Our Endless Numbered Days

I figured it would probably be good to update once more before the semester was over. I apologize for not updating this as much as I could have. The rest of travel went pretty well. We had a lot to ponder over and things in Jerusalem were tough to bear at times. A lot of us felt out of place in the land that was supposedly supposed to be holy. As we watched tourists roam about the Via Dolorosa, which was right around where we stayed many of us were unable to feel any sort of connection. Instead of seeing holiness we saw pain—both Israeli and Palestinian. Seeing both sides pain made things much more difficult; I found it much less easy to sympathize with just one position. I learned a lot about the conflict but still have a lot more to learn.

After a long bus ride back from Israel we were greeted in our flats with several pizzas. It was nice to just relax and hang out for a while. The feelings of relaxation were quickly replaced with stress. We had just a few days to finish three papers and then a few days break before we were to start our last round of papers. I think that overall my papers were fine. I’m not sure how great they were but I’m ok with them. We didn’t have to write as much as we originally were going to have to. Under the influence of our interns, Dr. Dave decided to have us write one longer essay (12 pages, but mine was 18) instead of a few smaller ones. We had to answer 2 questions so it was as if we were writing 2 6 page papers. I sort of rushed to finish the last one so I could go to church and hang out with our Coptic friends one last time before we left. It was a fun time and as expected we went to a good fuul/kosheri place after church. It was nice to hang out with them and I’m very glad we were able to develop these friendships.

For our last weekend in Egypt we headed over to Anafora, a Coptic retreat center open to pretty much anyone. We went for our “re-entry retreat” which was to prepare us for problems we’ll face in coming back the U.S. We had been to Anafora once before with our Coptic friends and I was really happy to go back. It is a really relaxing place and it was fun to hang out with everyone one last time. There is also this really cool Coptic Bishop, Bishop Thomas who runs everything at Anafora. He’s done a lot to make Anafora very relaxing and conducive to a good retreat center—he’s also a really good storyteller.
He told us one story about a time where he was put on a hit list by a fundamentalist Islamic group. It was a time in which there was much tension between the Christian and Islamic community and many were being threatened with death. Deciding that he would not live in fear Bishop Thomas escaped from his house, where he was under security guard and burst into the meeting place of the group. In front of a packed and fully armed audience Bishop Thomas told the people to shoot him right then and there. When they were unable to do so he turned around so as to let them shoot him without having to look him in the eye. They continued to do nothing so he left. Later he found out that they were convinced that he had some explosives are something else on him so they didn’t shoot him. Later the man that was supposed to kill him was running away from the police on the roofs of each of the houses in the village. It just so happened that he ended up at Bishop Thomas’ whose roof was the last one he could jump on. Apparently the man was unable to jump anywhere else so Bishop Thomas gave him refugee and something to drink. Before he let him run off he admonished him to start to live a new life reminding him that those who live by the sword, die by the sword. He was not convinced and later ended up being killed by the police. That’s just a little snippet of what he was like. The only downfall to Anafora was the crazy amount of fleas/bugs/mosquitoes. Even with sleeping underneath a mosquito net I was attacked vigorously and I have many remnants of the weekend!


We leave tomorrow and I can’t believe that. On the one hand I am very ready to return and see everyone back in the states. On the other hand I know I’m going to miss Cairo a whole heck of a lot. It has really become an important place to me and I’m very sad to leave it. I think though that I’m ready to go—I know a big part of me enjoying my time here is because of my peers and the relationships/experiences we’ve had together. Well I’m almost completely packed and our apartment is pretty much cleaned the only thing left is Chili’s with some of the guys tonight.