Why Egypt is Cool – Part 2:

It is surrounded by history
Egypt has the great pyramids, numerous ancient tombs and temples, Mt. Sinai (allegedly), the Nile River, the Red Sea, and some ridiculously old churches and monastaries, not to mention tons of ancient relics and manuscripts. Many stories in the Bible took place here, and Egypt played a major role in the history of Christianity.

You are a novelty here
If you are a foreigner living in Egypt, you get noticed by the locals. Possibly just because they think you’re rich and that you’ll send some of your money their way, but it’s also possible that they are curious about you and are interested in your customs and ways of doing things. Maybe you are an opportunity for them to practice their newly learned English phrases. Or Maybe you’re just neat to look at because they’ve never seen anyone that looks like you. Either way, living in Egypt you get noticed.

McDonald’s is better here
I just had a Double BigMac. That’s right, four patties. Do they even have those in North America? And another thing: the burgers here look like the burgers in the pictures and on the commercials! In Canada I see commercials with these tall burgers packed with lettuce and meat and other juicy stuff, but when I go and order that burger, I get what looks like a road-kill. So disappointing. Not here, though. I have to smoosh these burgers down so I can get them in my mouth! Mmmm mmm.

The weather is nice
Yes, it cools down in the winter and feels quite cold to me, but the truth is, the coldest it’s been is about 10 degrees Celsius. I can count the amount of times it has rained since I’ve moved here on one hand. It’s practically ALWAYS sunny out! There is virtually no humidity. Summer days are in the high 30’s or the low 40’s.

I sometimes find money in my bags of chips
Twice in a row I opened a bag of chips, and sitting among the chips was a crisp new bill.
Sure, the bills only amounted to about 75 piasters (3/4 of a pound), but it’s the principle that counts! I got money when all I was expecting was chips! Besides, a bag of chips only costs one pound. And since I didn’t even buy the chips in the first place, I was actually MAKING money by eating them.

Egypt is Not Driven by the Clock
Egypt did Daylight Savings Time at a different time than the rest of the world. Sure, this is kind of annoying, but it’s also pretty cool. Imagine if North America tried to pull that off! You’d never hear the end of the complaining. When Egyptians say things start at a certain time, they are usually just making a suggestion. There are two things I have noticed that actually follow the clock: movies and trains. Trains always leave on time, and movies generally start on time (even early on some occasions).

Lots to see and do
There are countless things to see around the country of Egypt, and even in the city of Cairo itself. I still haven’t seen a few of the major sights here such as garbage city and the cave church. Aside from just sightseeing, Cairo is a huge city and pretty much always has something interesting going on in it. There are opera houses and all sorts of performing arts centers. There are tons of interesting restaurants each with their own styles and ambiance. And once again, everything is generally quite affordable.

Why Egypt is Cool – Part 1:

Everyone delivers
I just had McDonald’s delivered to my house for dinner. I can phone up a local grocer, give them a list of items that I want, and they’ll deliver them! No shopping necessary! Not feeling well? No problem, I can call up the local pharmacy and have them deliver some medication for me.

It is socially acceptable to pick your nose/butt in public
Okay, I don’t know exactly how ‘acceptable’ it is to do these things, but I see quite a few people doing them in public each and every day!

No taxes, no set prices
Technically, there isn’t a sales tax for anything in Egypt (at least not that I know of). When you buy groceries, you pay the exact price of the items listed, no extra percentage for taxes. However, many restaurants add their own ‘service tax’ to the bill which generally ranges from 5% to 15% (in those cases, you tip the server a minimal amount). Aside from restaurants and grocery stores and such, most shops or services do not have set prices. This means that you can barter and haggle with the shopkeeper until you find a price that you are both pleased with. This can be quite fun to do, and is also rewarding when you succeed. Sometimes I haggle over things just for the fun of it, even when I’m not interested in buying anything. On the downside, sometimes you can get ripped off if you are unaware of the value of something, or if you are not aggressive enough with your bartering.

No rules in traffic
Sometimes there are lines on the road suggesting the possibility of there being lanes. But nobody cares! A general rule of thumb is: where two lanes are marked out, three lanes are permitted. Sometimes even four (depending on the size of the vehicles and whether or not they have side-mirrors). Sometimes there are roads that are only for one way traffic, but it is not uncommon, nor even bad etiquette (so it seems), to drive the wrong way down these roads if it is convenient for the driver. A single lane road with traffic going both directions does not mean that passing is not permitted. Oncoming traffic on a single lane road also does not entail that passing is not permitted. Cars don’t have to pass a safety test (from the looks of it, at least), civilian cars are allowed to have lights and sirens to their heart’s content, and headlights are only for amateurs. I could talk all day about the hilarity of traffic in Egypt, but let’s move on.

Public drunkenness is not acceptable, but public urination is
A few students at a local high school were arrested last month for public drunkenness, yet daily I see people casually peeing wherever it is convenient for them. For being such a ‘conservative’ culture I would think men would shield themselves a little better while peeing. I won’t go into any more details about that.

Things are cheap
This is true. In Canada it costs around $1.50 to mail a letter to Egypt. It costs me 1.50LE (Egyptian Pounds) to mail a letter to Canada. An Egyptian Pound is worth roughly 1/5 of a Canadian dollar. A taxi ride here costs between two pounds for a couple minutes, or fifty pounds for anywhere in Cairo ($0.40-$10). The most expensive pair of jeans I’ve seen are $20. The average restaurant meal I eat costs roughly $5 or $6. Gas costs about $0.20 a litre.

The Lowdown on Parasites

I am coming to the end of day six of The Multi-vitamin Challenge as I write this blog entry. My cold is beginning to go away, but that usually happens at the end of a two week period period of being sick with or without vitamins. If the trend continues, I’ll feel okay for a week or two, sometimes even three, and then I’ll come down with something else. Only time will tell if these vitamins are actually working. But there’s still one thing these vitamins can’t help me with. The danger of ingesting a parasite. Yes, one of the many things we have to watch out for in Egypt are parasites. Parasites are most commonly contained in water and certain forms of vegetables. Lettuce is the most notorious vegetable for housing parasites. Whenever we go to restaurants here, we only eat the lettuce if it is a respectable restaurant where we’ve heard good reports about the lettuce. Even then, some people simply refuse to eat the lettuce here. I think the most common parasite around Cairo is the amoeba. When someone houses an amoeba in their body they will exhibit flulike symptoms, but rather than having the symptoms disappear after a day or two, they will continue until treatment is sought out. Ideally parasites are expelled from one’s body within the span of a month, but there are exceptions to this rule. Let’s have a look at my friend, Cam Stutters, for example.

You may recall him as the one who challenged me to start taking multi-vitamins. I accepted his advice, not only because he was willing to pay up if they didn’t work, but also because he has done extensive research of food, nutrition, and health over the past year. Why has he done all of this research? Because Cam has a parasite. Cam has had this parasite for well over a year now and has undergone numerous treatments in an attempt to rid his body of his parasite(s). After a year of being on a special ‘rice-only’ diet and visiting specialist after specialist regarding his health, Cam grew weary of unhelpful doctors and began researching things for himself. He has now turned to the world of alternative medicine to seek out a solution to his problem. Cam now has a naturopathic doctor who advises him as to whether or not is plan of action is satisfactory. Earlier this week I interviewed Cam about a few of his alternative medicine treatments and I must say that I have some very interesting things to pass on to you (yes, I even have a few pictures for you as well).

The first treatment I am going to describe to you is called Aqua Chi. Aqua Chi is a process by which you immerse your bare feet in a tub of water which gets ionized by an external machine. This procedure stimulates the elimination channels of the body at a very accelerated rate (by giving the water a negative electron charge which attracts the toxins in your body and pulls them into your feet). Once the toxins are in your feet, they come OUT of your feet and go into the water. A typical Aqua Chi procedure lasts for about thirty-five minutes. Below are pictures of Cam’s feet at different intervals throughout the procedure.

After 5 Minutes

After 35 Minutes

I asked Cam if he felt anything during the procedure. He said that all he felt was a light tingling sensation.

Another interesting procedure that Cam has gone through is called Biofeedback Therapy. This is a rather intense sounding procedure. In Biofeedback Therapy, the patient is hooked up to a computer and is treated ENTIRELY by the computer!! Using the theories of quantum mechanics, the computer stimulates treatments and sends electrons into your body which kill parasites. I know this is a fairly vague description, but I think the workings of this treatment system are a little over our heads anyways. A typical treatment of Biofeedback Therapy takes three hours and costs about $100 an hour. These treatments are very intensive and can only be done once every three weeks. The machine kills the parasites in your body and then your body excretes them naturally. Cam told me that after the treatments you feel very tired and sleep for a long time. After Cam’s first two treatments they estimated that around TWENTY parasites had been eradicated from his body. Cam described himself as being “a parasite zoo” as he is still not free from parasites. A number of months ago Cam decided to name his parasite(s) since they had been with him for so long. Roy is the name that he gave them. Roy’s one year birthday was sometime in January, if I’m not mistaken. And still, Roy endures. I have not heard the results of this week’s Biofeedback Therapy that Cam went through, but we’re all hoping that Roy has finally been put to rest.

The Multi-Vitamin Challenge

Back in November I caught a nasty cold. Ever since then my health has been wavering between well and unwell. It seems that every couple of weeks I get another sore throat, which leads to another stuffed up nose, which leads to another full blown head cold. Yes, right now I am in fact fighting off yet another wave of the neverending cold (Sidenote: watch the Neverending Story, it’s awesome). Apparently my immune system can’t handle the onslaught of pollution and germs in the air here… at least, not by itself! Yesterday I was chatting with my friend, Cam Stutters, who also did an overseas internship (his was in Laos). He told me that what I need are multi-vitamins. He was so confident in this that he told me, “If you don’t feel better after thirty days of taking vitamins, I will reimburse you for the money you spent on the vitamins.” That sounded good to me! There was no way I could lose! Well, I suppose if I was still sick after the thirty days I would be a loser, but that’s besides the fact. At any rate, last night I went out and loaded up with thirty days worth of multi-vitamins and vitamin C. For the next thirty days, I will be taking:

One 500mg tablet containing Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C, apparently)
and two Vitamax Plus tablets, each containing… far too much to type out. Looking at the ingredients of this pill makes me think that eating will no longer be necessary for me. I think I will continue eating, though, merely as a hobby. I do enjoy it from time to time. Especially when we get together for our newly begat bi-weekly Thai night. But let’s get back on topic here. Since this blog entry is about health and such, I should take the time to address something that is plaguing Egypt right now. The Bird Flu. If you haven’t been keeping up with the news lately, cases of the Bird Flu have been found here in Cairo. This means that the poultry market here is rapidly crashing. Very few people want to buy chicken now for fear of contracting the deadly virus. Since few people want to buy chicken, most markets won’t even stock chicken at this point in time. A few minutes ago I was told that there are warnings on the television and radio that nobody in Cairo is to drink the water here. Apparently loads of animals that have died from the flu have been thrown into the water (or something to that effect). You normally don’t drink the water in Cairo anyways, at least not without a filter, but even with a filter we have been told not to drink it now. Nor are we to cook with it. Apparently even boiling the water won’t rid it of whatever has gotten into it. It’s hard to say since facts don’t seem to travel around Egypt with much integrity. Nonetheless, it looks as though beef is going to be the only meat left for us to eat here for the next little while (pork is not a kosher meat in the dominant religion so it is also very hard to find in Egypt). Let’s hope the mad cow disease doesn’t find its way here as well. If it does, I’m gonna have to go tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” (They did, in fact, have a plague of locusts here last year). Stay tuned for my next health entry about parasites!

The Deaf Unit

As I reflect on the various adventures I shared with my friends during their new year’s visit, one of my most enjoyable moments spent with them was when we visited ‘The Deaf Unit’ with my host family. The Deaf Unit is where my host parents work. It consists of a boarding school for children, a vocational training center for adults, and a social club. It is estimated that 2 million people in Egypt are hearing impaired due to intermarriage, poverty, and poor healthcare. The Deaf Unit seeks to reach out to such people and to provide them with education, vocation, and interaction. I decided to bring my friends to the Deaf Unit so we could purchase some of the products manufactured by the deaf workers, and by doing so, support a worthy cause. As we spent time at the Deaf Unit, though, we found that the wares for purchase were in fact the least of the attractions there.

The first thing we did at the Deaf Unit was a tour through the Vocational Training Center. We were introduced to each of the workers as we made our way through the different areas. An introduction would simply consist of shaking one’s hand and sharing a warm smile with them. It is also customary to give the thumbs-up sign when greeting a deaf person. I think it means that you are doing well, or something like that. Ineke, will probably comment on this post and correct any inaccuracies I may have. I remember that their smiles seemed to beam so brightly as I was introduced to each of them. I meet new people on a daily basis, but the smiles accompanied with those introductions don’t seem to compare to the sincerity of these smiles. They all seemed genuinely happy to meet us, and in a sense, spoke to us through their smiles. I think my cheeks almost started hurting because I was smiling so much with them. A few times I would attempt some simple communication using hand gestures, but I was always afraid I would accidentally ‘say’ something rude or embarrassing. I hope I didn’t insult anyone when I itched my nose. Something as simple as wrapping the fingers on your left hand around your right thumb and then wiggling the fingers on your right hand means “I farted” (or so I’m told). That’s American sign-language, though. I think it probably means something to the effect of “I’m a stupid foreigner” in Arabic sign-language. Either way, I gathered that a lot of the women either liked my long hair, or thought I looked like a woman.

Just as we finished meeting all of the workers it came time for the morning break. A couple of the workers expressed an interest in playing a bit of soccer with us. I took a quick inventory of our talent: Tom plays soccer on our college team back home (when his grades are high enough, at least), Frodo looks like he could play soccer, and I suck at soccer. We agreed to play a game - foreigners verses locals. There were three of them, and three of us. The three of us Canadians had running shoes on, while they had flip flops and other non-soccer shoes, so one might think that we had the upper hand. Don’t be fooled, though. Soccer is a big deal in Egypt. Kids here grow up playing it in the streets with whatever ball they can find. A couple of twelve year olds probably could’ve worked us over that day. We decided to be good sports and play anyways. After a good thirty seconds of running around I had nearly had it. My lungs were burning, my muscles were aching, and my heart had somehow lodged itself into my head. Some might say that I just need to get in shape. I would say that I need to stop breathing in Cairo air. Some people say that living here for five years does the same damage to your lungs as smoking a cigarette every day for your entire life. Other people say that breathing the air in Cairo is similar to smoking a pack of cigarettes each day that you’re here. I don’t know how much of this is factual information, but the fact that I often feel the need to brush my teeth after ten minutes of cycling must say something about how dirty the air here is. At any rate, we played hard for a few hours (or maybe it was only 20 minutes and it felt like a few hours), and got beat senseless by the Egyptians. Apparently being deaf isn’t a huge handicap in soccer.

Thankfully, after twenty minutes or three hours or however long it was, break time ended and everyone had to go back to work. It was great fun playing with these two guys, despite getting pulverized by them. As we sat down in the shade, trying to catch our breath, a wave of little Egyptian children came running towards us. Apparently it was recess time for the boarding school. Once again we shook a lot of hands and gave a bunch of high-fives and such. One of the children noticed a cross on my shirt. He then proceeded to pull a cross necklace out of his shirt to proudly display to me. Then all of the other children revealed their own cross necklaces to me and gave the thumbs up. There were five of us Canadian guys there, trying to carry on conversations with fifty deaf Egyptian kids, all at the same time. Two women stood among us, attempting to translate a few things such as our names, but for the most part, it was up to us to figure out how to communicate with the children. Eventually it became apparent that the kids wanted to play with us. A few of them took the liberty of climbing onto our backs for piggy back rides. Suddenly there we were, back on the soccer field, running around like crazy… only this time we were carrying kids on our backs. I decided to pull out my camera to get a few shots of this hilarity. As I brought out the camera, it was like a magnet to the kids. Suddenly they were swarming around me like bees. I kept trying to back up so I could get a proper shot of them, but they kept trying to get as close to me as possible. It was pretty funny. There was such a glow on everyone’s faces. We were all having so much fun. I think a part of us were all wishing it could last forever. It reminded me of that scene from Mary Poppins where they are visiting that crazy old man who loves to laugh. They all floated around his living room, laughing themselves silly, wishing that they could spend the rest of their lives laughing with that crazy old man. I don’t know how the rest of the guys were feeling, but I wanted to stay there all day to play with those kids. It was such a fulfilling moment, as if life were created for moments like these; pure joy and happiness. Looking back on that day, I have come to the realization of something. Those who have a lot appreciate little, but those who have little appreciate a lot. If you go to a normal boarding school filled with rich kids, they would probably be sitting around playing with their PSP’s and IPods and they would hardly even notice someone new coming into the school courtyard. If they did see you, they probably wouldn’t give you much more than a curious second glance. But there we were at a boarding school for poor, disabled children who had very little, and the mere sight of us seemed to fill them with joy. Spending time there, among those people, was in my opinion much more enjoyable than checking out the pyramids or some of the other sights around Cairo. Sure, I nearly had a heart attack, but it was worth it. Now I am going to leave you with a few of the pictures I took that day. I am not going to caption them or commentate on them like I usually do. Instead I thought it would be fitting to let the silence of the pictures speak for themselves.

Uncle Ryan - February Edition

Dear friends,
I recieved a letter today from my sister Holly. For those of you who are not avid readers of my blog, Holly is the sister who has 'a bun in the oven'. For those of you who do not speak in crazy metaphors, she is pregnant. Anyways, I won't bore you with the contents of the letter she sent me. It was just a bunch of "baby" this, "baby" that, and "I promise to write more often". Pshhh, like I haven't heard that from nearly everyone I know (except for Shirley Bierkos. She is my mom's friend and has written me more letters than anyone else). Now, the reason this letter from Holly was interesting is because... well, ok, the letter wasn't that interesting, it was just about nasty stuff like amniotic fluid and other sick stuff... but also enclosed in the envelope (quick fact, I pronounce it 'on'velope) was a picture of her ultrasound. Now, I don't know much about these things at all, but I would still like to share the picture with you anyways.
Yes, this blob of goo on the left is apparently my sister's baby. Personally I think it looks like a bad case of indigestion. From the way food moves around in my stomach, sometimes it feels like I've got a baby inside of me as well, but it always turns out to be indigestion (thank goodness, how would I explain THAT one to my parents?). So who knows, maybe my sister swallowed a watermelon seed and is now sprouting an awkwardly placed watermelon. I would actually prefer that to a baby, though I doubt I'd eat any of it if it came out of a human being. That's just gross. Anyways, I would like to point out a few details about my sister's severe case of indigestion now. If you look to the left side of it, you'll notice the watermelon, also known as the baby's head (man, she's gonna kill me for this! What are little brothers for, though?). Covering the top right portion of the watermelon-head is what I am going to label 'the hand'. At this stage of the pregnancy it appears as though babies only have one hand, but it is quite large (nearly half the size of the head), and thus, already has some fingers. From what I can see, this baby is clearly giving the 'rock on' sign with its hands. Pictured to the right is a digitally enhanced closeup of the fetus (what a nasty word). Now that I have enhanced it, I can clearly see that the baby does in fact have another arm, which it is using to rub its belly (also known as the lower portion of the watermelon-head). Now let's review to make sure you're still with me here. With its left hand, the baby is giving the 'rock on' symbol, and with its right hand, it is rubbing its belly. But wait! I think there is more going on here than we realize! If we digitally enhance this picture even more, I think we will see what is really going on here. Take a look for yourself:
From this picture, we can clearly see that the baby is playing the air guitar. I have drawn in the imaginary guitar in red in order to help you see the picture in its entirety. I have also taken the liberty to outline certain details such as its hards, arms, and face with yellow ink so that you can pick them out of the gooey mess a little more easily. While outlining the features of this baby, I noticed that its tongue was sticking out. Clearly this baby is rocking on its air guitar quite heavily. From this fact, I am willing to go so far as to deduce that this baby is going to be a boy. Either that, or one pain-in-the-neck girl. At any rate, I don't think I can look at this gob of amniotic fluid any more. I am quickly losing my appetite. As soon as the power comes back on, I shall post this blog and get on with life! There we go, the power is back!

My New Look

Last night we had our first student-led high school outreach event of the semester. The significance of this event is that we told the students that if 75 people showed up, I would shave my head. Now lets take a moment to see what I looked like before the evening:

So cooooool. All the ladies of Darby Hall wanted me.

So how many people showed up to our event last night? Well, wouldn't you know it 75 people made it out on that freezing cold winter evening. And so, since I am a man of my word, and since the students can run faster than I can, I prepared for a free haircut:

I'm not sure what's going on with my mouth in this picture. I'm probably gritting my teeth and mumbling "Oh crap!"

For the next thirty minutes or so, people took turns cutting off chunks of hair, or trying to rip out chunks if they were left handed (stupid predjudiced scissors). And this was the final result:

In honor of my new look, I have given my blog a new look as well. But I don't like my blog's new look, I think it's ugly, so I'll probably change it again when I have time to make my own cool template. Ok, bye!

The Khamseen

Last Wednesday I walked out of my house to find it extremely cold out. By extremely cold, I mean it must have been only 15 degree Celsius outside! Not only that, but it was windy, too! The sky was almost all white, with a touch of blue, but it wasn’t white from clouds. At first I thought it was just smog, but as I got closer to the church, it became apparent as to what was going on. The wind had picked up steadily as I rode to the church, and the sky had darkened in its color. By the time I reached the church, the color of the sky had turned a peachy-orange color. Dust was flying around the streets and the temperature was dropping even more. I was experiencing my very first khamseen.

What’s a ‘khamseen,’ you ask? Well, basically, it is a dust storm caused by the Southerly winds of the Sahara. Generally khamseens occur later in the Spring, and are accompanied by much hotter winds. The word ‘khamseen’ is actually the Arabic word for ‘fifty’. This is because there are fifty days between April and June that are known for being quite rampant with dust storms. So there you have it, that’s a khamseen. No, Cara, a khamseen is not a canteen. Nice try, though.

This khamseen was so powerful that it knocked out pastor John’s phone AND internet. Since we are in Egypt, their little communication problem was not remedied until today (nearly a week later). Perhaps now is a good time to tell you about a popular phrase that is quite commonly used by Egyptians. The phrase is, “En sha Allah,” pronounced “En-sha-la” and it means something to the effect of “God willing” or “as God wills”. Why is this phrase used so commonly, you ask? Well, in John’s case, they probably contacted someone about fixing their phone and internet promptly after it happened. The response they received most likely went along the lines of “We will send someone over there tomorrow, en sha la.” Meaning, if it’s convenient for them to do so, they’ll send someone over the next day. Or perhaps these people didn’t say, “en sha la” at all and merely told John that someone would be over to fix their phone and internet the following day. John would then hang up and then say to himself, “HA! En sha la!” It seems that nothing is ever certain in this country. Now, I am going to leave you by saying COME BACK SOON (to my blog, I mean) because tomorrow evening something big is going down. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, continue to tell me where you are from and how you know me (see previous post).

If You Can Read This, SAY SOMETHING!

I have been blogging fairly regularly since last August now (sometimes more regularly than others). During my time of blogging about the “Adventures in Egypt” that I’ve experienced, I have been watching the statistics of visitors to my blog. This is not so I can brag to people about how many hits my blog gets each day, but so that I can see if anyone actually reads this crazy little blog of mine. That, and seeing how many visitors I get makes me feel like I should blog more often to keep everyone happy. Why am I going on about all of this to you folks? Well, my website statistics provider displays a map of the world when I log in to check my stats. On that map, it places a dot on every city where someone has read my blog for the past week. When I first started blogging back in August there was a big dot in Calgary… and that’s about it. But now, as I check that map each week, I notice dots scattered all over the map. From India, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Africa, and all over the United States, among other places! There have been so many dots all over the United States alone that I have no idea how these people are finding out about my blog, or who they are. So, today I want to do a little experiment and remove some of the mystery from these dots! If you read my blog, would you mind leaving a comment on this blog and telling me these three things about yourself:

-Who are you?
-How do you know me?
-What city/state/province/country are you reading this blog from?

Pretty simple, right? Ok, I’m going to bed now. Stay tuned to hear about my experience with a ‘Khamseen’ (Bonus question for your comment: What do you think a khamseen is? No Googling allowed. That’s cheating)!

A Shout Out to the FAC Youth Group!

Last week the high school youth group at First Alliance Church in Calgary phoned me up in Egypt to interview me about my time spent here. I received the phone call at 5:15 am, Thursday morning. The senior high youth pastor, Dallas, phoned me on Tuesday evening to remind me that they would be phoning me later in the week. For some reason, I thought that meant they would be phoning me the next morning (Wednesday morning) at 5 am. This means that I set my alarm for 5am and slept lightly in anticipation of the phone call. Around 3 am Wednesday morning, I realized that First Alliance has their high school youth service on Wednesday evenings, which would mean that they would be phoning me Thursday morning rather than on Wednesday morning. So, I set my alarm for later that morning and tried to finally get some sleep. I felt pretty dumb waiting for a phone call on the wrong evening. Stupid time differences and such. Anyways, as I said, they finally got ahold of me early Thursday morning… but the connection was so bad that they couldn’t understand what I was saying. I could hear them cheering and laughing and stuff, which was really cool, but they couldn’t really understand what I was saying. So, because of this, I am going to spend this blog entry answering the questions that I was supposed to answer last Wednesday night. So, without further ado, here I go:

1) What are you involved with over in Egypt?
I am a youth intern at Maadi Community Church (MCC). MCC is an international church, which means that most of its members are expatriates (non-Egyptians). The church has about 1500 people in attendance each weekend. I work with the middle school and high school students in this church. We do weekly youth services very similar to the Oxygen and Elevation services at First Alliance. In addition to this, I teach Friday School (Sunday School) to the middle schoolers, and lead a couple weekly small groups.

2) What was the process that God took you through that made you think, "Maybe I am called to M1$$10Ns (later referred to as M’s)?"
To tell you the truth, growing up I always thought that the worst job in the world would be to become a M. Until this year I had never been to a foreign country, and never wanted to go to one. I hated spiders and all those other nasty creatures that seem to get bigger in far away places. Mostly I hated the thought of leaving the comfort of all that I am familiar with in Canada. But during school last year, one of my professors told our class that there is a huge need for youth pastors in the Middle East right now. I’m not entirely sure why I did this, but at the end of that class I walked up to that prof and told him that if there was such a huge need, I could probably do my internship somewhere in the Middle East since I was looking for a place to intern anyways. He said he’d look into it for me. Part way into my next class with him, he mentioned to me in front of the whole class, “Oh Ryan, it looks like you’re going to Egypt.” I said, “Cool” and that was that. So I guess the opportunity fell into my lap, and I ran with it.

3) What has been the biggest change for you since moving to Egypt?
For the three years prior to moving to Egypt, I was a student at Canadian Bible College. This meant that I was surrounded with people who were my age, and shared my interests. When I moved to Egypt, however, I was removed from this luxury. All of the people in the expatriate (foreigner) community are either below college age, or they are in their 30’s and higher. There is a gap of about ten years because everyone who is in their 20’s tend to move away from their family and head back to their home country to receive their higher education. I grew so used to having a tight network of friends surrounding me back home that when I moved here and couldn’t find anyone my age I became quite lonely. I’ve had to learn to relate to people who are older than me, and try to establish close friendships with them.

4) How are spiritual needs of people the same or different from Canada to Egypt?
The people here are very religious. They pray at least five times a day, they read their Holy Scriptures, they participate in various religious holidays, and they seem to have a fairly good nature about them. But the members of the dominant faith here seem to be focused on earning their salvation. They don’t see Christ as one who came and redeemed us. He was just a prophet, fully human, and nothing more. So, in many ways the people here share a faith very similar to ours. It is when Jesus is brought into the picture that the two faiths diverge. We see Jesus being both fully human AND fully God. Jesus came to Earth and died a torturous death... for us, so that his blood was a sacrifice for our lives. Because of His death, we don’t have to do anything to ‘earn’ our way into heaven. All we have to do is believe that Jesus came and died for us. And more than that, He rose from the dead three days later. This grace, show by God, is the biggest difference between the two faiths.

5) Tell us a story of something amazing God has done while you have been in Egypt.
I suppose the most amazing thing that God has done has been to get me this far through my internship without having a mental breakdown! God has helped me to deal with increased responsibility, He has helped me to be an upfront leader, and He has comforted me in my loneliness.
Many cool things are always happening around me, though. For instance, when my friends were here, we were waiting at a train stating to purchase tickets to Luxor. As we were in line, we realized that the ticket salesman didn’t speak any English at all. Luckily a man in line behind us stepped in and translated for us. Many things like that happened as I was traveling around with my friends. We would go to places like Luxor and Alexandria, and have no idea how to get around to see the sights we wanted to see, and yet people would always walk right up to us and provide us with everything we needed for the day. It was really cool seeing how everything would always work out so perfectly for us.

6) How has this experience changed your heart? What is God teaching you?
This internship has helped me to become less dependent on others (and myself) and more dependent on God. Throughout my time here, God has helped me to become more courageous, and more willing to accept responsibility. Not only that, I feel much more of a love for Egyptians now that I lived in their country and can see the background that they came from. I have more of a respect for cultures other than my own.

7) If you were trying to let somebody know how important m’s is, what would you tell them?
The Bible says to do it, so do it! I’ve found that you grow as a person when you are challenged to tell others about God, and do things that are outside of your comfort zone. It allows you to put your faith into practice. It's like church is going to school, and m’s is the job you get after graduating. M’s is finally taking what you've learned from school and putting it to use. And, just as we learn tons more about our field of studies from our workplace after we graduate from school, we learn tons more about Christianity when we practice it through m’s.

Model Monson - Part 2

Yesterday I did my second set of modeling for Freddy the painter. Below is a picture I took of a sketch he did of my face.

The Chronicles of Egypt - New Year’s Eve

In the previous edition of ‘The Chronicles of Egypt’, I left off by saying that our next adventure was to be a simple train ride to Luxor. We had our tickets, we knew when the train was supposed to leave, and we knew where the train station was and how to get there. What more could we possibly need? Well, some signs saying which train is which would have been nice. Or at the very least, the platform numbers could have been clearly labeled. After walking through a maze of underground tunnels from the metro station we eventually found the train station. It wasn’t very tourist friendly. It was dark (probably because it was nighttime), it was dirty (probably because we’re in Egypt and everything is dirty), and everything was written in Arabic (again, probably because we’re in Egypt). It quickly became apparent that we were out of our element here. Somehow we had to select one train from a variety of unappealing options, then, when we figured out which train to take, we had to figure out which car to get into, and finally, which seat to sit in. I think that the only things labeled in English were the seat numbers. Actually, I think the only things labeled, period, were the seat numbers! Ok, maybe not that extreme, but it certainly seemed that way.

We eventually boarded a train that we ‘thought’ (at least I did) was bound for Luxor, and took our seats. There was no conductor to check our tickets or to direct us to our seats. At that point I think we were about 20% sure we were on the correct train. We were in our seats 20 minutes before the train was due to leave, and yet, after sitting there for only five minutes, the train lurched ahead and slowly left the station. No whistle blew, nobody yelled “All aboard!” It just left. This was nothing like the movies depict train rides to be. As we realized the train was leaving 15 minutes before the departure time written on our tickets, our faith that we were on the proper train dropped to about 10%. Ten minutes later we stopped at another station in Cairo and more people boarded the train. I figured that we had mistakenly boarded an earlier train and that in a matter of seconds somebody would board the train and point out that we were sitting in their seats. It never happened, though. The train left that station and nobody demanded us to move. At that point we realized that the name of the station we were at corresponded with the name written on our tickets. We also noticed that the time that we left the second train station also corresponded with the departure time written on our tickets. We were now 50% sure that we were on the correct train. 50% is a pass in my books, so I finally started to relax. A few minutes later a man came around to make sure everyone had their tickets. He hardly looked at our tickets, but the fact that he didn’t boot us off the train made me 75% sure we were on the right train.

I should take this time to describe the sights, sounds, and smells of the train. It was ugly, noisy, and stinky. Actually, it was a lot like riding the metro for nine and a half hours straight, only the seats were a bit softer and it was less crowded. Stepping onto the train was like stepping into a van that was once owned by some old smoker who had since been deceased. What I mean by this is that the air was musty, the upholstery had dirt ground into it, everything was dusty, there were sticky stains here and there, and oily fingerprints all over the windows. It was very Egyptian. For the next nine or ten hours I tried to sleep amidst the ringing phones, loud talkers, and banging doors. Every ten or fifteen minutes a man would briskly walk down the aisles balancing a try of tea and coffee in one hand while loudly announcing, “shay (tea), Nescafe.” There may have been the possibility of me getting a little bit of sleep if it weren’t for this guy. As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, the gentleman behind me had a severe case of foot odor. The sour smell would waft under my chair, right up to my nose which, might I add, had recently cleared up from a sinus congestion. Funny how smells always seem stronger when you’ve just gotten your sense of smell back.

A few hours after our train ride began, midnight came around. This was new years! I looked around to my friends sitting in the seats around me. They came all the way from Canada to Egypt to share this moment with me… and they were all sleeping. I put my head back and tried to get a few minutes of sleep for myself. Eight or nine stops later the train came to a stop and a boy opened the door and shouted “Luxor”. At this point I was 100% certain that we had boarded the proper train.

Model Monson

Last month my friends and I had the pleasure of visiting the gravesite of Oswald Chambers. Oswald Chambers is a highly respected theologian who is probably known to most people as the author of “My Utmost for His Highest.” One of my professors from college collects pictures of the graves of notable Christians, which is why we were at Chamber’s gravesite. I’m sure some of you are thinking it’s pretty weird that this professor of mine collects pictures of dead people’s graves, and you’d be right. It is weird. But everyone is weird in their own way. I know someone that collects underwear from different countries around the world. Anyways, before this post digresses any more, the following picture shows me kneeling beside the grave of Oswald Chambers.



I sent this picture to my professor and he responded with the following: “Wow, a picture of Chambers and Jesus in the same picture!” At first I thought, wow, this guy not only collects pictures of dead people’s graves, but he also has a messed up view of what the incarnate Jesus looked like. I always thought if I were a Biblical character I would be Moses, not Jesus! But this past weekend at church I had a conversation with a man who sides with my professor’s viewpoint of me looking like Jesus. Who was this man, you ask? Why, no other than Dr. Farid Fadel, also known as Freddy Fadel, a respected Egyptian artist. He had asked me if I would be interested in coming to his studio and doing some modeling for him. Since my stained glass window opportunity fell through, I decided that this was the next best thing in order to achieve fame, glory, riches, and power. Yes, I was to become Jesus.
Well, this past Sunday I went to Freddy’s studio and put on the robe of righteousness. Actually, it was just a white galibaya with a white shawl over my head, but it did the job. I did a bunch of different Jesus poses for the camera during the first hour. Then for the second hour Freddy pulled out a small canvas and started sketching my face. He showed me his progress every ten minutes. It was pretty neat watching his drawing come to life. I am planning on returning next Sunday for another round of modeling. I’ll bring my camera next week, and then maybe I can show you some of my righteous glamour shots. If that doesn’t satisfy you, perhaps you can find some paintings of me at worldwide exhibits in a year or two. Now, I’m off to pump some iron so I can build up enough muscles to fight off the onslaught of women that will no doubt be following this post.