So... you're covenant breakers AND bean game liars (well, the girls anyway). (Know that I'm writing that with a smile on my face). Yes, it was an interesting semester, but interesting doesn't mean "bad", just more full of, well, I guess I would say "drama", than your semester. Perhaps one day I'll fill you in on Dave's "creative response" (as one of you called it), but for now I'm just too tired.

I went to Lebanon a few weeks ago with Jenna and one of this past semester's students and I will remain forever grateful that I got the opportunity to go, especially as the current violence in Tripoli and Beirut broke out about two weeks after I arrived back in Cairo (I stayed longer than Jenna). I made it to most ends of the country, visited with one of the Parliamentary members of Hezbollah at the Hezbollah headquarters in South Beirut, got a tour of the destruction from this past summer's war from the same guy, visited the aforementioned guy's house and met his wife and other family members, walked through Sabra and Shatila, went south to Quana and Tyre and Sidon, went west to Baalbek (a Hezbollah stronghold), went North to the Quadisha valley - the home of the Maronites (where I stayed with a Maronite family for a few days), went east to Tripoli and took a very unstable fishing boat to a random island (we had to jump off and swim to reach the shore), walked through the civil war destruction in Beirut and the Opposition's tents downtown, and generally tried to absorb the many different complexities of such a tiny country.

Last week I saw Steve and Anna, on their way through Cairo, headed for the States. It was a brief visit, but it was good to see them again. Steve in particular enjoyed our dinner with the CCCU professors (especially the "liberal" one. Steve, did you know he was also a member of the socialist party? Very risque...). For the past week I was back in Jerusalem, helping Dave with the CCCU faculty tour and hanging out with faculty from CCCU schools, and I return to Canada in a week and a half. Plans for next year are still working themselves out, but I'll let you know what happens. I don't really know how I feel about my time at MESP being over, because it doesn't quite feel like it's finished yet, but that's all part of the process of ending. In general I feel like I'm getting very good at saying "good-bye", which isn't necessarily something I wanted to get used to. However, that seems to be the nature of life at the point I'm at, especially living in this very "temporary" world of ex-pats.

I hope you're all well, and enjoying the endless fun of summer jobs. Congratulations to those who have graduated, and keep us updated on your futures! Know that I miss you all, and hope to run into you somewhere, and somehow.

Until then,

Dena