Dear parents of 2008 Global students,
We are thinking it may be time to write and tell you how we think things are going, and, in particular, how your sons and daughters are doing. If you have been reading the letters students have been sending back to the St. Olaf community, you know that we are having a different experience of Cairo than previous groups of Global students because of Ramadan, on the one hand, and the move of AUC from downtown Cairo to the suburbs, on the other. Certain of our students had had some experience with fasting, but certainly not on the scale practiced in Cairo during Ramadan. During the day, Muslims are simply not eating or drinking; it is only foreigners who are walking the streets with water bottles under their arms. Having the downtown campus of AUC, where we have had most of our classes, virtually empty has been eery. And finding food to eat over the noon hour has been a challenge.
Both of these circumstances have now resolved themselves. Ramadan officially ended --and the big feast that follows it began--at 6:08 this morning. Several students went to see the enormous gathering of Muslims united in prayer early this morning in one of Cairo's big squares, and came back to the hotel with incredible photos to show the rest of us. And yesterday, for the first time in a month, small stands where orange juice, coffee, tea, etc. are sold re-opened. Traffic is on the rise as well, although many Caireens have headed to the seacoast for the holiday. On Monday, we went to the new campus of AUC for the second time. This time, there were students and professors and staff everywhere, and we were happy to see the campus alive. We also had a new appreciation for the architecture of the new campus, which is pharaonic in inspiration, since we had just spent 4-5 days visiting sites in pharaonic Egypt.
We spent the morning today at the Cairo Museum. In many ways, it marked the culmination of our AUC course. It was wonderful to see so many of the monuments we have been studying in class.
Early tomorrow morning, we head to Alamein to visit the war memorials from the Second World War, followed by a day and a half on the Mediterranean, and then a day and a half in Alexandria. After that, it's back home to the Cosmo, one day of class and then the final exam on Tuesday, followed by our departure for Mumbai at 10pm that evening.
The time has passed quickly, and it has been good. We have learned a lot, and your sons and daughters are doing well as a group. They seem genuinely to like each other and to take care of each other. We have had a couple of students who have suffered with periodic upset stomachs, etc., but nothing out of the ordinary. We do want you to know that we have felt it necessary to crack down on certain behaviors a few times, but, again, no more than with any other student group. And the good thing from our perspective is that when we have called students on their behavior, they have taken our critique to heart and stopped doing what we considered to be disrespectful.
We are about to enter the first pressure point, if we may use that phrase, as we begin to get ready for the final exam in our AUC course and prepare ourselves psychologically and emotionally to confront India. Please encourage your sons and daughters to take good care of themselves and get plenty of sleep in the days ahead. Remind them, too, that you are following their travels with great interest, and that you look forward to hearing all the stories they do not have time to write about in e-mail messages.
Thank you for your ongoing good thoughts and prayers on behalf of all of us. We will write you again from Bangalore.
Godspeed,
Rich & Wendy Allen
We are thinking it may be time to write and tell you how we think things are going, and, in particular, how your sons and daughters are doing. If you have been reading the letters students have been sending back to the St. Olaf community, you know that we are having a different experience of Cairo than previous groups of Global students because of Ramadan, on the one hand, and the move of AUC from downtown Cairo to the suburbs, on the other. Certain of our students had had some experience with fasting, but certainly not on the scale practiced in Cairo during Ramadan. During the day, Muslims are simply not eating or drinking; it is only foreigners who are walking the streets with water bottles under their arms. Having the downtown campus of AUC, where we have had most of our classes, virtually empty has been eery. And finding food to eat over the noon hour has been a challenge.
Both of these circumstances have now resolved themselves. Ramadan officially ended --and the big feast that follows it began--at 6:08 this morning. Several students went to see the enormous gathering of Muslims united in prayer early this morning in one of Cairo's big squares, and came back to the hotel with incredible photos to show the rest of us. And yesterday, for the first time in a month, small stands where orange juice, coffee, tea, etc. are sold re-opened. Traffic is on the rise as well, although many Caireens have headed to the seacoast for the holiday. On Monday, we went to the new campus of AUC for the second time. This time, there were students and professors and staff everywhere, and we were happy to see the campus alive. We also had a new appreciation for the architecture of the new campus, which is pharaonic in inspiration, since we had just spent 4-5 days visiting sites in pharaonic Egypt.
We spent the morning today at the Cairo Museum. In many ways, it marked the culmination of our AUC course. It was wonderful to see so many of the monuments we have been studying in class.
Early tomorrow morning, we head to Alamein to visit the war memorials from the Second World War, followed by a day and a half on the Mediterranean, and then a day and a half in Alexandria. After that, it's back home to the Cosmo, one day of class and then the final exam on Tuesday, followed by our departure for Mumbai at 10pm that evening.
The time has passed quickly, and it has been good. We have learned a lot, and your sons and daughters are doing well as a group. They seem genuinely to like each other and to take care of each other. We have had a couple of students who have suffered with periodic upset stomachs, etc., but nothing out of the ordinary. We do want you to know that we have felt it necessary to crack down on certain behaviors a few times, but, again, no more than with any other student group. And the good thing from our perspective is that when we have called students on their behavior, they have taken our critique to heart and stopped doing what we considered to be disrespectful.
We are about to enter the first pressure point, if we may use that phrase, as we begin to get ready for the final exam in our AUC course and prepare ourselves psychologically and emotionally to confront India. Please encourage your sons and daughters to take good care of themselves and get plenty of sleep in the days ahead. Remind them, too, that you are following their travels with great interest, and that you look forward to hearing all the stories they do not have time to write about in e-mail messages.
Thank you for your ongoing good thoughts and prayers on behalf of all of us. We will write you again from Bangalore.
Godspeed,
Rich & Wendy Allen
