EXPERIENCE EGYPT MOMENT

Dearest Persons,

Many of you have written me concerned or interested emails or facebook messages inquiring on what Cairo is like. The following is a cultural activity that I recommend any of you reading this should try and do with a group of your friends. Here are the directions…

EXPERIENCE EGYPT MOMENT

Suggested Group Activity

Person 1: Position yourself in a sitting position about 50 feet away from group. You are “Kara” in her flat studying. Rule: No matter who approaches you do NOT respond nor make eye contact, nor smile, nor laugh. This is considered a turn on.

Persons 2-5: Surround a nearby car and stay together in a group for the best sound results.

Person 2: Continuously honk horn… sometimes for up to 10 seconds at a time.

Person 3: Continuously yell “AA-ISH” pronounced “eye-eesh” This means “Bread!”

Person 4: Pretend to be a cat either fighting over food, dying or having a baby… you know, that intense cat sound that we all hate to hear, especially at night. Throw some meows in and just keep the sound going.

Person 5: This person must be a male (or pretend male). Circle around “Kara” or Person 1 and in her ear say, “Pssst! Psst! Welcome Egypt! Welcome Egypt! Psst!”

Optional Persons preferably children: Run up to “Kara” and hold out your hand and say “Money? Money?” And then mumble words that do not make sense as an attempt to babble on and on in Arabic.

Suggestion: Do this scenario for about 3 minutes and then switch characters. Have each person take a turn at being "Kara" or Person 1 in order to have an idea of what it feels like to live in Cairo, Egypt. Oh... and pretend that all you can smell is exhaust, cat, and dirt in the air. This activity is an accurate picture of Cairo life. Diagram included for further activity description.

Hope you guys have fun with that… actually doing it or just imagining the described activity. Dude… if you do do this, please take pictures for me so that I may laugh at you and with you. :) Speaking of laughter, I have laughed a LOT here in Egypt with all of my new friends. I think that it’s a rule of thumb that funny things get said when you are in a foreign country with crazy people that you barely know. And I credit myself for being way funnier here than in the States. Here are some examples I’d like to share with you or just think on again and crack myself up again… I like to make myself laugh. You know this. :)

So today at lunch we’re talking about the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock and what would happen if someone destroyed it. Of course the Jews would want to build the temple here where Solomon originally built the temple, but the Muslims would never want to give this sacred space to the Jews. And Christians in this area wouldn’t want Jews to have it either even though many Christians in the West would as a fulfillment of interpreted biblical prophesy. And so we were talking about what each group would build if they got the land… of course Muslims have the mosque there (The Dome of the Rock), and Jews would build a temple and Christians would probably build a church… we were talking about how places like this get shuffled around… when religion changes the places of worship change… if Christians took over any mosque it would be turned into a church, etc. and so forth. Jokingly we said, what if Americans somehow got this land? And I said, “We’d probably build a mall.” And Todd or Owen said, “Or an Amusement Park.” Christina pipes in with, “Yeah… and it would be a Biblical Themed Amusement Park!” Maybe you had to be there, but we all laughed really hard!

I shared with the group at dinner the other night when we were getting to know each other that I love the smell of crayons, and they all thought I said Koreans. Funny, funny… so I’ve been shopping around for crayons and was looking today for some written on in Arabic and we decided (Owen, Justin, Esther and I) that I should buy some Arabic Koreans and take them on my carry on and smell them the whole flight home. That would go over well, don’t you think? J

Last night we watched “The Message” the equivalent of the Islam “Jesus Film”. It was interesting, and rather funny… (Mohammed was never pictured out of respect for the prophet, so anytime it depicted him you would see his disciples looking directly into the camera or the top of his camel’s head which was a very beautiful white camel. By the way, I hope that you do not think that I am poking fun at the Islam religion or movie by saying this… it is of the same nature and quality that our Jesus movie is and I feel like you can understand. I am not at all meaning to be disrespectful or offensive.) Anyways, during intermission our “Christian” director invited us to convert to Islam after the movie if we’d like to stay a while and Steve said, “Yeah, and then could we do the Hajj for Spring Break?” It was really funny.

Today my roommate is getting ready to practice headstands and cartwheels and roundoffs in our living room and she asks Emily and I, “Is this cement or wood?” Emily’s response? “Probably.” Ha… who says that?

Ok so I hope that I made you smile or just let you get the gist that I am having a good, funny time here in Egypt. Studies started today and my mind is growing and expanding already… I feel like a yellow sponge. (Yellow because yellow is the best color ever and represents that my brain is being stimulated as it soaks up the information.) Already I have learned so much of the Islamic religion and the politics in this region of the world. Here are a few questions that have begun to formulate in my head that I will most likely explore in later blog entries.

-Can a Muslim be a Christian and a Muslim at the same time?

-Does one that accepts Jesus as their Savior and are Muslim have to radically change their life? This is based on the idea that here religion and culture can not be separated. Muslim is a lifestyle. And if so, what changes would have to be made?

-What does God want from me different from the herd I am currently running with?

-Politics mean violence… we don’t have freedom or governmental systems of justice until blood is shed. There is blood all over our hands in order to preserve the free world and Christians are alright with this, or are we? Is bloodshed ok? And as a Christian looking into the past, where would I have stood when the Civil War in America was fought? Would I be like them and kill like they did?

-How can I maintain the attitude of Christ in difficult and annoying situations? How can I voice my frustration or true feelings and yet be like Jesus?

Hope these questions make you think too. Goodness greecious… these entries are long. But that’s ok because they make me think. Hope I do not bore you!

I love you! So that you know, I am leaving for Alexandria at 7 in the morning and will not be back until Saturday afternoon. We are going to visit the catacombs and the Mediterranean beach, and other historical sights. I am very excited. This is the first of our travels, and the shortest weekend and least expensive. The whole weekend will cost me a whopping 20 bucks. Hot, huh? Have an incredible weekend and I’ll talk to you more later and hopefully get a chance to post pictures of Alex when we return.

You’re in my thoughts and prayers!! Leave me comments!!!

I LOVE YOU!!
In His Mighty Grip,

Your Kara Joy