I don't know where to even start with the war on Gaza, but I feel that it is important to share with you, my perspective living in the region. In the past couple weeks, I have engaged in conversations with co-workers and friends to gain a better understanding of what Arabs think of the situation. In a conversation with a coworker, I learned that the general Arab population does not like the Palestinian people. My coworker is of Palestinian origin, but was raised in Jordan and Kuwait and faced discrimination in both countries. This is important to point out because I [View Full Entry]

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Things have been hectic since the new year started. My office had a 3 day staff retreat in El Gouna, Egypt - the first and only self sustaining community in Egypt. However, the community is very upscale and lacks character. I cannot complain because our office paid for our flight, hotel accomodations at the Movenpick and dinners. The retreat seemed very productive, but since we have been back in the office, it seems that topics discussed at the retreat have gone in one ear and out the other for some. A bit frustrating for me and several other coworkers who thought [View Full Entry]

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I would have to say that I really enjoy the one hour, although sometimes longer, morning bus rides to work. However, most of my co-workers and bus patrons would disagree. There's something special about the morning and difficult for me to describe, but it fascinates me to watch the city come to life. During most mornings the city is blanketed with a layer of smog (thank you pollution), which makes the city look absolutely beautiful. The sun is still able to shine through and creates silhouettes of the buildings and the tall palm trees in the distance. Its rays shimmer on [View Full Entry]

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What should I write about? Please leave comments on something or several topics you would like me to write about. I have a lot of things I want to write about (an I've made a New Years Resolution to have more posts...since this should be a blog) and I'm pretty sure that people reading this blog have something in mind, and I'm sure it is a topic I have in mind, as well. It will help me out. Thanks! [View Full Entry]

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I don’t know whether it was me always trying to look at the positives of situations or due to the social circles I run-in, but I have failed to described, in this blog, a encompassing picture of Cairo. I feel that many people who visit Cairo or the region tend to focus on the negative aspects such as pollution, filth, traffic, poverty, and terrorism. Or they only come to see the main attraction. And since these are the dominate views, in some way, I wanted to highlight the aspects that make Cairo and Egypt wonderful in my blog. However, due to [View Full Entry]

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I apologize for not posting for a long time and yes I am still alive and well in Egypt. Some of you have been asking about my work with the Gerhart Center and so I thought it would be good to talk about in this post. Right when I got to Cairo and started work, I was helping out with the conference that occurred in mid-October. It was Exhausting! This conference took every ounce of energy I had, but I think it was tremendously successful - both the delegates and I learned a great deal about the current status of civic [View Full Entry]

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For the Eid Holiday, six out of the seven interns planned a trip to St. Catherine’s monastery and an eco-lodge resort on the Sinai Peninsula. We hired a personal driver because it would have been a logistical mess taking a public bus from one destination to the other and back to Cairo. We were supposed to depart 6:00am sharp, but the driver did not show up. We called him and he finally arrived at around 7:00am. This should be expected because in Egyptian culture, time is very loose, unlike in the States. Nagy, our driver, got us to St. Catherine’s in [View Full Entry]

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I have been in Egypt for over a month, but it feels like I’ve been here for more than three. A part of it probably has to do with me working. The Tadamunn Conference is all that I have on my mind right now. We’ve been able to obtain some high profile speakers to attend the conference including Dr. Mo Ibrahim and Her Excellency Minister of Education Pandor (South Africa). Since I was in charge of writing all the bios of the speakers and plenary members, I’m just going to cut and paste them into this blog to tell you why [View Full Entry]

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All the interns are working on the New Campus, except for me. The Gerhart Center has packed up and moved everything out of the office, but we continue to work out of the downtown office because the phone lines and internet doesn’t work on the New Campus. Starting work at the Gerhart Center was a bit overwhelming. Several people have been preparing for the Grantwriting training session that starts next week, while Fauzia and I work on the regional Conference AUC is hosting titled Tadamunn: Towards Civic Engagement in Arab Education. Tadamunn means Solidarity in Arabic. We are hoping to cr [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday I met up with the rest of the interns at the Egyptian Museum after my meeting with Fauzia, the previous presidential intern at the Gerhart Center. The museum is huge and I was not able to cover it all. One of my favorite artifacts was the mask of Tutankhamun’s mummy. It was probably the first exposure I had to Egyptians when I was in elementary school, and to see it up close and personal gave me goose-bumps. Another highlight was seeing the curators wrap up a mummy and place it back into the coffin. Although the signs at the [View Full Entry]

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