Monday, April 11

I've been meaning to post for a few days, but I've just now gotten around to it. Let's see, Thursday we went with the school to Alexandria. Yes, we have a lot of fieldtrips. We took the students to the Alexandria Library and to a museum. They were complaining and complaining. They didn't want to do anything boring. After the museums we spent our time eating, walking along the beach, and then going to the French megastore chain. The students were much happier doing these things. The field trips here are interesting because it's not like they have to be educational. After all, we spent most of the day eating and shopping.

On the way home, the students received phonecalls that the Al Azhar Mosque had been bombed. Then, they told us that it was the Khan El Khalili market area. I'm sure you've all heard about it on the news. We can't say that we weren't disturbed by this. After all, we've been there, and it's a little too close for comfort. I guess it makes us angry more than anything because many people may feel that we are unsafe here. It's difficult to argue with that when a bomb explodes in your city. However, when we think about it rationally, we realize that no place is completely safe. We were shocked not too long ago to hear about another school shooting in Minnesota. We thought to ourselves then, "That would never happen here." We were thankful at that point for not teaching in the U.S. Ironic, I think.

From what we've heard, the government here is pretty irate. After the 1996 attack here, Egypt was finally getting to be considered a "safe" place to visit. However, that may be hurt a little. The Khan El Khalili is a major tourist attraction. If it's not considered safe, then tourism will suffer. Tourism is essential to the economy here. It's their number one money maker. It's likely that the government will clamp down hard on the group responsible.

Joe and I came to the conclusion that we are going to have to live our lives. As safely as possible, of course, but we don't want to let fear control our lives.

Other than that, we have just been working and hanging out. We are really looking forward to spring break which starts next Thursday, even though we have nothing at all planned! I'm looking forward to being completely bored. The great thing is that we found out today that our break starts Thursday instead of Friday. The Muslim holidays change every year according to the moon's cycle. The phropet's birthday was supposed to be Friday, but it got moved up to Thursday. At least in Egypt we get random extra days off. That, and when we get back, they decided to cut the school day short by a half hour. Don't ask, I have no idea the logic behind that. They said it was because of the heat. However, we have air conditioners in our school, and we didn't have shorter days at the beginning of the year. We're still working on understanding Egyptian logic. As long as it works in our favor, we won't ask questions!

We've heard from some of the teachers who will be at our school next year. One poor Iowa boy is coming from a town of 200 to a city of 18 million. I'm sure he'll be fine. We just find it amusing, knowing what Iowa is like. He went to UNI, so we're looking forward to meeting him. Another couple emailed us today. They're coming from California, but they lived and taught in Bangkok for six years. They have a three-year-old girl, so it will be fun to meet them. It will be interesting to see Egypt and our school through their eyes. Not only that, but we are looking forward to our school growing. It's still very small and new. Next year, we are supposed to double in enrollment again. I'm sure they'll be a whole new batch of surprises. We'll have to see what happens.