What a busy week! We arrived on Monday afternoon and Monday evening I went to teach my English class. Dylan escorted me there and back on the metro, but everything seemed calm and safe. My class is almost all still here - 12 out of 14. Some of the other classes have lost more students (I assume because we didn't have class for two weeks and they just gave up on it?). We'll be having our final exam next week! I'll be able to teach one more class after this session before we go back to the States in June.
Tuesday was a work day for me and a school day for Abby, so we were all up relatively early. There was a church prayer meeting in the evening, which was really cool. They had spelled out the names of various countries that are struggling on big construction paper and spread them out on the stage at church. We all went and laid hands on the countries' names as we prayed for them (Egypt, Libya, Morrocco, Algeria, Tunisia...). Wednesday I walked about 5 miles getting to work and various meetings in other parts of Maadi and then getting to English class at night! It was so great to come home after work on Thursday and know the weekend had arrived!
Tuesday was a work day for me and a school day for Abby, so we were all up relatively early. There was a church prayer meeting in the evening, which was really cool. They had spelled out the names of various countries that are struggling on big construction paper and spread them out on the stage at church. We all went and laid hands on the countries' names as we prayed for them (Egypt, Libya, Morrocco, Algeria, Tunisia...). Wednesday I walked about 5 miles getting to work and various meetings in other parts of Maadi and then getting to English class at night! It was so great to come home after work on Thursday and know the weekend had arrived!
Dylan and I went for a walk that afternoon (it's beautiful weather here - in the 70s) and took some pictures of the "new Egypt." The main difference is there's been a huge increase in Egyptian pride. Flags are everywhere, even having been painted on the trees!
We also saw teams of young people cleaning the sidewalks, repainting the curbs, and throwing trash away. This is SO unusual for Egypt! Generally people do not take care of public places, thinking "this is someone else's responsibility." But now they're really trying to clean the place up! We've also seen bumper stickers saying, "Proud to be an Egyptian" and, "I was there on January 25th!"
Other than that, day-to-day life seems much the same as before. There are occasional reports of violence, and I've heard there's still demonstrations going on in Upper Egypt. Actually, now that Egypt isn't on the news anymore, it's hard to tell whats going on unless it happens right at our front door! Libya is the main event now.
We're being careful not to go out alone at night, but otherwise we feel free to walk around our area. Our street is extremely well lit, with working street lamps every 10 feet or so! (That's new since we came back.) Our church service is going to be in the evening again this week for the first time in a month.
Some people are slowly trickling back in. CAC is up to about 60% of their normal attendance, and last week there were over 200 people at church (up from about 150 before). The embassy will almost definitely keep their people out for another month, which means some of the oil companies are keeping their distance as well. We still don't know where exactly this country is headed, but it'll be interesting to watch!
We're being careful not to go out alone at night, but otherwise we feel free to walk around our area. Our street is extremely well lit, with working street lamps every 10 feet or so! (That's new since we came back.) Our church service is going to be in the evening again this week for the first time in a month.
Some people are slowly trickling back in. CAC is up to about 60% of their normal attendance, and last week there were over 200 people at church (up from about 150 before). The embassy will almost definitely keep their people out for another month, which means some of the oil companies are keeping their distance as well. We still don't know where exactly this country is headed, but it'll be interesting to watch!