Oh Friends!
Merry Christmas! I hope many of you are feeling like it’s Christmas and are valuing the birth of our Savior and Lord.
It doesn’t “feel” completely like Christmas to me. However, my mom and I did sing Silent Night together—one of my favorite Christmas Eve traditions.
So—here I am back in Cairo again. I was so excited to come back! I just spent the last five days in an Israeli resort where I felt quite out of place a lot of the time. [While I don’t feel like it’s fully the Christmas season—my ears were definitely reminded of the last days of Chanukah at each dinner.] At one point my mom told me that I sounded as if I were “anti-Israel”. I hope not. But I am frustrated and trying to figure out how to deal with these emotions in healthy ways.
I am so thankful for the stories, people, and sights I experienced for almost a week in the West Bank. I’m pretty sure I left part of my heart there. It was weird to go directly from Palestine to being surrounded by citizens of the country that is occupying and oppressing so many people. It’s sobering to think my tax dollars are helping fund the Apartheid wall and all of the injustices it brings. I want to honor the people I met by not just returning to life in the States as normal and not doing anything to speak up against this terrible reality.
My heart is also aching—missing every one of you. It was so strange to come up to flat 2 tonight and see the metal screen door closed. I love being in our home [Margie, I’m sitting on your golden bed], but it’s hard because there’s a huge void—the precious females that made it our home are no longer here. I pulled out our group picture tonight and it seems like we were at Anafora yesterday—but it also seems like such a long time ago. While looking at us I thought, this is MESP—how can it change? I imagine a lot of past MESPers have thought something similar.
Thank you for each person’s posts. It is wonderful to hear from you and share in your experiences second-handedly—now that we are no longer living life together. Thank you for who you are and the ways you have enriched my life. I am looking forward to continue hearing about your life and being impacted by your thoughts.
I’m really excited to see Dena, Steve, and Anna today and have Christmas dinner with them. Have a blessed day with family and friends, everyone.
Here’s the Christmas carol flat 2 wrote, for those of you who wanted it…
You know David and Diaa
Stephen and Dena
Mariam and Ashraf
Heather, Karima
They are all a part of the Best Semester of all…
MESP Fall 2006 [six]
was a very jolly time [iywa!]
but if you ask about our leaders [leaders]
we’ll create a funny rhyme [mumkin]
Karima is our hero
when she makes us koshari [shokran]
Ashraf likes to yell “tok tok”
and his face is full of glee [mabsoot]
Dr. Dave—his Excellence
he’s a real swell guy [bezabt]
Diaa give you medicine
when you think you’re gonna die [like Molly]
Steve and Dena are the interns
we couldn’t live without [tabahn]
When we remember Egypt
You will never see us pout [illhamdullallah]
p.s. If anyone might have an idea where my cell phone [blue Motorola flip fone] evaporated to, I’m all ears. It’s so strange—it was on my bed while packing up, and then it wasn’t—mafish. But I guess it’s a less valuable item to lose.
Oh yes—one more thing has vanished—our seal. There is a new [used] water heater in our bathroom. I can hear it heating water, but it doesn’t squeal—magnoon.
Here are the pics e-mailed to me from our day with students from Tel Aviv University.
No comments:
Post a Comment