Life in Egypt

Whew! Its been a minuet yall. :) In the time I haven't written there has been some exciting things, not so exciting things, good, and bad. Well I cant really say bad. Execpt for the guy who pulled out his penis when me and Sha was walkin to the Metro. Apparently thats common here. LOL. One of my friends told me I should have laughed at him. I was just pissed.

Anyways it RAINED!!!! Only for a little bit. BUT IT RAINED!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YALL. No turkey for me this year. :( Maybe I'll just have to cook one when I get home. WHICH IS SOON!!!

I feel like I am rushing though. I want to capture everything possible in the little time I have. Like Al-Azhar park, more mosques, Sinai Mountain (this wkend), more pictures. ect ect

You ever heard of the story/play The Fire Of Anatole? Well I went with Sha and some friends to see that at the citadel. It was so much fun and a great production. Great Dancers.

The 30th is Raggea at the Sawy Culture Center. You betta believe I'll be there. Everyone says that they are a good Sudanese group. Well I gotta go run and finish planning this trip that has been postpones once already.

L8R

Here he is here he is. THE JUICE MAN!! Well actaully there are many juice men. But he was at one of the restaurants we went to. :) And the donut looking things in his hands are his music instruments. And then the little tin thing on his hip is his sink to was the glasses in. And the juice comes out the spout. I finally tasted it. Cause he even has to go juice bags!!! :) He always makes me smile!

Dang yall. Ramadan is passing by so fast. I am trying to get these prayers in these last ten days. Laila tul Qadr (The Night of Power) is coming. Technically we are on onlt have ten days left marking today. Ok for those who don't know what The Night of Power is it is the Night that Allah revealed the Qur'an to Prophet Mohammed (pbh). Nobody knows the exact night that it comes. Except that it falls on an odd night of the last ten days during Ramadan. So in the last ten nights many many muslims go to the mosque and stay up praying all night. And we believe that if you stand in prayer with faith and sincerity in your heart that all your sins will be forgiven. This also another reason why Muslims see Ramadan as a renewal of their spirits and their out look on things. Like a new begining to the new year. Gettin on the good foot and having a more positive attitude about things!! :)

Aight so on the first night of Ramadan there was an eclipse and I have pictures!! :) But they are kinda huge so I hope they show up on the page.

Riooooooooooo!!!

Silly Face not the best picture of him
but it doesn't matter. He makes mad lute
and he's the best defender ever!

I had to shake it off this weekend yall. Nope! No dancing involved. School just isn't stimulating here. So you got put other things into your diet. "Be the Ball!" Shafiqah

But we had a good weekend. We went to this play yesterday. It was about this peasant boy who was accused of murdering someone. The play was long as hell yall. We didn't even stay for the whole thing. It was me Sha and our friend Imam (who is also my Arabic tutor). The play was entirely in Arabic. Of course (Tab'an)! It was funny, the parts we did understand. But we were most amazed with the scene transitions. They have such great technology in AUC's theator. At the change of each scene you could just roll away the piece they didn't need. It was like three pieces. Two on the side and one in the middle. ok ok ok Maybe it is better scene than said. It was a good play though, even tho we didn't stay for the whole thing.

We were going to go to a Nubian Singer but we was too damn tired. Not too tired for a sweet snack tho!!! Me and Sha went for a snack at Columbus Cafe which is kinda like Starbucks but better furniture! And the guys know us very well there and laugh at us all the time. After that we was beat. We came back and all I can remember is waking up and jumping out of bed to catch my 12:00 meeting with Imam. (I have a quizz on Monday, pray for me)

Tonight we all had iftar at Nubian Village. The food was aight. But as I probably have mentioned before every restaurant has TV's. So we watch the last part of the Manchester United (one of the best soccer teams to watch.My favorite player is Rio Ferdinand. I usually dont care much for defenders even though they do most of the work for a team.) If its not music videos it soccer! :) I enjoy both. I gotta bring yall back some music. :)

After dinner we went to the Modern Art Museum. It put me in such a good mood. Ya know restimulated my head. Even inspired me to write some poetry. How bout that! I think my week with get off to a good start. Well if I don't get in the bed that aint gunna happen. So I should probably wrap this up. The adan is already being called for Fajr (the morning prayer). Aight yall I hope yall are doing well. Holla at ya gyrl. Peace out A Town Down. Finish up the story lata.

NEW DISCOVERY!!!

So I am up again. 2am Just chattin, emailing, reading. Then the drummer guy comes by. So I was like what is this? I asked one of the guards. And said he is called Saharati. He is the person who wakes up the neigborhood for suhoor. He beats his drum and yells isssssshaaa yaname! It means wake up from sleep. From my window I can hear him go around the whole neigborhood. And then all the lights that arent already on start flickering down the street. I swear yall this is my favorite time here. The morning. Well the morning during Ramadan. This is just so decent to me.

And now the street is filled with chattering and the last puffs of cigarrette smoke before the day begins. :) Aight gotta go eat.

SO i just got out of my last class for the day!!! I was so tired. I overslept for suhoor this morning. And all I wanted to do was sleep all day. But I made it! :) Actually as the day progressed I got more energy. But let me tell yall something. During Ramadan here you can tell when it is time for iftar. The streets are absolutely silent. You wont be able to find a cab anywhere. It is ghost town. You just be like dang what happened where are all the people. You wont find a single shop open. The only movement is underneathe the huge tents that are set up for the poor and the homeless so they can break their fast. And literally twenty minuets before this time the streets are intensely crowded. People roastin chickens, baking bread, frying ful (beans) and falafel. It is these times that make me feel the warmest.

Or like if you got out to eat, which we do all the time. You can go just before it is time to breakfast and they will serve you iftar and then you can make prayer with everyone right in the restaurant. How wonderful. And then they serve you dinner. It makes life much easier. After dinner all the mosques are PACKED with believers making late night prayers; sisters and brothers. Often times they have to put mats outside so there will be enough space for all. And the humming of the combined recitation of the Qur'an from all the mosques makes me happy. But my favorite is still hearing like ten different Athans in the morning for Fajr.

Aight yall just wanted to share cause I was in a pensive mood today about so many things and just wanted to share and reflect on some good things. Its getting closer to that time to break fast. Holla at ya lata.

What is a refugee?

Well and good to answer,

To answer such a question we need to be careful,

because those who can answer it are very rare in this world

eee

To answer such a question

needs you first to take refuge,

otherwise your answer will be simple and meaningless.

eee

As refugees,

we are victims of violence and war,

We left our motherland

because we were being mistreated in many ways.

We ran to get protection in other countries.

eee

But as a refugee,

you are always simple in front of anybody.

You are subject to prejudice and mistaken ways.

You are a human being without any value.

You can pass through any disaster

and nobody will care about you.

eee

Oh! What is lovely like our homeland?

In your own country you are free,

free like a butterfly when it flies from flower to flower,

free like a fish moving in water.

eee

Homeland is a second heaven,

without your home

you are like a dog without a tail.

eee

Give us peace,

to return back to our beloved country,

our precious heaven Sudan.

Give us our ancestors' land.

Africa, live in peace forever.

Andrew Mayak

!! ALEXANDRIA!!

This is where me and Shafiqah stayed

Alexandria's harbor during sunset. A sight to see

ooo so many boats

pretty colors

Aw I love the kids. I was comin out the hotel to take pictures and they were there just chillin and they wanted me to take one of them. And of course that made my day. They climbed up there like they do this everyday. I looked downn on minuet to turn the camara on and they were up there the next.

closer

getting closer

I was just going on a walk that morning and checking out the city

Sunrise sunrize

Just a funny billboard that I liked!!

Masjid Ibrahim

Me and some lady. :) The momunment didn't say who this was or why it was erected.
The other half of our trip in Alexandria will be posted on Shafiqah's blog. http://shafi9.blogspot.com

This is Masjid Ibrahim

This is the last of the Monasteries friends. This is St. Paul's Monastery which is like an hour away from St. Anthonies. The story of St. Paul goes as so. He was born to a wealth family in Alexandria(which will be my next postings). After the death of his father him and his brother disagreed on the inheritance shares. He believed that all pleasure and treasures on earth were priceless after death. He then moved to the desert where he lived for 90 days near the Red Sea. When G'd wanted to reveal the sacredness meaning of this journey he sent him St. Anthony. Saint Anthony sent him some disciples to begina new monastic life where St. Paul was located.

Justinian the Emperor at the time built the walls you see around the monastery and a fortress inside to protect the monks from the bedouins.

This monastery also had many paintings inside the churches that are similar to the ones in St. Anthonys. They also have refractories and ancient mills in this monastery.