June 20, 2005

Dear Friends;
	Summer has definitely arrived! In general I thought I was handling it a little better than last summer, until today. It’s a scorcher out there. 35º in the shade and 30º inside my room. I don’t even want to know what it is in the sun! Generally, there is no rain in the summer in Egypt. However we have actually had a little rain a few times and at the end of April we actually had a thunderstorm. It was wonderful and lasted for 2 days. When I first heard the thunder in the morning, I thought I must be hearing something else, but very soon I realized it had to be thunder and nothing else. In the evening as I was attending a course in an upper floor of a building downtown, it was wonderful to be able to watch the lightening light up the sky overhead. To those who live on the Prairies I don’t need to describe it. Since thunderstorms are a little unusual at this time of year, I decided God had sent it so that I wouldn’t feel quite so homesick.

	In April, I made a quick trip to St. Catherine in the Sinai for a weekend of relaxation and recuperation from my previous stressful months, as outlined in my last letter. St. Catherine is a little town near Mt. Sinai. It was just what I needed. From the moment I arrived I felt the beauty and the tranquility of the place seeping into my soul and filling me with a sense of peace and well-being. The Sinai truly seems to be one of the “Holy Places”.  I visited some Bedouin women in their homes with my French friend (I met her at the convent where I live). She had visited them previously and had already established a relationship with them. It was good to be able to go along with her. We went into 3 homes, and of course at each place we were offered a drink. At the first place we had regular tea; at the second place we had hot chocolate without milk; and at the 3rd place we had hot mint. I don’t think they had coordinated this with each other. It was nice not to get tea 3 times! It was wonderful to be so easily welcomed into these homes, and shown hospitality by virtual strangers. I have much to learn about hospitality from Egyptians. One night we went out into the desert/mountains. The stars were spectacular! I saw ½ dozen or so falling stars. We ate a simple supper of bread and cheese out under the stars. When I returned to Cairo, I was very much refreshed. 

	Easter was celebrated here on May 1. In the week preceding Easter there are many special events in the church beginning with Palm Sunday. One evening, shortly before Palm Sunday, as I was walking past an Orthodox Church in Ezbet El Nakhl, I saw a man on a donkey, with his small daughter sitting behind him, reaching out for a palm branch. It was one of those little snapshots that stay in your mind. I couldn’t help but think that Jesus would have felt right at home on the streets of Ezbet El Nakhl. I celebrated Palm Sunday in Beni Seuf (a city south of Cairo) along with some fellow MCCers. We went to a church at a nearby retreat centre. We didn’t actually go inside the church for the service, but waited outside the church with crowds of Egyptian people, some making Palm Branch weavings while waiting for the end of the service.  Prior to Palm Sunday, it is possible to buy all kinds of Palm Branch weavings at any of the Coptic Orthodox Churches, but many people make their own. I pulled out my camera to take some pictures and of course I soon had a crowd of children asking me to take pictures of them. This is one big advantage of a digital camera. You can take as many pictures as people request (provided of course you have the patience for it), then can erase whatever you don’t want. At the end of any Coptic Orthodox Mass the priests sprinkle water on the people. But at the end of this service the priest stood on the balcony throwing buckets of water over the assembled crowds below who were screaming and waving palm branches. In such a place it is not hard to imagine what the original Palm Sunday must have been like when people cheered and waved Palm Branches as Jesus passed by into Jerusalem. 	

	Thursday before Easter I went to church with some of the teachers I work with. We left at 7AM and I stayed at the church until 1PM. One other teacher left with me at that time, but the other stayed until around 3PM. This service was for the celebration of the last supper. The priest washed the feet of the men by touching their legs or their feet with a wet cloth. I completed my Easter celebrations by attending mass Saturday evening with a teacher who helped in the service for people who were disabled, old, or sick. This service was earlier in the evening than for most people. As I was sitting in the church filled with people with special needs, filled with the sick and the elderly, filled with the deaf, again I was impressed with the thought that Jesus would feel right at home here.  At the end of the service, one little old lady tucked her feet up under her on the bench and began singing.  Truly a special moment. After the Easter service everyone goes home and eats meat at midnight since they have been fasting from meat for the previous 55 days.  

	Easter Sunday I visited some of the teachers from the school. In the evening I went to an engagement party with one teacher and her family. It was the typical noisy event, celebrated on the roof of a building (often they are celebrated in the street). There were probably quite a few wedding and engagement parties celebrated the week after Easter, as generally Orthodox Christians prefer not to have these parties during fasting periods. When I wanted to be taken home (I didn’t know the way), the teacher’s husband walked me all the way home – it was a ½ hour walk, which meant he had to walk back again for another ½ hour making it in total a 1-hour walk. How many people do I know who would be willing to drive ½ hour extra to make sure I got home, never mind walk. Again I was humbled by the servant attitude and the hospitality of the Egyptian people.

	We had our MCC Middle East retreat in the beginning of May in a small town near Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a fabulous place. There is a large retreat centre with gates that open directly onto the beach. Believe it or not, at the beginning of May, on the Sea, it was still a little cool several of the days. Of course not too cold to go swimming. (What sea in Egypt can be too cold after swimming in the lakes north of Prince Albert or in Lake Manitoba?) The sea does have a strong undercurrent and so they advised us not to go swimming. As I’m not a strong swimmer, I figured I had better listen to the advice and stayed in the shallow part, enjoying letting the waves crash over me. The second day we were there, the sea was completely calm. The day was hot and perfect for swimming and so I went. By evening, however, the winds really picked up, and the next day we had large waves which crashed up past my knees when I was not even standing in the water (except for when the waves came up). The centre also had a swimming pool, so there was always some place to go swimming. 

	I have been working in a “construction zone” at school. The centre is located on the 2nd floor of a 6-storey building. Only the bottom 2 floors of the building are completed. The floor under the centre is used for a daycare/pre-school/Kindergarten. Walking “underneath” this construction zone has been a little scary at times, especially when the construction was happening directly on top of the doorway, and bricks or debris came raining down from above. It is interesting though to see the process of a building being built. I am amazed at the strength of some of these Egyptian men, who are smaller than I, and yet hoist heavy bags of cement over their shoulders and carry them up 4, 5, 6  flights of stairs. First there is the “skeleton” (I am not a builder, hence, I don’t know the proper building terms.) made of concrete. Then they fill in the spaces with bricks, putting some kind of plaster between the bricks.  Most buildings in this area stay at that stage on the outside. This building however got 3 layers of “plaster” put on top on the bricks. And the way the men “plaster” it on, the “plaster” goes flying and dropping and watch out if you’re trying to get through the doorway underneath. Furthermore, they didn’t think to cover the windows of the school, until after they had already covered them with plaster. Fortunately they did only one side of the building at once (the front). The room I consider “mine” is on the back side of the building, and they did actually remember to cover some of those windows, before they started with the “plastering”. So now they have gotten around to doing the back side, meaning my window is now covered with a layer of plastic, so the possibility of getting any air flow, other than what is created by the fan, is nil! At least my room is on the north side, and so the heat is not as bad as it might have been. The other building technique, that has driven me crazy at times, is when they make the “plaster” look like brick. This is all done by hand. The man doing this chisels out straight lines, to look like bricks, then he hammers the inside of the brick to form a pattern. It is interesting to watch, but the noise of the pounding and hammering all day, is enough to drive anyone crazy. Especially when one is trying to give a workshop to the teachers in the midst of this noise. They do seem to be working on it fairly steadily now, so hopefully by autumn the worst of it will be over. I can always be optimistic can’t I? Being an Occupational Therapist I also have to consider that this poor guy swinging the hammer in the same manner all day is liable to get “repetitive strain injury”. Just one more thing for an Occupational Therapist to worry about in Egypt!
	
	We have not lost too many more teachers at the school recently. We did however lose one who had been my main translator for meetings at school. Fortunately the “new Tasony (sister)” (I mentioned her in my last letter) does speak some English so I have been able to manage. Sometimes I can understand what they are talking about in Arabic, but this is still extremely difficult except when people are speaking to me directly – speaking slowly and using simple words. At times, I do have bright spots in my language learning process. For example, the time I wanted to provide a suggestion to one teacher of how she could handle a certain situation in her classroom. I went to look for Osama (who translates my workshops for me). When I couldn’t find him, I decided that if I tried hard, I should be able to explain to the teacher what I meant. So I went back, and I did! Another highlight – I was showing a couple around the school. The woman was American and spoke very little Arabic. At one point I wanted to say something to her quickly and was a little confused when she didn’t seem to respond immediately and looked at me a little blankly. It was only then that I realized that I had spoken to her in Arabic! And bad Arabic at that! Why was I not speaking English? I guess I’m so used to having to try to speak Arabic in the school; it is starting to come naturally.
	
	School continues to be busy. There was a “year end” party on June 12th which actually went quite well. Many of the children really enjoyed themselves. I did not do much of the work for the party.  The school year continues until June 30. Then on July 2, summer club begins. There may be around 20 – 25 children who will attend the summer club. I think this year will be much better organized than last year, as Tasony Parthinia seems to have some good ideas of how this should be done. I will be doing some extra workshops during this month as well for the teachers who started since March. In the meantime I am also trying to bring in a few changes for next year, including better organization, and planning – both things that seem to be a little deficient in Egypt in general. Some of the programming needs to be reworked, especially for the lower level children. I will try to let you know in my next letter how successful I was . One other big change in the school, is that the Tasony who was director for the centre decided to begin training with another program run by the convent here. Last year, we had a director who was here only part time. This year we had a new director (Tasony Ologia) who is now working with a different program. I think she is still trying to do some of the directing for the school, but in the long term this does not work. Our biggest need right now is a Director with commitment to the school, who will stay for awhile (as in for the foreseeable future), and who has a passion for working with children with disabilities. As I have noted it is difficult to keep teachers here, and I think it is difficult to build any kind of continuity and stability in the program when the director changes constantly. This is a need for which I ask your prayers. The picture is of Tasony Ologia and 2 of the cleaning women at the school.
	
	There continue to be other changes around me as well. Two “3-year” MCCers have finished or are finishing their terms this summer. One of them is planning to stay in Egypt working with a different organization and so I expect to continue to have contact with him. We had 1 SALTer here (1-year) who has left already as well. We have 1 new “3-year termer” who arrived in the beginning of May. I guess that is part of being overseas – constant change in the International community. The pastor at the International Church I was attending most frequently also left in May. 
	
	This summer I am very much looking forward to a trip to Canada! I plan to be in Manitoba July 13 – 22; Prince Albert July 23 – 26; back in Manitoba until August 7. Then I plan to finish off my time in Canada with a week long Occupational Therapy workshop near Abbotsford, BC. I would love to see all of you while I am home, but know that will not be possible. However if you are in Manitoba or Prince Albert and would like to see me you can contact me directly by e-mail at gd@dueck.ca or call my sister Rose in Manitoba (204) 364-2335, with whom I will be keeping in close contact regarding my plans. I am very much looking forward to seeing friends and family again.

	God’s peace and blessings to all,


Gloria Dueck