Ashanik Ya Balady

I think I wrote a while ago about the student organization I'm involved with. I will refresh your memory a little. Ashanik Ya Balady is a rather large student organization meaning For You My Country. It is a service oriented student organization involved with bettering the Egyptian Community. There are lots of committees that deal with fund raising, logistics, community service, media, and the one I belong in--Youth Development. It a lot of fun. Basically how it works is the logistics committee find kids through local schools in the poorest area of cairo and an orphanage. Then they compile all the information they can on them and we call them to invite them to play with us. We rent out space in a nice local park and the orphanage drops the children who want to play with us off and the other kids are very street wise so they just walk through the streets to meet up with us at the park. We divide them into teams and mark their faces with face paint to distinguish the teams then we play games. We have weekly meetings as a committee to chose games that focus on the character trait we want to focus on that week. For instance, we do a relay race to build teamwork and help them to positively communicate with their team and bond together. Then when they act up we sit them out for 5 min and award candy for the best behaved children. It has helped them with their language, honesty, and gives them a chance every child should have to have some fun!!! It's amazing to me how quick they learn, bond, and become so much more happy.

Yesterday we had a meeting. I thought it was a normal meet but it was a party at Eman's house, our committee head. She has a side lot that is on the Nile and looks like a mix between a river side outdoor restaurant and a park. We played soccer, sand volleyball, UNO, charades, and ate pizza. One of the funniest parts of the day was when I taught them how to skip rocks! I really love getting together with them because I learn so much. Eman drove me and another member out to her place in her Cooper Mini. It was fun to listen to some American music and sit crammed in the back of her mini, but it was also interesting to her Miriams dialog on the way out there. It was a 30 min drive and Miriam told me about different area's of cairo. She showed me what area was considered middle class housing and at a beautiful beautiful small Island in the nile that is so green fertile and did I mention beautiful? there is a mosk build inches away from a church--they practically look like one building. She told me about how that area is well-known for their feud. It's funny to everyone cause the mosk tried to out-do the church and the church tries to out-do the mosk. It's nothing violent it's just competition and feuding. I can just imagine them trying to broadcast their sermons/prayer calls louder. The way she described it reminded me of the funny movie "Baptists at out BBQ"

The other interesting conversation I had was with a teach who teaches at an Egyptian public university. I thought she was attending AUC like the rest of us--she certainly looked like a freshmen I guess she is just small like Casey and everyone thinks she is much younger than her years, anyways, she graduated AUC last year and is teaching english to egyptians at a public university. The demand is huge b/c all the engineers, doctors, marketing, and basically everyone needs to speak english--the better you are, I guess, the more opportunity you would have. She told me she has 300 student in her class! Yesterday she had her first test and during testing they only allow 20 student per room so she took up an entire building for testing! It took her forever to test them all. She said her student were spread out over 3 floors. She had a lot to say about trying to teach English an enormous class. Last night my friend Ahmed called to see if I was available again to trade English for Arabic. We had been doing it a while ago, but he got busy with his new job so we stopped for a while. When we were meeting he was worried about military service. It is mandatory every egyptain serves in the military for a min or 2 years. However, it is not certain, probably b/c of the sheer numbers of youth the military complex probably can't handle them all. It's interesting to hear from many of the young men awaiting the call for military service. In the States it's obvious that if you have a university degree you would become an officer and would want to be an officer. Here since there are sooo many university graduates b/c public university education is free, not everyone an be an officer--there would be no soldiers to lead! What the military does is pick the people with majors they are in need of and make them officers then they have a longer requirement than that of the obligatory 2 years of all egyptian men--I think its 3 yrs instead of 2 for officers. When Ahmed explained all this to me I asked if he wanted to serve, he told me of course not, then I asked if he hoped to be an officer and he said again of course not b/c they serve longer. His work didn't want to hire him b/c he might have been called up, but I it looks like he wasn't, maybe they had too many new recruits, or maybe he will be called up in the future who knows...

I've talked to a few Egyptian who have been to the U.S. for extensive periods and asked them what they thought of my home country. It's interesting that everyone of the people I have asked has said about the same thing. First of all they love it. One of the things they always mention first is the order. They like how everything is so structured and ordered in society. Then like how everything is spaced out and there is no overcrowding. One of my friends said he loved the idea of a backyard, and went on and on about the wonderfulness of have your own backyard. On the other hand, they dislike how boring it is and they don't say it in a mean way. Mohammed, who went to high school in Illinois, told me how he loved it for the two reasons above, but that is was unfortunate he didn't see much outside of his suburb for the 4 years he was there. He lived in a suburb 2 hours away from Chicago and only went to Chicago twice. He said it was boring to go to sleep at 9pm and wake up at 6am with no night life or busyness to life. Miriam told me about the same thing, but she said she was in a Suburb in Virginia and said 'there were a lot of trees and thats about it' she missed the historic buildings, people from so many different cultures that speak different languages, and the hustle and bustle of city life. Mohammed then told me even though the suburb life he experienced was rather boring 'Cairo is way too busy and crowded--maybe I'd like something in the Middle'. It's funny how many times we love the environment we grew up in. I too love the 18th century architecture downtown, the millions of people, the many different foods, etc... but sometimes when I'm riding on the metro crammed between a hundred sweaty stinky men I think to myself wouldn't it be nice to be long-boarding in beautiful quiet Denton to class on my spread out and green campus, or when the mosk a few houses away is broadcasting a funeral or sermon so loud not even the TV on full volume can drown it out I think a quiet 'boring night' about now would be ideal.