Hello!

I am happy to report that I'm settled in Abuja, and have completed my first week of work. I hope I did not worry anyone for not writing right away. With the jet lag and starting work a week ago last Monday, I'm just now able to collect my thoughts.

I arrived to Abuja last Saturday after a 21 hour transit from DC to Abuja, Nigeria via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I flew on Ethiopian Airlines, and to be honest it is tied for the blue ribbon award for the best international flight that I've taken to date, a brand new Boeing 777 with more food and drinks than I knew what to do with. Half the plane was empty so I easily had three seats to sleep on. I only had a two hour layover in Ethiopia, but everyone, was amazing and friendly and I hope to return there for an extended weekend or more. Ethiopian Air is deemed the best African Airline and just joined the Star Alliance.

Upon touchdown in Abuja, I couldn't help but notice the airport is very small, rustic and outdated. I've found that there are hardly any flights in and out and if you were to search for flights online, most travel sites will not even recognize the airport code (ABV). For it being the capital airport of the richest African country, myself and even the Nigerians themselves are deeply disappointed they don't have a modern airport. Soon enough I believe though.

So far, Abuja is great, at least for those living the expat life like me. As bad as it is, as I hate to say it, compounded further that I know real and severe poverty and suffering occurs not far from where I am. Life for me and many foreigners here is more than comfortable. In fact, the expats are bored and if I stay long enough, I'm sure I will be too.  My accommodations are superb, with a huge room, private bathroom, gated compound with 24 hour security and most important, a clean pool. I'm very fortunate that my company takes care of its employees well being. 

As for safety, the area if very calm and tranquil. People are friendly and inviting on a personal level. However, it is standard that when it comes to anything relating to money, anyone living here know that a trick is in store. Despite what you all may here on the news, where I'm at is safe. Trust me.

My work here is inspiring. The Nigerian Customs Service has launched for the first time, and initiative to modernize is procedures and practices in order to clamp down internal corruption and third party price gauging to collect more revenue for the Nigeria government. This in turn, despite the severe corruption that does exist here, will help the infrastructure immensely. The economy is growing at 5+% this year, as there are construction projects abound. Much like Washington, DC. the skyline is full of cranes building new structures. I give Abuja a decade on things will be much further developed. 

More stories to come, but all is safe and well here.

-Mike

It begins, again.

Hello, again. I'm kicking the Egyptian dust off my boots, packing my things, getting my shots and readying my mind for the next adventure...

Nigeria! Oh, how I don't know anything about you. Tell me everything, show me everything. Show me your soul. Are you good? Do you have an agenda? Whisper in my ear what it is. I want to know, I want to see it. I want to live it. You have so much to say, let me be your ears and eyes and I will tell the world. That is, if you want me to. I come with open arms, and open heart and most importantly, an open mind. This will be a journey I know I will not forget, and I hope that when I leave, Nigeria, you will not forget me.

I will see you soon Nigeria, so be ready, life is here. Mike Graf is on his way.

For the best, let this be a new beginning, let this be a new path, let this be a new adventure. Let this be good Nigeria, for I come to please.

Cultural Observation 4?

As I proceeded to gawk at all of the temples and artifacts that are so old, I kept wondering how they were in such good condition. For the most part the majority of the temples, especially the large ones, such as Luxor, Edfu and Karnak were in pristine condition considering their age. Come to find out the main reason for their good condition was that they were buried in over 40ft of sand, deeper sometimes as though the temples range from 40ft to 90ft tall.

However, there were other temples like the Pyramids and the Sphinx that were not in such good of shape, even though they were buried the sand and I wondered just why this was? To my surprise it was a combination of two things, one more detrimental than the other.

The first reason for the deterioration of the monuments and temples was the exposure of the stones and paintings to the elements of the weather. Which is natural. Some of the temples were affected by flooding of the Nile, however even then, were relatively well preserved. The hieroglyphics were still carved into the rocks, the paintings were still there on the walls, and the mummies were still wrapped and preserved thousands of years after the people inside them had passed. Moreover though, it would take thousands of more years to actually destroy the temples in the manner that the 2nd reason, the human element had upon them.

The most detrimental thing to the monuments was the lack respect and knowledge applied to the ones that poked up out of the sand. At Edfu, only the top 10 or so feet of the walls of the temple rose above the sand, and instead of the preserving the carvings and paintings that were upon it, the armies that passed through the temple used the walls as target practice for the rifles, swords and arrows as well as a place for graffiti. Luckily, there was another 50ft of temple and hallways below the sand.

As for the Pyramids, the once used to be white instead of the yellowish stone that they have now. This is due to the stripping of the limestone, white in color, by the Arab Muslim invaders who conquered Egypt in 700+ A.D. and used the stone for the local mosques. I can’t say that the mosques here are not beautiful, but really, to destroy something so grand and well preserved, when there are beautiful granite rocks all around Egypt to carve from, they destroyed some of the greatest wonders in the whole world. I wonder if one day the limestone from the mosque’s will be re-used for another temple for another religion. Only time will tell.

So, I am a little bitter about the peoples that have lived on this ancient land for the past 2,000 years and their lack of respect and much less, their curiosity to learn and to preserve the wonderful things that existed on their land well before they did. Maybe it’s the Boy Scout in me, but I can for sure say that if I were to go roaming around in the Nevada desert or anywhere for instance, and I happened to stumble upon a monument, even a small one, that no one knew what it was, I would consider it a good fortune and the last thing I would do is shoot it or carve it up. Furthermore, to think, that I didn’t descend from the peoples that invented the calendar, papyrus, pie (3.14), irrigation, oh yeah and beer.

Cruising on the Nile: Luxor and Aswan (Part 2)

Nile Cruise

Now, a Nile cruise is a must if you are planning on visiting Egypt at all. Cairo is good to see, but really the real ancient Egypt exists outside of Cairo in the small cities and Bedouin camps. The people and the culture are richer there and more authentic than the crowded, smoggy, dirty limits of Cairo. Plus the weather is much warmer in the winter.

Our cruise boat was quaint but nice. Food is always buffet style like any good cruise and the boat had nice clean rooms with a nice large roof top hangout area. However, the best part of cruising the down the Nile was to sit in my chair in my stateroom with the double French doors open to the water’s edge and watch the Nile river banks drift by. Truly it was like being in a old movie, with all of its grand romance and majesty, and be on the Nile river surrounded by ancient temples and quarries, and to breath the mist of the water that gave birth to Egypt and some of the most important civilizations in the world. Looking out from the boat you never knew just exactly you might see, but whatever it was, it was amazing.

The way I suggest cruising the Nile is to start in Aswan and proceed north, or down the Nile, towards Luxor. In doing this your last site you will visit will be Karnak Temple in Luxor, and it will have you leave Egypt with much respect for the Egyptian peoples and their history.

Along the cruise, which took 2 days, we saw the Temples of Edfu, Kom Ombo, Elephant Island, and the Pyramid Rock quarries. Docking at each one, we would take a local horse carriage to the temples, which were mini adventures in themselves and begin our explorations of the temples. My favorite temple was Edfu, as we saw it during the night, and its massive stone columns that held up the roof were still perfectly intact. The roof was about 50ft up, and even though originally had beautiful hieroglyphics painted on it, they were covered in black ash from the 1000’s of years the temple was used as a hideout for Christians are they were fleeing from the Roman’s and then the Muslims. Also, you we able to go exploring the temple and we found a dark hallway that descended below the temple, but was full of water and we had to stop. Who knows just what could be further down the hallway, underneath all of that water. I thought that this temple was huge when I first saw it, however, once I saw Karnak, Edfu became dwarfed in size.

Luxor

After seeing many temples along the banks of the Nile we arrived in Luxor. The name Luxor comes from, bear with me now, the plural of the plural of the word palace in Arabic. So lots of groups of palaces here…In the city of Luxor alone is 1/3 of the ENTIRE world’s historical monuments. Egypt in its entirety holds about 40% of world monuments. Not bad for one country. Reno has to get on the ball eh?

Luxor has fantastic sites to go see and it is recommended that one spend at least two days there. In seeing the sites you must spend one day on the west bank of the Nile, which is where the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Queen Hepepchutes Temple and the Two Statues are. The East Bank is the Temple of Luxor and Karnak Temples are and they are big enough to explore for hours, as Karnak is 19 acres large by itself. The significance of visiting each bank of the Nile separately derives from the symbolism the Egyptians put of the rising and setting of the sun in their ideology. The east bank represents birth, life and fertility. So, the temples of worship, farming and fertility, such as Luxor and Karnak, were built here. The West Bank symbolizes death and the after life and there the Egyptians buried all of their kings, queens and nobles along with the treasure and items they would need in the afterlife.

Oddly enough though, our trip started off with the West Bank first as the sun came up, but maybe because there was better light? Anyway, we drove the Valley of King’s first which is very very cool. It lies in a desert canyon surrounded by high cliff on each side. A gravel path extends from the Nile valley up into the canyon, and it looks like the gravel is the broken stone remnants of the massive excavations that took places into and below the canyon walls. As I walked up this gravel path I couldn’t help but wonder and visualize the thousands of workers and burial parties that have walked on this same path to the tombs below. All of the Kings that we read about and study in school and all of the power and grandeur that they exuded upon this land and the later influence that it would have upon peoples from all over the world up till today. So large that tourism here in Egypt is big enough to be the one of the largest imports and sources of money to keep almost 80 million people alive and working. Thanks to the Pharaoh’s eh?

After hiking up the canyon further you come to the tombs themselves. As they were discovered throughout the past 100 years, the foreign expeditions that came to dig here, built stone faces around the temple doors to identify them as being temples. As you look around all you can see are the many stone faces that are everywhere, basically one on top of another. If totally sparks the imagination to think that just below your feet are more tombs undiscovered, and I am willing to be a lot that there will be a lot more discovered within my lifetime. As I look around, just next to Tutankhamen’s tomb, which is one of the smallest yet richest of them all, and located just underneath the entrance to another tomb, the local labor is digging into the canyon in search of another tomb. I can’t wait to see what’s inside!

In the valley here you can usually go into many of the tombs. Some of them are quite large. For instance, Ramses the 2nd’s tomb has 52 side chambers, for all of his children to be buried. Because of the mass amount of rooms in Ramses tombs, archeologists are now looking for a large tomb in the Valley of the Queens that would hold all of Ramses’s wives. He was living large! The Valley of the Kings is something everyone must see if they come to Egypt. It is not too crowded usually, and is inspiring to think if these people died and were buried in this manner, who knows just how rich their lives were!

To conclude our West Bank of the Valley visit, we went to Queen Hepepchutes temple that I have previously written about, so I encourage you to read that blog entry as well.

Cruising on the Nile: Luxor and Aswan (Part 1)

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I opted to take another AUC/ALI sponsored trip. The ALI (Arabic Language Institute) organizes trips throughout Egypt in a highly efficient manner and usually they so much fun that one doesn’t even have to try to have a good time. This was trip #3 of 5 in my traveling while abroad.

One of the better things about the ALI is that it takes into consideration that the study abroad students will have a tough time adapting to Egypt and the rigorous intensive Arabic program that it has. With the students in class for about 5 hours a day, 3 more hours for commuting to school, topped off with a good dose of homework each night, the real study abroad experience of seeing the Egyptian culture and its history is quiet limited. However, it is my opinion that students would be able to see the culture and use the language more, if they didn’t have to spend 3 hours, or more sometimes, on a bus, 6 days a week; a little counter productive I think.

The trip to Luxor and Aswan only cost me about $400 and it included, all transportation and flights to and from Cairo; which were a godsend compared to traveling on the train, along with food, entrance fees to all the sites, and the Nile cruise ship that we would be staying on.

I became very excited to go on this trip because I was finally going to see the Egypt that exists in all of the dreams everyone wanting to visit Egypt growing up. I was proud of myself for choosing to come to Egypt. I knew that I was going to see the culture that thrived along the Nile for thousands of years, whom had in their possession the technology to build and develop their society to an advanced level. More advanced than many other modern cultures and societies today.

Our first stop was to Aswan, which is towards the southern part of Egypt, about 300 miles north the Sudanese-Egyptian border. We flew from Cairo to Aswan on a wonderful and clean Egypt Air flight, that only took about 2 hours from Cairo, and as I mentioned earlier is much more convenient than the 14 hour train ride, if the train didn’t derail or worse enroute. In Aswan we were to visit the High Dam, Abu Simble, Elephant Island, the Nubian Museum and also board our cruise boat. We landed and the weather in Aswan was marvelous, it was about 83 degrees with no wind and the sun was shining. I could instantly feel warmth of the city, and being a summer person within a heartbeat my mood perked up significantly and I was ready to be a tourist, well partially; coming from Tahoe and Reno I don’t like tourists…


The High Dam is huge dam, but its design makes it less impressive than other dams that I have seen in my life, such as the Hoover, Lake Powell, and Bonneville dams. The High Dam is thick in its width, and it is tall, hence the High Dam name, but as you can see from the picture, it height is spread out over gradual steps, and the slope of the face of the dam is very shallow. I believe the reason for this is to be to give the dam the strength to withstand the massive force exerted upon it by Lake Nasser, which is now the worlds largest man made lake and extends the 300 miles or so from the High Dam into Sudan. However, the beauty of the dam comes not from it size or design, but from the importance of it existence in Egypt, and the role it played in the international political systems during the Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.

The dam’s role in Egypt was to stop the annual cyclical flooding that would destroy towns and farms that sat along the Nile River each year and killed thousands of people each time. Instead, the dam regulates the flooding and as an upside provides a constant year round supply of water that can be used to irrigate the Nile valley and provide for three agricultural growing periods each year, instead of just one before the dam was built. This constant water supply also is a contributing factor in the population explosion that Egypt has faced, as now about 60+ million people (maybe as much as 80 million) live in the Nile Valley alone.

The role the High Dam played in the international community was a turning point in the U.S.’s relationship with the Middle East, both then and now, with the Socialist Nasser regime in 1956, and more importantly the efforts to stop the communist expansion of the U.S.S.R. President Nasser of Egypt was looking to propel Egypt into the modern western world through a large variety of government subsidized programs which included developing a large agricultural base to export goods to the world through the building of the High Dam. However, Nasser did not have the funding to so and asked the U.S. for financial assistance to build the dam. The U.S. refused to give the money to Egypt as a result of Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal. The result of this refusal gave the U.S.S.R. and opportunity to gain a footing in the Middle East as they sent money and advisors to Egypt to construct the High Dam. This allowed for a Soviet influence and arms trade to develop in the Middle East, until President Sadat kicked them out in the 80’s. After the dam was completed the U.S.S.R. built a large monument of friendship to Egypt at the site of the high dam in the shape of a lotus flower, but to me, it looks like a giant signal or temple to aliens, like in the movie Contact, and is probably more impressive looking when seen from space as communists were never known for their style. See picture below.

However, the best part of this dam was to see my first Nile crocodile! In the Lake Nasser side of the dam is where all of the old Nile crocs live, and we saw a “Big Mother!” as Steve Irwin would say, swimming along the dam waiting for something to fall in. My friend Graham and I were trying to coax our 5’1” friend Laurie to approach the water’s edge, so that we could get a better look at the croc. We were confident that we were able to pull her out of harms way quick enough to get a picture. Oh and to save her too….;)

Abu Simble

Visiting Abu Simble was a very long journey from Aswan, but is probably in the top 2 sites to see in all of Egypt after Luxor. In Abu Simble is the large temple of Ramses the 2nd. This temple and about 11 others, not including the thousands of discovered and undiscovered graves and temples of the Nubian kingdom, were to be drowned in water as Lake Nasser filled up after the completion of the High Dam. Under what I think is the largest and best example of international cooperation ever, the UN (UNESCO) and 35 countries from all over the world realized the importance of the Ramses the 2nd Temple and the 11 others in the area south of the High Dam, and a massive effort went into place to save these sites from being lost forever. However, the same effort was not put into saving the Nubian sites and temples, so they now lie at the bottom of the Lake. In the case of Abu Simble (Ramses the 2nd) UNESCO cut up the temple into thousands of pieces, each weighing anywhere from 1 to 10 tons, and piece by piece reassembled them in perfect unison about 300ft higher up the mountain they were carved into, so that they would now be located on the beach of the new Lake Nasser, instead of beneath its waters.

The magnificence of Ramses the 2nd’s temple is breathtaking. This temple is one of the largest and most detailed temples ever built by man, and the original paint, hieroglyphics and sculptures, are still in amazing condition. When visiting this temple, you walk around the mountain from behind and come the face of the temple along the waters edge, and you stop instantly in front of what lies before you. Few times in my life have I paused like this, but really this is something that gives me hope in the art and scale of creation that humans are capable of. In addition to think that this temple was cut up and put back together again. This temple was built 2500+ years ago and still looks this good. I can promise that not many of our current structures will last this long and let alone look this good!

After taking around 200 pictures of the temple, inside and out, it was time to head back to Aswan. I hope that one day, I will be able to visit this temple again, as it is well worth a second trip to Egypt, well 3rd for me ☺

Next post coming soon!

Rotary Medical Caravan

11.14.2008

Hello again! Finally, I am happy to report that I have been able to truly contribute to the benefit of some Egyptians that actually need it. My Rotary club, Cairo Capital, every so often, assists a team of doctors in a medical caravan to remote parts of Egypt. This particular caravan was bound for a farming village just south of Alexandria, in which a large Coptic Church was being constructed and was to be used a base for treatment. Now, if you were like me at first, you are probably wondering just what exactly is a medical caravan. What it is nothing more than true giving of unrestricted aid, attention, and service to those who need everything that comes their way.



The medical caravan that I was fortunate enough to help with, was a group of forward looking doctors, who donate their time and talents, at no cost to those they help. This team provides medical attention and corresponding treatments to Egyptians that are well below the poverty line and are hindered many times over by physical illness or disability. The caravan consisted of 6 doctors who covered a large breadth of medical services i.e. dentistry, OBGYN, general practitioner, dermatologist, optometrist and pediatrics. In addition to this team of docs, several members from Cairo Capital Rotary club as well as myself, two of my friends, Jessica and Graham, and another Rotary scholar Nathan. We all played a supporting role of managing the large crowed of patients that have come from far distances around and using our limited Arabic skills to find out which ailments they were afflicted with. We would then record the ailment, in general terms, and designate a particular doctor in which they would see. Furthermore, we would go back and forth between the mobile ambulance, that the docs traveled in, to retrieve the particular pharmaceuticals needed by the doctors.

I have to say that this was not an easy task, for many reasons. The first being the language barrier, the second the dialect, and the rest for being just utter overwhelming humbleness in which we all felt, seeing our standard of living compared to those that needed treatment. Now, Jessica, Graham and I, are learning Fusha, which is the Modern Standard form of Arabic, used in Media and diplomatic circles, so conversing with farmers who are only taught Amaya(sp?) the local Egyptian dialect, most likely not in a formal school system, was a daunting task. Nathan and I manned the GP, dentist and optometrist station and we had the majority of patients to deal with. To simply put it was difficult to explain in Arabic how the people in need had to wait there turn for the doctors. You could see in the eyes of the children and parents alike the disparity of wanting to be healthy and the urgency in which they wanted to fix it, and hence why the had traveled so far. At time, I felt utterly helpless that I did not know how provide some medical assistance to them, as well as having the language barrier prevent a mutual understanding of patience and our intentions to help them.

After a few hours, the doctors had seen all of the patients and everyone that was still around the church felt a sense of accomplishment and peace. Soon, the children that were around, even though some were sick, started playing soccer with Graham, and also decided to learn how to be a photographer. Nathan and I on the other hand helped clean up and see if anything else needed to be done before we left.



In my opinion, this day was a good one, but really not good enough. The way I see it, is that helping those that need it doesn’t really take much time nor energy. It is so easy to give a bit and help a lot. The magnitude of the impact of the monies invested and the time spent by the doctors and assistants created waves of good in this particular community, and those like it. Moreover, this time and energy significantly improved the day and possibly the long-term future of those that received treatment. It strikes me with the desire to help more, learn the language further, and to always put into thought, the relative position of myself and my endeavors to those I meet. I am very fortunate enough to be here in Egypt and to have one chance to help.

When I return to Reno, and I going to provide a presentation on my experience to raise funds for the completion of this church, who provides services to both Muslims and Copts a like, equally. I am happy to do this in hopes that maybe my Rotary club in Reno, Reno Sunrise, or my community could give a bit to help, and have it continue to make waves here in Egypt. This is the upside of diplomacy and I am happy to help.

Posts to come!

Meshy (Ok), so things have been pretty busy around here for me, with Arabic midterms and some catch up work but after tonight I only have 15 days of school left here. Its pretty insane how fast the semester has gone bye, but that is what one should expect from an intensive language program. To let you know what my posts are for the near future I will lay them out as I feel that my reflective thoughts and my blog have been seriously neglected. I promise no more of that!

My Rotary Experiences
Medical Carvan to Alexandria
Trip to Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine's and Dahab (this weekend)
Trip to Aswan, Luxor (next week)
Departure to Istanbul Turkey, Amman Jordan, and the West Bank (Beginning of Dec)


So, lots to come with more posts in between! Thanks for reading!

Mike

Stomp: The only band that brings its own trashcans…

Today provided a nice surprise for us as we got off the bus before heading to class. We had noticed a large stage erected in the middle of the courtyard by the library with a bunch of trashcans scattered about around it. I was taken aback as I thought that finally the AUC has gotten its act together and had actually bought trashcans for the campus! They were nice and shiny; large enough to hold all the cigarette butts and coke cans that are strewn around the area, and totally empty and waiting to be used. However, to my pleasant disappointment, the AUC didn’t improve in its sanitation priorities, but instead it was a Stomp concert!

We had heard that Stomp was performing in Cairo this week at the Opera House in Zamalek, but the tickets are 900LE per person, or about $180. So, obviously it was out of the picture. The group put on a great show with some great beats, and I would love to eventually see a full performance sometime. I had flashbacks to my drumline experience in high school and all the fun we had banging on drums. Also, I thought the here is living proof that when small kids bang on things around the house; they just might actually have a future in a group like Stomp. So, it was glad to support the arts and see these talented musicians at school… in Egypt!

In closing, Stomp unfortunately took their trash cans with them, back to the State’s where no one really needs them…sigh. Oh well…Welcome to Egypt.

Rotary in Cairo and the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt.

I have finally made contact with my Rotary Club here in Cairo after some difficult communication via email this first few month or so that I have been here. I am happy to say that after last night all is well and that I look forward to working with Cairo Capital Rotary Club and the service projects that they do for the time that I am here.

I had spoken with Atef my Rotary Counselor here in Cairo last week on the phone and he had invited me to attend the weekly Rotary meeting to be held on Wednesday nights at the World Trade Center Building in downtown Cairo. However, yesterday while I was sitting in my Arabic writing class I received a text message from Atef informing me that the Wednesday meeting had been changed to tonight (Tuesday) instead. The reason for the change was that the Rotary Club of Zamalek, which is on the island that I live on, had invited the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt to speak at the Al Gizera club over dinner. I was very excited to attend this meeting! One so that I could finally get to meet my Rotary Club, who turned out to be an amazing group of people and two maybe have a chance to speak with the U.S. Ambassador.

My roommate Graham and I suited up and headed down to the Al Gizera Club, which is very famous, Gatsby-esk, and prestigious. For an Egyptian to gain membership there they must pay over 300,000 LE (Egyptian Pounds) or 50,000+ dollars a year. It was an honor to even walk in the club as a foreigner, as the famous Ali soccer team practices there. With in the club there is a massive swimming pool that is probably the nicest in Cairo, many full soccer fields, a horse track, running track, tennis courts, restaurants and more.

When we arrived in style to the club, where we were ushered in immediately in very professional manner, as the security knew that we were attending the Rotary meeting. Upon going into the restaurant I introduced myself to Atef and some other wonderful Rotary members from Cairo Capital, and we sat down among a larger group of about 70 to 100 Rotarians and guests, and we proceed to chat and get to know one another as we waited for the U.S. Ambassador to arrive. About 45 minutes later the Ambassador arrived and gave a basic speech that defined an outlined U.S. Foreign assistance policy, and also the foreign policy objectives that the Bush administration was pushing in the Middle East. It was a good speech, in the sense that it gave a lot of basic information about history of the relationship between Egypt and the U.S. and had a focus on the USAID goals and the military assistance budget that now tops over 1.25 billion dollars. The speech was positive and friendly but left no room for any tough questions afterwards. Smart play I thought by the speechwriter, however I feel that the Rotarians wanted a little bit more sustenance and honestly, so did I.

After the speech the Ambassador took questions that were fielded by the president of the Al Gizera Rotary club so that any aggressive inquires could be avoided to keep the Ambassador off the hot plate. Soon after that the Ambassador was open to introductions and interviews by the local Egyptian media and I thought it would be a great time to introduce myself. As I went to the line that formed to talk with the Ambassador, Mrs. Salwa Hadid, another one of my awesome Rotary counselors, grabbed me by the hand and rushed me to the front of the line. Soon, I was talking about U.S. Public Diplomacy and my experience with the IVLP program with the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Mrs. Margaret Scobey. I was very happy to have this opportunity and I am thankful my friend Graham offered to take my picture just in case I was successful in talking to her. All and all it was another great night in Cairo and one for the record books. Graham and I met some amazing Rotarians who were very friendly and helpful to anything that we might need and I hope to stay in close contact with them. I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying it here, and I look forward to many more memories of this great experience in Egypt!

Day at the Zoo.

Recently, after the oasis trip, I took a trip to the Giza Zoo, which at one time, was one rated the best zoo in the world in the 1930’s. The zoo even has a historical bridge that joins two areas of the zoo together that was designed and build by Mr. Eiffel himself, the same man that build the Eiffel tower in Paris, France. Also, the Giza zoo was claimed to be the best zoo in Africa, which I find ironic because to me, a zoo is place made so people who don’t live in Africa can visit and see the native African and other continental wildlife, such as the Nile Crocodile, in which hometowns in the U.S. and the world, not 100 yards from the Nile River itself, have. However, all this great history aside, the zoo now is quite sad and was recently removed from the international zoo associations membership for its lack of care for the animals and living conditions… Anyway, I had heard about the Giza zoo from a classmate of mine who had just went the previous week and had held a baby lion. My friend Jessica and I were determined that we too would hold a baby lion. So, now you can see from the pictures, that I am a man of my word and that I have held a baby lion, in Africa.