Alex Stein : fact or fiction?

Hello everyone. Ok so i know in my email i said i was taking out the thursday dedication post, i even didnt make one last week...but some people expressed that they really liked it regardless and to be honest i did too because it was just some way of remembering all the good times i have had with you guys. So i'm bringing it back but i guess with a little less flattery? I dont know either way its back and if you dont want a post about you then tell me and i wont make one simple as that. So for the rest of you guys tough luck its my blog i can do what i want :D.

Ok so recently i decided to start walking to and from work to save my money because living a year and having to pay for transportation is something that builds up. Plus it was cutting into my buy myself food funds...so yeah the walk is about 2 and a half hours but its not bad i get in shape, i get the blood pumping and the weather is getting much nicer. So yeah...As i was walking there is this truck with a tank of water and it just drives down the side of the roads shooting the side walks with really extreme amounts of water with a lot of pressure. This is to clean the dust and whatever else may be on the sidewalks. So i was walking and watching this ridiculous contraption go and i saw a dog on the sidewalk and sure enough the dog got blasted against the wall (it was like if elsa had a foot made of water...for those who dont understand the analogy elsa kicked a puppy once...i know...) haha so yeah i was like "OH NO THAT POOR DOG" but the dog just got up and started walking away. No big deal but i noticed something...the dog was completely dry. He was just hosed down with who knows how much water and not even dripping he was dry as a bone. My first thought of course for those who know "That is the Alex Stein of the canine world."

Ok so now i guess i'll get to the dedication part. So Alex Stein is pretty much a great guy. For whoever doesnt know him you should because he is great. I remember talking once with Marc and we agreed that Alex is the perfect not sidekick but like a more respectable term. You know like he adds something to a conversation or a "hang out session" he supports all and encourages those around. So yeah Alex Stein i've known for awhile and he is a good blend of everything. Whether you just want to goof around or have a serious discussion Alex Stein is the guy to go to. So yeah the reason why a dog being completely dry after being hit with water relates to Alex Stein is because his hair is the same way. When you pour water on his head sure he gets wet but his hair remainds dry dry dry. At first it was always just ridiculous and unexplainable till i started studying forensics and stuff about hair. So hair is pretty cool we have three layers of it: the cuticle, the cortex, and the medulla. The cuticle is the outside most layer of our hair and its like the "shell" of our hair. Around the cuticle it is surrounded by an oily substance called "keratin" its basically this water proof oily substance that protects your hair from absorbing too much water. We all have it but Alex Stein has an extremely high concentration of it all over his head which makes his hair essentially water proof.

Haha ok so i was just remembering that about Alex. I have so many other stories but like i said i dont want to "embarrass" everyone when i make these posts so i'll keep it short and stuff. So yeah for those who know Alex Stein know he is a great guy just fun to be around can make fun of him and he takes all the jokes and stuff with a great amount of elegance and doesnt get fazed by it. So yeah a small ode' to Alex Stein for those who dont know him i suggest meeting him.

national identity? why not worldly identity?

Ok everyone i know i havent been updating much and i probably wont be able to much because work is really REALLY busy now. It all came all of a sudden now we have much planning, organizing, and preparing for all the groups that are coming to build here in a month. So yeah i mean i am not complaining i feel really great getting into this making this dream of habitat's become a reality. So i guess i'll talk a little bit about my "adventure" last night (sorry austin in advance)....

So I live in a place called Abassaya and i work in "mus-reh-ge-deeda" this is about a 20-30 minutes drive in a taxi or micro bus depending on what i can get. The microbus is really awesome in that it is only a pound rather than 10 pounds with a taxi. But i decided that i dont really like spending any of it since its all going to add up in a year. So i played with the idea of walking back and forth. Its actually a really really easy walk its just down this one road and you make a right and then a left to get to my office. So i mean the only thing would be the time. I estimated it would be about a 2 and a half hour walk and thats really not so bad for me because usually when i get back to my room i dont do anything but sit and think until i go to bed so why not do that thinking while saving money and getting some exercise!? Yeah so i was talking to austin about that on aim and he said not to do it and i finally agreed to take a taxi after work. However...its ramadan and when i finished locking up it was pretty close to sundown. Now for those who may not know in ramadan is when the muslim people fast all day until sunset when they all get to have a huge iftar (feast) and eat all this delicious food. This goes on for about a month. I think this year it started in september and is ending the second week of october? maybe the first? sorry i am not really sure. So anyway at sunset the streets go empty! literally empty because everyone goes home to eat food with their family. So finding a taxi is hard and for me it wasnt worth the wait. So i started walking and it was actually really amazing. The weather was nice last night and it only took 2 and a half hours and i got to see a lot that i might not normally see while speeding by in a taxi.

The first thing i noticed was all the cats. There are really a lot of cats in egypt people told me that but up till then i only saw one or two but there was a whole litter of kittens sitting ontop of a trash bag trying to rip it open. I felt really really really bad and probably shouldnt have done what i did but hey whatever man whatever...i ripped open the bag for them and continued on my walk. Cats of course werent the only things living in poverty and its really hard to explain to you guys what i feel when i see this kind of thing. You may see homeless people on the streets of new york and stuff but its really not the same. I wish i could describe it but its probably best for in person or something so sorry about that...

Yeah so the people in egypt are amazing. When the sun set and i was walking people out of their stores sent out errand boys into the streets with trays of drinks and food. This was later explained to me that the richers muslims in business set out food for hundreds of people each day of ramadan. The thing about it is that its not always really the rich they all just adopt this concept of "give as if you have plenty" which is something i can respect. the idea of keeping extra for youself "just in case" really gets to me (but thats for another entry haha). Anyway yeah so these people set up tables and chairs every night of ramadan with food for about 100-200 people who can just come up and take food no paying no nothing just to share what God has provided for them. This is something i can really respect and is unfortunately something i dont think i'll ever see in america.

A lot of it i think has to do with that there is a real feeling of unity and national identity here in egypt. In america there is such a diverstiy of people, race/ethnicity, and religion that everyone feels isolated from their neighbors and just cant open up. In egypt the majority is muslim and egyptian so all are so warm and kind to each other since they are all essentially in the same boat as one another. Which makes it easier for them to be able to give because they can relate to the ones they give. I mean i like this but i really think that it shouldnt have to be limited to the way we look or the things we believe. We all live on this earth and we all share in everything thats on it so why cant we come together in a sense of unity? i dont know its just something on my mind from walking on the streets. I dont want to get too much into it because i still dont know anything about it so i dont want to put out the wrong message. My point is i guess i hope one day we can all just i dont know love each other or at least act kindly to one another. In egypt i never have to worry about asking someone for something. you walk on the street and everyone you pass greets you in america most of the people walk with their heads down or try and do whatever they can to avoid eye contact or something cutting themselves off by listening to their music players or running to their mobiles. Meh whatever i dont know i just hope things change soon.

Ok i made this post really depressing haha i am sorry about that. Anyway something i noticed about my taxi interactions is that i dont know if its cultural but the taxi driver if he smokes always offers me a cigarette. It may be cultural but i dont know maybe i just look like the type that smokes...i dont know this post was terrible sorry everyone i am really busy at work! i'll make it up to you guys somehow.

I hope Joe didnt read this terrible post

probably the shortest blog entry andrew in egypt has ever seen!

ok i posted yesterday so i didnt want to do it again today, but this is just to tell you guys about my new living arrangements. So i moved out of my room and my father's friend from back in the day teaches at the seminary and has a room which he uses to take a nap in before class or just use to his own convenience. So he said i am allowed to stay in that room till May. I'm pretty sure i dont have to pay for the room which is amazing. The room is i wouldnt say so much as a downgrade from my old room as it is just a lot simpler. There are 2 beds and a bathroom. My old room has an air conditioner and a refrigerator but the new one doesnt. Thank God i am a man of adaptation so now i am going to adapt to sleeping in complete heat and drinking warm water. So far it hasnt been so bad and if anything else it just makes me stronger. The bathroom is better in that the sink, shower, and toilet dont leak like my old room, but haha the shower is very interesting. In the old room there was absolutely no water pressure and the cold water didnt work so i would take literally boiling hot water with no pressure which meant it would take a long time and i would slowly boil myself. Now with this new shower there is so much pressure the water comes out like a laser beam! Seriously its like someone bought the new super soaker whatever with ultimate pressure and it just shoots straight down. The old was no pressure and the water was very dispersed around and very hot and now the new one is the exact opposite where there is so much pressure, its like a beam, and its very very very cold. So i have taken 3 showers already and i have gotten the hang of my new shower. So i have learned how to shower normally, really hot low pressure, and very cold super pressure. Dare i say it i've mastered Showering and haha that makes me happy. So thats my new room basically other than that i am trying to take everything in a positive way. The shower may be a little rough but possible free rent is a God send so i am extremely satisfied and thankful. Ok I think thats about it but here is a picture of the water beam i call a shower.

I hope Joe got to read this

my weekend

Hello readers it is I Andrew Ghobrial and for today I shall tell you about my weekend. It was a pretty cool weekend i must say, a weekend full of wonderful times and my God wonderful food. So on saturday i woke up and went over to my cousin's place to babysit their son Samy at 2. This kid is awesome and is the definition of energy. So we are playing all sorts of board games, we watched a football game on television, and had some lunch. Then at 5 Samy had football practice and he is goalie, so i took him outside to practice some shots and how to be a goalie. Granted i am really really bad but i figured i might be able to help out with some advice on 7 year old football. So we practice and practice and he gets picked up and i go back up to await his arrival. But what do i discover when i go back to the door? oops! i locked myself out of course. So Thank God i still had the soccer ball (i went back to saying soccer instead of football in the middle of this post, why? because i can!) and i practiced some ball juggling and handling and then my uncle Ramez comes back from work and says that he has a key to Siso's place and can give it to me. However i of course say "there will be time to go back in the room later, lets chat" so we sit on his balcony and talk about all sorts of things like the weather, the wildlife (i spurt out some of my useless animal trivia and my uncle like everyone else haha of course goes "uh huh interesting") we talked about the church and how he is in the choir now for a concert for Christmas. After a bit of talking and of course feeding me, my uncle had to go to choir practice and invited me. Haha i politely declined and i told him the two reasons i said 1) I am babysitting Samy and i have to wait for him to come home. and 2) God has blessed me with many gifts but unfortunately singing isnt one of them....also i am not being hard on myself ALL of you know i cant sing at all and i am ok with it so yeah i am a bad singer...anyway then he lets me in i clean up, samy comes i give him dinner we hang out watch some more soccer and OH he told me because of what i taught him they won 4-1 so that was cool. After his bath i read him the Bible and he learned a lesson in humility. Not too shabby of a day. After that i went home and slept.

Sunday was a pretty cool day as well. I went to a mall and i have got to say it was ENORMOUS. Its called City Stars and seriously...its big. I mean its no palisades or anything but its really really really big. I went with my co-worker Jennifer and it was a wonderful time of bonding and sharing of stories. I got to learn a lot from her and she shared a lot with me and i guess even gave me some insight on how the female mind works. I gotta say women...wow i heard all sorts of things and i have no idea what to say how do your heads not explode with all the things you have to deal with and think about in any given moment? I commend all of you! So after walking around the mall we got some lunch at Fudruckers and i was really really hungry since i didnt eat anything that day and i ordered a 1 pound burger which guacamole and jalepeneos! OH MAN IT WAS GOOD haha. So after eating the entire thing since i was hungry we stopped by the super market to get jennifer some things and then we went back home. I took her to her place via taxi so we can drop off her groceries then i went to my tunt Nabila's for my sunday visit. We agreed that every sunday before church at 7pm i would go over and spend time with her and my little cousins. OH before i forget...

A little taxi story which isnt that big of a deal but its just a sign that i am better understanding the language and culture. So we are driving to my tunt's and we get stuck in traffic and the car behind us just whails on the horn like i havent heard since i was in America. Not little beeps but you know when someone just holds down the horn for like a minute and it doesnt do ANYTHING but make the situation worse? So my driver is like yelling at the car behind saying "eh ya amal?! hoosh hoos!" ("what is it my friend? GO GO") he then looks at me as if i need to say something and i said the first thing that came into my head that i could say in arabic. I chucked and said "lazam ho-a min amerikee" (he must be from America) and we both look at each other and start laughing and shaking hands! haha i loved it and i felt bad that i had to "rip" on America just to bond with a complete stranger but hey at least i convinced him i was Egyptian enough to not be charged God only knows what for the taxi fare....

Ok so when i got to tunt nabila's i was soooooo full from eating a pound of meat but of course i wasnt thinking when i ordered it and forgot that when i go to any family memeber's home i am going to have to eat...and i did. Ugh it was so good but i was so full yet i had to eat so much. So basically thank God that i dont have any food left in my apartment because based on all that i ate i wont be able to again for a week! So the kid cousins i got to hang out with were Fahrid (Fah-reed), Sara (Sah-ra) and Hana (Hana) and they are all sibling and all very young. Fahrid went off to play his playstation 2 because he is obsessed with that thing while i sat with the girls and i "taught" them how to draw. Haha the reason i say taught with the "" is because i would draw a line and have them repeat it but most of the time they would go "oh thats easy...do it for me!" and haha i would. So essentially i was drawing the same thing three time on three different sheets of paper. BUT they colored them by themselves and showed them to their mom and then took their drawings home, and also my drawings. We drew a horse, zeebra, a cat, dog, a rabbit, and a goose. It was a grand time and i really really love kids. They are all so trusting and full of love that it melts my cold heart whenever i am around them. Haha anyway afterwards i went to church and the story was of Jonah. I had a great weekend and now i am at work and we'll see what happens. Also i was supposed to move out of my room yesterday...but i couldnt get in touch with Moufid to get the key to his room. So we'll see what happens today i mean i'll try calling him while at work and if not then either i go back to my room for another day or i go back to find all my stuff in the hallway! Its all very exciting and i cant wait to see the results for i know that MY GOD IS WITH ME AND HE WILL PROVIDE! i mean he has done so much so far so it will be good to see more :D.

I hope Joe got to read this

Larkin, my "Old Friend"

haha ok so its thurdsay which means i'm going to give a blog dedication to someone i know and this week it happens to be my friend Dan Larkin. More specifically Dan Larkin and his "potato shoes". The reason i chose Dan Larkin today was because as i was coming to work a cart had been knocked over full of potatoes and my thoughts were "better not step on those or i'll be wearing potato shoes..." haha which then immediately made me think of Dan Larkin and his potato shoes. For those who are not aware of Dan Larkin or his potato shoes then please allow me to fill you in. I met Dan Larkin in college when i first transferred to Albany. At first he seemed normal enough but as i got to know him Dan Larkin proved to be quite a character. I dont mean this in any bad way Dan Larkin is awesome and i'm glad i met him he just has a lot and i mean A LOT of quirks about him. haha i can recall many things that could be considered inside jokes or something like that. I remember one time austin and i were watching an episode of 24 and Dan Larkin came in and started watching with us too. Oh i forgot to mention i lived with him not just met him he was my suitemate so yeah....anyway so we are watching and then of course in 24 something ridiculous happened and then Dan Larkin screamed out "KOOF!" hahaaha i started laughing so much because that was his first guy feeling reaction to being surprised. To yell out Koof. And i decided to inherit that to my watching of 24 and to this day i will exclaim koof if i am surprised by anything while watching 24. Anyway i'll get back to the potato shoes. Thats pretty much Dan Larkin he is a crazy cool guy and is also known for his famous potato shoes. These potato shoes are by a company called "Old Friend Slippers". I did a little research and found what potato shoes look like so here is a picture of them from the website.

here is also the official Old Friend Slippers Description for them:

"Men's Clog
Roomy and masculine with heavy duty rubber sole, built-in arch and burnished full grain leather trim. Available with sheepskin or our odor control 100% cotton terry linings." *available in the color choices chestnut and stony.

Ok so i think he has had those shoes since freshmen year or even high school i dont remember. Either way the thing about these shoes are they are meant for lounging and sitting in your like den by an open fire on a winter night, BUT Dan Larkin wears these things a lot and he uses them as actual shoes. He walks around campus in them during the summer, during a sunny day, AND even during rainy days. Plus he never washes them...so now you have an understanding that these things are absolutely disgusting and he wears them all day and has this feet just bake in them absorbing God knows what. So this is the next part of remembing these "old friends" A thing Dan Larkin would like to do is sometime at night around 11pm or so he comes from his room into my room and dives onto my bed. I mean dont misunderstand he doesnt get comfortable in my bed and gets under teh covers or anything but he does jump onto my bed and takes off his potato shoes and just lets his feet run wild all over my bed, on my clothes, on my pillow, and everything! haha each time austin and i would give him a hard time and make fun of him and those terrible smelling shoes and he would try and dispute that they are perfectly fine. haha i didnt mind or get angry because i could just wash my clothes and hanging out with Dan Larkin is always an experience. But the other part of this night time shenanigans is that after laying down for awhile Dan Larkin falls asleep. And i can tell you it happens EVERYTIME not sometimes not once in awhile he very often jumps onto my bed and just falls asleep. And during college i would stay up for whatever the reason to do some reading or just because and eventually i would have to wake him up and let him go to his bed. I tired once the first time to just sleep on his bed but he eventually woke up and made me go back to my bed so i guess he didnt like that so i didnt try it again. I figured it would have been better to let him sleep than wake him up just so he can go back to sleep again. Anyway haha very wonderful times i miss Dan Larkin he made my life fun and more lively. I dont miss the potato shoes though...


OH! another thing about Dan Larkin is that he has the most ridiculous faces. Everytime i took a picture of him some indescribable face would come as a result. I'll give you guys the facebook link to the album i created devoted to Dan Larkin faces. Its a must see.

http://albany.facebook.com/album.php?aid=906452&id=16100153&op=6


I hope Joe got to read this

clarification

Hello everyone.

I want to apologize. It has come to my attention that number of you arent entirely sure what i am doing in Egypt. As in who i am working for, what i am doing, what my responsibilities and obligations are and etc. So this post will be dedicated to what exactly i do and how this organization works.

Before i get into that i will share a new experience that i went through this morning. So usually i take a taxi back and forth from my room to the office and each way costs 10 pounds. This is actually a lot of money to pay especially if i am going to be doing it for a year. So i inquired about other means and was told about the micro bus. The micro bus is like a van that carries roughly 14 people however i have seen plenty of times where it can be up to 20...yeah so the way it works is usually underneath a bridge is the bus terminal where dozens of these micro buses are. As a first timer i have no idea where the micro bus to my office is and of course non are labeled. So i go there and just say "inta araf fein sabah emaraat?" (do you know where sa-bah em-ar-aat is?") I asked about 9 people and they all said go here no go across, no go there, yadda yadda yadda it didnt get me anywhere. Oh yeah, i got there at 7:45am and i need to be at work at 8:30. I spent about 15 minutes looking for this bus so eventually i hear one of the buses screaming "musrigedida! musrigedida!" (mus-reh-gah-dee-da) and i throw up my hand because thats pretty close to the office and i can just walk from where ever they drop me off. So he starts saying "igree igree!" which means "run run!" so i am thinking "you've got to be kidding..." but i dont have time because the bus is already driving off. So i book it and as i get close to the bus i jump. yep i hurled my self for the bus door with my arm stretched out and the guy who was screaming the destination grabbed my arm and pulled me into the bus. Haha it was really a lot of fun it was like a movie. I told my co-workers and they said yep now you are really egyptian. So yeah the beauty of the micro bus is that it takes me essentially to the same place but for only 75 piasters (thats less than one pound, think like 75 cents instead of 10 dollars) So yeah God willing i do better tomorrow and find it sooner because i was 10minutes late for work today :'(

Ok so time to talk a little Habitat for Humanity. The basic history of it started when this big shot guy named Millard Fuller. He had like all sorts of worldly possessions but was never satisfied it took his wife almost leaving him to finally give literally all of it away and start Habitat for Humanity. He partnered with his friend eventually in South Africa to make it more international and other things really made it bloom like the participation of Retired President of the United States Jimmy Carter. So the way Egypt worked was by a group called CEOSS "Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services" They partnered with Habitat and started building houses in villages south of Cairo. The way it works is Habitat is like a loan company and they loan out the necessary amounts of money to individuals who want to build a new house. The amazing thing is that there is such a personal relationship between Habitat and the villages that the payback return rate thingy is 97%. That means 97% of the time the loan is paid back in full and on time. So thats how they work and they build houses. The way i came into the picture is that the head honcho boss here in Habitat Egypt is a guy named Yousry Makar. He is a wonderful man and he grew up with my parents from when they were in High School and they all went to the same church. So I go to these Arabic Evangelical Conferences over the summer and one time i saw habitat and thought it was amazing. I have always been a guy who liked helping and physically serving in anyway possible and all that kept coming into my head was Habitat. I contacted Yousry and asked if there was any way i can possibly help out. We set something up where he was like do you want to work 3 months, 6 months, or a year? i chose a year because i didnt think i could accomplish enough in such a short amount of time like 3 or 6 months. So yadda yadda i get to egypt and we decide what my job will be. I am something called "Global Village Coordinator" we build in Global Villages and the people who build currently are volunteer teams from American and Europe. Like church, universities, and other groups. My job is to talk with them and plan out their trip. I create an itinerary which includes build days along with sightseeing trips which we then book with a travel agency here. So after we plan they eventually come. Where i meet them at the hotel they stay at. I provide an orientation and i travel with them to the build site with our engineer. There the team and i build a house, or part of a house, or something and then they go off to sightsee and i go to the office and prepare or plan out the next volunteer group. There is no building during the summer months because Egypt is way to hot for Americans and Europeans to come and build. We were supposed to start in September but its Ramadan which means no building this month either :/. So As soon as Ramadan is over we will begin building. I look very much forward to it and I cant wait.

Thats basically how it works right now if anyone has any more questions please feel free to ask me and i'll do my best to explain it best i can. Thank you everyone and have a good day.

I hope Joe got to read this

my God....

ok so this weekened has been pretty amazing...


i'll start with i have not eaten so well this weekend than since i left for Egypt. I get a call from my tunt nagwa and she says she is coming over to bring me things from America that my parents brought me. So i am in my room she calls i go downstairs expecting her to just hand me the stuff and then that would be it; WRONG. She puts me in her car and drives me to her house. Her house is amazing and beautifully decorated. Its not even just what she put in the house but the house itself is wonderfully constructed and... foundationally sound...(i think i made that word up but it sounds pretty cool). I talk with her and my uncle and its really really cool. I havent seen them in a very long time and of course the first thing they said is "where did i go" as in they only see half of me as in a lost a lot of weight since the last time they saw me. This of course just puts in their head that i am not eating nearly enough and she starts cooking a lot. Haha i love this family...anyway so for dinner she made chicken, grape leaves, maccaroni, salad and so so so much more. How much do you think i had to eat? a lot and i mean to the point where i was in pain. hahaha but thats not a bad thing because with all i ate i can last like a week without eating. This family of mine has such a loving spirit of giving and generosity that even i am taken back by it. After i had eaten just about everything known to man my tunt was satisified i had eaten enough and haha brought out fruit for dessert. She made me eat an entire mango and an apple because while we were talking i mentioned how they are good for you...mistake i know. So after eating we sat in the living room and talking and enjoyed stories and watched a little TV which i understood about 15% of...this is because the arabic i know is like everyday talk but what was on TV was like an indepth debate on Christianity and Islam so i dont know all the sophisticated words and such. Anyway the point of telling you about this is that God is so awesome to have given me such an amazing family. Egyptians are hospitable and generous for sure but my family is like beyond Egyptian culture and I love it.

Another thing that happened this weekend was i got another phone call and it was from a man named Moufid Gamil (mo-feed ga-meel). He is a pastor at the church i go to and also he teaches a class in the seminary i am staying at. He called to tell me that i can only stay in my room until September 17th and after that my "contract" is over. haha this would seem like a situation to be worried in. I mean i dont have any other place to live how am i supposed to find another apartment in a weeks time? But my first thought was "Ok cool lets see what happens" haha I know that no matter what the situation is there is going to be a way out from God and sure enough he says "andrew, let me call you back." and he hangs up. So i just sit back and wait and then he calls me back and says "dont worry i took care of it" I go "what do you mean?" and he explains to me how he has a room on the third floor which he uses sometimes when he teaches and its too late to go back to his home or whatever and said i can live there. I forgot to ask how long or anything but it seems to be for a little bit of time and from what my tunt told me later he said he is going to look into a way to provide me with meals and staying there for free rather than paying. But i wasnt really clear on that part but its seriously amazing. Here i am paying all out of pocket and i find out i am getting kicked out in a weeks time. Within the hour i now have another place to stay and possibly i'll get meals and not have to pay rent? God is surely and truly amazing and to be honest i wasnt surprised. I have gotten to a point where i know that i have been provided for and i will continue to be provided for. So thats what i got and i think i may be ending my taxi adventures starting tomorrow. Apparently there are these things called "micro buses" that run all around and cost like no more than a pound (i pay 10 pounds one way everyday which is a lot) So tomorrow i'll God willing take a micro bus and tell you guys all about it.

this is a picture of a microbus and it will be crammed with a lot of people and being traveling at very high speeds from what i heard. BUT it will be significantly cheaper and shouldnt be so bad.

ps. sorry if this sounds a little too "churchy" or anything but hey what can i do? I'm a Christian and God is part of my life if i didnt mention that once in awhile i would just be kidding myself :D


I hope Joe got to read this

Kincade M.D.

hahaha before i post about a funny event in which involved a specific individual let me say i am considering changing this blog name from "Andrew in Egypt" to "Andrew in a bunch of taxis" because everytime i get into a taxi something happens. So quickly...i got into a taxi and everything was fine until the car just turns off in the middle of the high way at night. so he gets out, and cars are zooming by us honking. Apparently some wires went out of whack or something. He clicks a couple of wires back together the car starts and we go off again, haha but as soon as we start driving we here a huge BANG, and what was it? a tire blew up. haha so we both get out this time and we look and i said i'll push you drive. So i pushed the car to the side of the high way somehow and we change the tire, haul it up on the top of the taxi and we drive off. He only let me pay 5 pounds rather than 10 pounds for my services. haha it was an awesome thing because all i had was a 5 pound and a 50 pound and he didnt look like the kind to have change. So i am happy God has my back.

So while this was all happening i thought to myself maybe i gotta stop taking taxis because they are getting costly and it might just be easier to walk. Then i thought A) i live off a high way and walking is impossible, and B) if i walked i would get lost every time. You can ask anyone i have the worst sense of direction and it got me thinking about my walking adventures with my buddy Evan Kincade. Evan and i grew up together and went to the same church so i've known this kid for like ever. The problem was i only saw him at church never outside of church because i lived in mamaroneck and he lived in valhalla (thats roughly 30minutes of driving for those who arent familiar with westchester). So eventually in high school i thought that this isnt right i need to hang out with him more and he agreed so we arranged times when he would get dropped off in mamaroneck and we would hang out for the day. We both didnt have cars and i didnt know how to drive so i thank God we got the whole day because it would take the entire day before we were able to stop walking places. It was really a terrible situation we put ourselves in Evan has no idea about anything in the mamaroneck/larchmont area and i have no idea where i go when i walk. So i remember one time we were like "lets get lunch at the taco place in larchmont" simple enough right? all we had to do is walk up the Boston Post Road for like 30minutes and bam we are there. Literally just a straight path yet Somehow i take us down a side street to try and show him something or whatever it was and we get lost. So i of course dont say anything and we keep walking till we ended up in New Rochelle (which for those who may not know is like an extra mile PAST larchmont and the taco place) so i am like wow i have no idea where i am and we both didnt have cell phones, so it would usually end with me having to ask directions in my own hometown of how to get places or we find a pay phone and get picked up. Haha it was really good though because it gave Evan and i plenty of time to discuss issues and form a bond. So in the end it became routine, when evan came to mamaroneck he would bring his walking shoes because he knew he had to prepare for at least 3-4 hours of just walking around. haha i always felt bad but eventually cars came into the scene and no longer was getting lost that big of a deal. Thats what i remember and i am looking forward to coming back in a year and walking for a couple of hours with evan my buddy.

Now to say the reason for the blog title being "Kincade M.D." is because there has been discussions where Evan looks like Hugh Laurie (Gregory House from the television show House)...personally i think Evan looks much better than House but then again i am biased.

I hope Joe got to read this

hahahahaha

ok so i dont really have much news to tell you except work is me being swamped with a lot of reading and learning. And i know people have been complaining that i'm too optimistic and just giving the sugar coated side of my life. This is not true. I honestly am very happy and take every endeavor as an opportunity to mature, learn, and gain a story in which i can share with you all. So the way i look at things is they are only temporary so i just gotta wait it out till its over and then thats it, its over. But if you guys must know for the last 3 days i have been sick, with something i'm not sure what it is. The symptoms are like a ridiculous headache. You know that kind of headache where it hurts when you blink or when you touch your hair....as well i have had a lot of pain in my stomach which causes me to have no appetite, so i essentially havent really eaten anything in about 3 days, but time to think positively. I am saving a lot of money on not buying food, and its really doing wonders on my figure :P. Anyway dont cry for me Argentina for it will pass soon and it hasnt stopped me from going to work, which means its not that bad...now for the happy stuff.

So my last few taxi experiences have been AWESOME. and i really mean it in fact i'll tell you guys about the last 3 taxi experiences of mine...

Taxi Experience #1: So i need to go to my Arabic tutor who lives somewhere in Heliopolis so i get a taxi and its like the oldest man on earth who is driving the taxi. I think to myself "this is going to be something i can tell..." so i get in i say "Meedan Heliopolis, shayrah Montaza" he yells at me "HA DAR HA DAR!" (OK! OK!) and i sit down and he go. This guy is honking at everyone, and i mean literally everyone. Whether they are in the way or if they mistakenly got into his field of vision he honks. Then he asked me my name (i wont put all of it in arabic because i dont think you guys care and its annoying to try and type it) i say accidentally "Andrew". Why was this a mistake? two reasons, one because Andrew is an American name and i dont want him to know i am America so he can charge me more for this ride. What i should have said was Androus (An-drowess) or Andros (An-dross), and second because he probably has no idea what that means and will get it wrong anyway...the second reason happened. he goes (not even kidding on this one) "eh? Hamtaro?" i go, "NO!* andrew" (same mistake...) and he goes "Antaro?" i go "yes Antaro, Ismi Antaro" so he laughs and starts singing a song in arabic. The song is very basic and translates to "What are you up to Antaro? No no no not like that" and he continues to sing like that every once in awhile honking and stopping when someone cuts him off. OH! ok so get this, whenever someone cut him off he speeds up next to them and goes "hold on let me get behind you so i can hit you!" and then the driver goes "no leave me alone" and then my taxi driver just laughs and starts singing his song again." so we get to my destination and he drops me off and then tells me where he lives and says if i ever need a taxi driver come there and he will take me wherever" And that was awesome. It was awesome because generally Taxi drivers dont talk except to ask about the directions.

Taxi driver #2: This one was similar to the first in that we talked a lot. We start driving back to my place and he starts talking to me asking me things like where i work and eventually it comes up that i am from america. he starts asking about america and i tell him the limited things i can say like "the people in egypt are better than the people from america" in that egyptian culture is much better and people here are much kinder. In America people go out of their way on the streets toaviod eye contact in fear that they might have to interact with that person, in egypt you cant go down the street without making eye contact with everyone because they look for it to be able to say hello how are you. anyway so he has a cd player in his taxi and asks if i understand any of what it is, and he turns on the loudest spanish rap i had ever heard in my life. I couldnt hear anything else except for the spanish rap and i guess he thought it was american just because he didnt understand it. So we listen to this spanish rap all the way to my place and he is asking me if i'v been to the museum or to this place or that and i havent so he gave me his mobile number and said he will take me there if i ever wanted. His name was Mohammed Abdul (very common) so we'll see maybe i will probably i wont to be honest...

Taxi driver #3: this isnt so much a story as it is my stupidity. The reason is because i need to learn how to keep my american-ness a secret when getting into a taxi because they'll take advantage of me :'(. So haha i blew it the second i got into the taxi. I get in i tell him where i want to go and by some odd reason there was a seatbelt in the taxi. To let you know there are never seatbelts in taxis, so i instinctly start putting it on when i realize "oh no! i've fallen for his american trap" and sure enough i look at him with a face full of horror and he just smiles at me and we drive...haha it was like out of a movie i'll show you the literal faces we both had...ok well my mouth wasnt open quite that much but that other guys face is what the taxi driver looked like.

so how did i get out of this perdicament? haha it was quite simple when we got to my destination i gave him the money all nonchalant like and walked off before he could finish counting it all. Was this the cowardice route? perhaps but its not like i didnt give him enough its just i didnt want to get into an arguement, i dont like them so if i can help it i'll avoid them

so those were my experiences with taxi drivers. Anyway this post was lame but hopefully entertaining in some way. Hopefully i feel better and can think straight...God Bless everyone!!!!!

I hoe Joe got to read this...


*oh yeah, the reason i responded in such a way to the name "Hamtaro" is because of stupid victor and nictor giving it to me. hahaha i'm not reall angry about it or anything but basically whenever we would play a game and we had to chose named i put down "Amdrew" with an m because i dont know it was different i guess. anyway then Nic started calling me "Hamdrew" which is funny in itself but then of course Mr. Vic comes along and does his thing to tweak and do whatever he does to words and comes up with "Hamtaro" which leads to a greeting such as "OH HELLO HAMMY HAMMY HAMTARO" or something like that. hahaha i guess i thought if i lived in egypt i would never have to deal with that name but i guess i'm stuck with it. ps. I love Vic and Nic

work work work!

alrighty everyone! today is my official first day of work because Tameka (the girl i replaced) left back to America to marry someone and now i have moved into an office. Its pretty glamorous i must say and i never expected to get anything like this. I have a desk, a window, a DOOR, and other fancy things like plastic plants and a stapler. Anyway i have been spending the day reading through archives of e-mails sent back and forth between tameka and the volunteer teams coming to build. I have also been reading like every single file on this computer left to me. Sherif the man i am going to be closely working is in the field getting some logistics that we will discuss upon his arrival back. I am praying i can do a good enough job here and not let everyone down. so everyone else pray that i am given the knowledge and wisdom of how to do this job well.
i guess i'll talk a little bit about my weekend. I got a haircut which was really nice because i was looking terrible and out of whack. So after doing that i spent a lot of time iwth my cousins at their home and went to a sports club. It was really big and had all sorts of activities to do. We did ping pong, squash, basketball, soccer, i watched a handball game and it was the most ridiculous sport i had ever seen. These huge guys just charge at a goalie and hurtl this rubber ball at them with all their might while flying through the air so they can get as close as possible. For those who are not aware there is a circle on the court going all the way around the goal and players are not allowed to enter this circle so the strategy is just run as hard as you can and jump and while flying in hte air you chuck this ball into the goal. Now it sounds really simple and in fact it is but i have never seen such an amazing goalie before. This ball is like half the size of a soccerball but this guy was like a cat with heightened reflexed ebcause he was flying everywhere taking this rubber ball in the face sometimes, and i'm not even kidding he caught it with his feet once intentionally! i loved it. i had a great time and thats about everything i have to say for now. I start my first arabic lesson with my tutor and hopefully it will go well and i can pick it up fast. I'll tell you all about it when i know about it myself. Be good and be safe. I've been here almost a month and truth be told i'm starting to miss you guys :'( and also the room i have now is only temporary and i need to find a new place by the end of the month. Hopefully that goes smoothly but knowing my life i better prepare myself mentally from now for a lot of trouble and exciting adventures. Ok thats its for now

also i will include a photograph of everyone from the office. umm i'll try to tell you everyone...

the row i am not in starting from the closest to the back: Yousry(boss), Nesreen, Jennifer, Sally, Ayman

the row i am in starting with me and going to the back: Me, Tameka, Sherif, Sednaoui, and Hany


this post is short and i apologize but i am starting to get swamped with things and i am tired