Recent Events

Life is staying pretty interesting. Last week, I attended a conference at West Point on academic ethics. It was really cool. I learned a lot and, of course, I said a lot First, let me say that West Point is simultaneously the most beautiful and most hideous school I have ever encountered. It is awe inspiring to see the dedication of the cadets, to see them stand to attention, to see their pressed uniforms, to see their devotion to duty, to see the way that they are respectful (in general) and to see their minds at work. It was beautiful. However, there was an ugly side. It kept coming back to me, these young men are preparing to kill and to be killed. They use bayonets, they fire artillery shells, they are going to war. The cadet that I stayed with had a piece of shrapnel on his desk that he had picked up after an exercise. I held the chunk of metal in my hands and imagined it traveling at hundreds of miles per hour through flesh and bone. It was terrifying.
There is a legend at West Point concerning the flag pole. According to the tale, at the top of the pole, there is a container with a razor blade, a match and a pistol with one shot. Supposedly, when the nation is attacked, the last cadet alive at the academy is supposed to climb the flag pole, cut up the flag, burn it respectfully and then kill himself/herself. I wanted to ask my guides whether they would actually do that. For once, I held my tongue. It would have been a less interesting conference if I had kept to that principle the rest of the time. I rocked the boat... a lot...
I asked a lot of questions and managed to make a number of people quite frustrated with me. And, guess what, I managed to do so without ever mentioning foreign policy or the military. All of my "offenses" involved my criticisms of Capitalism and Utilitarianism. We had a panel discussion with a large number of "big-wigs" including the CEO of Arbys, a Boeing executive, a judge on the US circuit court and a few others. We had the opportunity to question them. I took my opportunity. Basically, I stood up and called everyone in the room (myself included) murderers. I based my statement upon the unfair distribution of wealth which causes the deaths of 16,000 children per day. Then after monologuing for 2 minutes about how the philosophy of John Locke can no longer be applied to the 21st century, I asked them how they could talk about ethics when they were murderers. They didn't answer my question. They answered the question that they wanted me to ask: "How does your company help the poor?" Oh well...
A lot of the speakers were much less than stellar. One in particular really ticked me off. He kept saying one offensive thing after another about "liberals", immigration, muslims, the war and everything else. I nearly walked out. I with I had. I confronted him later in private. It was stressful. At every second and in every situation in the entire conference, I had to be filtering everything that everyone said. Some was good, a lot was bad. I could write pages about the little things that happened, both the good and the bad, but I will spare you more details.
There is one more thing though: I wonder if it is possible to go to war without believing that God is on your side. I have never gone to war. I do not know. But, something deep inside me tells me that that is a necessary condition before putting ones life on the line, or before taking the lives of others. Many of the Christians that I talked to at the academy spoke of church and country almost interchangeably. Can one be in the military without believing that God supports that decision? I don't know... But I am beginning to suspect not.
On a much lighter note, Emily has been organizing some pretty sweet things here at Dordt. It is really awesome to see all of the stuff that is happening. I feel like the campus is actually changing bit by bit. Ill let Emily fill you in on the details of the different events. They were her ideas.
I miss you all VERY much.
Ma3salema ya habibeen
Oh and one more thing. One guy (an adult!!!) at the conference said that I was arrogant for telling him that he didnt understand Arabic culture. He kept insisting that he DID understand it even though he had never been there. I kept insisting that I myself did not understand it even though I lived there for 4 months. He kept talking about the Arab world with very "western" categories like freedom, individualism and the like while completely dismissing any emphasis on community and honor. It was so sad that it was funny.

Back to Cairo?

So I'm curious...who's thinking about applying for this ESL job or the female MESP intern? What other organizations are people applying to work at after graduation? I'm compiling my list of potential jobs and I'm just curious to see what you all are thinking. You know, you guys being very cool and globally-minded and such.

Agh...today I'm falling into the clutches of Seattle-winter-rainy blues...and maybe with a sprinkling of PMS on top, too. I think I'm going to treat myself to some serious chocolate and maybe watch a movie this afternoon. I totally took for granted how nice it was to have that much sunshine last fall in Cairo, even if you had to suffer dust and pollution and wormy cats along with it. It beats winter depression (and daylight savings hasn't even hit yet!)

Alissa

Pictures

Well, I have about 500 mbs worth of photos/video of the wedding and would like to compile a cd to send to the Northwest. I have room for about 200 megabytes on the cd. If you could email your pictures/videos to my gmail email (first initial first name, last name at gmail dot com) before October 24, I will put all the photos I get on a cd for Matt and Suzannah.

Thanks, -David

Changes...(and Tupac)

yes, as Alissa so nicely alluded, things are changing in my life. The boy I talked about in a post a little over a month ago that asked me on a date b/c my views shocked him so much, is the same boy who asked me to be his girlfriend about a week ago. Brian and I are completely different in almost every sense of the word but we push each other. Have you ever had a friend like that? One that really questions your belief system, but in a loving inquisitive manner? I give him books to read about peace and the Middle East and he reads them. It's fantastic, really.

So I might have said ok to being his girlfriend. Some of you know how big of a step that really is for me. I have not been someone's 'girlfriend' in five years (to the week actually). I have a ton of learning to do and already I am being stretched. There are some BIG BIG BIG hindrances that are standing in our way, but we really feel like this is something we have to pursue and see where it goes. I don't know if any of you really wanted to know anything about this, but there it is. You all know me so well and some of you are probably rejoicing and some of you are mourning because you don't think I'm making the right decision and I welcome both responses. Know that I love each and every one of you and the weekend of the GruelKirk wedding I wished I was with you so often. I really REALLY want pictures and a synopsis of the wedding and weekend.

I love you all so much and have really been missing Egypt like crazy. What do ya'll think of Mandy applying for the intern position? Please be brutally honest. I welcome it with open arms.

Salaam.

Matt and Suz: Cutest Couple Ever. p.s., I missed the other 12 of you like crazy.

Deakin, I can't believe you guys are getting married during Thanksgiving weekend! I'm so bummed I won't be able to be there for it. Any chance of rescheduling...? : )
This weekend was a wonderful time--nothing like having Hawthorne, David, Micah, and Jon all sleeping on the floor of my apartment! Sitting around in our pajamas and eating breakfast together might have been the most endearing thing ever.
And, of course, the wedding was wonderful--Juliana and I sat next to each other and getting all misty-eyed. It was perfect--simple, perfectly them, and some of the most thoughtful content I've ever seen or heard in a wedding. I hope someone's putting pictures up soon, because I didn't get the chance to take any!
We also had one raucous evening all together with hookah and some choice beverages--and the video of Phil doing Gangster's paradise. We missed all of you and reminisced about memories including each and every one of you, so in spirit, it was like we were all there. It was amazing, though--I think we counted that 13 of us in total managed to make it. That's half our semester! Anyone else up for a trip to Seattle to celebrate Matt and Suz Gruelkirk's 1 year anniversary?!

-Also, you guys should all ask Mandy what exciting news she has to tell us.

-In other news entirely, I recently was asked to write a paper reflecting on my "spiritual journey" over the course of this past year. A lot of it had to do with MESP, so I thought I'd share it here, but I suddenly can't figure out how to post a text attachment. Shoot me an email if you'd be interested.

love you all!
Alissa

ps

check us out:

www.mattandlauren.net

wedding things

i wish i could have been part of the west-coast reunion this past weekend. i wanted to be there for gruel and suzanna and also to hang out with the rest of you. i called juliana later on saturday night hoping to catch everyone out clubbing or something, but instead she was heading to bed and nobody else was around. she filled me in on the wedding and the catching up. it sounds like it was a wonderful weekend and i'm sorry i couldn't be there. i miss you guys a lot...

on the topic of cool wedding reunions, i realized that i need to get on the ball and invite everyone to my wedding. it is going to be in KATY, TEXAS (right outside of houston) on NOVEMBER 25. we scheduled it around thanksgiving break so that a bunch of our college friends could come be a part of it. i realize that most of you probably have thanksgiving plans already and that it is sort of short-notice to put this up now, but i want everyone to know that each of you are warmly invited. lauren and i would be honored if any of you could come.

i am going to try and upload the graphic of our wedding invitation to the blog, but i wanted to get an invite on here ASAP anyway.

i actually have to start my shift at the restaurant in 16 minutes so i better get going. love you all.

-deaks

I wish I would have found this site at MESP

I think these two videos should be part of the BIG folder somehow.

On wi-fi connecting:
http://www.marksinfinitesolutions.com/tutorials/default.asp?tutorial=IS_Wifi

On food preservation:

http://www.marksinfinitesolutions.com/tutorials/default.asp?tutorial=IS_Produce

has anyone seen The Kingdom?

Ok so HAS anyone seen The Kingdom? If they have, I would like to hear your thoughts. I basically wanted to cry for like two days after seeing that. People thought it was sooo good and sooo realistic and me personally, I thought it was so oversimplifying, so over-violent and so despairing that it really lost a lot of meaning that it could have had, although it did have some good messages in it I thought too. Anyway I would like to know what my fellow MESPers thought

This weekend is going to be cool

I'm being brief.