Walking like an Egyptian

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Greetings dear friends and family!!
I hardly know where to start in telling you how my life has been for the past two weeks but I don't have much time so I shall just try to sumarise the basics. Firstly I am safe and well and enjoying the experience which is the most important thing! For anyone that doesn't know I am involved in a six month volunteer project called Global Xchange where I will form part a group made up of 9 English people and 9 Egyptians, we will live and work for three months in an Egyptian community and for three months in a community in the UK.
We left England on the 13th March to fly to Cairo where we met the Egyptian half of the exchange group who are all very friendly and speak excellent English. We then spent the next 3 1/2 days in Cairo learning about the aims and objectives of the program, discussing global issues and getting to know our team mates. This included visiting down town Cairo, a boat trip on the nile, outdoor sheisha cafe and a trip to the pyramids which was great fun. Following this we traveled to Assiut which is in upper Egypt and is the location where we will spend the next three months.
We have now moved in with a host family, I have a younger brother and sister who are amazing and my host home counterpart is really wonderful girl called Lulu. We have been having many more training sessions to learn about how we can help the community and the theme of our exchange which is Social Inclusion and Youth Participation. Finally the training has finished and today I met with my work placement which seems very interesting, I will get to do a variety of work including organising campaigns for blood donation and liver disease, working with poor communities, teaching and tackling environmental issues.
I shall try to write again soon and add pictures but I hope that you are all well, please keep in touch as much as possible and I will do my best to do so also.
My Egyptian mobile number is........ 0194354566
Lots of love and hugs x x

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Photos

ready and waiting
Having just arrived at the hotel we had to straight away meet our Egyptian counterpart before even putting down our bags

Welcome
Welcome party made for us upon arrival in Cairo

Team 90
The GX Team taking a camel/horse ride to see the pyramids

Team bonding
On our day off before traveling to Assiut

Making friends
Fun and games trying to learn arabic and learning about their culture

Riding like an Egyptian
Taking funny pictures infront of a wall painting design