Coming up next, Balaclava in Istanbul

I am almost done with the first of two segments in my semester. To recapitulate, I arrived on January 13, with a whole host of expectations and ideas about what this semester was going to be like. I was excited about what I was going to experience and the things I was going to be doing. I have so far had the opportunity of traveling to the 4 corners (technically I didn’t go all the way south) of Egypt. First, I took the trip to the Pyramids here in Cairo. I took the camel ride around the pyramids and get the first taste of an actual taxi ride and bartering for what I wanted. Next, I saw Luxor and all of it’s ancient Pharaonic glory, all of the temples, the statues, the carvings, and the tombs. I also got to experience the extent of a city sustained by tourism, albeit rather poorly sustained. After that, I traveled to Siwa Oasis. Now Siwa was absolutely amazing. We took the jeeps through the desert, sand-boarding, oasis hopping, sunset watching, and camping around a fire in the middle of the Sahara desert. Then we followed that up with the trip to Dahab. Dahab was a sun-bathing, snorkeling adventure at the red sea. Of course, it didn’t end there, for we left our last night at 11:30 and traveled to Mount Sinai, where we climbed the mountain and watched an incredibly cold and windy sunrise over the terrible terrain of the Sinai wilderness area. This coming weekend, I will make the last trip inside of Egypt – to Alexandria, the Mediterranean city. All of these trips were interspersed with talks with Muslims, Christians, a movie director, an Episcopalian Reverend, an American Foreign Policy adviser, an Egyptian Civil Rights Activist, and an Oxford graduate lawyer. All of these experiences have provided such a wide perspective on the Egyptian people, the culture, and the issues. Ironically, though, I feel like I’m just breaking the surface; that I am just barely beginning to understand a part of the complexity of the situation surrounding Egypt and the Middle East. Isn’t that the point though. We take these opportunities not to walk away with all the answers, but rather begin to recognize the questions and the issues.

Today we took a trip to Al-Azhar, the premier Islamic school for Sunni Islam located in Cairo. We heard from the director, attempted to ask questions addressing some of the issues we have been exposed to, and were given an opportunity to eat lunch with many of the students. I was given the chance to explain the concept of the Trinity, of Jesus being God and Man, and other issues in Christianity that they guy had questions about. I realized directly how difficult it is to explain the concept of the Trinity/Unity to a Muslim who has as one of their foundational beliefs the singular unity and oneness of God. Tomorrow, I will begin writing a paper on this idea of salvation, and what/who is included in salvation, how does one become saved, and what cultural influences, if any, are involved in our concept of salvation and damnation. This paper will be followed-up by a paper about the Islamic view of judgment day, and what happens to people on that day. All this to say, looking back over this first segment, it has been packed with challenges and experiences that are re-shaping my views about myself, God, Christ, Islam, Muslims, Egypt, and the Middle East as a whole. All of the preconceived notions I had upon arriving have, as usual, proven to not be true, but I can say that this has, in many other ways, been an amazing adventure.

This next and last segment will begin in about a week and a half, and that is our travel segment. We will be flying to Istanbul, staying there awhile, then flying to Syria. From there we will be taking a bus from Syria to Jordon, to Israel, then back to Egypt. I have no idea what this segment will entail, but if it’s anything like the first it will be intended to stretch and challenge us as much as possible. But, there are currently three papers and two finals standing in the way of us leaving, this next week and a half is going to be challenging because we are trying to be students despite everything else happening around us, and all the opportunities to distract ourselves from it. I just have to remind myself that in two weeks I will be eating balaclava in Istanbul.

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