Day 20 &21 - New Friends

Two days in one post...this should be fun :)

Thursday - Class was good and then I did some filing for Kathy which was not so exciting. It was interesting to see some of the documents and the different organizations that St. Andrew's is working with. Filing is quite a boring and annoying job, but someone has to do it and that someone happens to be me. It is something that really needs to be done because everyone else in the office is to busy to re-organize the filing cabinets.
I spent the evening at Diana's. I took the metro and the tram. Diana met me at the tram so we could go and get supper, which was koshari. I finally had it. It is a carb filled bowl of goodness. Josh was waiting back at the apartment for us. We sat and relaxed for most of the evening, it was really nice. After a while we made some delicious chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal and peanuts in them. I was so excited to bake. I spent the night again so that I could go right to the park with Diana in the morning.

Friday - Today has been a great but tiring day. I was up at 8:30 to get ready to meet people at the Cathedral where Diana works. We were going to spend the day at Al-Ahzar Park with her students. (Diana teaches English to students around my age give or take a few years). There ended up being 12 of us at the park, 9 students. It was great to meet more Egyptians and spend time with them. They were a great group of people. Our first mission when we got to the park was to find some shade to sit in. The park was absolutely beautiful, with grass and trees, flowers and fountians. It was definitely like an oasis in the middle of Cairo. We found a gazebo to sit in which was great. We played games there for a few hours. Now these games had to be non-action games for the most part.

The park has strict rules: No balls in a park? No alcholics? Now that is specific. You can also not run or anything like that. People are allowed on the grass though, which is good. Anyways, we played some gues what I am thinking games, a winking game (I can't wink so that was a failed attempt at the game for me) and then charades which was a lot of fun. We moved to a different area of the park later in the afternoon. We found a great place with trees and a great view of the city. Here we played a game with a scarf. One person holds the scarf and then there are two teams that number each other off. The scarf holder calls a number and the people with the matching numbers on the opposite teams have to get the scarf without being touched by the other person. It was actually really fun. Oh and then we played this slapping game, where someone closes their eyes, someone slaps their hand and the person has to guess who slapped them. Veryn entertaining. We spent the last hour or so just chatting and asking each other questions, moving as the sun moved so we could stay in the shade. It was a lot of fun to meet Diana's students and spend a day with them. I am hoping to sit in on one of their classes which will be fun because now I know most of them.
Funny thing....they all though that Diana and I were sisters or related some how. We told them no we not related in any way, just friends, but I do not think that they were convinced.

I got home around 5 and got ready to go to a Fundraiser Benefit Cruise on a boat on the Nile. This was for my roommates Youth program at St. Andrew's. I did not know any one there, except Kathy my director, so I had to mingle and try to invade people's circles so I was not alone the whole time. I actually met quite a few people, who's names I all forget, but some of them work at St. Andrew's or at another organization working with refugees. It was really interesting to talk with some of them about what they are doing. There was great music playing and great Sudanese food served. Great meaning new, different and I had absolutely no clue what I was putting into my mouth. We were on the Nile for about 2 hours, dancing and visiting. It was fun, nice and cool, quite windy but that was ok. It felt much better than the heat.
Strangely I never really thought about the fact that I was on the Nile. I was just floating down another body of water in Cairo. It doesn't look any different...well it is quite filthy but it is still water. I feel like it should be such an amazing experience because there is so much history with the Nile. Like I was on the river the Moses floated down....Crazy!

This was pretty much my last two days. I thought it was Saturday today because I have done so much it feels like it is well in to the weekend, but not yet.

Lisa and Tyson are getting married in less than 24 hours. I am so excited :)