Dear friends,
After traveling with your children for just over a month I feel that you have become our friends through them. This is less because they have told us about you directly and more because you are reflected in them.
On our free day about a week ago my family and five students took a day trip to the Red Sea. We saw no Hebrew children, but we did see a pod of dolphins swimming not far off shore. They brought to mind the sight of Oles swimming in the Aegean a few weeks earlier. Since seeing them in the Aegean Sea and with an allusion to the rooms of Ytterboe Hall, I've taken to calling the whole group of them a pod of Oles.
No doubt you can imagine that traveling in a pod of 31 people has its trying moments. Consider just how long it takes to make a quick stop for the WC! On the other hand, traveling with these specific people has more advantages than disadvantages. In the midst of a long day of touring in the heat of upper Egyptian desert, I overhear an intelligent and insightful conversation between two or three students about the iconography on the walls of a nobleman's tomb near Luxor. After a stretch of free-time inside the magnificent new library of Alexandria, a few students report on the Coptic manuscripts they saw in the hall of antiquities. When one is feeling ill -- as nearly everyone who comes to Egypt seems to sooner or later -- there is always someone paying attention and tending to that one. Duing a special lecture about Muslim followers of Jesus, every question raised is relevant, respectful, and worth considering. Very likely these qualities and these conversations will not show up in the photos, but they are making an impression on the character of this group and of its members.
Now we are just back from our second excursion in Egypt, this one to the North Coast with a stop at Wadi Natron to visit two active Coptic monasteries and a day at the beach. You will, I'm sure, see photos and hear tales from your own sources so I'll leave the details to them. We return refreshed by some downtime, some of us a bit pink of skin, and ready to plunge into our final week in Cairo. During this week students are writing an essay for my class and will be preparing for their Egyptian history exam. Having talked with several students about the essay, I grow excited to read them. In both exercises they will discover just how much they are learning and, we trust, how the academic side of the program under girds and enriches the daily experiences: walking from the Cosmo to AUC and back through streets decked out for Ramadan, the generous welcome we receive from the Cosmo staff upon our return from days away, take-out from Felfellas, taxi rides to the Khan.
Once again, I thank you for letting these young people go for these months and these adventures!
Warmly,
DeAne
After traveling with your children for just over a month I feel that you have become our friends through them. This is less because they have told us about you directly and more because you are reflected in them.
On our free day about a week ago my family and five students took a day trip to the Red Sea. We saw no Hebrew children, but we did see a pod of dolphins swimming not far off shore. They brought to mind the sight of Oles swimming in the Aegean a few weeks earlier. Since seeing them in the Aegean Sea and with an allusion to the rooms of Ytterboe Hall, I've taken to calling the whole group of them a pod of Oles.
No doubt you can imagine that traveling in a pod of 31 people has its trying moments. Consider just how long it takes to make a quick stop for the WC! On the other hand, traveling with these specific people has more advantages than disadvantages. In the midst of a long day of touring in the heat of upper Egyptian desert, I overhear an intelligent and insightful conversation between two or three students about the iconography on the walls of a nobleman's tomb near Luxor. After a stretch of free-time inside the magnificent new library of Alexandria, a few students report on the Coptic manuscripts they saw in the hall of antiquities. When one is feeling ill -- as nearly everyone who comes to Egypt seems to sooner or later -- there is always someone paying attention and tending to that one. Duing a special lecture about Muslim followers of Jesus, every question raised is relevant, respectful, and worth considering. Very likely these qualities and these conversations will not show up in the photos, but they are making an impression on the character of this group and of its members.
Now we are just back from our second excursion in Egypt, this one to the North Coast with a stop at Wadi Natron to visit two active Coptic monasteries and a day at the beach. You will, I'm sure, see photos and hear tales from your own sources so I'll leave the details to them. We return refreshed by some downtime, some of us a bit pink of skin, and ready to plunge into our final week in Cairo. During this week students are writing an essay for my class and will be preparing for their Egyptian history exam. Having talked with several students about the essay, I grow excited to read them. In both exercises they will discover just how much they are learning and, we trust, how the academic side of the program under girds and enriches the daily experiences: walking from the Cosmo to AUC and back through streets decked out for Ramadan, the generous welcome we receive from the Cosmo staff upon our return from days away, take-out from Felfellas, taxi rides to the Khan.
Once again, I thank you for letting these young people go for these months and these adventures!
Warmly,
DeAne