Throwbacks

This morning seemed doomed for failure. I woke up only twenty minutes before our bus was supposed to arrive to take us to Ana Al-Misri, the bus was then late (even though I managed to be downstairs on time), the bus driver didn’t know the directions (and not speaking much ‘Amia, we couldn’t help him), and when we arrived (finally) we found out that the organization was extremely understaffed – all fantastic. However, as is typical of Egypt, for all the frustrations, there is a equal or greater amount of humor to be found. For example, the van that finally came to pick us up had electric blue shag seat covers with teddy bears embroidered on them. And for some odd reason, the bus driver picked up a number of people whom we had stopped to ask directions, drove them each about 50 feet before dropping them to pick up someone else.

Then there was Ana Al-Misri itself. Though it’s lack of organization still drives me crazy, the kids' excitement completely balances it out. Recently we've started teaching them the clapping game "Miss Mary Mac," which was very popular when I was in about third grade - talk about a throwback. Everyone loves this game, but none more than the eight-year-old boys. One in particular, named Mustafa, gets such an excited expression on his face when we play that he almost looks frenzied. This image is multiplied immensely by the fact that he is missing his upper front teeth, and his tongue pokes out a little through his grin. When combined with his mild bouncing as he starts to get into the game and the fact that his eyes start to bug out of his head, he looks a tad bit insane, but also adorable. I spent the second half of my morning at Ana Al-Misri french-braiding the hair of the girls who live there. As fun as it was, I have the feeling that I will not be doing anything else for a while - like with Miss Mary Mac, the kids tend to get hooked on one particular game or thing that we entertain them with.

Another throwback of today came with the second song we played to our English class: Miley Cyrus's "See You Again." Although it's a tad annoying that I still have it stuck in my head, it was wonderful to see all of our students pouring over the lyrics and humming the tune as they leave the classroom.