War…what is it good for?
Absolutely nuthin’.

As I sat down to write this entry, those are the song lyrics that came to mind.

It’s 9:30 on Thursday morning as I write this and I’ve just learned about the beginning of the attacks on Iraq. I got up this morning, had breakfast, then went to the BBC for my news. I read through W’s speech, details of the reaction from Asia, and a summary of the first attacks.

After that, I needed to get off the phone line so that I could call and check in with my MCC Country Representatives who handle the administrative issues here. They asked that we call to check in with them once we heard that war had begun. So, I did that and they will be in touch if they hear anything from MCC in the U.S. or if anything big happens here in Egypt or neighboring countries.

Physically, we’re quite removed from Iraq so there’s little danger there but people are funny and tough to predict sometime. Just as there are “random acts of kindness”, there are also “random acts of violence”, and it’s impossible to predict what (if anything) will happen here. The government in Egypt has been effective with squashing the militant Islamic groups here over the past few years and has been known to arrest people during protest activities, so people seem hesitant to be vocal on issues.

What am I going to do today? Praying, I suppose…

While there will be some of that, I think I am going to go out and try to make myself available and not change what I had planned to do today. I want to pick up some groceries and then I need to be back here to study before going to a formal study session for my teaching class at 5pm.

Last night, I had a couple of brief conversations with Egyptians about the war. Usually, they don’t know what to say and I don’t know what to say. We end up saying that we are hoping for peace. I guess that is true now, as well.

That’s it for now. I don’t have any great insight on all of this, but I will try to keep writing my thoughts and observations.