More Pictures!

Hello everyone! SabaaH ixleer!
Here are some pictures of my last couple days. Tomorrow I'm leaving early for Alexandria for the weekend (Fri + Sat).




Looking straight down from my bedroom window.










Looking to the left, toward the street. Very crowded.























Looking straight. Notice the nice busted pipe.













This is me in our window. I put my camera out to take this picture and my heart almost dropped out of my feet when I realized I didn't have the strap on... :) I'm three stories up (the "second" flat)









This is a cave church on the fringes of east Cairo.. a million and a half tons of rock were removed to build it. I forget how many it seats. It's crazy huge. It's a part of the Coptic minority in Cairo. There are several others (much smaller) in the area.







This is an example of the carvings that a Canadian (or British?) guy does in the area, this one is small (only about 10 feet high), you'll see others in a few pictures. The Coptic Christians believe a miracle was done in the area a long time ago, when the Christians believed enough for the mountain they're on to move 3 km. This is the guy on the left that helped do it, he was blind in one eye because he gouged it out (see the metal in his right hand) because he saw this woman's thigh while cleaning her shoes. There were several other carvings like this in this cave, being a fascinating commentary on social constructions, as the woman is always the one who initiates the stumbling of the men (there was also Delilah and Potifer's wife). So obviously the women are responsible and are the one's who need to cover themselves and be circumsized, stifling their sexual drive. Very interesting.



This is Garbage City, where all trash is collected from the city by the people that live here and is then sorted. So instead of burying the trash or building recycling plants, there are people to do it. It's actually somewhat of a Christian place and many women there don't wear the hegab (head covering). The citadel is out in the far left.









It's hard to see, but this is a guy sitting just on the inside left of the frame, with a massive mound of trash sitting inside, and he is sorting it into the different bins. Some of it is recycled through contracts with companies, other things are melted and remade there to be resold.

ICS Warning: I took this picture very furtively, and it's one of the only pictures I took there, as I didn't want to come in as a rich American with my flashy camera and take pictures. Just so you know. I wasn't stupid about it.








This is one of the big carvings, you should be able to get some sort of scale with the white car down there at the bottom. They're huge! I think there are about 26. (This one is of Jesus, in case you couldn't tell)

















This is one of them on the roof of the large cave church, taken by one of the men who was originally exiled from the city when Garbage City was originally created in the 50s. He gave us a tour and was sweet. It's Mary and Jesus. It was kinda surreal to be in such a heavily Muslim area (95% of women I've seen wear the head covering, and that is indicative of being Muslim)










I took a day trip with two other students, Esther and Tim from Bethel, to Coptic Cairo, an old compound built by the Romans way long time ago. This is the remnants of two circular towers.










This was my dinner a few nights ago.

Stuffed pigeon.

I named him Timmy.













Me, Tim, Esther.

This is pretty much scandalous having Tim put his arm around us like this. We thought about that afterwards, as people around us probably thought he was married to both of us.

The guy that took this picture offered us a smoke. That was a first.
























I couldn't get these pictures to separate. One is the view to the right out my bedroom window. The other is in Coptic Cairo, on some sweet steps I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be on. (Tim wasn't supposed to walk there either)





A mosque.















A view of the Nile at night. We took a little ride on of the boats and were amused by our driver, who danced very wildly to Jay-Z.

The intern Dena and me on the boat. (note the scarf!!! IT'S COLD!)













These are the men. Seven in all (+1 intern).
Left to Right: Bryce, Owen, Steve, Justin, Todd, Stephen, Tim, Steve (intern)














This is the women. We only did this once, to go to a prayer service at the mosque. It was fun but my veil was super slick, so the thing kept sliding around, and I was really conscientous about not showing my hair (inappropriate) and it was a mess. The service was fascinating. We were asked if we wanted to convert to Islam. We didn't participate in the prayers, but I really wanted to. The women were very nice.











My roommates! Esther, me, and Ruthie. Esther is from Bethel College, and Ruthie grew up in Serbia. They are great girls.








Whew! Hope that's enough to hold you guys for a little while! I'm off to a coffee shop.

Oh and Will I think we should live in Cairo as dinner on the streets ranges from 2-6 pounds and is EXCELLENT (that converts to about 40 cents to a dollar). I'd never have to cook!! ;)

Love you all! Let me know how you're doing....

Oh yeah and please pray for my sister Kim cause her cat, Tucker, is missing. Come home Tuck!
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