Bugs, Money, and Lovely Students

I took this picture out the window of a microbus while driving from the school to the metro station.

I cleaned lizard poop off my kitchen floor this morning. That's a new one. He lives under the fridge. I don't really mind because he's not crawling on me, and he probably eats bugs in our kitchen.

I love all of the students--even the ones I don't know--but there are a couple of the ESL students that make me so excited to be around. There are two that are really tiny and excitable, and if I had a papoose, I'd wear them on my back. One boy is named Akram. (He's the one who broke his arm a couple weeks ago.) There is a retired couple teaching here, Chuck and Janet Schlunt, and last night Janet told me that every day Akram asks how old she is. She said she tells him 600. I laugh every time I think of that. He speaks so little English, that it probably took him a while to understand what she said. Akram, his giant casted arm, and another ESL boy named Ghandy (same name as Ghandi, but pronounced more like "Randy"), were raking our front "yard" this morning. I tried to tell Akram that Mrs. Janet told me that story. I said very clearly and slowly, "Mrs. Janet said every day you ask her, 'How old are you?'" He responded, "I'm fine, thanks." I said, "Mrs. Janet told me that every day you say to her, 'Andik kem sena?'" He answered, "Sixteen." First of all, I'd put money on you not being sixteen because when we were at the doctor I heard you answer, "I don't know. Sixteen." Secondly, you look twelve. Third, I wasn't asking you how old you were. Eventually he got it though. He is so cute.

This is Taylor, Akram, and me the night before we took him to the doctor for the x-ray. I had wrapped up his arm and iced it, and he had left it wrapped for a few days without taking the ace wrap off at all... So when I took it off his upper arm looked swollen, and I wasn't sure if the fluid has just accumulated. This was his form of a sling. :)


Yesterday afternoon I was called to come to the girls' dorm because one of the students had somehow cut her foot open in the cafeteria. The girls' dean, Ms. Janet, had cleaned it and wrapped it, but eventually the bandage was soaked with blood. Ron and I went to the dorm, and the cut was deeper than I had been led to believe, but it definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been. I cleaned it with betadine, and Ron held the skin together as I put wound closure strips on it. This poor little girl was trying to keep it together but couldn't, so she cried into her friend's shoulder. Then we wrapped it up and asked her if she had a clean cotton sock to put over it. She didn't, so Ron went home and got one for her. I'm still occasionally surprised by how little some of the students have. What would it be like to not have a sock? I slept at the girls' dorm last night, and they were SO cute and acted so honored that I was there. They treated me with the typical Egyptian hospitality. As I was leaving this morning, a girl was walking to the dorm, and her flip flop ("ship ship") was broken. I made some comment about it in passing, and she said she didn't have any other ones. I take so much for granted. And part of me doesn't know any better because I don't know any differently, but it's good to have my eyes opened. When we took Akram to the doctor for an x-ray of his arm and the doctor said it was broken, he cried a little bit. I thought that maybe the idea of that was just scary to him and he didn't want a cast, but I would guess that a part of that is also for financial reasons. The doctor's visits, x-ray, medicine, and cast supplies cost him about 160 pounds (about $26). The most that one of the students can make in one hour of work on campus is 2.50 LE (~$0.41), and most of them don't make that. I asked Akram, and he said his father is a farmer, and I know that the farmers don't make very much money.

Just now I smashed a beetle between my sheets. Good time to change them, I guess. The bugs are nothing like they were when I was here last. At one point I had had 170 mosquito bites on one leg. My legs looked like I had small pox. We used to sleep with sweatshirts on and tie the hood as tightly as we could over our heads so that they couldn't bite our foreheads or buzz in our ears while we were trying to sleep. They're nowhere near as bad this time. I know that every once in a while, some shady truck drives in and sprays stuff around the campus. Not ideal, but I guess better that way. Fortunately malaria isn't a problem around here. I did wake up at about 3:30 this morning while sleeping in the dorm because I was maniacally scratching my legs and ankles. But that has been the extent of it.

The ladies of Villa 3 - Maryam, me, Mary, Taylor, Mary, and Bethany (my roommate)


There is an eleventh grade student that I have known since he was in ESL. He is and always has been incredibly motivated to learn and has very much stood out among the students. He is quiet and thoughtful and very considerate. He loves vocabulary and has excitedly brought me big lists of words for me to explain to him. It seemed like he got them straight out of the dictionary. When I came back to visit when he was in ninth grade, I remember that some of the words were "premenstrual" and "prophylaxis." I laughed to myself. It would have been inappropriate and really awkward for him if I told him what premenstrual meant. I don't remember what I said. He really has a love for learning. Anyway, he recently dropped one of his more difficult classes, and when Mrs. Gladys asked why, he told her that he doesn't have time to study. Through further questioning she figured out that he works three jobs on campus so that he can afford to be here. There are some students at NUA that I would feel comfortable raising money for or sponsoring myself, but I can't think of another student I would advocate for more than I would for this student. He has worked very hard as long as I have known him and will definitely make something of himself. He has a very good heart. If there is anyone reading this who would be willing to help sponsor him, please let me know and I'd be happy to tell you more about him. Any amount at all--even $10-20/month would help tremendously.

Please pray for one student who was expelled this past week. He allegedly violated one of the no-tolerance policies at the school. ("Allegedly" is not implying doubt.) I think that he is a good kid. It is always sad having students leave because there's no real way of keeping track of them. And I can't reach them or be a good influence on them or talk to them or even just see how they're doing. Anyway, he was really torn up about it, and I just wish the best for him. And it's too bad because then the last two full years he spent here were a waste because NUA graduates receive an American diploma, not an Egyptian one.