So much to say...

So, I started this blog entry about a month and a half ago, but I figured before I publish my final blog from Egypt in...oh, five days or so, I probably ought to fill everyone in on my adventures in and around Egypt, so here's the story of our visit to Mt. Sinai. Stay tuned for stories of how I almost started two holy wars in Israel, Easter in Jerusalem, and why food poisoning in a foreign country really, really sucks.

So, anyhow, among the coolest things I have done in my life, climbing Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise definitely ranks right up there. A group of us from ALI went, and we started up the mountain at about 2:00 in the morning. A lot of people around us had flashlights, but you didn't really need them because there was a full moon out, so we had plenty of light. I was wearing a t-shirt, a sweat shirt, and a jacket when we started, and I had my backpack so I could carry a couple of bottles of water. 5 minutes into the climb, the jacket came off. 15 minutes later, the sweatshirt came off and the jacket went back on. 10 minutes after that, the jacket was off, and I was just in a t-shirt. Even though it was probably only 50 degrees or so, when you're marching up the side of a very steep mountain, you tend to work up quite a sweat.

By the way, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, but Aron Kader was almost right. There isn't a little Egyptian kid at the top of Mt. Sinai hocking Pepsi and Coke and Snickers, but there are plenty of folks on the way up hocking all of those things plus coffee, tea, and--near the top--blankets for rent. The blankets, by the way, not such a bad idea. The two layers that I had shed on the way up the mountain went back on before we started up the 700 steps one must climb to complete the full climb to the top. It was COLD!! We got to the summit just as the sun was starting to rise, so there were some pretty good photo ops. There's a mosque and a church at the top of Mt. Sinai as, obviously, Moses is a revered figure to both Islam and Christianity (and Judaism, to be fair). And there were a ton of religious pilgrims making the trek up the mountain. So, we got up there and there was a group of Russian Orthodox pilgrims and they were singing hymns, and then there was a group of Muslims doing their sunrise prayers...and both at the same time. It was a little like a religious battle of the bands.

Two of us got cold enough and thought we had taken plenty of pictures at the top that we decided to start down the mountain before everyone else. Things look a little different in daylight than they do in the dark. For instance, had I known how precarious those steps actually looked or how far down you would fall of the side of one of the steps, I'm not sure I would have make the trek up. Anyhow, the trip down was kind of like the trip up. I shed the jacket, then the sweat shirt and put the jacket back on, then took the jacket off too. We were heading down the east face of Mt. Sinai, so we had the sun right on us. Of course, things look different in the day time than they do in the dark, and we were convinced that we had gotten lost somehow. Just when we were ready to call our tour guide and figure out where, exactly we were, we saw the bus. So unlike Moses, we were ready to ask for directions and did not have to wander in the desert for 40 years. I got one of my favorite pictures ever on the way down the mountain. The sun was just started to peak out fully over the mountain, and the scene is absolutely beautiful.

We spend the rest of the morning at St. Katherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, then bussed to Dahab on the Red Sea coast for some much deserved fun and relaxation. I have never been as sore for as long as I was after climbing Mt. Sinai. It took me nearly 4 days before I could walk without pain. So a couple of days in Dahab at the Hilton resort were just was the doctor ordered. Furthermore, it was nice to be able to breathe some fresh air for once.

Much Too Much in Cairo...

Spring has finally arrived in Cairo and with it comes heat and sandstorms. The wind can kick up sand at any point during the year, but the spring brings a special kind of sandstorm known as the Khamsiin. During the Khamsiin, temperatures can rise very quickly and the wind can blow up to 70 miles an hour, which means that the sky turns orange and everyone scrambles for something to cover their nose and mouth so that no one chokes on the sand. The Khamsiin are named such because Khamsiin season lasts 50 days (khamsiin=50 in Arabic), and conventional wisdom says that it is the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost.

Sand isn't the only thing one is in danger of choking on in Cairo. The pollution that sits over the city can also become quite oppressive, especially, I'm told, in the warmer months. Many, many days since I arrived in Cairo, the haze that envelops Cairo has significantly lessened visibility...and the ability to take a deep breath. The Egyptian Parliament recently passed a law mandating that all taxis that are more than 10 years old must be off the roads by 2010. This will help. The city also has a new fleet of yellow cabs (as opposed to the ubiquitous black and white ones) which run on natural gas and have meters that actually work--something you won't find in any of the black and white cabs. They're more expensive for short trips, but for long trips, the meter is much more convenient than haggling with a cabby over how much he ought to get paid.

Too much sand...too much pollution...too many people. This is Cairo right now. Though if only you knew the statistics, you'd think the idea of "too many people" might sound a bit preposterous. You see, there's a one million unit housing surplus in Cairo. That's right--one million unoccupied residential dwellings in a city of 22 million people (give or take a million). So how on earth can there be too many people and not enough places to put them if that's the case? Well, it's all a matter of income. Most of those one million dwellings that are vacant are in upper-middle class and upper class neighborhoods, many of them in the new suburbs popping up to the east of Cairo. Most of the folks needing housing would favorably be considered lower class--most people would call them dirt poor. And they have nowhere to go. So there are illegal slums all around Cairo where the apartment buildings are only half finished, but inhabited. And if that's still too expensive, there is the City of the Dead. There are actually several cities of the dead around Cairo, and the total population of people living there is 5 million by some estimates.

The Christian community of Cairo is an interesting dichotomy when it comes to economic privilege and living conditions. On one hand, many Copts are very well-to-do and have achieved great success in Egypt and internationally. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former secretary-general of the United Nations is an Egyptian Copt. However, Egyptian Christians also occupy the other end of the economic spectrum. While they don't live in the Cities of the Dead, they do occupy one of Cairo's most famous slums--Garbage City. Garbage City sits in the Moqqatam hills, due east of Islamic Cairo. The Zabbaleen (Arabic for garbage collectors) who live there are predominately Christians who relocated from Upper (that is to say southern) Egypt in the mid-20th century. They collect a third of the city's garbage and recycle an impressive 80% of what they do collect. However, their living conditions are quite bleak. Garbage City earned its nickname (its official name is Manshiyet Nasr). The Zabbaleen quite literally live with the garbage they collect. Their children sort it at schools, their women sort and recycle certain types of garbage to be sold at the craft store in Garbage City, and their pigs eat any of the organic refuse they collect.

As one might expect in a community so impoverished, faith plays a very important role in the lives of the Zabbaleen in Garbage City. At the top of the hill in Garbage City are three churches, literally carved out of the rock. While Tiffany was here, we visited Garbage City and got to see two of the churches there. The churches themselves are fairly unadorned on the outside, but when you get inside, they are truly impressive. The largest of the three is the Church of St. Simeon, which can hold 20,000 people in its auditorium. The other church, the Church of St. John and the Virgin Mary is actually more visually interesting in that it has painted murals of Coptic icons on the stage. Both Tiffany and I decided that we would love to see a service at either church sometime with the huge sanctuaries full of people all praising God.

A digression...on vet school and animal welfare

Okay, so this isn't about Egypt and it's not happening in Egypt, but it's important, so I'm going to get it off my chest. This morning before I left for class, I hopped on Facebook and saw that my best friend had posted a note in response to an article in the OSU campus newspaper (for which I used to be a columnist, in the interest of full disclosure). Since then, I have read the article, and I can understand why my friend and her classmates are so upset. Here is the link to the article: O'Colly. Now, I understand that the O'Colly needs its one scandal a year just to keep things interesting, but at least make it somewhat factual, guys.

A brief disclaimer: I am not a vet student, nor do I play one on TV. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I am, however, someone who once thought vet school was it for me. I worked for two OSU educated vets while in high school and continue to take my cat to OSU educated vets. I'm also related to an OSU educated vet. So, yes, I do have a horse in this race, one I freely acknowledge. That being said...

There are alternatives to live animal surgery. This is beyond dispute. However, those alternatives are not without their downsides. For example, there are now very sophisticated computer programs available that simulate surgery, and they are used both in human and veterinary medicine. These are great tools and should be utilized. But, they cannot take the place of hands-on training. Why? Because touch is so incredibly important in surgery. A diseased liver feels different than a healthy liver, even if it looks basically the same. How can a computer program teach you about such important differences?

Then there are cadaver animals. You can feel a diseased liver there, so no problem, right? Not really. The art of anasthesia is an important one in human and veterinary medicine. How does too much anasthesia affect geriatric animals? How does too little anasthesia complicate a surgery? These questions cannot be addressed in cadaver dogs/cats/etc. because anasthesia is unnecessary in an animal that's already dead.

Is live animal surgery the greatest thing in the world? No. Is it something vet students relish? Not really, no. It is truly one of the more unpleasant realities of vet school, but a necessary one. It has been argued...and argued...and argued that doctors don't think about cutting open live patients only to euthanize them, and this is certainly true, but doctors and veterinarians don't train for their professions in the same way. Doctors NEVER graduate from med school and immediately expect to head their own surgical team. They have internships and residencies to complete before they are allowed to do anything that looks like being in charge in an OR. Vets don't get that seven year luxury. They can get thrown from the frying pan into the fire very quickly out of vet school, so you tell me--do you really want Fido to be your vet's first go-around at removing bladder stones the size of river rocks?

Furthermore, doctors almost always have a whole team of folks with them in the OR. The vets I worked for in high school had one vet tech, a receptionist, and me--and that was only in the afternoon. Many, many times, they would perform surgery with only one other person in the room with them. That's something no doctor will ever do except in the most extenuating of circumstances. So the comparisons between doctors and veterinarians are really quite unfair to vets. They often take work home with them--literally. The vets I worked for had a makeshift ICU in their garage. Their clients may bite and snap and snarl, and the dogs and cats might do the same thing. The patients can't tell you what's wrong with them, and most owners are truly and horrifically unobservant. "What's wrong with Fido?" "Dunno. He just don't seem right." Thanks, man. That's a lot of help. Dogs can't tell you where it hurts. Cats can't tell you that urinating feels like someone's setting fire to their asses. You have to figure those things out for yourself. So, yes, vets do face things that doctors do not. Vets must be ready to be vets on a timetable different from doctors. And that timetable necessitates that vets operate on live animals, even if euthanasia is their final fate.

I'm disappointed in the O'Colly, Mrs. Pickens, and OSU for the mealy mouthed response to this story. While I truly appreciate all that Boone and Madeleine Pickens have done for our university, I can't help but wonder if the university's official statement might have been more forcefully behind Dr. Lorenz and the vet school if the benefactor's last name was something other than Pickens. Friends are honest with each other, and Mrs. Pickens was dead wrong in this story and should be told as much. The O'Colly smelled a scandal and jumped at the chance to make waves, even if all of the facts and all of the relevant parties hadn't been contacted. And Gary Shutt's "we evaluate blah blah blah on a yearly basis" was as chickenshit a response as could have possibly been drafted. Here's what it should have said: "We leave the veterinary medicine to the veterinarians. We understand that they care about animals and that there are multiple factors at work in determining the best way to complete the junior surgery class. We appreciate the concerns of Mrs. Pickens and we invite her to address those concerns with vet school faculty, staff, and students in an open and honest dialogue. However, final decisions about vet school policy rest with the vet school administration, and we have the utmost faith in their judgement."

It has been said many times that one cannot judge another without having walked a mile in their shoes. I have walked at least part of that journey, and I have an incredibly amount of respect for the hard work and dedication required of vet students and veterinarians. Are there issues at play here which are distressing? There are, and no one denies the existence of them. However, outrageous allegations and slander are no way to address such issues.

The Best Year of my Life

A year ago today (give or take a few hours for the time change between Waco and Cairo), I was anxiously awaiting my first introduction to my "little sister." I had submitted my application to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas almost six months earlier and was told I had to wait until the perfect match was found. So I waited, and then I got a phone call from the BBBS office saying they thought they had found a good match for me. So on February 12, 2008 I met my second family for the first time. Kaitlynn's parents thought it would be a good idea for her to have a Big Sister because she'd been having a little trouble dealing with some of the stuff life was throwing at her. So this 14 year old girl who seemed so quiet and shy at first (ha!) and I embarked on what may be the most rewarding journey I have ever been on.

For those of you not familiar with Big Brothers Big Sisters, "bigs" are volunteers who want to make a difference in a child's life, and they are matched with "littles" who have similar interests and could use someone like a big in their lives. Kaitlynn and I are not just a good match. I think we may be the closest thing to a perfect match BBBS has ever come up with. Her parents have told me that I was just what Kaitlynn needed. Kaitlynn has told me that she thinks God picked me out just for her, and I think she may be right.

As an only child, I never got to hang out with an older sibling or talk to someone other than my parents about the stuff kids go through growing up. And that's what we do. We hang out, we talk, we cook, we eat, we go to concerts (those connections are pretty cool, aren't they kiddo?), and we're planning a trip to see the touring show of Wicked this summer in San Antonio. In the final major musical number of Wicked, the two main characters sing "Who can say if I've been changed for the better? I do believe that I've been changed for the better. But, because I knew you, I have been changed for good." I think the same can be said of Kaitlynn and I. We have changed each other for the better. I was never so proud as this summer when Kaitlynn told me that she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to college, but since she met me, now she's sure she does. It's a profoundly humbling thing to know that someone thinks so highly of you.

Kaitlynn--you are a treasure. You are smart and compassionate and goofy and silly and thoughtful and opinionated and unique, and you should cherish all of those things about yourself. The road hasn't been easy, but I promise you this--things will get better and I'll be there every step of the way. The past year has been more fun than I ever thought it could be, and I've learned a lot about you, but even more about myself. You have enriched my life in ways I can't even begin to explain, but always know that I love you and you will always be a part of my family. I miss you, kiddo.

*****

I know the rest of you were expecting an update on all things Cairo, but some things are more important. Stay tuned.

Set fire to the Gucci corner and other observations from the week that was

Egyptians like to congregate. Anywhere they can. And Egyptian college students at AUC all like to congregate in what is really the main walkway through the AUC campus and show off all of their designer label American clothes. Thus, the Gucci Corner. And it's annoying because it's next to impossible to get through without bumping in to about 4 dozen people on the way. So I decided quite quickly that setting fire to the Gucci Corner seemed a good idea. I just don't know that the Egyptian college students at AUC who congregate at the Gucci Corner would agree.

As for class, there is but one word: Humbling. I've forgotten so much. Some of it has come back to me. Some of it, not so much. And some I don't think I ever knew at all. Things got a little easier toward the end of the week, but this isn't going to be any walk in the park. However, the good folks at the Arabic Language Institute are phenomenal. It's difficult to be in a bad mood when Miss Jehan (the director) walks by and says hello with a huge smile on her face. Luckily, all of us are more or less in the same boat. And we have our own little place to congregate. The Egyptians can have their Gucci Corner. We've got the ALI Walkway....

Yesterday I went to the pyramids. Okay, actually, a group of us went to the pyramids. ALI sponsors these trips, takes care of transportation, and all we have to do is show up. It's fantastic. First thing, the pyramids complex is not what most people probably expect. For one thing--it's up on a decent sized hill. Secondly--it's huge. All of the pictures Europeans took or drew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries present this image of all three pyramids kind of close together. Not so, my friends. I'm glad we had the bus, because it would have been quite the workout to walk the whole complex. The Great Pyramid and Khafre's pyramid are pretty close to each other. But Menkaure--the smallest of the three is way the heck away from the other two. And the Sphinx--also not so close to the pyramids. That would have been another hike. Second thing, while I'm sure the pyramid complex was once considered the boonies, it's not now. The outer gates of the lower portion of the complex (where the Sphinx is) buts right up against a busy street where, incidentally, the imam of a nearby mosque was giving a fairly fiery khutba (the Friday sermon). I couldn't understand what he was saying, but by golly he was saying it in a tone that would make the most fire and brimstone Southern Baptist preacher proud.

The most annoying thing about the pyramids is the presense of the baksheesheen. These are guys who try to wheedle their way into tourists' wallets by offering to take pictures of them next to the camels--better yet, ON the camels, at which time you will have fallen hook, line, and sinker for their trick and get to take a camel ride whether you wanted to or not. Then, once that's over, they demand MONEY! Part of me understands the urge. Egypt is not a rich country, and even professionals have trouble making a decent living. So, I understand the desire to, you know, eat, but the harassment of the baksheesheen can be a little disconcerting. I managed to dodge them with a firm "la, shukrun," (no, thank you), but others in the group were not so lucky and ended up on camel joy rides they had not intended to go on. By the way, camels...mean, mean creatures. They spit and snarl. Evil things.

Finally, one very entertaining story from this week. From Zamalek, we must catch a bus that takes us to the AUC campus in New Cairo. The trip takes anywhere from 45 minutes in the morning to an hour and a half if not more late in the afternoon. So Thursday morning, I was sitting in the bus, waiting for it to fill up so we could leave for campus, when I noticed this old blue VW Beetle driving down the street, then backing up, then circling the block and so on. My first thought was "what the heck is this guy doing?" My second thought was "this could get entertaining." It soon became apparent that the guy was looking for a parking space, something in short supply in Zamalek. By this time, several guys behind me had spotted our intrepid friend and were supplying the commentary for the comedic wonder that was the crazy Egyptian dude in the old blue Bug. Our guy spotted a space near the end of the block between a little silver car of some sort, and a Mercedes, so he tried to back in, but didn't have enough room.

Not deterred, he hopped out of his car and tried to push the silver car backwards to make room. After several attempts, he gave up with that method and got back in his car, which he proceeded to back, very gently, into the front bumper of the silver car. Sure enough, little silver car starts moving backwards. By this point, everyone on the bus who has been watching this is just cracking up. This guy made enough space to wedge his Bug into this parallel parking space. When we got back Thursday afternoon, the Bug was gone, but the Mercedes and the little silver car were still parked there. I can't help but wonder if the reverse of the process was as funny as the parking itself.

Check out the pyramid pictures and stay tuned for more adventures.

A weekend Cairo update

Yes, I know it's Friday, but remember--this is a Muslim country we're talking about. The weekend is Friday and Saturday. So having walked Zamalek and taken some pictures of my new neighborhood (they're up on my Photobucket site. You should check them out) I thought I'd take some time to fill everyone in on what's been going in this week.

First of all, a word of caution--should you find yourself in Cairo, please resist the urge to go on a Nile cruise. They're pretty overrated, in my opinion. However, there is plenty of other truly fun stuff to do around here. On Sunday, we did a scavenger hunt through Zamalek to get to know the neighborhood a little better. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely feel like I can get myself found a whole lot easier now. Of course, it helps that my team won and we get free dinner. That's always a plus. The rest of the week until yesterday was actually pretty boring. Most of the orientation stuff was directed at the undergrad study abroad kids, so I got to chill out a little bit.

Speaking of undergrads, having spent this much time surrounded by them, I have discovered that I lacked an appreciation for how different our priorities are. They seem determined not to let class get in the way of a good time, but I've got work to do while I'm here. A whole bunch of it, to be exact. Yesterday was ALI (Arabic Language Institute) orientation, so I finally had something to do. 12 credits of intensive Arabic, plus all of the homework that goes along with it. My head might explode this semester, especially when you consider that I have plenty of dissertation-like fun to take care of as well. Yeesh. However, the ALI folks are incredibly nice and friendly and seem very willing to help keep us from losing our minds.

The new campus is beautiful. Not quite done...but beautiful nevertheless. But it gives new meaning to being out in the middle of nowhere. Outside of Cairo, there is nothing but desert...NOTHING. Then all of the sudden, you see this construction literally taking place all around you. Most of it's residential--lots of houses and apartment building with a very Mediterranean villa feel to them. In the midst of all of this construction, most of which is nowhere near done, is this huge, beautiful campus. I'm not sure it will seem quite so beautiful when the spring sandstorms hit as the main thoroughfare is really a big wind tunnel. In a couple of months, it might be a big sandy wind tunnel. That won't be fun for anybody.

As for the construction in New Cairo, they do things backwards of what we do in the States. They build most of the interior structure first, then put on the facade, whereas we generally build the outside then move to the inside. It's very disconcerting to see at first, but I suppose that given the climate it makes sense. Who wants to work on the inside of a building in the desert in the summer before the A/C has been installed any longer than they have to, right?

As for Zamalek, everyone says it doesn't have quite the same feel as the rest of Cairo, and I can certainly understand why. It still has a bit of a European flair to it. And because of the embassies on nearly every corner, there are a lot of expatriates around as well. As far as I can tell, there's only mosque in Zamalek, and two churches--one, the Coptic church across the street from the AUC dorm and the other, a Roman Catholic church further south. If I was afraid that my itty bitty little cross necklace would make me feel out of place, I was sorely mistaken. The Coptic priests walk around with crosses big enough to classify as bling. Perhaps because of its demographic makeup, Zamalek also seems less prone to harassment of women on the street. I've been out several times by myself this week, just exploring and wandering around and I have yet to be heckled, leered at, or whistled at. Of course, that could all change tomorrow, so stay tuned.

When at all possible, I've stayed away from the American restaurants around Zamalek (most of which I don't like anyhow) and opted for some local favorites. I'm quickly becoming addicted to koushary, which is kind of the Egyptian equivalent of a mix between ramen and spaghetti. It's rice, pasta, lentils, sometimes chickpeas, and topped with a tomato sauce. A pretty good size bowl of it is around 5 Egyptian pounds (L.E.), or a little less than one dollar. And it will fill you up for quite a while. I'm already working out how I can replicate it once I get home.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for another installment of the adventures of Dr. Strangelove. I'm going to the pyramids next Friday, so I should have lots of fun pictures afterwards.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

The first thing you notice about Cairo when you fly in is the sprawl. It seems like it goes on and on forever in all directions. The next thing you notice is that all of that sprawl looks like something from the communist era--not terribly surprising given the Nasserist bent that still holds on in Egypt. And it's all the same color as the sand.

The Cairo airport is an adventure in and of itself. All foreign visitors must go through passport verification lines that stretch endlessly. It's a bit of controlled chaos, and I can't help but wonder if that's a harbinger of what's to come for the rest of the semester. Once you get through that line, it's on to baggage claim and an endless stream of taxi drivers offering their services. We (and by we, I mean that whole gaggle of us on the flight from Frankfurt to Cairo heading for AUC) politely declined all of their assistance as we already had transportation set up through AUC. Getting to the buses from the terminal was an adventure, but getting us and all of our luggage on those buses was even more fun. College kids pack a lot of crap when they're going to be gone for a semester, let me tell you.

As for the traffic in Cairo, everything you've ever heard about how crazy it is is 100% true. I'm not sure cars in Cairo could operate if for some reason their horns stopped working because it seems like Cairene drivers honk their horns occasionally just as a reminder to other drivers that they are there. And turn signals? Not much use for those on the streets of Cairo. We started out from the airport to Zamalek around dusk, so the city was still somewhat visible in the setting sun. My initial impression of Cairo's architecture was partially on target. Some of the buildings in Cairo look like they came straight out of the Soviet Union, while others are well kept up with plenty of ornamentation. Along the major thoroughfares are some beautiful murals, mostly of the Pharaonic era, and I can't help but wonder if Hosni Mubarak fancies himself a modern day pharaoh. His picture adorns signs and billboards all around the city and it's a 1984-like reminder that we definitely aren't in Kansas anymore. Unlike the United States with its churches on every corner, in Cairo, it's a mosque on every corner, minarets instead of church steeples dotting the skyline. One very large mosque boasted a huge "Allah" in Arabic in neon green lighting and was oddly reminiscent of American mega-churches.

As for Zamalek, it's really a pretty charming neighborhood, once you get past the traffic and narrow streets and sidewalks with the occasional step up or down that have me convinced that at some point in the next four months, I will bite it in a pretty spectacular fashion. There are little restaurants and coffee shops tucked away all over the place and at least some of them are really friendly to AUC students. We got free drinks last night at the little cafe we went to for dinner since we were new AUC students. It would be very easy to get lost wandering the streets of Zamalek since none of them are anywhere close to being on a grid, so I'm sure that, at least in the near term, we will be adhering to some sort of buddy system...and relying on our RAs to help show us where to go. The staff at the dorm is incredibly helpful and the night security guard is determined to learn all of our names before the semester is over.

That's all for now. I'm still recovering from the plane ride over and trying to adjust to the eight hour time difference. Orientation starts on Monday and then we get into high gear in a week. It's shaping up to be an interesting semester.