This weekend, whilst the rest of the crew headed to the faraway oasis of Siwa, in the Western Desert, I settled in for a weekend in which I anticipated lots of rest and progress on my ever-building work load. I succeded on only one account. I felt that being lazy, and reflecting upon the previous month took precedent. It worked, for I now feel much rejuvenated. Fortunately, we only have 3 more weeks of Arabic, a language I absolutely cannot figure out, before heading on our travel component of the semester. Ilhamdulilah (thanks be to Allah!), as they would say here!
Yesterday I went to al-Azhar park, a beautifully constructed huge area of green on a land that used to be, essentially, a garbage dump. There is a vantage point towards the very top of a hill at the park that was a great spot to view the magnificant sunset. The contrast between the lush green areas of the park, and the neighborhood nearby that had no roads and very little infrastructure, was quite stark. Another example of the ridiculous amounts of poverty that riddle this area.
Tonight, a rather special opportunity arose - to see a soccer game at Cairo Stadium, which holds something like 70,000 folk. It's a semifinal round game for the African Cup, so the place should be hopping. I have a large Egyptian flag ready to go, to join the masses in cheering Egypt to victory. According to most, it's easy street tonight, against Ghana, but stranger things have happened (i.e., Stanford over USC... holy cow!!!).
That's all for now. See... I kept this one pretty light!
Salaam,
Tony
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1 comment:
Hey, How's everything? I find myself checking the two blogs everyday and haven't seen anything for awhile. How did the soccer match go? How does it compare/differ from sporting events here? Keep up the good work, both the "lighter" and "thoughtful" comments are well worth reading and and considering.
Pops
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