I Don't Know What You Want But I Have What You Need

I thought yesterday would be my last uber-tourist day for a while... not so - we're still in the orientation phase of the trip, so we still have lots of time to kill and not too much class to attend. This morning we went to St. Andrew's Refugee Ministry to discuss our main project, teaching English to refugees from Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea. The director of the project, Fiona, emphasized that this is less about reading and writing in English and more about life skills. For many of these unaccompanied minors, this phase of their lives is technically temporary, that is, they intend to move and resettle in another country. However, this dream is highly improbable for most of the refugees, so we need to help them improve the quality of the lives they have here in Cairo. I'll be working at the downtown center, conveniently the closest to our apartment in Garden City. The majority of my students will be Eritrean and Ethiopian, with four Iraqi students. I'm interested to learn about the differences in the living situations between all these groups and to get to know the students.

After that brief meeting, we were free for the rest of the day and reverted to our touristy ways. I went with three friends to Khan El-Khalili, an old market in Cairo. We met a very sweet and very slick salesman named Ahmed as we first began looking around. He gave us a tour of the not-quite-as-touristy part of the market and showed us his family's shop making papyrus scrolls. Although all four of us realized his salesman's tricks immediately, he was a wonderful guide and he gave us tea, and we each ended up buying a beautiful papyrus scroll (mine is of an ankh, the ancient Egyptian key of life)... of course at a "reduced student price." In actuality, we noticed when we went to the main market that our purchases were of much higher quality then those in the stands. As we walked down, we were hailed with many yells and requests to view their goods, including one shop keeper who said, "Welcome back! You were here yesterday correct? From Canada?" The best line by far was, "I don't know what you want, but I have what you need!" I think they might be song lyrics... or something out of a book of pick up lines. Regardless, we had a great time browsing the stalls, filled with everything from hookahs to backgammon sets to spices to t-shirts to belly-dancing costumes. I ended up buying myself a tunic (I desperately need more conservative clothing to wear here!) and made a somewhat successful attempt at haggling. We also went into the Al-Azhar Mosque, located next to the Khan, which is gorgeous, although we were all a little hesitant to walk around and be too nosy while people were studying. Before returning to our apartment, we met up with the rest of our group and took a boat ride on the Nile. It was fun, if a little bit odd.. the boat driver kept insisting that we dance with him, while we just wanted to sit down! All in all a touristy a day, but tomorrow we start Arabic classes. Ma salama.