The Christmas Bazaar

This past weekend the annual Maadi Women’s Guild Christmas Bazaar took place. This is a big deal because women like to shop, and this Bazaar was organized by women. I don’t know the statistics, but tons of people were packed into this Cairo American College campus, and tons of merchants were there selling their wares. Our youth group was one of those merchants. We had what I like to refer to as “the main attraction” table. Our table had a steady lineup of people paying inflated amounts for our goods until we were sold out. What were we selling? North American candy, of course! When all was said and done, we made about $4000 USD PROFIT! This money is of course going towards our M-trip to the Ukraine in April, which I am still raising the funds for (people just never stop asking for money in this world! Apparently the student loan people are bugging my folks while I’m here, too). Well I say, from this day forth, I shall boycott money! Oh wait, I forgot, I’m boycotting boycotting. Hehe, MS Word thinks I made an error because I typed boycotting twice in a row. Stupid MS Word. Let this be a lesson to you: context is very important. For instance, today I walked into my office and noticed that Heidi’s chair was wet. Now, obviously I would assume that she had peed her pants, but as I looked at her handbag, saw the fluid dripping from it, and saw all of her stuff lying on her desk drying, I came to the conclusion that ‘No, she did not pee her pants. She peed in her handbag.” Gross. Anyways, the moral of the story is “keep your pee in the bathroom.” Well now, I’ve successfully brought potty humor into my blog two entries in a row. I must really be becoming a youth pastor! I wonder how long it’ll take for Heidi to get mad at me for writing all this. Start counting now and I’ll let you know.

Wow, talk about rabbit trails. Back to the Christmas Bazaar. No wait, first let me tell you about how insane the mind of a middle school student is. I will ask them a question, for example, “Why should we not steal?” One student will then shout out, “I once hit my head on a steel archway!” (I would think to myself, “So what? The archway I hit my head on was cement. Touché.” P.S. I’ve never figured out how to properly use the word, ‘Touché”). Anyways, after that kid mentions the steel archway, the next student will scream out in even more excitement, “I can do a back arch!” Then the next student will shout, “I have a back!” To which all of the other students will realize that, they too, have backs and thus they will excitedly compare backs until one of them starts talking about their great uncle Joe who has a crooked back. Then someone else will talk about their uncle who lives in a cabin. Then another student will tell about the time they once went to a cabin. Then I will repeat the question, “Why should we not steal?” Then the whole ordeal starts over with a completely new set of random rabbit trails. I generally leave my Friday School class wondering two things. One. Why did God invent kids. Two. Why did God call me to minister to them? Although I’m sure there’s a deep answer to this question, I think the most obvious is probably that God is punishing me for being a horrible junior high student to all of the youth leaders that I had. Some people say they like the smell of their own ‘brand’. Well nobody likes the taste of their own medicine. In other news, I think that saying is far too outdated and cliché.

Ok, back to the Christmas Bazaar. Hey it’s December now! Did I mention I’m in the Christmas pageant this year? I get to be Wiseman #1. Wiseman #1 gets to ride a camel! Oh yeah, I think I did say this already. Anyways, the pageant is this Sunday. At first I thought that was so normal, but then I remembered that we normally have church on Fridays, so that’s pretty weird. Hmmm. I like root beer.