Cairo-Month 5

The last time I gave an update it was March! I have now been in Egypt for five months and one week! If you recall in my last update I was planning on signing up for a private session at the Fajr Center and I moved into a new place and I said that I had not seen any roaches and I was happy in my new place.

Well since then I did in fact enroll into a private class for Arabic. On the first day I loved and I was excited b/c I felt like I could move at a faster pace and I could focus on speaking more Arabic. At the beginning of each class the teacher and I would talk for 30 minutes on a given topic. For the most part I enjoyed. I quickly started to notice that all of the topics were turning to how is “x,y,z” in America. Initially I thought nothing of it because the topics were somewhat related to the lesson. Overtime though I became annoyed b/c I felt my teacher had a preconceived notion of things and wanted me to answer accordingly. The straw that broke the camels back was when she said that American families are weak because teenagers leave the home when they are 16 years old. So, I told her she was incorrect and they she told ME “no” because that is what she heard. (I plan to write another post about all the things I have heard about America from foreigners later). Needless to say there was tension between us and to make a long story really short I did not finish out the session with her and I was blessed with a new teacher who was much better in every aspect, Al- hamdulilah (Praise God).

Now to update you on my living situation: That roach free place I was living wasn’t exactly roach free. I last told you that my roommate had some type of bugs biting her. So literally the day after my post she decided to spray her room for bugs before she went off to class. A few minutes after she left I noticed a something on the floor and it was a roach. So I killed it and sat back down on my bed. Then I noticed one on the wall so I killed that one and sat back down. And basically this went on for about 30 minutes and I ended up killing about 13 roaches. These roaches were not your ordinary in your kitchen roaches. These were live in the wall HUGE roaches and the spray from my roommates wall prompted them to come in to my room. So, with that I decided to pack up everything in my room put it in the dining room and spray my room with roach spray before I went to class. By the end of the night I believe I had collected (some roaches came from the wall and died on their own) and/or killed about 20 giant roaches. Of course, this made me crazy. However, I did take comfort in the fact they only came out of the wall b/c of the spray. Then I thought I saw a mouse and the day following I heard something scratching at the wall. I was becoming really paranoid b/c we were on the first floor and the wall and the floor did not meet. There was newspaper shoved in between the two to close the gap. I decided to move b/c I was tired of my smoker roommate and I really didn’t like the fact that she had some guy come over and she didn’t even give me any kind of heads up. She said she had her tutor over b/c he did not have a table or chairs in his apartment, only a bed. I found it really strange that her tutor was in her bedroom as opposed to the dining room. The bugs, the possible mouse sighting, the cigarette smoke, and unannounced guys, prompted me to move.



I was told about a place run by Turkish people. I checked it out and initially felt a nice warm feeling and I decided to move there. Before I moved in I was warned by the girl who referred the place to me that it was very loud and she couldn’t stand sharing space with a lot of girls so after a week she moved. With this information I still moved in b/c staying where I was before was not an option. The whole mouse situation was giving me some sort of PTSD. I always felt like I was seeing or hearing something. So, since April 15th, I have been staying in The Turkish House (that is the name I have given it). When I moved in there were about 30 girls living in 8 rooms. So, if you can do math that is over 4 girls in each room. Including me there were a total of 5 girls in my room. The “rent” here is $100 a month and they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food is sometimes good and sometimes not. There isn’t meat everyday b/c I think it is too expensive. They have two automatic washer/dryers and the internet. There is a study room and saloon. Whatever, potential problems you can picture living in this type of place exists and by the grace of God I am going on three months living here! Most of the girls that were living here are from Turkey. There are Egyptian girls that were living here and several of them were here b/c they are studying the Turkish language and being around the Turkish girls helps them. There were four girls from Tajikistan, one girl from Nigeria, and three Moroccan girls from France have been here for the past few weeks. I am using the word “were” b/c now that the summer is here a lot of the girls have gone back to Turkey and a lot the Egyptian girls will be going back to their homes also. So I am thinking the place will be fairly empty and I am excited about having some peace. I am trying not to get to happy because of course some people might be coming here for the summer. I am thinking by next week I may have the room to myself!

I am now enjoying the last week of my three week break from class. Inshallah (God Willing) my new class will start June 29th. I will try to update you on what I did during the break and much more before then!