After a uneventful trip we arrived in Fort Wayne at 3am on Wednesday morning - definitely tired, but so glad to be home and with all our suitcases too! We went to bed for a few hours, then started off our day with a morning run. That was definitely different - we ran past green yards and neighborhood ponds, on sidewalks that were clean and well-maintained, saw only one or two cars, and barely sweated because it was in the 60s! (In Egypt our run takes us down busy streets and I spend the whole time trying not to think about the dust and fumes I'm breathing in...and trying not to get run over.) It's been pretty rainy and cool here, which is a novelty for us - I was actually wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt yesterday. I appreciate the coolness, but I do miss the sun. 

We had such a great service on Friday - the perfect way to end our time at MCC. We arrived to find the chairs all set up in a circle, with the worship team in the middle on the floor, the idea being that our services are meant to be corporate worship, not "us" staring at "them" up on stage. (Remember, we meet outside in a big open area so we can rearrange when we want to!) It was really cool to be able to look across from you and see faces of different colors and varying styles of clothing and remember, this is the body of Christ. 
Of course, Friday was the hottest day we've had yet (high of 104), and that means more people are running their ACs, and that means power outtages. Sure enough, after our first worship song the power cut out, including the precious fans that help us survive sitting for over an hour in the heat. Fortunately the music could continue; since they were not set up in their normal place they were using only acoustic instruments. The power ended up coming back on just as we were finishing, "How Great is Our God." =)
As we were sitting/standing, I was thinking, Wow, we have finished a whole year here. And finished well! I feel at home here at MCC. It's always encouraging, when you're about to move somewhere new, to know that last time you tried that it all worked out. =) God has really provided for us here, with jobs and family and safety and lots of good connections and relationships. We could've stayed here another year, had we not put all that effort into the Peace Corps application (no way we're giving up after that)!
Pastor Steve prayed for me and Dylan at the end of the service and lots of people (some of whom I didn't know) came over and hugged us, shook our hands, and wished us well. A great send-off. 

Yes, we know where we're going. And yes, you will have to read through graduation first, because we had to actually go through graduation before we found out!

Yesterday was a big day here! We all piled out of the house before 7am to go to the pyramids for Abby's graduation. The attendees were: Ann, Dan, Dylan, Johnny, me, Mimi (Ann's mom), Granddad (Ann's dad), Arnie (Ann's uncle), Margit (Ann's aunt), Faiza Ibrahim (the Costers' former nanny), Faiza (the Costers' maid for the last 15 years), and Om Ahmed (the Egyptian cook that's been providing us food twice a month for the last few years). We arrived at 7:30 and found our reserved seats (immediate families of grads get to sit up front), then settled in to wait until the ceremony started at 8. The whole thing takes place outside at the seating area usually used for the Sound and Light show, so picture the pyramids and Sphinx in the background. The graduates wear white (girls) and red (guys) robes and many wear sunglasses as they're staring into the sun (which is at our backs - I have the sunburn to prove it!). The ceremony included several student speakers and a couple musical acts as well as a faculty speaker, an Imam, and a pastor. Ann actually got to present Abby with her diploma as a member of the CAC faculty. We took loads of photos after the ceremony and took refuge in the shade of a tent after sitting in the sun for the last few hours. 


Congrats to Abby!

On the way home Dylan let me know that we had an email from my parents titled, "And the next two years of your life will be spent in..." He hadn't had a chance to open the email before we left! Smart of him to wait till after the ceremony to tell me. =) We had known the invitation from Peace Corps was in the mail to Mom and Dad and could arrive any time - and apparently this was the day!


When we got home I immediately grabbed a laptop and went to gmail. Dylan was giving me a hard time, taking forever to get a drink, so I dragged him from the kitchen and we sat down in front of the computer. "And the next two years of your life will be spent in..." We open the email... 

Namibia. Huh, well, that wasn't on our short list of possibilities, is not a French speaking country, and where is it anyway? We quickly started googling and found that Namibia is a large country on the West coast of Africa, just above South Africa and below Angola. The official language is English, but the most common language is Afrikaans and the colonial language is German, and the most common tribal language is Oshivambo. It's 80% Christian, mostly Lutheran. The climate is similar to Egypt in most of the country, dry and relatively hot. The seasons are reversed of course because it's in the southern hemisphere so they're just going on winter now. 

Armed with this information we announced to the gathered Costers our destination. More googling (group effort now, on several laptops). One of the main industries is mining, especially for diamonds and other precious minerals. Namibia just gained its independence in 1990 (so recent!) from South Africa (so it was part of South Africa during Apartheid). It has the 7th highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world (13% of the adult population is infected), and the highest level of economic inequality in the world (based on the GINI index). Peace Corps programs in Namibia include youth work, education, health, and information technology. 

We had a prime opportunity to spread the news an hour later at Abby's graduation party (which she shared with 5 others - lots of guests!). Everyone we talked to who knew anything about Namibia had only good things to say. Some quotes were, "Oh it's beautiful!" "A photographer's dream trip!" "You guys're gonna love it." There is actually even a couple here who lived in Namibia for 5 years and had been rooting for us to go there all along. They were thrilled and have invited us over to learn more about their experience there. I also have a friend from England who did Peace Corps in Namibia a few years ago, so it looks like we have a wealth of information available to us! 

We'll be leaving mid-August (around the 18th or 19th) for a two day orientation in the US followed by a two month training period in Namibia. We'll be sworn in and start our service on October 16, 2011, scheduled to finish on October 15, 2013. For now, this is all we know. We'll receive more information after Dylan and I formally accept the invitation, which we can't do until we have personally read through all the materials (which are with my mom and dad in the US). So, expect more details later this summer, but the wait is over. We're going to Namibia!

Well, the countdown has begun - 12 days till we fly back to the States. For those who are wondering, we have been officially accepted into Peace Corps, but are STILL waiting to find out our departure date and country of service. The good news is, we should find out next week!

Last weekend, Dylan and I had our annual "really nice dinner" outing. This is a tradition we started freshman year of college when we went to a Brazilian steakhouse in the spring. Sophomore year we discovered a fondue place in Chicago called Geja's and went there junior and senior year as well! Now that we're in Cairo we had to find a new place and Mena House definitely fit the bill.
Built in 1869, Mena House sits right at the base of the pyramids and has been used by royalty, world leaders, and aristocrats for the last century and a half. I first heard of it in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, which is about a family of Egyptologists in the early 1900s. I was fascinated by the descriptions of tea on the terrace and the donkey park (before there were cars you know) and that this same building still exists today. It is currently a 5 star hotel owned by Oberoi, but many of the original fixtures remain - the wood paneling, screened lights, low ceilings, and chandeliers for example. 
Dylan and I ate in the restaurant called Khan el Khalili (there are several other restaurants there as well), which looks out to the pyramids. We started with a Moroccan chickpea soup, followed by Fish Tagan (for me) and Murgh Makhani (for Dylan). The food was delicious! We lingered over some jasmine tea (for me). The staff was very attentive - I think when we left we had at least 6 people lining our path to the door saying "Thank you, have a good night." 
We wandered around the hotel for a little bit afterwards, taking pictures (many of which, I'm sad to say, didn't come out very well because it was really dark). It was really nice to get dressed up and have an evening to ourselves. And so cool to see this landmark and eat while looking at the pyramids!

On Saturday, I really felt privileged to live where I do. I was in a car, packed into a small space on the backseat next to about 20 food bags, with an Egyptian guy driving through crazy traffic, and a Sudanese man directing us to his daycare. We were followed by another car also packed with food bags, driven by a Dutch man who is on our church council, and the Sudanese director of Naath Community Development. 

When I left my house to meet Bayak (the director of NCD), I thought he and I and Arie (the Dutch man) were just going to head over to the daycare and talk for a bit. When I arrived at church, about 10 people were shuttling 50 food bags from the church out to the corner, and it turned out they were all to take with us! Arie's car is tiny and there was no way to fit it all in there, but fortunately Constantine (the Egyptian guy) offered to help drive us and the food. 

The daycare/adult education center for NCD is in Hadayek el Maadi, not far from our church, but in a much poorer part of town. We double-parked (there aren't really any parking laws in Egypt) and attracted many stares as we carried all the food bags into the center. The kids inside were supposed to be having a "Rest time," which an older Sudanese woman, Sarah, was unsuccessfully trying to enforce. The daycare is a place where parents can drop their little kids off while they go to work during the day. Sarah teaches the kids a bit of English and reading while they're there. The place is immaculate (except when the kids are eating lunch) with 3 small rooms set up for learning, playing, and sleeping. At night the center transforms into English classrooms for adults, who sit on the floor because there aren't enough chairs. On the weekend it is a place for community Bible study and women's group.


We (Arie, Constantine and I) sat with Bayak for a while after we brought the bags in. We were offered the obligatory soda (the only times in my life when I've ever had an entire can of soda have been while visiting African families) and sat in a few chairs in the office, closing the door so we could hear each other over the noise of the children. The main purpose of the trip was to introduce Arie to the ministry since he's on the MCC council. We've helped NCD out a few times over the last few months and we're hoping to grow that relationship more. NCD is really unique for a Sudanese organization here. For one thing, they've been able to pay the rent by collecting fees from the kids and from the community in general. Another thing, like I said before, is how clean they keep their center. They also have a proper Board of Directors that meets twice a month. All of this was set up by the Sudanese community, no Western help. I am impressed.

Since the revolution, things have gotten harder for this community. Many Sudanese work as cleaners or drivers for foreigners who left during the unrest. Bayak told us that fewer kids are able to pay the fees for the daycare now. There has also been more violence against Africans, probably because of the lack of police. One of our Sudanese church staff was injured by a gang on the streets last week. And just think of the psychological trauma these people would have gone through during the worst of the revolution. Many of them escaped from a violent situation in Sudan to be "safe" in Egypt. I think while the Americans were worried, the Sudanese and other African refugees were really afraid, reliving some of the things they thought they'd left behind. 

All this was reinforced for me today as I read the news that North Sudan has taken over the central city of Abyei. Although South Sudan voted for independence, the dividing line between north and south has been highly contested because the country's oil lies in the middle - the South claims Abyei is theirs, the north won't give it up. This could restart the civil war that ended back in 2005. When the referendum happened back in January, I talked to many Sudanese people who were hoping to go back home this summer. Now it looks like, if anything, we'll have more refugees arriving in Egypt.

All that to say, please pray for Sudan and the Sudanese refugees here in Egypt. It's not an easy life, and yet the response I get when I ask how they're getting through things, they'll say, "We're trusting God."

It occurred to me that you all are probably reading reports of the attack on a Coptic church last week, and maybe about some protests this weekend. Just wanted to reassure everyone that Maadi has stayed completely calm and we're okay. I have some Egyptian friends who know people who live in Imbaba, the poor area of Cairo where the church was attacked, but they don't know anyone who was injured or really involved. Although Egyptian Christians are having a hard time here, Westerners are not really being affected. 

The protests this weekend were connected to the Israel-Palestine conflict. There were big crowds, but all was peaceful. They actually had a "protest-festival" here in Maadi, which was basically a bunch of young people milling around and hanging out. There was extra security around the Israeli ambassador's residence, but no one challenged it. We have Israelis living in our building too and didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

We're starting to realize that our time here is running out - we actually leave for the States a month from yesterday! We're going to be staying busy up to the last minute with work, graduation, visitors, and moving. We're hanging in there. =)

Road 9 is a 10-15 minute walk from our apartment, and it is the place to go for restaurants and shopping around here. I take the metro three stops along Road 9 every Monday and Wednesday when I go to English class - from Sakanat el Maadi, the closest stop to my home, to Hadayek el Maadi which is right next to ETC. The office of the graphic designer who works on the Maadi Messenger with me is right next to the main Maadi metro stop. I love Lucille's, a restaurant that has the best hamburgers in Egypt (and beef sausage that's not too bad). You'd never know that most of the road used to be a residential area! Now it's so crowded that it's become a one-way street that's often blocked by traffic. 

And I have some catching up to do...
Last time I wrote, Dylan and I were about to leave for Ain Sokna, a beach area east of Cairo on the Red Sea. We had a great time, staying in an apartment (belonging to Dan's Egyptian cousin, Nabil) a few minutes walk from a private beach. The weather was just right (most of the time) for laying out and hot enough to make you want to get in the water. My favorite part was shell collecting on the beach - what amazing shells they have here! I'm used to being excited to find one of those plain everyday ones in good shape. I quickly learned that those were hardly even worth picking up on this beach because there were hundreds of them. I went for the more unique ones after that. 
We cooked a lot of our own meals, but also went out to a fish restaurant one night where we had an amazing seafood gumbo - complete with crab on top (like the whole crab...). Sadly I didn't have my camera with me that night. We also spent one day at a nearby hotel/resort called the Palmera. The pool was a nice break from Red sea salt water. (Update continued after photos...)

When we got back, we were home for about 2 days during which Dylan did a lot of tutoring and I found out that I had an additional two days vacation from work (how did I miss that?). Then we went to stay at a friend's house to dog-sit for them while they're gone. This is actually an embassy couple (Tim is a military translator and Maia works at the church with me), so Maia has been in the States since the revolution and Tim's been here. Embassy families were JUST allowed back into Egypt as of last week, but Tim had already planned this trip to see her and they'll be coming back together in a couple weeks. Anyway, they have a lovely apartment and Dylan and I are both dog people, so we had a good time. Their dog, Rocky, is a boxer puppy (less than a year old I think) and he likes to think he can sit on your lap although he's HUGE.

On Thursday we went to an Egyptian “wedding.” I say “wedding” because that can mean several different things here (there’s at least three parties/ceremonies on the way to being married) and it was definitely not what I usually think of as a wedding. This was for Zeinab, one of my English students – the same one whose house I went to a few weeks back for an engagement (wedding?) party.
Dylan and I got dressed up (conservatively because the wedding was in a mosque) and piled into a car with some other ETC people – Chris, the director, his wife and three kids, and Abi, the English program coordinator. We all had a kid on our laps for the 30 minute ride, but it wasn’t bad.
Chris had described the mosque we were going to as “a squashed golf ball from outer space” and I could see where he got that when we arrived. There were loads of people milling around (all dressed up, some women veiled and some not) but no one we knew. Chris found out from the guards that we were in the right place, but they actually have about 30 weddings there every day! So people are really in and out, and all the people we were seeing were with other groups. Eventually some others we knew showed up and explained that we would all go inside together when Zeinab got there. She showed up in Egyptian time, 5 minutes after the wedding was supposed to start. And lo and behold, she was wearing a bright blue dress! Picture a Miss America contestant – sequins on the gown, tiara, make-up, hair curled and flowing over the shoulder – and that was Zeinab. You’ll see in the pictures. Some guys with tambourines came up and started banging them, Zeinab greeted all of us (with her husband, who was wearing a suit) and we all processed disorderly through the gate.
We were led to a court-room like place with a low table at the front and rows of chairs. Everyone was milling around and talking. Zeinab and Emad came in through the front and set up in a corner (followed by a video man with a very bright spotlight) and then they were again greeted by all their guests (prime photo opportunity). The family knew my name since I had been at the house for that party previously so before I know it, Zeinab’s mom is saying, “Christiy, come!” So up I went into the fray. There were so many people I didn’t even get a very good photo! Eventually the crowd calmed down, although the milling around and talking continued through the whole ceremony. The bride and groom and some men sat down at the table and began filling out the paperwork (which I think was the main point of this particular ceremony). Juice and chocolate were served to the guests. At one point there was a long prayer which was said by the middle man at the table and repeated by the whole audience. During that Emad and Zeinab’s dad were holding hands under a white embroidered cloth. Not sure of the symbolism there.
When everything was signed and fingerprinted, we were done! The women did this high yodeling type sound to celebrate. We were rushed out of the room as the next group was supposed to come in (I suppose), and then we had some more photo/greeting time outside. So this ceremony, that I was prepared to sit for hours for, lasted only about 20 minutes. And the bride wore blue. And I’m not sure if they’re really married at this point or not – amongst the foreigners, we decided they’re probably allowed to live together at this point, but there’s another ceremony in two months.

Finally, I’m happy to say that the May Maadi Messenger came out this week, this time including an article by Christiy Coster! I can't believe it's only the first week of May. Time flies when you’re having fun! Thanks for sticking with me through this long update.

We started our Easter weekend on Thursday night with a mini-Seder at MCC. I wish I'd had a camera because the set-up was so cool. Big cloths were tied up to enclose our area (remember we meet outside under the tent) and the floor was covered with rugs. Low tables (maybe 20 of them?) with carved woodwork were scattered around and each had five poof cushions to sit on around it. Each table had a pitcher of grape juice, some flat bread, a plate of lamb, and a plate of herbs (parsley, lettuce, and horseradish). Pastor Steve talked us through the traditional Passover meal and the symbolism of each thing we were eating (parsley dipped in salt water for salty tears, bitter herbs for the bitterness of slavery in Egypt, lamb as the sacrificial lamb, the various wine cups - redemption, blessing...). It was cool to see how the symbolism referred both to the Passover (when the angel of death "passed over" the homes of Israelites in the 10th plague) and to the death of Christ. And the lamb was really good (made by one of Egyptian staff, Neamma). 

On Friday, our "normal" church day, we had a Good Friday service. It was necessarily a little depressing. I sang with the worship team and all our songs were slow and reflective and about the cross. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, we should reflect on Christ's death and suffering. We watched part of a video about the crucifixion and Steve talked about Jesus taking our sins on him. The conclusion was more upbeat - as Tony Campolo said, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." =)

Saturday was our day for fun Easter activities - we made egg shaped cookies and frosted them in different colors and made deviled eggs (they don't sell those egg coloring kits here). We had quiche, which is probably Dylan's favorite food here (one of my favorites too). In the evening we watched Godspell, which is an interesting portrayal of the gospel of Matthew. It was made in 1973. That's all I'll say.

On Easter morning we woke to find that the Easter bunny had scattered chocolate around our living room - it probably took us a good 10 minutes to find all of it too. We breakfasted on waffles and bacon and settled down to a game of Settlers of America. Our Easter service isn't until 7:00 tonight. 

Monday is also a holiday in Egypt. Sham el-Nessim is a national holiday rather than a religious one, dating back to ancient Egypt. People traditionally go for a picnic on this day and eat some kind of pickled fish (I have no desire to try it). Colored eggs are also part of this holiday (rather than Easter). I found out from my students that you can color eggs using vegetables (red onion for red, mint for green...). Who knew?