Alright, here's a question for all you smart people out there: What time is displayed on the clock pictured to the right? If you guessed 4:44, you lose! The time displayed on this clock is 7:16. Although this is a clock, it does not rotate 'clock'wise. Just as Arabic sentances are read "backwards" from right to left, this clock rotates backwards. Speaking of clocks and oddities, Egypt had daylight's savings time this past Thursday. I believe that is a full month ahead of when the rest of the world does it!

So, what have I been up to lately? Well, church this past weekend was put on by the youth. That means lots of work for us youth staff! All three services that I was a part of ran very smoothly and were great to be a part of. I got to do the announcements in the form of a news broadcast with one of our 9th grade students. Judging by the feedback, it was quite a hit. Pastor John seems to think that drama is my thing. I find that surprising since my acting debut was only this past March! Have I mentioned that I've been given the role of one of the Wise Men for this year's Christmas pageant? I get to ride a camel for it!! Quick fact: Camels often pee for about 5 minutes at a time (this is second hand information, I hope to confirm this rumor at a later date). During last year's Christmas pageant, one of the camels decided to relieve himself for an elongated period of time, right beside the pianist. I find that funny in more ways than one.

Well, I don't have much time to ramble on today. I preached for the first time at middle school breakaway (middle school youth-church type thing) on Friday night. I think it went fairly well. Hopefully I'll get more comfortable with that sort of thing as the year continues. Many of the middleschoolers had very nice things to say about my talk, so that was nice. Tonight we are about to have our big meeting with high school students and their parents regarding April's ***** trip to Kiev Ukraine, which I will also be going on. So, I have to go get ready for it. In the meantime, read my September in Review Newsletter that you should have recieved today. If you didn't recieve it, drop me an email and I will add you to my mailing list.

Transportation Tidbits

I think I've mentioned before that taxis are plentiful, here in Cairo, but I don't think I have told you about what happens when they apply their brakes. You see, because there are so many taxis everywhere, taxi drivers do whatever they can to make their taxi more appealing to customers. One such method, which sounds like it is the most common method, is to hook up some really low quality music to the brakes so that every time the taxi slows down, it plays music outside of the car. I guess this is probably to let people know that a taxi is nearby, in much the same way as ice cream truck drivers in North America play music when they drive around the neighborhood trying to woo children. The funny part to this story is that the music that is usually played is some sad rendition of 'It's a Small World'. The music quality is so tinny and high that I didn't even realize what song this was until last week.

Speaking of taxis, while I was riding in one today, the driver showed me a bunch of small notes that totaled 50 pounds. He motioned that he wanted a 50 pound note in exchange for this smaller change. Happy to break my 50 pounds into smaller notes, I obliged and pulled out a crisp new 50 pound note from my wallet and handed it to him. As he handed me his money, he took mine and exchanged the 50 pound note with a 50 piaster note (which is the Egyptian equivalent of cents). He then proceeded to accuse me of giving him only 50 piasters instead of 50 pounds. This was an obvious scam that he had pulled on a number of unlucky tourists in the past, but it wasn't going to work on me. I took his 50 piasters, looked at him with raised eyebrows, laughed and threw it into his pile of change while shaking my head. He shrugged his shoulders like, "Oh well, maybe next time I'll trick them," and kept on driving. I promptly got out and paid for the trip (he also tried to rip me off with the fee as well!). It seems that some people aren't as accommodating as the rest!

Speaking of unaccommodating transportation people, a minibus driver hit me today while I was biking home!! He smashed right into the side of my bike and knocked me off of it. The impact bent the fender around my wheel so that my tire wouldn’t even rotate anymore. The driver gave me a slightly apologetic wave and took off. In order to get home I had to bend the fender back with my hands. Now the wheel wobbles as I ride around, as if it were left in the sun for too long and started warping from the heat. No worries, though. I left the scene of the accident free from any injuries.

The Story of Sunday Night

I stood at one end of a basketball court and looked towards a group of at least 30 people. All of them were busy conversing with one another, and yet, there was complete silence! It was like watching a group of people through binoculars because I could see each of them moving their arms and communicating with each other, but no words fell upon my ears. It felt as though I was deaf. Ironically, though, I was the only person in this group who had the gift of hearing. I stood there in the middle of the Deaf Unit, which my host family works at, and watched in wonder as this group of deaf people happily socialized for the evening. One of the neatest things about this experience was watching one man, who was deaf, communicate with his deaf and blind wife. He would 'talk' to her by doing sign language into her hands and by touching her face. They seemed so content with each other. So intimate.

These two deaf people accompanied my host parents and I to a Coptic Egyptian wedding (Coptic is the stream of Christianity that is common amongst Egyptians. It is similar to the Eastern Orthodox stream of Christianity). This wedding was like no other wedding I have ever experienced. There was absolutely no love or intimacy in this wedding ceremony. It reminded me more of the environment that surrounds a cattle auction. Actually, I've never been to a cattle auction that I can remember, but this is what I would imagine it being like. The priest(or whatever he was)/auctioneer stood on the platform and quickly spoke Coptic liturgy into the microphone. The microphone was pumped at full volume and he was talking really fast. I actually couldn't see him through the entire ceremony because people crowded the front of the church, just like a group of children trying to see a magic trick. This also meant that I couldn't see the bride or the groom. No worries, though. People came and left the sanctuary (or whatever they call it) as they felt, and they also yelled small talk to each other during the ceremony. It just so happened that the Egyptian man standing beside me was from Tenessee and spoke perfect English. Not only that, but his name was Jack. Go figure. I found this information out during the ceremony as we shouted out small talk to each other. After the ceremony ended, everyone pushed and shoved their way to the back of the sanctuary where the bride and groom eventually emerged from the front crowd. Now, in Coptic weddings, one side of the church is for women, and the other side is for men. That means that when everyone waits for the bride and groom to exit, the men are standing facing the women. This is when the women check out all the suiters and try to catch their eye. Since I am white, I am very attractive to Egyptian women. I don't know if this is because I have the power to get them a Canadian visa, or what, but there were a number of girls who were trying to woo me at this point. It was hilarious! Seemed exactly like a scene from Beauty and the Beast when Gaston was walking around all rough and tough and the ladies were all blushing and batting their eyelashes at him. No word of a lie, that's what these girls were like! Eventually the preistly auctioneer dude exited and shook my hand (and ONLY my hand, might I add). He had a HUGE gray and black beard and a firm handshake. Out in the foyer was the recieving line. By that I mean all the single girls were lined up and waiting for me to exit. heh heh. Just kidding... sort of. There was a bit of a traditional recieving line, though, at least with the bride and groom. I shook their hands and ran for the door before the single girls could pounce on me. Although I had my camera, I didn't take pictures of anything. The church was really ugly and boring. It was covered with tacky marble tiles and really wasn't much to look at. I kind of wanted to take a picture of the bride and groom, but I didn't think of it until I got home. But yeah, that was my experience of a Coptic wedding.

From the church we went over to the deaf people's house (remember? The deaf guy with the blind and deaf wife? Yeah, them). I have only one really humorous thing to say about their house before I bring this blog entry to a close. When we entered their house we heard a chirping sound. It was a constant CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP the whole time we were there. Apparently their doorbell is broken and they've never bothered to fix it cause they can't hear it! Well I found it funny anyways. Oh, and this deaf man knows a couple of Egyptian girls living in Canada that are about my age. He said he has a picture of them and if I can find the house in the picture, I could marry one of them. Simple as that. Ahhhh the Egyptian way of life.

Apple Pie = Coffee

Ever since I arrived in Egypt, people have constantly been pressuring me to drink coffee. Everyone here seems to rely on the stuff to get them through their days, and they seem to think that I should also rely on it as well. I hate the thought of having to rely on something (especially something as disgusting as coffee) to get me through the day. In related news, my host family can cook up a mean apple pie. How is this related, you ask? Well, after tasting the first apple pie, and deeming it ‘better than good,’ I told them that I would drink a cup of coffee next time we had apple pie. Now, this was of course said in jest because I didn’t really expect another apple pie to surface as early as it did. But, to my horror, upon returning from the weekend retreat there sat an apple pie welcoming me home. I figured that after such a tiring weekend, this would be the perfect opportunity to gulp down a cup of burnt cowpie, commonly known as coffee. So, after struggling to stay awake until 8pm, the cups of coffee came out. They made me Dutch coffee, which is apparently better than the average cup of sludge. While gulping it down, I decided it wasn’t too too horribly terrible. At the very least it would give me the energy to stay up until a decent hour. After finishing my cup of coffee at 8:30pm, I read one more page my book and called it a night. Apparently even the power of caffeine couldn’t keep me awake after successfully living through our first weekend retreat.

The theme of the weekend was “Too Legit to Quit.” So, naturally, I had to get up in front of everyone and lip sync to MC Hammer while dancing around like a white boy. FACT: MC Hammer is black. It’s unbelievable how long 2 minutes and 40 seconds will last when you’re dancing frantically beside a fire in the desert of Egypt. Prior to that, I hosted an episode of Japan Idol during the dinner meal. Interestingly enough, I also won at Japan idol (yes, I competed in it as well). Other characters I played during the weekend were: a French guy who recited poetry about toast (French toast), a conceited Texan, and a guy who could burp really loud. Seeing that this is an international church setting, we really had to go out of our way to successfully offend everyone in the youth group. Unfortunately the Crocodile hunter never even made an appearance.

One of the funniest parts of the weekend was when four of us North Americans (two guys and two girls) set up a water balloon assembly line in the men’s public bathroom. As we began making water balloons, some of the country club staff members came in and decided to help us. None of them spoke English, and none of us spoke Arabic, but we exchanged names and shared a lot of laughter and fun despite the language barrier. Here were four North Americans with three or four Egyptian men, filling water balloons in the middle of a men’s bathroom. It was quite the sight for sore eyes. The worst part was, after filling two garbage cans full of water balloons, we played a game that used all of them up… and an hour or two later, we were back there filling up even MORE water balloons for our big game of the weekend: The Quest for Fire. In this game (which we played in the pitch dark), we had two bonfires going on opposite ends of the desert, and the two teams had to put out each other’s fires with waterballoons. It was a lot of work for us leaders (since it was my idea, I got to oversee the whole thing), but I think the students enjoyed it. Any game that has fire involved has to be a hit! After the game ended, and my stress subsided, some of the high school guys ran up to me and threw me into the pool. Although I was fully clothed, I actually enjoyed it for the 30 seconds that I floated around in there. Nice and refreshing, though it did feel weird wearing socks in a pool. Other than that, the weekend was quite a frenzy of business mixed with fun. Maybe I'll have some pictures for you later if I get some good ones from people. I was too busy to take any myself.

Time for Retreat!

Hey! Just a quick note to let you all know that we are headed out on our fall retreat in a couple hours. It's been a ton of work preparing for, but I think it will be a great weekend. If you happen to read this in the next day or two, please pray that things will go smoothly, that God will move the students (and carry us staff), and that we'd remain safe and have fun. I'm very tired right now and the weekend hasn't even begun. Ok, gotta run. Check back next week for pics, if I find some time to upload them before the youth service.

The Sakkara (NOT the Sahara)

Today was the highlight of my time here in Egypt, thus far. The Fall Retreat for our youth group is about to take place this coming weekend. Naturally, that means there is a busy week ahead of us. Today we drove out to the area that our retreat is going to take place at. As we drove, houses became more and more run down, donkeys became more common, the water in canals appeared more polluted, and garbage became a part of the landscape. Along the way, we picked up John's Egyptian friend, Ramadan, to help us negotiate with the country club we were headed to.

Ramadan was a friendly man who spoke excellent English. He took us to the Sakkara Country Club (where we will be holding our retreat this weekend) and showed us around the area. He also interpreted our requests to the country club manager so that everything would be ready for us when we showed up with 70 students later in the week. This was a really nice looking facility, complete with a pool, horse stables, playing fields, sand dunes, etc. It should be a lot of fun there! But that was not the interesting part of today’s trip. The interesting part came when we drove back to Ramadan’s village and visited his house.

As we drove through the village, it was apparent that these people live a much simpler life than those in the industrialized world. The only thing I could think of to draw a parallel to it would be the way settlers lived in the Wild West. Animals were more common than cars (donkeys would be tied up outside of shops, just like a bike). People would sit in the shade on each side of the road and perform simple tasks such as shaving wood into small pieces, weaving baskets, and chopping metal bars (this was really funny to watch. One kid would hold the metal bar in the chopping mechanism, the other kid would hang himself from the end of a handle that was up in the air and bounce until his weight forced the chopping mechanism through the metal bar).

Eventually we drove into what seemed like a palm tree forest and parked the car. These palm trees actually had bunches of dates growing from the tops of them. We walked through a number of little pathways that passed in front of various local people’s houses. While doing so, the children from these houses would run out and say “Hallo” to us. A few of them saw that I was holding a camera, and motioned that they wanted me to take a picture of them. John, Ramadan, and Heidi just kept on walking, so I had to try and snap a few pictures as we walked.

Eventually we arrived at Ramadan's house where geese (Maybe they weren’t geese, I suck at naming animals… they were big and white with long curved necks and orange bills) and roosters were mulling about in front of their doorway. Inside, we stepped into their living room/bedroom where we spent the duration of our visit. After eating flatbread and drinking some tea, Ramadan asked us if we liked dates (the food). None of us had ever eaten them fresh, so we didn’t really know. Ramadan was convinced that we had to experience fresh dates, so he sent his son out to climb a palm tree and gather dates for us. The first batch he brought back were yellow and brown dates. They were really sweet tasting. After that, he decided we needed MORE dates (we already had a big bag of them to take home with us) so he went out and gathered a different kind of dates. These ones were a reddish color and were much harder. They had a texture sort of like the white portion of a coconut. These ones were sort of sweet, but also quite bitter. They left our mouths with a really weird gritty feeling. Ramadan gave us a bag of them to take home as well.

After snapping a few quick pictures, we headed back to John’s car where the highlight of my day began. Behind the car was a huge sand dune. John mentioned that the step pyramids were behind that dune and that if we were quick, we could run up to the top of them while he got the car backed out. I took off across the street and started racing up the side of this sand dune. This was no small sand dune. After I got about half way up and my lungs were about to burst, I felt as though I wasn’t moving at all. With every step I took, my feet would sink into the sand, slide downward, and make it feel as though I was simply working on a stair-master machine or something. I pressed on for another few minutes and eventually made it to the top. It was worth the heart attack that I had on the way up. The scene up there was breathtaking (or maybe I was still catching my breath from sprinting up a sand dune, I don’t know). Directly in front of me was the great Step Pyramid. Surrounding it were numerous other pyramids. To my right was a view of the massive village. As I turned around and looked down to where I had just come from, I saw an enormous forest of date palms and scattered homesteads. Behind all them were the silhouettes of more pyramids. The whole time I stood up there, the wind was rushing at me in one big, continuous, refreshing explosion. I climbed up another sand dune that peaked at the top. From there I stood in the rushing wind and turned around and took in this amazing view of Egypt (I also took a few low quality video clips on my digital camera). Hundreds of meters below, people were waving and shouting through the wind. I waved back and couldn’t help but notice that it felt as though I was flying high above the countryside. Everyone was so far below me, and the wind was swimming all around me. I could’ve stayed there all day. But then I realized that the person shouting and waving at me wasn’t looking quite so friendly as he got closer. Turns out he was the groundskeeper and was probably coming to collect some baksheesh (monetary tip) from me. I ran down the hill, jumped into the car, and we drove away. What a day that was.