Thursday, October 30, 2008

You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.

Hello, again. A quick update.

About a month ago, I was scrambling around Cairo in search of a job. I responded to a variety of solicitations on CraigsList, expatriates, etc. but nothing ever really happened. I was becoming discouraged after a while and thought I might have to cut short my trip.

One day, I was sitting in a little shop by my apartment. The Iraqi owner has befriended me and is always generously inviting us to eat his food, drink his Coca Cola, and use his internet. So we were sitting and talking, when a man named Mohamed from the neighborhood came into the shop to buy some things. He stopped to chat with us, and he asked me about my situation. What are you doing in Egypt? You've been here for one month? What sort of job are you looking for? Anything? Let me make some phone calls . . .

That was Thursday night. By noon, Friday, I had signed a contract to teach at the school where both Mohamed and his wife teach. I'm in the American section of the Egyptian Language School. The idea is that I am supposed to be teaching English reading classes to grades 4 through 10. I will probably be choosing some stories for the younger grades and the older grades will be reading newspaper clipping on current events. The actual teaching part has not really started yet. So far, I've been spending a lot of time in the teacher's lounge, reading through material and preparing the classes. I've also done some substituting for teachers when they are sick.

School starts at 7:30 and ends at 2:30, Sunday through Thursday. Mohamed lives very close to me, and the school is about twenty minutes away, so he generously gives me a ride every day. The school is located in a very posh neighborhood called Katameya Heights. The drive to and from school every day is one of the more entertaining and breathtaking things I've ever done. Mohamed is a very skilled driver, and he weaves in and out of Cairo morning traffic like a hotshot driver that you would only find on the set of The Fast and the Furious.

I've taken a few pictures here and there. Please take a look and see what things are like here.

I know that I should add to the blog more often than I do. I'll try to be better now that I have a regular schedule with daily access to internet. If you have any questions, leave them here or tell me, and I'll try to respond in my next post, or maybe just to you personally.