Merry Christmasn and Happy Holidays to all!

If anyone is online on the 26th, I should be online b/c I want to chat with my family. Try to catch me then!

-Jason

9 days since my last post! Terrible! I have been online in that time, but I keep forgetting to write anything here.

Now I'm sitting b/c it's better than moving around. *smirk* On Friday, I went on a 2-mile run with a friend and then played Ultimate Frisbee. This is more high-impact exercise than I've done in the past 6 months combined! I need to learn how to say "my knees hurt" in Arabic! *grin*

I was around Cairo for a couple of good Christmas concerts, but now I'm headed back to Tanta. In fact, I need to go right now so that I can get to the train station in plenty of time!

1 of my exams is complete and graded. That leaves 3 more to give this week and then grades to calculate. That'll all be done on Wed. Then on the 22nd, some MCC'ers are coming to stay with me for the night and hang around Tanta. On the 23rd, the rest of the group will come to Tanta and we will all be at a Retreat Center together for 2 days to celebrate Christmas. Then...back to Cairo for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Beyond that...????

Back...in Cairo...again!!!!

Yes, this update is coming to you from the fine city of Cairo. Tanta? Yeah, I was there for 4 days this week!

I'm here to go to church on Friday morning, bake Christmas cookies with friends in the afternoon, then go to a party Friday night. It'll be a big day!

Saturday -- it's back to Tanta for a meeting with my bosses from Cairo, my director in Tanta, and the Bishop. Nothing bad, just to see how everything is going and talk about what we'll be doing this upcoming year.

Next week, I'll finish one of my classes (they asked to speed things up to be done before their university exams) but I'll keep going with my others until the 18th or 20th.

Made it back from a long weekend in Cairo. Would you believe that I was awake before 7am on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings??? Crazy!

Thursday was so that I could observe some classes at Ein Shams University in Cairo. The director of my English program in Tanta teaches there and she invited me to see her students and talk with them a bit. I did this a year or so ago and it's quite the experience!! 60-80 students crammed into a small lecture room. Most of them were Muslim and a handful were fully veiled. (no, the veiled ones didn't talk to me)

I was running on caffeine most of the day! I had breakfast around 6, Nescafe at 10.45, and then Turkish coffee at 12.45. I was wired!! Finally had lunch around 3.30pm, before going to the Cathedral in Cairo to watch an MCC'er teach 2 classes and help with them a bit. Big, big day of being in classes!!!!

After that? I went to a band playing African music and then to dinner at 11pm.

More later about the rest of the weekend!

Just some quick thought for the day... I'm thinking about getting a DSL connection in my apartment after the holidays. My bosses in Cairo have DSL at work and at home, so it would be convenient to talk to them anytime using MSN Messenger or Skype. This wouldn't be a blinding fast connection (it's actually ADSL), but fast enough. Of course, many of you out there have really fast connections and I could talk to you from home, too.

I'm also gearing up for some serious research into jobs or graduate schools for when I return to the U.S., so I think that will require quite a bit of time online.

Big weekend coming up -- Thanksgiving in Beni Sueff, then Sat. and Sun. in Cairo for a teaching conference.

No big news. It seems that most people I talk to are quite nervous about the results of the recent election in Egypt. Out of 440 representatives, about 70 are now from the Muslim Brotherhood. That's less than 20%, but a big increase from the 30 people who previously held office. I'm curious what the short- and long-term reaction by the U.S. govt. will be. It seems that throwing millions of dollars to Egypt is not having the desired result. I wonder what Plan B will be...?

Well, here's your unexpected Election update.

Election -- what election? Well, today is round 2 of the elections for parliament seats in some areas of Egypt. Tanta is one of those areas, so the election has been a big topic of conversation this week.

Last Sunday was round 1 which took a list of about 20 candidates down to 4. Today, 2 will be elected from those 4. I can't find a lot of links, but this one tells you about some arrests in Alexandria.

Actually, by the time you read this there will probably be updated news about what's going on. So, the best place I can point you to is: Egypt's Independent News.

Pray for this country. It's getting crazier than ever!

Ack!

For no good reason, I seem to be having a Bill the Cat moment. *laugh* Now, how many of you will get _that_ reference.

Crazy busy times here. Extra classes last week, gone all weekend for the MCC Fall Retreat in Minya, back to Tanta on Sunday, now more extra classes this week. Visitors from MCC are coming to stay with me Friday night, so I'm working on cleaning when I have time...

So, no deep thoughts on world issues. In fact, I'm back into my little bubble in Tanta, so I haven't gotten any news in days. My cable TV has been out for a few days and I'm guessing my landlord stopped paying for it. I was spliced into his line, so it was free for me -- so I suppose I can't complain!

Hopefully, I will have some time Thursday afternoon to look through emails, and post more here. I've been hearing about more and more people using Skype. Do you? Opinions? I'm going to try to register tomorrow and then be online a bit to test it.

So this post began as a comment to what David wrote about the non-profit group One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), but it was getting quite long so I thought that I should put it here:

Of course this will be successful. By "successful", I mean that there will be lots of good press for MIT and the sponsors as they hand these laptops to smiling children. Really, the only goal is to give them the computers. On the site, there aren't any concrete goals about the use of the computers. Here's a question and answer from the site's FAQ:

"Why do children in developing nations need laptops?
Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to "learn learning" through independent interaction and exploration."

Now, there are several problems with this. The first is that if there is a goal in here somewhere, it's one which will make it impossible to do follow-up on. There will be results to giving the computer away, but there will be no good way of using them to justify the project.

The second problem is that in general, projects which address a "need" should have the assessment and decision-making done locally. If these countries came to MIT or some group and said "we need cheap laptops for reasons X, Y, and Z" that's one thing. The reality is another. Here, you have an outside organization with serious resources coming into countries and saying "Take this -- try to use it in a good way".

There's a very funny of this in the FAQ:
"In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home."

Yup! Odds are, that's how some of these computers will be used -- as light sources. Not as a "window on the world", but like a $100 candle to light up someone's living room.

Wow...the prospect of looking into graduate schools, getting funding, etc. is really daunting. I started doing some research on that today. *sigh* Anyone have any good suggestions?

Fortunately, I had a few nice distractions to take me away from the frustration of that. First, I chatted with my Mom, then David, and finally my friend Dhiveja from South Africa. I've never been able to chat with Dhiveja online before and this was a very special occasion b/c she was chatting with me from China, where she is competing in the 2005 Miss World Competition. Check your local listings for December 10th and cheer for her!

My first picture from Syria. That trip is often on my mind and I finally got around to putting up a pic. This is on my final day in Damascus, in a "bath house". Do I look relaxed? I should! For 2 hours leading up to this picture, I was in a sauna and then got a really good massage.

Bad news for the day: Bananas Could Split for Good. (bad pun from the BBC)

One of our new volunteers in Egypt recently told me about the possibility of a banana blight. This article from the BBC is a couple of years old, so let's hope scientists have been working on things! Thankfully, it's not a problem for me in Egypt b/c the bananas here are a different variety. The taste a bit creamier and are softer than what you get in N. America.

Yes, another post already!

That's b/c I forgot something important in the previous one. I bought a drum today!!! Now, I just need to learn how to play it. My neighbors are going to _love_ me while I'm playing around with it!

It's an African-style drum. I don't know how to describe it, beyond that. One of these days, I'll take a pic. But I need to post Jordan/Syria pics first!

Anyway, I got it for less than $3 U.S. and it's really cool. Someone made the body from pottery and then put a drum head over the end. The sound is decent and I like how it looks, too. A bit heavy to move around much with it, but fun to have!

The first post in my newly-revived Blog and I don't have much to say.

I guess the highlight of the weekend was hearing a talk by Terry Waite at the American University in Cairo. To refresh your memory, this is the hostage-negotiator (among other jobs) who was held hostage for 5 years in Lebanon starting in 1987. He spoke on the roots/causes of terrorism and it was very thought-provoking (and even entertaining b/c he's a funny guy!)

This was quite a relevant topic b/c of the bombings in Jordan on Thursday.

To use a famous quote..."I'm baaaack!"

Basically, I've decided that I am online often enough and it's more fun doing a journal online like this than Tanta Tales. At least for now. What do you think?

Right now, I'm not sure how often I'll update things here -- maybe a couple of times a week. For special occasions, I'll send out Tanta Tales messages...

Of course, I still want to hear from you by email!!!

-Jason

Well, I've decided to start sending out emails and only using this site to put links to my pictures, books I'm reading, etc. I also like that the site is archived so that I can keep the old things I've written but I guess I could manually do that too. We'll see how that works out.

But for now, I'm just going to send email out to folks. If for some reason, you haven't been getting my notification messages and want to be on my email list, please let me know.

Signing off...

Hmmm...this didn't work when I posted on Sunday. Better now?

A bit about where I'm living:

No A/C -- fans only. I have 2 floor-fans in my room, then in the TV room there's a ceiling fan, and in the dining room (where I eat lunch) there are quite a few fans which help keep the air moving.

The food has been good and I definitely feel like I'm "eating like an Egyptian". I've been having many foods that I had only seen or maybe just tried 1 times. Now I am eating them on a daily basis. Let's see if I can describe some things:

-Green peppers stuffed with rice and seasonings
-bread and cheese
-meatball-type things
-corn "soup" (kinda like soup, but not quite)

New pictures up of where I'm living...

Username: jpics
Password: easy

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289823393

and the recent MCC meeting

I also just added a page with the books I've been reading. It's "books".

Hmmm...so they've changed the way thing work for the software I use to write my journal. It looks a bit nicer for me to type, but it shouldn't make any difference when it comes to how you view it.

Things have calmed down here in Tanta, but apparently I've been acting a bit tired/grumpy today. Two different times, people asked me, "why aren't you happy". But tomorrow is a new day!

I hope people are still reading this, even though I haven't been posting much and didn't send out an email about my most recent posts.

This is also the first post from my laptop in Tanta. The guys at my local Internet Cafe' have been nice enough to let me connect here. It's not very fast for downloading *frown*, but it'll do...

On the way back from Cairo on Sunday night, I started talking with 2 guys on the train. Both are studying to be translators at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Very bright guys and friendly, but of course not Christian.

Tuesday afternoon, one of them called to invite me to come with them to his agricultural village a few kilometers outside Tanta. Everything was so green, nice fresh air, a great sunset, and the opportunity to see fields of apples, grapes, oranges, mangos, and corn. (the guy's family owns property and raises crops). He sent me home with a bunch of apples and I shared a meal in the family home.

Great! Right?

Well, for me -- yes! I felt completely comfortable and safe the entire time and really enjoyed the experience.

Unfortunately, the folks at Dar Phoebe (where I live) weren't thrilled. I left around 5pm and got back at 11:30. Before midnight when "the big outside door is locked".

So this morning, Tessuni (the sister who runs Dar Phoebe) and others were very curious what I had been up to, where I had been, and why I hadn't told them when I would be back.

Mostly b/c I wasn't sure how long I was going to be gone. Also, I didn't think they wanted/needed to know my movements, but apparently they do.

Due to this and the people I was with not being Christian, I got into a fairly long talk today with Tessuni about who I should (and shouldn't) be friends with. *sigh* Mostly I said lots of "I understand" in response to what she was saying. It seems as if they would like to choose my friends for me, or at least make sure that they are Christian.

I know that I am teaching with/for the Orthodox and they feel responsible for me, but what are the limits? Overall, being at Dar Phoebe is wonderful, but it would be even better if they would just relax a bit. I'm feeling like choosing discretion over honesty is in the position I'm in now. Up to this point, I've been telling them everything when they ask, but now it feels like that's going to cause more problems.

(this was the text of a message I sent to my bosses about things in Tanta, but I thought it made for a good journal entry, too)

A good weekend in Cairo. Frisbee, a couple of movies ("You've Got Mail" and "When Harry Met Sally"), a meeting/goodbye party for Craig/Karen, and a bit of baking. Busy, busy!

I watched "Mail" with other volunteers at Dawson Hall on Friday and decided to watch more Meg Ryan, so "Sally" was on Saturday. Funny thing is that it was the edited Egyptian version, so _the_ scene was completely taken out!!! *laugh* I won't explain, but hopefully folks understand.

Also went to a big "Refugee Day" at the American University. Good music, food, fun, and learning about different organizations.

I met a couple of interesting guys on the train last night, coming back to Tanta. Both are students in Cairo, but coming back for the summer with their parents in Tanta. One is studying "Islamic Law" and the other is studying to become a real-time translator (like for live speeches and that sort of thing)

They might call me later in the week to get together. We'll see...

Here is your Arabic lesson for the day...

The word is "nom" and it rhymes with "Tom".

It is a polite way of saying "sorry, I can't hear you".

For most people, at least. For _me_ it means:
"wait, wait, wait -- hold on. I only follow about 10% of what you're saying, so if I can get you to say it a few more times and use small words, maybe we can converse a little bit. Drawing pictures and using lots of gestures will help me, too. Thanks."

*smile*

Currently, this is my life... *grin*