We recently went on a trip to the desert which began at an oasis. It was a lovely camping trip that was about 3 days and 2 nights. The trip took place in a land cruiser that was fully equipped for rough terrain, including a snorkel, which we didn’t end up needing in the desert. There was a driver and an English speaking guide, both of whom were Bedouin. The Oases in this part of the desert had for a long time been cut off from the rest of Egypt except for the very hardy. They were extremely traditional, as there was very little influence on them from outside until about ten years ago when the Egyptian government decided to build the Western Desert road, which runs the length of the country, and goes through a few of these Oases. All of a sudden a trip which used to take a week and would most likely have to be done by camels was cut down to four hours by car. It changed quite a bit in the lives of the Bedouin, and from my perspective, some of it was for the better (like the practice of marrying 12 year old girls). Apparently with the new road came new Sheikhs for the mosques, who informed them that they really couldn’t be marrying girls who were only 12, it just wasn’t right. It has since also made desert safaris from the Oases a practice which tourists flock to, because of its accessibility.
The fall is a nice time to be working in Egypt because there are lots of long weekends. For one of the long weekends I spent a few days on the Red Sea, doing a lot of snorkeling and reading and relaxing. This last long weekend that just came up, however, I decided that I wanted to do something a bit ...
First of all, I have to say that living in Cairo is an entirely different experience from living in a smaller town/village in Upper Egypt. So far the move has been extremely interesting, and has opened my eyes to the diversity of cultures and opinions and ideologies of Egyptians. It has also made me ...
It has been another month or so since I last wrote, and since I promised to try and be better about sending out more regular updates I thought it was probably about time to fill you in on all the exciting things happening this past month. The first thing which happened was that I went to a peace ...
A beautiful liturgy of justice and welcome which can be found in The Eucharist: Bodies, Bread, & Resurrection by Andrea Bieler. Sunshine sent this in around Christmas last year and I (hellaD) am just getting around to sharing it with you all now. The ritual of speaking from the elements is very powe ...
My life in here in Beba has been similar to the previous posts I have written. I am still living here at the church and teaching English in two different towns. I have a couple more stories about Egyptians that I find telling about the culture as a whole. Both of them actually happened as I was t ...
The other piece of interesting news was that I took a vacation to Jordan and Israel/Palestine. It was a fascinating journey, especially because this time in Egypt has really been my first experience in the Middle East. My time in both Jordan and Palestine made me realize how truly unalike different ...
I have had quite the exciting, travel-filled, and busy month which I will regal you all with presently. However, I have been thinking for the past few months that I need to talk about the generosity of the culture here. It really is quite remarkable the extent to which this generosity is a part of t ...
I figured since I have been living at a Coptic Orthodox center in the church compound I should probably write about what the Coptic Church is exactly. Although what I know of the Coptic Church is mostly from my observations and conversations I have had with people, I have only read one book on the s ...
Last weekend I had a trip scheduled to go back to Cairo because one of my friends was getting engaged to an Egyptian woman. Another development also came up which for me was a wonderful opportunity. Egypt was the host nation of the under-20 year old World Cup Football tournament. It just so happened ...