It’s been about a week since I arrived, and it’s all been an amazing blur so far. So much has happened in such a short amount of time, there is no way I can give you an accurate description of everything I’ve done. Here are the basics. I live with 7 other girls in a beautiful, large apartment flat with a great balcony/view (pictures to come on facebook!) very close the villa where we have our classes. Thursday we got a crash-course in survival Arabic and toured the city a bit where we caught a glimpse of all of the places we will be discovering in the future. We’ve been learning our way around our neighborhood and learning the basics of living here, including where to buy groceries, how to take a taxi and how to take the metro. I couldn’t help but get a feeling of accomplishment when I bought my first kilo of fruit at a local fruit stand. Starting Tuesday, my roommates and I will have to buy all of our own groceries (!). On Friday all of us girls were shown how to veil ourselves with higabs and we were able to attend the mosque and observe the women in their worship. There’s something powerful in watching a whole culture (of all social classes) unite together in prayer. Saturday(yesterday) we took a felucca ride on the Nile (awesome!), and walked around Kahl Al Khalili which was simply GORGEOUS. Cairo has some amazing historical buildings/mosques with architecture that literally makes you gasp. None of my pictures do them justice. Today we went and got our 6 month visas and practiced using the metro-taking it to anywhere we felt like and exploring. People here are very hospitable and one man even bought us our lunch today.
Here are some random facts you may like to know:
Cairo is generally safe; Cairo traffic is NOT…
Sexual harassment is a serious issue in Cairo. I as woman must avert my eyes on the street and not make eye contact or conversation with males that I pass.
Cairo has the world’s worse air pollution-even worse than Beijing! We blow black out of our noses…
Even people without any knowledge of English can communicate one word to us- OBAMA! They like him very much.
We start service projects on Tuesday and our classes begin on Wednesday. I’m excited to be here! Thank you to all of you are praying for me. I appreciate you very much! I will try to update once a week, but no promises!
Love,
Danielle
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1 comment:
So my favorite part about your blogs thus far are your random facts. You are adorable, and it sounds like you are having quite the adventure! Jealous.
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