I went to a really good Tri-lingual Good Friday service tonight. Arabic, English, and Sudanese. Very energetic! Good music and such a variety of people.

This morning, I went to the regular service at my church and heard a good message. Talking about how other religions admire Jesus for his acts, but don’t recognize him as the Son of God. That’s all well and good, but if you don’t believe that part, then your kinda missing the point. If you don’t believe in the crucifixion and rising from the dead, then you’re lacking the most important bit!

Not much today, beyond the Church services, Frisbee, and making some molasses cookies. *yum* I asked my mother for the recipe and when she wrote back, she told me that one of our neighbors brought these cookies over when I was born. That’s a new story for me to hear!

So…looking back at the week.

Monday night, I got to party!!! It was my friend Annie’s birthday and some friends of ours had moved into a new flat, so they had a combination birthday/housewarming. There were about 50-60 people there. Of that group, less than 10 were “Westerners”. The rest were Sudanese. Fun!

Guess what kind of music we listened to and danced to? American R&B/Rap – Usher, P Diddy, etc. *laugh* I was the white boy out there trying to dance with people who can seriously move! I caught one woman laughing at me, but some of the guys thought I had potential!

Tuesday I visited Tanta!!! That’s where I’ll be living, starting at the beginning of June. Then, it’s 2 years and about 8 months after that! It should be alright, but definitely a culture shock after being in Cairo. Where I’m living in Cairo, I see KFC, McDonald’s, Dominos, etc everywhere – it’s really Western. I also see more BMW’s and Mercedes here than I did back in Royal Oak.

That won’t quite be the case in Tanta. It’s still a couple of million people, but more conservative and not as influenced by the West.

Guess where I’ll be living when I first get there?

An old people’s home! *laugh* 15 old grandpas/grannies and me! Why???? It’s right across the street from where the director of the English program lives, near where we will have the classes, and they want me to be “safe and comfortable”.

There will be someone to clean for me and I’ll be able to have my meals there so that will give me more time for teaching. The people we talked to on Tuesday don’t know me, so I think they’re going to be overprotective at the beginning. I’ll just take it slow and show them over time that I’ll be alright.

After awhile, I might move into a flat on my own. We’ll see…

The current plan is that I’ll finish up my teaching class in mid-May, have about a week to do some intensive Arabic study and then move to Tanta after that. In the long run, being in Tanta will be really good for my Arabic, but right now I still need to study/learn a lot in preparation for going.

Wednesday’s teaching preparation never quite came together, so my lesson was rough. Oh well, I still got a “pass” on it and it’s a reminder that I need to keep working hard.

Wed. night and Thurs. night, I had Arabic tutorial. Wednesday’s went alright and Thursday went really well. I’ve been frustrating for my tutor with not having time to study enough, but she said that she was encouraged by these past couple of days. Me too!!

Alright, that finally gets me caught up on what’s been going on!