Blog Like an Egyptian

As a lot of you know, Clark College paid for my trip to Egypt.  But the money came with the stipulation that we perform some kind of volunteer work while in Egypt.

The school’s service learning coordinator, who joined us on the trip, got us a gig working with students at St. John American School, a little less than an hour outside of Cairo.  After the tour ended and we arrived back in Cairo, we spent about four hours over the span of three days working with students, ranging from first through ninth grades.

Now, I should preface all this by saying that, going into the experience, I wasn’t that excited.  It wasn’t anything against the kids, but by the time we got back to Cairo, we had been on a whirlwind trip of the country, waking up early, going to bed late and traveling every couple of days.

We had literally gone from Egypt’s northern border to near its southern border and back, stopping at a ton of temples and monuments in between.  So when we got back to Cairo for the volunteer work, I wasn’t looking forward to it.  I was more interested in sleeping in and relaxing than chasing kids around school for four hours.

Oh, how I was wrong.

There were about 30 students, in all.  It was a little chaotic, because putting that many young kids in one classroom after several weeks away from each other … yeah, that’s a recipe for the kids talking to each other non-stop throughout the whole three-day stretch.  But that’s okay, it wasn’t that bad, especially since we broke up into smaller groups.

Another Clark student (Jeff) and I led a group of four students.  From left to right, that would be Catherine, Rana, Mina and Nader.  (That’s Jeff in the middle.)  We dubbed ourselves the Superstars.  There was another kid on the first day, but he was gone the next two days.  Alas.

Throughout the three days, we played a lot of games (the kind we played at day camp as kids), played cards, chatted about each of our cultures and learned a lot about the school.

Some groups went outside and played basketball or soccer, but I stayed in with most of my group and played cards.  I learned a few cool card games and had fun getting to know the other students who came in and played.

There were just so many memories …

One day in there, we wanted to teach the kids an American song, so the service learning coordinator chose “Country Roads” by John Denver.  It was cool to sing with the kids and try to get them to sing along.

Of course, it was great to practice English with the students there and learn about life in Egypt.  The kids who turned out for the three-day summer camp really had a lot to be proud of; they spoke English really well and definitely held their own in conversation – even the young pups.

Each day, they served us lunch.  I don’t remember much of it, but I remember eating some delicious koshary and stuffing myself on falafel.  I’m telling you, I miss the food like crazy over there.

I think it was the second day … the lunch time was just about ending, and a group of kids was dancing around.  They said something in Arabic, and two of the students ran out of the room like they’d stolen something.  They came back with a pair of wooden sticks a few minutes later.  Another student hummed a song (I would recognize it if I heard it, but I couldn’t tell you the name), and the two students with sticks put on a mock sword fight, very very slowly.

Then the song ended, and the kid humming shifted into a much faster-paced song, and the two kids broke out of the sword fight and began dancing around.  It was really energetic … the kind of thing where you’re in the middle of it, and you think, “Wow, if I was home right now, I’d be either asleep or at work.  Instead, I’m watching these Egyptian students dance around and have a great time.”  The joy was infectious.

At one point, we played Egyptian Spin the Bottle, which was a bit different than its American counterpart.  In the Egyptian version, you spin the bottle and ask a question of whoever it lands on.  Some questions asked if the other person had a boyfriend or girlfriend, but one of the students asked me what my favorite part of the trip was.

And I said it was working with the students at the school.  Maybe it’s one of those “You had to be there” kind of things, but talking with those kids about their lives, talking about ours, playing with them and laughing with them … those are the things I’ll remember my whole life.  Just getting to know other people, learn their stories and hear that they’re about … that’s what life is about.

If I had slept in at the hotel and not done any of the volunteer work, I would have missed out on three of the best days of the trip.

At the end of the three days, there were hugs to be had and E-mail addresses to be exchanged.  In all, I became Facebook friends with 19 students and one teacher at the school.  I still chat with them and miss them a lot.