I noticed that my feet were a little swollen after the flight yesterday. However, it took until this morning for my ankles to swell up to the size of… um… something much bigger than ankles. My feet look like two loaves of bread rising out of the pan. Right now I’m laying down with my legs elevated above my heart in an attempt to reduce swelling.
Today did not seem as hot as yesterday, but it did seem longer. We visited the Children’s Cancer Hospital, went to St. Andrews, and took an Arabic placement exam.
The Children’s Cancer Hospital is a free hospital for children. It just opened in 2007 here in Cairo. It’s a beautiful place that seems very comfortable and friendly for a hospital. The entire hospital is run by donations. If you want to check out more about the hospital and the charity (57357) that funds it, go to http://www.57357.com/Default/aspx?tabid=138&language=en
St. Andrews is a church-run school for Somali (and other) refugees here in Cairo. It is about an hour’s walk from our apartment to the church. At the church, they stressed the point that even though they are church-affiliated, they do not convert anyone …ever. We will be working with the unaccompanied minors (refugees under age 18 who do not have parents with them in Cairo for various reasons) teaching them English. Each of us will work with 2 or 3 of the youth. However, due to cultural gender roles in Somalia, the guys in our group will only be able to work with male refugees. We girls can work with both genders. Compared to typical Muslim gender roles, it seems funny to me how the gender roles are slightly reversed in this setting.
Our Arabic placement exams were nearly impossible, but that’s how they’re designed to be. The exam was 23 pages long, and I think I wrote at least one word on almost half of the pages. I was so tired while taking the exam that I think I fell asleep about half-way through. No worries though. There was no time limit on the exam. While I was waiting after the exam, one of the people at Al-Diwan looked over my exam and said that pretty much all that I had answered was correct. I’m happy about that!
Well it is nearly midnight here in Cairo, so I think I will head off to sleep soon on the busted old couch in the living room. (Our apartment was short one bed …my bed… and I get the pleasure of sleeping on an ancient couch with 3 distinct butt grooves. We had been told by our landlord that the American University in Cairo would be furnishing us with a bed, but apparently he was mistaken.) Hopefully, I will get a real bed tomorrow!
-B