Mmmm . . . Crunchy
Andrew and I made roz bi labin and sahlab today - the roz bi labin was crunchy, and the sahlab wasn't quite thick enough (not to mention that the nuts tasted a little old - sorry about that Andrew) but it was still a delicious reminder of Egypt.
Right now I'm supposed to be writing an article for our school newspaper about my semester abroad, but not only did I just introduce my roommates to "Ah winoos" (we had a dance party and they all want to get copies of my Egyptian music now - and dancing has made me ADD) but thinking of Egypt also makes me miss all of you (which has been happening a lot lately) and I decided that I just couldn't put off posting any longer.
I think it's been about 4 months since I last posted - I had some difficulty figuring out how to do it just now. Like Claire, I find that blogging isn't my strongest point. It's not that I don't want to post (and I check the blog almost everyday), it's just that since it's been so long I feel like I have so much to write that I don't even know where to start.
First of all, I have to say that while I was reading on the blog that Margaret was searching for me somewhere between Iowa and Canada, I was wondering what happened to Claire so thanks Marcia for letting us know that she's ok up there in Minnesota. Today I was watching a documentary called "The Lost Boys of Sudan" and in it, some Sudanese boys were going to a Nazarene church in Kansas (possibly in the same town in which Rachel lives) and I got to thinking about where Rachel is too. To all those who seem to have disappeared (i.e. Rachel, Paul, Chris, Denny) : where are you?
I've been in classes now for a little over one month (for some reason Dordt decided that August would be a good month to start). School is . . . well, it's school. The classes just can't compare with MESP and things are way too busy, but I like being a senior so I'm surviving. Since I switched my major so many times I'm not exactly coasting through my last year like a lot of my friends, which isn't the greatest because I get easily distracted (stop laughing Chelsea and Lindsay).
I spent some of June and all of July and August working at a summer camp for inner city/underprivileged kids (ranging from 8 to 18 years old) that's about an hour and a half away from my house - it was the best summer job I've ever had. It was rough sometimes - we had kids running away, kids threatening to kill themselves and others, and kids who had some really tough life stories, but just being able to love them for a week (though a challenging thing some days) was amazing. For a lot of the kids, "home" is a place none of us would want to be and it was always a really helpless feeling to watch them get on the bus at the end of the week. However, being able to give them 1 week of being a kid, and being able to give them one more step up in life (even if it was a small one) was something I'll never regret doing. I'm still keeping in contact with quite a few of them and we're going to have "camp reunions" and I'm grateful for that. The camp director was big on "wilderness" stuff so we did a lot of fire building, and over-the-fire cooking, and tenting, and sleeping in teepees or just under the stars and it was amazing. One of the funniest parts of every week was on our cookout/sleepout night when the first campers said they had to go to the bathroom and I got to tell them (while trying not to laugh) that they had to go in the bushes. Some of them were not impressed, and some of them were a little too impressed (lots of stories about that one). Most of them were "unchurched" and I really loved that too - they asked a lot of really tough questions about God (I felt like I should have gone to seminary before I started at camp) but even if they were cynical (which a lot of them were), they still had a lot to say about it all. I think the hardest was the campers -I'd get at least 1 every week- who would ask, "Trigger, (that was my camp name - no reason behind it. Two of the counselors just thought it sounded "cool" and the campers could never remember "Dena" anyways), if God loves everyone, then why is my life like this?" How are you supposed to answer that in a way that a 10 year old can understand? I don't even usually understand . . . I also had a lot of kids who had many of the questions that we struggled with at MESP about other religions and people of other faiths. I told them a lot about my struggles with that too, and we talked a lot about faith and about how there are no easy answers and about how we can't ever be the judge. That part was really hard for me . . .
Now I'm back in school and I have time to think about things besides camp and I think I'm going through "Egypt-withdrawal". When I first got here I went for coffee with Margaret before she went off to Canada and we both decided that the place we'd most like to be is back in Cairo - Andrew and I still feel that way a lot. Today one of Andrew's roommates asked me what I liked the most about Egypt - my answer was the people. Andrew's current answer (I think it changes a lot) was "being able to walk outside my door and get so many different kinds of food like shwerma, falafel, and sahlab." I laughed :)
Well, I'm sure I could keep going, but it' s almost midnight and my article's really not doing so well, so I'm going to get to writing it. Hope all's well in your areas of the world, and, for one last word from Dr. Dave, remember not to forget that we are freeriding on the killing of our ancestors. . . (what a cheerful note to end on - I just keep thinking of our Chelsea-authored song).
Cheers,
Dena
Right now I'm supposed to be writing an article for our school newspaper about my semester abroad, but not only did I just introduce my roommates to "Ah winoos" (we had a dance party and they all want to get copies of my Egyptian music now - and dancing has made me ADD) but thinking of Egypt also makes me miss all of you (which has been happening a lot lately) and I decided that I just couldn't put off posting any longer.
I think it's been about 4 months since I last posted - I had some difficulty figuring out how to do it just now. Like Claire, I find that blogging isn't my strongest point. It's not that I don't want to post (and I check the blog almost everyday), it's just that since it's been so long I feel like I have so much to write that I don't even know where to start.
First of all, I have to say that while I was reading on the blog that Margaret was searching for me somewhere between Iowa and Canada, I was wondering what happened to Claire so thanks Marcia for letting us know that she's ok up there in Minnesota. Today I was watching a documentary called "The Lost Boys of Sudan" and in it, some Sudanese boys were going to a Nazarene church in Kansas (possibly in the same town in which Rachel lives) and I got to thinking about where Rachel is too. To all those who seem to have disappeared (i.e. Rachel, Paul, Chris, Denny) : where are you?
I've been in classes now for a little over one month (for some reason Dordt decided that August would be a good month to start). School is . . . well, it's school. The classes just can't compare with MESP and things are way too busy, but I like being a senior so I'm surviving. Since I switched my major so many times I'm not exactly coasting through my last year like a lot of my friends, which isn't the greatest because I get easily distracted (stop laughing Chelsea and Lindsay).
I spent some of June and all of July and August working at a summer camp for inner city/underprivileged kids (ranging from 8 to 18 years old) that's about an hour and a half away from my house - it was the best summer job I've ever had. It was rough sometimes - we had kids running away, kids threatening to kill themselves and others, and kids who had some really tough life stories, but just being able to love them for a week (though a challenging thing some days) was amazing. For a lot of the kids, "home" is a place none of us would want to be and it was always a really helpless feeling to watch them get on the bus at the end of the week. However, being able to give them 1 week of being a kid, and being able to give them one more step up in life (even if it was a small one) was something I'll never regret doing. I'm still keeping in contact with quite a few of them and we're going to have "camp reunions" and I'm grateful for that. The camp director was big on "wilderness" stuff so we did a lot of fire building, and over-the-fire cooking, and tenting, and sleeping in teepees or just under the stars and it was amazing. One of the funniest parts of every week was on our cookout/sleepout night when the first campers said they had to go to the bathroom and I got to tell them (while trying not to laugh) that they had to go in the bushes. Some of them were not impressed, and some of them were a little too impressed (lots of stories about that one). Most of them were "unchurched" and I really loved that too - they asked a lot of really tough questions about God (I felt like I should have gone to seminary before I started at camp) but even if they were cynical (which a lot of them were), they still had a lot to say about it all. I think the hardest was the campers -I'd get at least 1 every week- who would ask, "Trigger, (that was my camp name - no reason behind it. Two of the counselors just thought it sounded "cool" and the campers could never remember "Dena" anyways), if God loves everyone, then why is my life like this?" How are you supposed to answer that in a way that a 10 year old can understand? I don't even usually understand . . . I also had a lot of kids who had many of the questions that we struggled with at MESP about other religions and people of other faiths. I told them a lot about my struggles with that too, and we talked a lot about faith and about how there are no easy answers and about how we can't ever be the judge. That part was really hard for me . . .
Now I'm back in school and I have time to think about things besides camp and I think I'm going through "Egypt-withdrawal". When I first got here I went for coffee with Margaret before she went off to Canada and we both decided that the place we'd most like to be is back in Cairo - Andrew and I still feel that way a lot. Today one of Andrew's roommates asked me what I liked the most about Egypt - my answer was the people. Andrew's current answer (I think it changes a lot) was "being able to walk outside my door and get so many different kinds of food like shwerma, falafel, and sahlab." I laughed :)
Well, I'm sure I could keep going, but it' s almost midnight and my article's really not doing so well, so I'm going to get to writing it. Hope all's well in your areas of the world, and, for one last word from Dr. Dave, remember not to forget that we are freeriding on the killing of our ancestors. . . (what a cheerful note to end on - I just keep thinking of our Chelsea-authored song).
Cheers,
Dena
posted by Dena at ٧:١٣ ص
5 Comments:
oh Dena,
remember when we would have to seclude ourselves to my bed in order to leave the chaos of the living room?
yeah, you need to get back to work. me too.
Sooooo you know how you know something but your mind won't let you remeber it no matter how hard you try? Yeah. If I cant remember what 'ah winoos' means I'm going to go crazy. Or have a sugar-induced coma from drinking too much tea, Egyptian style, to try and jar my memory. I cant decide which.
"Ah winoos" is that song by Nancy Agram - the one we learned in Arabic class that was always on the radio. Here are some of the words that I can remember:
Bos il bos il bos
(something else, something else) ah wi nos
Mafiish hagga tiggi kidda
ehna habibi kidda . . .
That's all I got for now :)
Dena--
At the grocery store tonight I spotted gummy lips--streets of Jerusalem style. I didn't buy them but now I wish I would have. Good to hear from you. Much love.
Marcia,
I went for coffee about a month ago with Margaret (that being the last time I saw our dear future president of Cuba) and we were discussing how brave you were with calling up that imam and all. Way to go. You've inspired me to do a little more searching around Sioux Center for mosques, orthodox churches, anyone who speaks arabic, etc. I wanted to try at home (because there's a sizable Muslim community in Edmonton)but because I wasn't home much this summer, I didn't get the chance. Thanks for the memory of Jerusalem. I have all my Israel pictures in an album (my Egypt pictures are still all in envelopes) and I look at the album at least twice a week. Oh memories. Remember Charlie?
Much love back to you . . .
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