Ramadan Begins, 3 weeks left of school

Today is the first day of Ramadan.  Cassandra arrived home from Ireland and Rome late Thursday night with her best friend from Gladstone, Jessica, and her fiance, Derek.  Earlier that evening before they arrived, Gary and I were given the opportunity to serve the amazing staff (and their families) who makes our life here so easy.  The kitchen made the food, but we got to serve it and clean-up afterwards - then dance and interact with everyone. We learned that many of our security guards, maids, cooks, hall nannies, and other behind the scenes people are amazing dancers.  I tried to learn to dance like an Egyptian - but found out that my hips are not used to moving like that!  By Friday, I could barely walk.  (I took a great video of the dancing, but due to the more than frustrating internet service in our apartment, I will not be able to post it until we arrive back in the states.) On Friday morning, we went to church, then hung around at the school's pool.  There were more people there than we have ever seen -yet, only a small percentage were part of the school's staff.  We left fairly early and walked to the San Stefano, the large mall attached to the Four Season's Hotel.  We watched "King Arthur: Legends of the Sword" and ate the amazing caramel popcorn. (Something I will definitely miss this summer when we are back in the UP)  Cool thing to note about the movies here - they have intermission!  I recommend that every movie theater in the world adopt this practice as it comes at the perfect time to go to the bathroom and get more popcorn and water!  Afterwards, we took an evening walk along the Mediterranean, but the water was very quiet, so we headed home.   Today, we again spent the day at the school's pool - the whole day until after dark!  Today, unlike yesterday, everyone at the pool was staff, except for Gary and Jessica and Derek - so it was a lot quieter and more relaxing.

Speaking of quiet - now that it is Ramadan, the streets were a lot quieter during the day.  During Ramadan, Muslims fast during the day and break their fast after dark, so many deal with the hunger by just trying to sleep all day - then they party and eat all night with their families.  We have been told that it is rude to eat or drink in public during Ramadan, (just out of courtesy as there is no "law" forbidding one from doing so).  We were not sure if we would be able to order food to be delivered during the day, and we were warned that the cafeteria food would taste much worse because the cooks can not taste the food that they are cooking for us.  However, all 3 things turned out to be false.  When we reached the gate, a teacher walked out into the street carrying a water and a coffee.  When we got to the pool, we were asked if we wanted to order pizza because another family was about to order pizza.  At supper time, Jessica, Cassandra, and Derek ate in the cafeteria and said the food was really good and they had learned that one of our cooks is Christian!!

So, in 3 weeks we will head home for the summer.  It is hard to believe that the school year is nearly over.  I have truly loved my first year here, but I am finding it hard to keep focused on the here and now.  I have met some truly amazing spirits who are moving on to new assignments next year.  They have made me a better, more social person.  I will miss them and, Inshallah, (Arabic for "God willing") we will now have friends in India and the DR that we can visit some day, and another two friends to visit in Florida. 

It goes without saying that we are all anxious to see family and friends back in the states.  Besides that, some people are beginning to talk about the pork, bacon, and other good food they will be able to eat this summer, or the shopping they will be able to do.  Me, I can't stop thinking about swimming and boating in Lake Michigan.  Yes, of course I am also excited about our son's wedding - though it hardly seems real yet, but the freedom to just take our boat and go - and the ease of swimming in the relatively clean water is so exciting!  I am already dreaming about the pounding of the boat as it skips over the waves as we head to Door County for a fish boil, or to Rock Island or St. Martin Island for a hike.  Or, perhaps finally trying to learn how to sail the Hobie Cat on my own.  

One of the biggest downfalls to being here is the amount of plastic Egyptians use, and then mindlessly discard in the streets, on the beaches, and in the water.  It is truly disgusting!!  Anywhere near Alexandria, even the supposedly "clean" beaches have garbage.  I have yet to go swimming where I did not find plastic bags floating around.  

The biggest disappointment has been the impossibility of a foreigner owning a boat, even a small boat here.  The government seems very concerned about people using boats for illegal activities or to leave the country, so boating for pleasure does not happen here - at least as far as we can tell.  

Our biggest frustration has been an issue unique to our apartment.  For whatever reason, our wifi is terrible.  The teacher who lives above us has some issues with slow internet, but nothing compared to ours.  We once moved a party to his apartment because our internet would not work - and his worked just fine.  Gary thinks that it has something to do with our phone lines because our phone in our apartment has never worked right either.  The teacher who had our apartment last year said he had the same issues.  Because of this, it takes forever to upload photos to this blog.  As you may have noticed, I eventually gave up and stopped writing as many blogs because it simply took too long to upload pictures. Recently, I have started blogging a bit without pictures and this is far less frustrating. I wish I had thought to do this much earlier because I really had hoped to document more of our time here and writing is very relaxing for me.  Therefore, I am looking forward to having high speed internet that works when I return to the UP so that I can download pictures from our Spring Break in Europe, from the conference I attended in Bangkok, and, of course, more pictures from our life here in Egypt.  I have titles and some details written for about 8 more posts I plan to complete when in the USA.  Next year we will be on the school's wifi, hopefully in a brand new apartment with excellent internet service.  When everything is new, like it was for us this year - you look at things with wonder and curiosity.  I worry that next year it will be harder to write about this adventure with the same amount of newness and excitement as I felt this year.

That being said, the benefits and personal growth that has come from living here have far outweighed the minor downfalls, disappointments, and frustrations we have experienced.  We look forward to spending our summer at home, but we are also looking forward to the new friends and new experiences another school year will bring.  

By the way, it is now after 11pm and the city has woken up, enjoyed a good meal,  and the streets are getting louder.  The school has changed their schedule to accomodate the holiday, so from now until the end of the year, we will begin 45 minutes later in the morning and finish 30 minutes earlier in the afternoon.

Ramadam Kareem! (Have a blessed Ramadan)

Reflections on Prayer

Five times a day, every day, loudspeakers through-out Alexandria, Egypt remind people that it is time to pray.  It is true that the loudspeakers are much too loud- loud enough to alert even those who are hard of hearing. They blast from every mosque on every block - sounding much like a bad echo.  Some imams can carry a tune while, sadly, too many others can not.  Indeed, it can be very irritating when you are woken up as early as 4 in the morning to an Imam reminding you that God is great, there is only one God, Mohammed is God's slave, urging you to go pray, telling you it is good to pray, and that prayer is better than sleep. (which at 4am, it certainly feels like sleep is much better than prayer!) Since Americans are very individualistic, most would be offended by someone waking them up to tell them not only that they must pray, but also the exact time they need to pray.

However, as a Christian, one has to respect this cultural focus on prayer.

I know, there are some out there who think that when a Muslim prays, it is somehow completely different than when a Christian prays. We've all seen the pictures of people lining the streets kneeling on rugs and bending forward in apparent  unison with others as the imam chants in Arabic. To those of us not raised in such a culture, this is a very strange-looking ritual. Luckily, the cool thing about living in this culture is the opportunity to just ask people questions. A student told me that during Ramadan (which begins May 27) that he and his father will pray for 4 hours a day.  During a 4 hour prayer, it is my understanding that much of the prayer is lead by the Imam and repeated by the people. (Kind of similar to when Christians pray and the congregation repeats "Jesus, hear our prayers" over and over) I asked him "What could you possibly pray about for that long?" He told me that the first part of every prayer is to praise God, second is to thank God for his blessings, third to pray for the needs of the world and governments, fourth to pray for the needs of family and friends, and fifth to pray for one's personal needs.  Funny, but that is almost identical to how I was taught to pray while growing up in a Protestant Church!

 When you talk to people who are perceived as "different" than yourself, it is amazing what you learn that you have in common.

What else is the same about praying in both cultures?  Christians are generally taught to pray before getting out of bed in the morning, before eating (most of us eat 3 meals per day), and before bed.  Hmm, how many times a day does that mean Christians are supposed to pray?  FIVE?  Do you wonder about the significance of 5 to both Christians and Muslims?

Other things that I have found interesting about the Call to Prayer:  

1) It is not necessary to go to the neighborhood mosque in order to pray each day- you can pray where-ever you are. 

2) You must wash before you pray. (Have you ever heard the phrase "Cleanliness is next to Godliness")

3) Life does not stop during the Call-to-Prayer, everything continues on as normal.  Not everyone stops to pray right then - but most will try to remember to pray later in the day

4) Exception to #3.  Friday morning.  On Friday morning, life does seem to nearly stop.  Most roads are blocked with people in the streets in front of their neighborhood mosques on their prayer rugs.  Most businesses are closed.  The usual 5 minute Call to Prayer now becomes an entire 1-2 hour sermon over the loud speakers - just as loud.  Not everyone attends the service at the mosque, even on Fridays.  Just like everywhere, people are of varying degrees of "religious" and believers in the rituals of religion.
5) Even though you wash before you pray, for some reason, it is not necessary to wash AFTER prayer, even though you just stuck your head in the dirt and sand over and over while praying.  Because of this, you will see men walking around with a round dirt spot on their forehead.  I have been told by Egyptians that sometimes men will even hit their forehead with a hammer in order to form a permanent bump on their forehead by those who are trying to "prove" how religious they are to their friends and relatives, and perhaps to their law enforcement officials who may be more lenient on someone who is perceived as God-fearing. (How different is this than Christians who are one way in public, but completely the opposite when they are in private)
6) The loudspeakers are not as loud in other areas of Egypt.  For some reason, Alexandria's Imams seem to think that their voice needs to be loud enough to be heard all the way to the moon.  I have been told that it is not very loud in other Middle Eastern countries as well.
7) If you fly Egypt Air, before they even do the safety briefing, they play a recorded prayer for the safety of travelers.  I don't know what it says yet since it is in Arabic, but that is what I have been told.
8) Many Egypt Air flights also have a Qur'an (the Muslim Holy Book, much of it very similar to the Old Testament) bolted on their wall as you board their plane.
9) Prayer rooms are everywhere!  The focus on prayer in this culture is astounding.  At the mall buying a new pair of Nikes and have an urge to pray?  Lucky for you, there is a prayer room just down the hall.  In the airport waiting for your connecting flight and have time to kill?  Great! Head on down to the prayer room.

As a Christian, I do feel really grateful that Jesus did not give us so many rituals to follow when we pray as it seems much easier to just bow your head and silently whisper your prayer which can be done anywhere at any time and does not require washing, removing one's shoes, facing a certain direction, praying by gender, covering one's head, or getting down on hands and knees.  However, perhaps it is the visual of seeing prayer rooms everywhere and the loudspeaker reminder to pray that does help keep the focus of people on the Divine?

Here is a link so you can hear the sounds of the Call to Prayer as taken from our school's basketball courts.
https://www.facebook.com/laura.lamarche.5/videos/10209634260318353/?l=2578102955405495492

Next up - Ramadan.  I keep hearing the stories about this month-long holiday, but it sounds like there will be a lot to tell after experiencing it.  I hope to blog about it, but just before it begins Cassandra will return from Europe bringing along her best friend since kindergarten, Jessica and her husband-to-be, Derek and we will be tour-guides extraordinaire once again! (Which means little time to blog)