| Sunday
- Tuesday Wednesday -
Thursday
Friday Saturday-Sunday
Monday-Tuesday |
| Welcome
to Egypt, Mom and Dad! |
| My
parents arrived Sunday afternoon. Due to traffic and the fact that
the taxi driver initially took me to the wrong airport and then couldn't
figure out how to get to the right airport, I was 45 minutes late to pick
them up. Fortunately, their flight was slightly delayed and they
were still waiting at the baggage claim when I spotted them. So,
even though the first day didn't quite go as planned, it worked out
well. Besides, we're in Egypt; nothing ever goes exactly as planned! |
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My parents arrived on Egyptian
Mother's Day, so I got my mom some flowers. They were very Egyptian
(i.e. gaudy).
On their first evening at
Dawson Hall, we had a big pot of soup for dinner so my parents had a
chance to meet my friends (and also to enjoy one last American meal).
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| Monday
- My local neighborhood and Coptic Cairo |
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After
a brief tour of Ghamra and Abbasiya (the slums where I live) Monday
morning, we headed to Coptic Cairo for a tour of some old churches and a
cemetery. These photos are from the hanging church, built over the
remains of the Water Gate of Roman Babylon. |
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Our next stop in
Coptic Cairo was the Greek Orthodox cemetery. Can you tell it is
Greek from the photo to the left? It was especially interested to
look at the mausoleums fashioned after row houses. I think many of
the "deceased inhabitants" of Cairo have better housing than the
living ones. |
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After finding our way out of
the cemetery, we toured the church of Mar Girgis (St. George). |
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Much
of Coptic Cairo is currently under construction (far left), so we weren't
able to see everything, but there were still many churches and even a
mosque (left) outside the old part of Coptic Cairo. |
| The
streets within Coptic Cairo are very narrow and similar to the ones we
experienced in Jerusalem. On the far right is a window, similar to
the ones we have seen in Islamic Cairo built so that women could look out
to the street without being seen.
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| Tuesday
- Teaching Day |
| Tuesday
my parents came to school with me for the first time in about 20
years. We started the day with a tour of Ramses College and then
went to class. They watched me teach three second primary science
classes and lead my website activity period. "Mr. Wayne"
even helped teach the science classes, although I didn't let him help in
the third one because, as you can all probably imagine, he got the girls
even more wound up than they were! |
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Introducing
the parents and explaining the game - "Will it sink or will it
float?" - thanks to David Letterman.
Don't be fooled, Mom and
Dad, they aren't always so well-behaved!
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Can
you see I'm starting to lose control here? |
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And
now, there is complete chaos - 40 girls running wild at the front of the
room, sticking their arms in the water, giving me notes, etc. |
| "Mr.
Wayne" teaches science with his bottle cap "boat." |
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And
then in the hallway after class...
"Miss Lisa, who are
those people? Miss Lisa, can your dad take my picture?" |
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The
older girls in my website activity period were a little less eager to have
their pictures taken. |
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| Next |
