DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

 I've been in Cairo about a month now and I still haven't written much about the students I teach. So here we go...

Our group of DukeEngagers works with Somali unaccompanied minors (youth aged 13-21 in Cairo without parents/guardians). These young men and women are in Cairo without their parents for a variety of reasons: their parents sent them away to be safer than they would be in Somali, they came here with their parents who have since passed away, they no longer have parents and came here on their own, etc. These young people all have recognized refugee status due to the terrible political situation in Somalia. I speculate that some of these students have fudged their ages in order to be accepted into our program and/or to remain eligible for the unaccompanied minor refugee stipend. The stipend is only 190LE, or about $36, per month. The unaccompanied minors in Egypt receive the stipend each month until the end of the year in which they turned 18 (or if they have an older sibling, until the end of the year that the older sibling turns 18).

When we came to Egypt, we were told that we would be teaching English to Somali unaccompanied minors who spoke no English nor any Arabic. We were slightly misinformed. Most of our students speak some English and some Arabic, and a few are even fluent in Arabic. There are a few students who spoke neither English or Arabic and were illiterate in the program. (Note the past tense in that sentence!) We have broken down our DukeEngage team of 10 people to work in small groups with the students. We have low student-teacher ratios of about 2 or 3 students per teacher.

I work with 3 students: 2 young men (aged 13 and 19) and 1 young lady (aged 16). The 3 of them have different strengths and weaknesses and work very well together.

The oldest, Mahmoud*, is probably the leader of the 3 students. He is very good about asking questions about what he doesn't understand and trying to work through descriptions and explanations in English. Sometimes I feel like he talks for hours and I don't quite understand what he's saying, but it's all in English and it all kind of makes sense. When Mahmoud* doesn't understand something, you can pretty much bet that the other two are confused as well.

The girl, Samira*, is as sweet as can be. She speaks very clearly and is meticulous with her work. She's also somewhat of a mother for our little group. When we cross the street to go to lunch, she almost always grabs my hand to guide me across the hectic sea of traffic. I know that when Samira* isn't happy, everyone else isn't happy either. Sometimes, when she thinks I don't notice, she hides her cell phone under her hijab and answers phone calls. It's so funny!

The youngest, Noor*, is a character. He is into American hip-hop culture and likes to wear baggy clothes. I think he has a hard time sometimes being so young and yet being essentially on his own. He's quiet and yet tries to make his presence known. Sometimes I feel like he understands things more than he lets on. I want to pull him out of his shell a little more. He's a great person with great potential who just needs the chance to be a kid for a little while longer.

Our days together at "school" last 4 hours from 10am to 2pm, Monday through Thursday. We have 1 hour of instruction in the morning, in which we generally review homework and I introduce the new topic of the day. Then we break for lunch for an hour. We provide a small free lunch there, which is the only meal that some of our students eat each day. At 12pm, we resume lessons and then break at 1pm for a quick 10 minute break. After that we tie up loose ends, assign homework, and then usually play a game based on whatever vocabulary/lesson we worked on that day. These games are usually something like charades, Simon says, Mad Libs, or whatever we make up on the spot. Every Thursday, my students have a quiz on whatever we studied that week. I try to keep the quizzes short (less than 30 minutes), but sometimes I miscalculate and they are longer.

Anyway, I think that's about it about my work with the Somali students. I love working with them. It's always funny to see their reactions to things that I teach them and some of the cultural nuances that I never thought about before and they pick up on. I know it's cheesy, but I really feel like I'm learning more from them than they are from me. Not only am I learning about 3 people, Somalia, and Muslim culture (because Somalia is a very Muslim country); I'm learning about American culture and everything that I take for granted as normal.

(*Names changed.)

 I got very sick yesterday and ended up in the hospital. I had severe food poisoning which caused dehydration. That was fun (not really). I thought I was okay until the point where I couldn't keep down water or Cipro pills. (Cipro is the "miracle drug" that Duke Student Health gave us in case we get really sick.) I realized that if I couldn't even keep down water or medicine, it was probably time to go see a professional. So I ended up in the hospital.

Of course, I had to get really sick on the one day that the American University in Cairo Hospital (the best hospital in Cairo) was closed. So I ended up going to the Anglo-American Hospital. It's an older hospital in downtown Cairo. I felt like I was walking into another time in that hospital. When they went to take my temperature, they used an armpit thermometer. I didn't know that people still used those. Everything was older and I don't know how sanitary it was. I kept a very close eye on the people who were helping me and especially the needles they used to give me the IV fluids. Call me a worrier, but I really did not want to get anything that I didn't come into the hospital with.

The doctor I saw was very nice. At first, he was just going to prescribe some medication to me, but then he ended up deciding that I needed an injection (which was absolutely necessary). I'm scared of needles and shots. So when I received the shot, my heart rate spiked, which combined with my fever and dehydration, caused my blood pressure to drop. It dropped enough to warrant me checking into the hospital as an out-patient for a few hours.  I ended up receiving four different medications via IV.

It was interesting to observe the way that the male doctor and female nurses interacted with me, a female patient. They had a female nurse watching me at all times as a chaperone. They covered me with a sheet, as to not 'expose' me, even though I was fully clothed. When I needed to be touched (to take my temperature, check out my glands, etc.) the female nurses did it. I know that doctors and nurses have different responsibilities, and I feel like the female nurses did more than they usually would in the US. I guess that being in a Muslim culture with different gender roles changes the the job responsibilities even in the health care field.

Anyway, at least I'm better now. I slept 12 hours last night and I feel good. I'm not very hungry, but I've forced myself to eat a piece of bread and I'm trying to drink as many fluids as my body will take. The best thing is that I'm staying in a nice hotel for the weekend, so I have a comfortable bed, air conditioning, and people who can deliver anything I need to me. I should check into a nice hotel anytime I'm sick. It makes recovery that much easier.

Cairo is unlike anywhere I've ever been.  There are just a few facts of life here that are very different from what I am used to.

1. Real time is not Cairo time.  When someone says, "Let's meet at 10am," he really means "Let's meet at 11 or later."   In Cairo, time is more subjective than it is in the US.  When you ask for the time, you are more likely to receive different answers from different people.

2. Ishaal.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it goes a little something like: "When your stomach starts a rollin' and you're cleaning out your colon..."  There's no telling what will be the source of the problem either.  It could be the food you bought on the street, or the food you ate at a nice restaurant, or even the food that you washed and cleaned yourself!  Most of the people I've seen who get this little problem are only incapacitated for a few hours.  At this point, I don't know if Cipro is even that wonderful.  Only a few people have taken it.  The rest have simply used Immodium.

3. Drivers are insane.  If you've ever seen Nascar, you have a point of reference as to how fast some of these people drive.  People speed and wind through the crowded streets with no regard for other cars or pedestrians.  Crossing the road as a pedestrian is like playing frogger ...except you don't get 3 lives.  Also, the street signs, traffic signals, traffic lanes, etc. are irrelevant.  Cars only stop when an armed policeman blows his whistle and walks in the middle of the street.

4. There are a lot of people and few meaningful jobs.  I am not saying that people are worthless, but instead that there are so many people who need jobs and so few jobs that need people.  Thus, jobs are created to give people something to do.  One clear example is the police force.  There are policemen on nearly every street corner.  Some of this high police presence may be linked to the fact that Egypt is not a democracy as we in the US know democracy.  But most of it is simply a way for the government to give people jobs.  The government waters down what is required of each person in his post, and so workers end up sitting and standing around.  Also, this has led to an enormous government bureaucracy.  If you've seen the movie Irhab Wal Kabab (Terrorism and Kabobs), you'll know what I mean.  (I highly recommend watching the movie if you haven't already.  It's a hilarious comedy/satire of the Egyptian government.  It even has English subtitles!)

5. Cairo is most beautiful at night.  During the day, it is easy to point out Cairo's shortcomings.  But at night, you can't see the dirt, it's not too hot, and all of the lights are lit up.  The best view of the city is, by far, from a felucca boat on the Nile.  For just a few pounds, you can have someone take you and your friends drifting (or sailing, depending on the winds) around the Nile.  From this vantage point at dusk, you can see the tall buildings, and you are removed from the hustle and bustle of the city.  You can simply relax and see why so many people flock to Cairo and why so many people stay. 

 Coming to Cairo has been a definite lifestyle adjustment for me and, I assume, most of my teammates. Cairo is such a strange place to me that after 2 weeks I still do not quite know what to make of it. Cairo is a modern city, but only in the sense that it was not a city during the time of the pharaohs. From the early 1800s until 1952, it was ostensibly ruled by Egyptians (Mohammad Ali’s descendents), but was actually under the control of the British. But even then, Mohammad Ali, the father of modern Egypt, was Albanian and his descendents were not of real Egyptian stock.

In 1952, Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Army staged a relatively peaceful coup d’etat, ousting King Faoud, a drunken puppet for the British. Things were looking up for the Egyptians in the first few years under Nasser’s rule. Cairo modernized, the economy flourished, and Nasser built the high dam at Aswan (in southern/upper Egypt). Unfortunately, the longer Nasser was in power, the more dictatorial he became. People who became dissatisfied with his government were quickly thrown in prisons and tortured. This treatment of dissidents and lack of public input led to an Islamist backlash against the state. Of course, these people were thrown in prison too.

When Nasser died (of natural causes), his successor, Anwar Sadat enacted policies to distance himself from some of the harsh circumstances created by Nasser. Sadat let the people out of prisons, lifted some censorship and even allowed the existence of different organizations. But, when people started criticizing Sadat through these mediums, Sadat threw everybody back in jail. He was in charger of Egypt during the Six Days War and Yom Yippur wars, and was crucial in making peace with Israel and actually recognizing Israel as a state. These political actions made him a traitor in the eyes of some Egyptians, and in 1981 he was assassinated.

Hosni Mubarak succeeded Sadat and still rules Egypt today. Under his government, many other political parties and ideologies are banned, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Although he has worked with the parliament to change the constitution, the new constitution still has loopholes that allow Mubarak to squelch all opposition.

To this day, there is still an air of foreign imperialism in Egypt. The Egyptians may have ousted British control in the 1950s, but they seem to have replaced them with the Russians for a while, and now the Americans. America gives so much foreign aid to Egypt and sends so much tourism that Egypt is partially dependent on America for their survival.

Foreigners seem to possess extra rights here above and beyond those granted to the Egyptian people. When foreigners get themselves in a pinch with the law, they generally can flash their American passports and get a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Also, when walking down the streets, people shout, “I love you America.” But when I stop and talk to the Egyptians, I hear a different story. I hear the story of how they think Bush has screwed them over, how they feel that America has only supported policies in Egypt that will benefit America and be detrimental to Egypt. I do not know how valid or invalid their points are, but it is certainly something that begs further investigation.