traffic relief...

thank goodness. some relief from the traffic of cairo lately. the last 2 days have been so much better. and let me tell you, that makes a huge difference in life and me here.

for those of you who have ever lived in a crazy driving horrible traffic city (and driven daily in it), you can understand when i say that traffic brings out a "Pam" that i didn't know existed. its scary actually. it really pulls out the "ugly" from deep inside and has it shout from your lips in ways you never imagined. i swear, sometimes i feel "possessed" ;) hehe.

i've been trying to fight this a bit and not "excuse" this kind of behavior in myself...but its super difficult. especially if i am driving a lot in one week and the traffic is bad...my paitence and endurance and self control are all spent by the end of the week! 

but lately its been better, especially with the help of the traffic getting a bit better...whew! so glad. i can't wait for next month when we start getting the wonderful "summer traffic" that is so so so so much better! yea!!

until then, i'll try to survive and try to keep my mouth shut!

recovering at the sea...

after the crazy bout with sickness, we spent the weekend with a group of leaders over the youth group at our church, "Gam3a Leaders." we had a lovely and fun retreat at the Red Sea in Ain el Sokhna just 1.5 hours outside the city. its our favorite place to go to the beach because its so close and has great sand and sea.

the weather was amazing. not too hot. the only sad part was the sea and pool were too cold for me to swim in...although that didn't seem to stop anyone else! it was a great weekend to relax and recover, and yet take advantage of the time to connect with new and newer friends in our church. they are a great bunch of leaders and rany and i are both excited to get to know everyone better and start serving together with them!

i've included some pics this time. :)

 {Kicking some ping-pong butt}

{Rany about to take the big plunge into the freezing cold pool}

{Some of the group playing a game in the pool}

{How many Egyptian can fit under an umbrella??? More than you can imagine!}

{It's "A-ok" now. Rany lounging by the pool and socializing with new friends}

{Playing "Never Have I Ever" the "clean" way!}

back from the land of the sick...

after a week of being virtually out of commission from "normal life", i'm back from the land of the sick. i came down with yet another case of food poisoning last week and it was a ride! the worst case i've had since moving here over 1.5 years ago. i've gotten the general case lots of times, but know how to deal pretty well with it, but this case was extreme and severe and took lots of medical help.

but after laying around for 4 days at home and sleeping over 12 hours every day/night, i'm finally back to almost 100% and watching every bite that goes into my mouth!

well, i don't want to leave a bad impression about egypt, although almost every visitor and foreigner and even local deals with the issues of unclean food...so, i'll post a positive post right away after this :)

a rough start...

there's an occasional day, maybe about once a month or so (much less often than it used to be), where things just get to me. whether its the culture, the traffic or this "new life" in cairo, it just all seems to fall down onto my emotions like a new waterfall pounding down on the untouched earth below.

today was one of those days/mornings.

having a full-time "secular" job in cairo means a lot of things, but the one thing it meant today was being frustrated, tired, and broken in horrible traffic this morning. sometimes the traffic is just waiting in terribly long lines on exit ramps and such. other days, like today, it means dealing with crazy drivers and not-so-nice people. that's the kind that gets to me most of the time. i can deal with waiting in lines for 1.5 hours, but i can only deal with unkind horribly inconsiderate driving for about 10 mins! then the breakdown comes.

it usually comes back to the following thoughts in my mind:

-why is it always a fight?
-how can people live like this?
-this is not a life to fight in traffic every morning?
-what kind of city is this where this is the normal?
-what kind of people are these people to act like this in driving?
-why am i here with these people living in this same city and driving on these same crazy streets every morning in rush hour traffic to this job?

and that's the base question that my thoughts always seem to hit. kind of the bottom pit of it all. it seems to always come back to the big "why"--why am i here???? that's the big one that hits so hard and with such strong desperation that you feel as if your life should just end at that moment.

of course, i'm being dramatic. (after all, i've been in egypt and its an emotional and dramatic culture!)

i don't want my life to end. and i really don't want to keep asking this "why i am here" question. but its just one of those days. and i have to remember that those days come less often than before and they only come on occasion.

so, i'll try to hang in there today, like i try to do on these kind of days, and just try to relax and trust in what i know to be true. i am here and i am supposed to be here...that's the plan..the Big Plan...and that's the reality. blessing and curse, good and bad, sickness and health, up and down, clear and confusing.

that's life i think no matter where i live. we get it all.

thoughts on life in cairo...

so, i've decided to start blogging on this personal blog again. i think i will start sharing some random thoughts on my newly cross-cultural married life in cairo, egypt...probably random daily things that should be quite entertaining. more coming soon...