my homework- my opinion may soon be a little different.

FDOC

It is a very tired blonde who posts today. Woke up early for our first block of classes this morning - 4 hours studying amiya (colloquial Arabic) wasn't exactly my ideal morning, but I really feel like I learned a lot of practical phrases and words which I'll have to practice a lot. After that, we went to St. Andrews for our second orientation session. St. Andrews, again, is the organization through which we work with refugees. How that's gonna work: the St. Andrews director set up summer programs at several different refugee centers around Cairo, and we're all breaking up and going out to those centers to teach our classes. Mine is in Giza and I'll be working with Fernando, another DukeEngager, and a center facilitator at a Somali refugee center. Apparently, our kids are going to be all Somali, ranging from ages 14 to 19, and we'll have about 11 girls and 9 boys. The classes are going to be not only about teaching basic English and Arabic skills (listening and speaking, not reading or writing, since many will be illiterate) so they can communicate in basic situations, but also about basic life skills (like hygiene) and resources they have access to as refugees.

So, I really feel like today, right as we are about to pass the one week mark, we really got to encounter Cairo. That realization came as I was sitting on a microbus (buses with no doors that circle around their routes hardly stopping to let people on and off) heading towards the metro station after walking through a market crowded with not only people and goods but also cars, scooters, motorcycles and the occasional donkey.