Study-Service Term

The first Egypt SST has come to an end. The students left Eman house with lots of energy, enthusiasm and a bit of sadness.  They are on the plane on their first leg of the journey to Goshen.  I will miss them.

The students arrived back in Cairo in good form. Our first two days included reporting on service assignments and presenting final projects.  On Saturday Heba provided a wonderful noon meal and said her farewell to the group. Sunday included finishing reports and an evening sail on the Nile on a felucca with a meal of stuffed pigeons and kebab.

Phil chose to stay in metropolitan Cairo in order to have the opportunity to work with the staff at Behman Hospital in Helwan. This is the largest mental health facility in the Middle East.  In addition to sitting in on daily case management meetings, Phil was able to assist staff working with patients and did some clerical work in an office.

For the past month Summer has been living with her extended family in Amman, Jordan.  Her parent’s generation moved to Jordan as Palestinian refugees and there are now three generations living in a multi-dwelling apartment complex.  Each day Summer commuted to Al-Zaytoonah University in suburban Amman where she assisted English faculty in their language labs. She also tutored several university staff members in English.

Ben and John are doing a variety of things in the small city of Qusayih in Upper Egypt. Their home is in the headquarters of the Coptic Church of the diocese of Qusayish. They are doing some teaching, and getting involved in community life by attending a wedding, visiting student homes and traveling to a nearby monastery.  They also spent some time at Anafora working on a project to build a model of first century Jerusalem.

Elspeth and David are living at the Coptic Retreat Center north of Cairo known as Anafora.  They are doing a variety of things including work in the kitchen, garden work, and teaching the craft of working with clay.  David has spent time developing the ceramics program, getting the wheel and the kiln in working order.  Elspeth and David worked for several intense days on building a model of 1st century Jerusalem.  Elspeth has been documenting the development of the model. They are also enjoying the liturgy in the daily Coptic services.

Nate and Peter are working at the Suzanne Mubarak Library in Luxor. They teach adults computer science and conversational English.  They have had the unusual experience of living in a hotel.  They have enjoyed several outings with their students. A highlight was a visit to a Nubian home.  My hotel in Luxor offered a fantastic night view of the west bank of Luxor. Lizzy and Sarah are helping with English classes at the Salam School in Asyut.  They live on a large campus and float from class to class during the day. The campus includes a museum with some amazing objects from ancient Egypt including a mummy, a wooden coffin, mummified animals, coins, weapons, ancient textiles and sacred texts. All of the students have noticed the more relaxed (and quiet!) atmosphere in Upper Egypt in comparison to Cairo.

Dean Anita Stalter, Professor of Spanish Dean Rhodes and I traveled north of Cairo to the cities of Banha and Tanta.  Hannah is working with kindergarten children  at the Salaam School in Banha.  She assists English teachers by pronouncing words, playing games, and simply spending time with the children.  Melissa and Nora are also working with young children at the Salaam school in Tanta.  In addition to describing their work at school they reported about an active social life with the school’s teaching staff.  Our time in Tanta was limited and thus the only pictures are from a meal with administrators at the school. We were delighted to have MCC volunteer Jennifer Linder join us for the day. She is a teacher in Tanta and was very instrumental in organizing these service assignments.

Beni Suef is about 120 kilometers south of Cairo on the Nile. It is a city of 150 thousand inhabitants and is divided into a newly developed segment east of the Nile and the old city in the west.  Students live and work on both sides of the river.  Abe and Andrea are assisting English instructors at St. Mark’s Language School in the old city. Rachel works at the same school with preschool children. Clayton is on the east side of the Nile in a school for mentally challenged young people known as The Olive Branch Special Needs School. Mathilda also works with English classes during the day at the Tawfik school. All of the students also assist in evening adult English conversation classes. The visit concluded with a very tasty meal with Father Youssef, our host in Beni Suef.

All of the students have arrived safely at their service destinations.  They were in good spirits as they boarded their trains and should have a wonderful experience seeing more of Egypt.

The first two students will board a train this evening for their over night journey to a service assignment in Luxor.  Tomorrow the remaining students will board trains or a private car to go to their placements.  They will be spread from Tanta in the Delta to Luxor in Upper Egypt.  Most assignments include some form of English teaching. The blog will go on a brief hiatus until service visits begin in two weeks.