Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Day Two of work at Ana Al-Misri. Though today was slightly more structured, it was still a bit of mayhem. I started the morning working in the computer lab, which honestly made me feel useless. There were only about 5 kids in there and far too many staff with me and another girl from my program, and most of the kids knew how to get to the games they wanted to play anyway. Then a bit of time in the art room, also not doing much with the kids but brainstorming possible projects we could do with them. Then came the true insanity - helping out in the nursery. They are almost finished constructing the room that will be their kindergarten, so until then the littlest children are stuck in one small room with almost nothing to do. I didn't really blame them for their rambunctious behavior, but most of it included them trying to escape the room, and unfortunately they usually succeeded. There was a door and a window accessible to them, neither of which locked, and they skillfully planned their jailbreaks to confuse the short-staffed room. There simply weren't enough people to guard the door and the window and go after the escapees all at once. I should mention that during all of this the kids would spontaneously beat up on each other at random, requiring some adult intervention to make them stop. Eventually we gave up keeping them in the room and took them out to the courtyard area, where each of us would be in charge of keeping our eyes on a few of the children. As soon as we got out there, I noticed that one boy had run out to a soccer field and through a door that turned out to lead out of the building entirely. I chased him down and carried him back, but of course he didn't give up that easily. He came back to try another escape multiple times, finally biting me in the leg (and, I noticed later, drawing blood through my pants) in his frustration. I was helped by another staff member, one of the many Brazilians working there, who took the child away for a stern talking to. Let me explain the Brazilian involvement - Ana AL-Misri's program is the first of its kind in Egypt, and therefore the organizers of the NGO were uncertain how to run a successful center for street children. However, they were able to contact an organization in Brazil with a similar mission, so these Brazilians all worked at this sister center and are here to develop the Egyptian model further. However, they are as of now unsure of exactly how to structure everything to fit into Egyptian culture, most noticeably when it comes to discipline. Once I understood that the organization lacked a specific disciplinary procedure, everything made much more sense, and I didn't feel so bad about not having real (or any) control over the kids. Hopefully I'll adjust as the organization itself grows and becomes more developed, and hopefully (or as they say in Egypt, "in sha Allah," by the grace of God) in the future not all of the blood, sweat, and tears from any given day will be mine (although there were no tears from me today, just from some of the kids; and sadly sweat is kind of unavoidable in the Egyptian heat).

Later in the afternoon, we had our registration session for our English class, which starts tomorrow. We had ten students come in today, who we successfully interviewed. It turns out that the Iraqi students won't be coming to our center after all, but I'm sure it will still be a very interesting and thought provoking experience. After registration, one of the other girls in our group, my teaching partner, and I met two other teachers at St. Andrews. These two women teach French, and were ecstatic to hear that we were from America, and immediately asked if we could meet and practice our English. Our community facilitator Jamal, who is always quick to recommend my Arabic abilities, said that we would meet with them only if we can practice our Arabic as well. I'm looking forward to setting up that meeting and getting to know some other people in Cairo.

On our way home, I stopped to get a sandwich, and the cook preparing my food asked me where I was from. When I said the US, he got very excited and started praising Obama, then looked at me very seriously and asked, "Bush or Obama?" When I told him I voted for Obama, he immediately perked up again and continued to talk about Obama and his quest for peace. Other students in my program have had similar experiences. One girl told some Egyptians she was working with that she was from Texas, and they immediately got suspicious and said, "You're from Bush country?!" They conferred quietly among themselves while she sat dumbfounded, until they turned back to her and one said, "Don't worry. You're with friends." I knew that Egyptians (as well as many Africans) love our president, but I didn't realize that these concerns about Bush would continue so far past the 2008 election!