Day 14 - Holy Day

I started my day off talking with Mom, Dad and Cherilyn. Getting my web cam to work took a while but once I realized all I had to do was use the headset provided, all was well. It was really great to talk to them and see them. Technology is so wonderful.

I went to church today at St. Andrew's Church. It was pretty good, lots of reader, response stuff. I am not the biggest fan of that but worshiping in different ways is good. It is a small congregation so the people were very welcoming. There was time for coffee after the service where I met almost all of the people who were at the service. They were all very nice and were adamant on me coming next Friday. I better not disappoint. I met a girl named Yoshi who works with a Japanese International Non-Governmental Organization. Very cool. I am happy to be networking and meeting people who are also working with International Development or who are studying it.
It is Islam's holy day today, so there were prayers and a sermon (maybe) that went on for over and hour. I live right by a Mosque so I saw all the men lined up in front of it praying.

I went to Khan el Khalili, which is one of the biggest bazaars in the Middle East. It was cool, a lot of things to see and stores to go to. Many, many people and carts and cars filling the streets. I made some purchases that I am quite excited about. Especially the Egyptian silver earrings which I got at an incredible price. They are lovely. We had drinks at the famous El Fishawy, Ciaro's oldest coffee house, open for 200 years. It was very crowded but interesting to be there. I like markets even though they are super busy and people are hasseling you to buy. Oh and I had some sugar cane juice at the juice store. So delicious. It was a really good. It was great to see Diana again. Josh and Rachel also came. It was so weird, yet normal seeing Rachel. I went to school with her last year, so that was cool to see her. It was really nice to get out and see some friends :) I also enjoy my little history lessons from Diana or trying to learn new arabic words. I always come back home after seeing Diana with a little more knowledge about Cairo. She is kinda like my own private tour guide when I am with her :)

Oh and Mom, I had my first fabric shop sighting. There were like 6 fabrics shops all in a row but that was when we were in the taxi. I just thought you would be excited about that :)