12-Oct-04
  
  Dear Friends,
       I survived the summer! Yeah! And now it is turning cooler and I'm happy!
  Yes, summer was hot (though some people liked to encourage me by saying that
  the summer was actually somewhat cool this year). Evenings were frequently
  tolerable, though there were several heat waves where it was hot non-stop. I think I
  nearly gave myself a heatstroke before I realized that I would simply have to: (1)
  slow down while walking (I'm beginning to understand why Egyptians walk so
  slow   usually I pass everyone on the street), (2) make sure I always carry water
  with me that is easily accessible, and (3) avoid going out during the day if at all
  possible. When following those rules, it was possible to survive the summer. Of
  course, many cold showers were also helpful. It was draining though to go to bed
  hot, and to wake up hot, and have no place to go in-between to cool off! But the
  worst seems to be over! It is still definitely hot during the day if out in the sun.
  However if you stay in the shade, it is generally comfortable and at night generally
  cool (at least until the next heat wave!). I have even used a thin blanket a few times
  at night towards morning.
       Early in the summer I was very fortunate to have my friend Stephanie
  Kauffman come to visit me. We know each other from back in our high school
  years. Unfortunately for her, we had one of our worst heat waves of the summer
  while she was here (of course I could also have gotten used to the heat a little after
  that.) Also unfortunately for her, on top of suffering from the heat, she must have
  caught some of "Pharaoh's revenge" and she was sick for some of her visit. Despite
  the heat and the illness we did manage to do a number of things including, the
  pyramids (of course), Egyptian museum, felucca on the Nile, trips to Ezbet El
  Nakhl, weekend trip to Minia (Upper Egypt) and a week-long trip to Dahab.
  Dahab (the name means gold), is a tourist town on the Red Sea. The bus trip to
  Dahab was a little long, some 8 hours or so, but the time in Dahab was worth it.
  The highlight was a hotel room with air conditioning! So, while Dahab was very
  hot, at least we had a place where we could go cool off in between. Most afternoons
  we spent some time in the room and of course at night it was a welcome change to
  have a cool place to sleep. Besides the hotel room, we went swimming, shopping,
  and snorkeling, and did an evening excursion into the hills. Snorkeling was
  definitely a highlight. I had never done snorkeled before and it was an absolutely
  amazing experience. I will admit to some fear as I am not a good swimmer, but
  with the assistance of a wet suit, I felt confident enough to stay afloat and swim out
  to see the fish. That makes it sound easier than it was. It took me a long time,
  practicing breathing under water and floating in the shallow area before I was ready
  to attempt deeper waters. I also had a great friend to snorkel with. Stephanie was
  very patient with me even though she would probably have liked to go out further
  than we ventured. Dahab is really a good place to do snorkeling for the first time if
  you are a little nervous. You can enter the water slowly, and practice a little in the
  shallow area before swimming a few more feet out to the reef. The reef is very close
  to the shore. At the reef of course the water drops off very suddenly. It is just such
  a different world under water. The colours become more intense and it is so
  peaceful, and "other worldly" under the water.
       At the end of the August, beginning of September I went on a trip to Jordan
  with Brad & Jennifer and their children. Brad & Jennifer are an MCC couple
  working in Beni Seuf. It was wonderful to be able to travel with a family. Brad
  made many of the arrangements and it was very nice to just be able to relax and go
  along for the ride. We saw a number of old amazing sites including a crusader
  castle, Roman ruins, and the ancient city of Petra. As I read about the crusades and
  how Christian Europe wanted to civilize the Arab world and/or save their world,
  by killing and conquering, I had to think that we have not come so far from that
  kind of thinking as I would like. The ancient city of Petra is a city carved out of the
  sides of the cliffs. Many of the buildings are absolutely huge and intricately carved
  on the outside. Inside, most were fairly basic square rooms, though even carving
  that out will have involved moving huge amounts of rock and dirt. The colours of
  the cliffs were beautiful, pink, and blue, and purple, and gold. I did not know that
  rocks could be so beautiful! It was great to travel with a family who like me,
  enjoyed getting off the beaten path, and some of the most beautiful and interesting
  places we saw were definitely off the beaten track. We were in Petra for 2 days of
  pretty intensive walking and climbing. On the second day we entered Petra
  through a back way, which definitely involved some path finding, climbing, and
  small drops, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was so good to get in some good
  hiking, though by the end of the second day, my feet were getting a little sore, and
  I ended up with a couple of blisters. We also spent a day at the Dead Sea, which I
  also enjoyed. The black mud was so silky soft and smooth, it was fun covering
  myself it. It was hot sitting in the sun though waiting for the mud to dry. It was
  also very relaxing to just lie down on the sea, close my eyes, and float. As it turns
  out I shouldn't have been quite so relaxed about the trip. I left Brad & Jennifer on
  Sunday to fly back to Egypt while they traveled on to Syria. Unfortunately when I
  got to the airport, I couldn't get a seat on the plane. Having flown primarily in
  Canada until now, it did not occur to me that I needed to confirm the return
  portion of my trip! And since I hadn't done that, they wouldn't let me on. I had as
  I said left the details of the trip to Brad and so didn't even have phone numbers of
  contacts in Jordan, except for the card from a Habitat for Humanity Worker (a
  friend of Brad & Jennifer's) who had given me his card when he had taken us out
  for supper one night. (Incidentally, traveling with Brad & Jennifer I had the
  additional fortune of meeting some lovely people who they knew in Jordan, whom
  I would otherwise not have met.) So it took me a little while to contact the MCC
  workers in Jordan. I didn't even know where the MCC office in Amman was
  though it was just around the corner from the hotel we had stayed at! I ended up
  having to stay until Tuesday night, and can't say that I really enjoyed the additional
  days of my stay. The good thing is that I looked forward to getting back to Egypt
  which I might not have anticipated so happily otherwise! The moral of the story:
  (1) ALWAYS confirm flight tickets, especially in the Middle East and (2) Take any
  and all phone numbers, addresses, which might be at all useful to you if you are in
  need of something.
       Lest you think I vacationed the whole summer, let me assure you that I did
  continue to work. The teachers and some children were at school until the end of
  July. Since there were only a few children, the teachers used this time to do some
  preparation work, and I used the time to work individually with some of the
  children. In August the teachers had 3 weeks off from school. I used this time to
  catch up on some things, prepare a presentation for my church in Canada, and
  begin to work on some workshops for the teachers. Then at the end of August, just
  before heading to Jordan, the teachers were back at school, and so before leaving I
  did a few workshops for the teachers.
  I spent a number of weeks in the summer living in MCC housing in Heliopolis to
  give me better access to the Internet and for a change of pace from convent life.
  The two women who were here with SALT (an MCC 1-year program) left at the
  end of July. Their leaving was definitely a difficult adjustment. We do have one
  new SALTer - a single man who will be working in Beni Seuf. 
       The first month and a half of school have seen a number of changes and
  have been rather difficult. We have a new director at the school, a sister from the
  convent at Beni Seuf (the 'mother' convent for this convent.). While it is good to
  have a director who is actually present (unlike last year's director who came
  approximately once per month), she has not done this kind of work before and so I
  think finds it difficult at times. We started the school year with many new teachers,
  however as the school year continues, we keep losing more and more teachers from
  last year, and now there are only a few here who taught last year. This has made
  my start very difficult. I have been rather discouraged that as I am trying to do
  some training, the turnover of teachers is such that every week I am speaking to
  new teachers. It is hard to build a base of knowledge when there are so many new
  teachers. It is also difficult for the new teachers when they have so few mentors to
  learn from. Here teachers don't always have training in education, in fact most
  don't. So most of the teachers here don't have any training in education and
  definitely no training in working with children with special needs. I find it a little
  challenging to know where to start with training the teachers when I myself am
  not a teacher. In Canada I was used to working with teachers who at least had the
  educator's base of knowledge. Not that these teachers don't try. They do. Most
  work hard and care very much about the students, but they often don't know how
  to handle the children. 
  I am finding time management for myself to be difficult. Right now I am
  responsible for doing a workshop every Thursday for approximately 1 « hours. I
  do this with translation. Unfortunately the teacher from last year, who was good at
  English, and did some translating for me previously, left. The teacher translating
  for me now does well, but does not understand English as well as the previous
  teacher did, so the translation part is a little difficult sometimes. The good thing is
  that it forces me to really think about what I want to say, and put it in the simplest
  terms possible. Sometimes it is too easy to throw terms around without having a
  clear idea of what they mean. Working with a translator does not allow me to do
  that. I actually have to know what I am talking about! It is also harder to maintain
  a good flow in the workshop with a translator. Sometimes as the translator is
  translating something I am thinking about the next thing I want to say, then the
  translator turns and asks me to repeat something or clarify something, and of
  course I can't remember what I just said! I had asked Tasony (sister) Maria for a
  translator and for 1 week I had someone to translate for me who grew up in Egypt,
  but had worked in Canada for the past 30 years as a Music Therapist.
  Unfortunately, she left. Communication difficulties are my biggest ongoing
  frustrations. Teachers ask me questions and either I can't understand them, or they
  can't understand my answer of both. And then I am frustrated by my limitations in
  helping them. For that reason I am concentrating more on doing workshops right
  now than in working with children individually. However, the need to work with
  children and teachers is also great, especially with so many inexperienced teachers. I
  am also frustrated by both my inexperience in specialized seating for children with
  physical disabilities, as well as my lack of resources to equipment. I guess I need to
  get a little more creative. Pray for me that I will know how to manage my time
  effectively. Pray that I may find a translator to work with me.
       I am continuing with my Arabic studies, which also takes a lot of time. And
  no, I am not fluent. Sometimes I understand and more times I don't. I tried saying a
  few sentences to the parent's at the parent's meeting but needed my translator to
  translate my Arabic for the parents. Fortunately, the translator understood what I
  was trying to sayJ.
       I have joined a Choir at an Arabic Evangelical Church. They are planning
  to sing the Christmas cantata in both Arabic and English. The English is not that
  difficult, but the Arabic is something else. To read, and pronounce the words at the
  speed of a song is very difficult, especially when I don't understand how they
  combine word parts, as in part of one word with part of the next word as they sing.
  Practice is pretty intense, 2 times a week for 3 hours. So far I am finding it quite
  difficult to make it to that many practices so I'm not sure how long I will be able to
  continue with the choir. I hope to at least be able to participate in the Christmas
  cantata.
       Autumn seems to be the season for change and new beginnings as people
  head off to school, or send their children out the door to school. I would love to
  hear from you as to what is happening in your lives this fall, and your plans for the
  coming winter. Thank-you for your support and prayers. They are much
  appreciated.
  Love,
  Gloria Dueck