More Cab Craziness in Cairo

I was in a cab today, talking animatedly on the phone, when I confused my friend with my exclamations..."WHOA, we are going the wrong way down a three lane one-way street! I'm gonna die and go to heaven, and all my problems will be over!" It took her awhile to realize that I wasn't speaking metaphorically - we were actually the one car going the wrong way down a three lane, one-way street. Fast forward 10 minutes: I'm still on the phone, we are stuck in traffic, traffic starts moving. We don't start moving. We keep sitting. And sitting. And then I realized the cab driver was asleep. Truly. This happened. I woke him up, and we were on our way. He had told me earlier that the sun made him sleepy. Guess he was telling the truth.

Guess Who's Coming to Cairo???

Mi Familia!

I love them. Period.

In eight short weeks, seven of my family members will board a plane in Charlotte and seventeen short hours later, I will watch them walk through customs into Cairo, Egypt!! I can't wait to see these kids:

From left to right, those are my youngest siblings. Meredith and Thomas (18 years today! Happy Birthday, Tom and Meri!) and Brooke. I can't wait for them to get here. I miss talking with them, playing games with them, cheering on the Tarheels together, eating at Outback, singing while we clean the kitchen, and laughing til our sides hurt. Only Blaine can't come this time. We'll miss you Blaine!

She's coming too:

Though biologically unrelated, she's the littlest Andrews. She's turning 15 just before she comes, and we're having a birthday party for her in Cairo...how many Reidsville kids get to celebrate their 15th birthday in Egypt? Here are my three youngest sisters, all together now. Aren't they beautiful?

Can't forget about this one - my "brother-from-another-mother" He's coming too. And I am going to beat him soundly in several games of Puerto Rico. That, Wilby, is a challenge.

And one last picture, just because. The little cute one doesn't belong to the Andrews and isn't coming to Cairo, but she loves my super cool brother. He makes her laugh.

I love these guys, and I am SO EXCITED to see them soon :)

Delighting in the Impossible

"Come," He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

A friend sent this quote to me today. Reading it, I found myself nearly in tears. Peter was overwhelmed with the impossibility of the situation which he found himself facing. Humans do not have the capacity to walk on water. It is an impossibility, not capable of being accomplished. Like Peter, I find myself with many things on my plate which feel overwhelming, impossible. The verb overwhelm can be defined as “to surge over and submerge, to engulf; to defeat completely and decisively; to affect deeply in mind or emotion.” Peter was in danger of being engulfed by the waves around him. I suddenly find myself confronted with many new things, the sum of which seems overwhelming. Some of these things are overwhelming simply in their novelty, others seem at times to be insurmountable obstacles, while yet others are tasks that I don’t feel I am capable of accomplishing, impossible. But then I noticed what caused Peter to attempt the impossible and face the overwhelming odds: it wasn’t his own motivation for glory, it was hardly an unhealthy sense of adventure, it certainly wasn’t because he lost his mind and forgot that people cannot stand on the water. No. When Peter stepped out of the safety of his boat, he was thinking of one thing: His Master’s call to come. Like Peter, it’s so easy to forgot why I stepped out of the boat and to focus instead on the impossibility of the situations in which I find myself. It’s tempting to let my mind and heart be engulfed and defeated by the overwhelming nature of my circumstances. But then I am reminded of the One who called me out of the boat, and I remember that the One who lives in me is One who delights in the impossible. Nothing is too hard for HIM. In the words of Lilias Trotter, “Let us dare to test God's resources...Let us ask Him to kindle in us and keep aflame that passion for the impossible that shall make us delight in it with Him, till the day when we shall see it transformed into a fact.” I love that - not only do we not despair in the face of the impossible, but we delight in it with Him!

“We step right out with recognition of God in some things, then self-consideration enters our lives and down we go. If you are truly recognizing your Lord, you have no business being concerned about how and where He engineers your circumstances…If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you…Be reckless immediately-totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything-by casting your all on Him…be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him…be willing to risk your all.” Oswald Chambers-

Help me see with eyes of faith
Give me strength to run this race

And I will go where there are no easy roads
Leave the comforts that I know
I will go and let this journey be my home
I will go

Of Boy Scouts and Orange Blossoms

I'm escaping Cairo craziness for three days to get away and hopefully make some major progress on some massive writing projects. I went through a strange phase during my childhood of wishing I could be a girl scout. My mom was one, and I found her old scouting books, and to my over-active 10-yr-old imagination, scouting was what it was all about. That phase lasted approximately 2 weeks, and my smart mother who knew better never put me in girl scouts. This week, however, I get to live the life of a scout...a boy scout actually. I realize it's kind of the wrong gender, but beggars can't be choosers, or so they say. So I'm at AUC's Desert Development center with 15 boys of all ages and their families, hanging out at scout camp. There are tents everywhere, a big campfire, a rain shelter, targets for archery and rifle practice, an organic garden, and lots of flies. Luckily for my writing projects there is also a nice though sparse little room with a bed, a great cross breeze, a window overlooking an orange grove, a little table to use as a desk, and free wi-fi. But my favorite part about this little adventure? The overwhelmingly intoxicating fragrance of orange blossoms that fills the air, all the time, everywhere. It doesn't smell like Cairo anymore.

Of Cabs, Close Calls, and Celine Dion

As I prepared to move to Cairo, I consistently received warnings from well meaning people to be prepared for all the crazy things that would, upon my arrival, surely shock, horrify, and confound me so greatly that I would give anything to run back to the safe comfort of Suburbia, USA. Perhaps it’s because I like change, or perhaps it’s because of a slightly irrational and unhealthy sense of adventure, or perhaps it’s simply because I’ve traveled quite a bit and lived in developing nations before this, but I have yet to experience anything that surprises me greatly. In fact most days, my life seems completely normal and reasonable to me. Then I get in a taxi, and suddenly the absurdity that is Cairo assaults my senses with such a force that I have to laugh. At which point the cab driver looks into the rearview mirror, brows knit together in confusion, not at all understanding why the odd American girl sitting alone in the backseat is laughing. Until you are whizzing down the Autostrade, swerving around large trucks full of livestock, listening to Celine Dion croon, “neeeeaaar, faaaaaar, whereeeeeeever you are, I believe that the heart does gooo oooooooon” you probably won’t understand the laughter either. Egyptians have an strange affinity for Celine. Though freakishly weird, there is actually nothing unusual (in Cairo, that is) about listening to “Love was when I loved you, one true time I hold to” while nearly running over a truck full of goats. The coffee shops I frequent tend to prefer “You were my eyes when I couldn’t see - You saw the best there was in me...you gave me faith cause you belieeeeeeeeved...I’m everything I am, because you loooooved me” or occasionally “It’s all coming back to me now.” I’m not sure what it is about cheesy pop music that so enthralls the Egyptian community, but come for a visit and you’ll see what I mean. Of course, if you’re in MacDonald’s, you’ll get a little Leann Rimes to go with your Celine... ”And tell me now...How do I live without you? I want to know. How do I breathe without you if you ever go. How do I ever ever survive?” Once, I sat in MacDonald’s below the hospital, waiting for the birth of a friend’s baby. Over that five hour period, Leann wailed about separation from her lover no less than 9 times. NINE TIMES. How does anyone live with her?? Speaking of living, its a daily fight for survival here on the streets of Cairo...a fight I nearly lost last Sunday morning when a crazed microbus driver swerved towards me. On purpose. And then laughed. Needless to say, I was startled and a bit annoyed. I resisted the impulse to rake my keys down the side of the bus, because 1) I’m pretty sure Jesus wouldn’t do it and 2) it wouldn’t actually harm the aesthetic value of the vehicle and would possibly result in the loss of my arm. Though cab drivers, microbus drivers, and other public service workers are generally civil, reasonable people, I do occasionally encounter the microbus driver who gets a kick out of trying to scare the white american or the cab driver who wants to rip me off because he thinks I’m rich. Like yesterday. There are two kinds of cabs in Cairo: white cabs, and black cabs. If you’re going a short distance and know how much you should pay and can speak enough arabic to stick to your guns when the driver tries to hassle you, taking a black cab is usually cheaper. However, if you’re going a longer distance or there may be lots of traffic or you have a few stops to make, it’s to your advantage to hail a white cab, equipped with this lovely device called a meter. I needed to go out of my area and I needed to make a few stops, so yesterday I hopped into a white cab, equipped with a meter. The cab driver wanted to know how much I was going to pay, so I said “Turn on the meter, please.” To which he promptly replied that it was broken. I told him that it was illegal to refuse to use the meter if a passenger asked for it (it is!). He told me it was broken. After discussing this for a few moments, I reached up and turned the meter on. “Oh wow, look it works now! Great! We can go now, thanks!” The cab driver was NOT happy about this. I had called his bluff. I’ve been in enough cabs to know how the meters are turned on. Poor guy, I guess he thought he had another dumb, rich, american in his cab. He wasn’t going to use the meter, so I got out, thanked him kindly, and left the poor guy fuming and muttering under his breath. Sorry Mr. Cab Driver - I am not a rich American. Ahh, the joys of Cairo! :)

Pizza

Pizza. It's a lovely thing, really. I love pizza because it is just so versatile. Pizza is the quintessential Friday-night sleepover food. It's also the perfect company-showed-up-at-our-doorstep-and-we-need-food food. A delightful italian pie by candlelight can truly make a spectacularly cozy meal. Thin crust roast chicken and spinach pizza on the patio on a sunny spring day is a fun way to spend a saturday afternoon with girlfriends. And despite its reputation as a nutritional trainwreck, pizza is one of my go-to healthy, balanced meals: a thin, whole grain spelt crust topped with homemade tomato sauce, a light sprinkling of feta and a healthy dose of spinach is by far my favorite way to eat pizza (Remember that spelt pizza we made at my house in Chapel Hill, Debbie? Fun days!).

Cairo, being the cosmopolitan metropolis that it is, has an astounding variety of pizza choices: Papa John's, Pizza Hut, and Dominos can be ordered via phone or internet and are promised to arrive at your home within 45 minutes. Additionally, there are other great pizza options such Maison Thomas, whose Quattro Formagio is truly a culinary delight, and Crave, a delightfully fresh restaurant that I discovered just two weeks ago. If you want to visit Cairo, rest assured that there are enough pizza offerings to satisfy every palate.

Of all these wonderful pizza choices, however, I must strongly express my opinion that no one should EVER order from Papa John's, EVER AGAIN. Last weekend, some of the youth group girls slept over at my house after church Friday night. After a quick discussion of dinner options, we settled on pizza, and despite a rather difficult ordering process, finally convinced the Papa John's employee that we wanted pepperoni pizza, not Cha-cha chicken pizza, and definitely not Hot and Spicy pizza. Just pepperoni. While we waited, we revisited our parents teenage years in the form of Kevin Bacon's dancing skills in 'Footloose.' After waiting an hour for the pizza to arrive, I called Papa John's to ask where it was, and the following hilarity ensued...

Hi, this is Bethany, I ordered pizza an hour ago. I would like to know where it is?

"Ahh, Mr. Besaneee, I sink za driver have problem. Will be there in five minutes."

Five minutes later...

Hi, this is Bethany again, the driver still isn't here, can you tell me where my pizza is please?

Ahhh, hold on. Ahhh, manager will call you in two minute, ok?

Hi, zis is za manager. I will make you new pizza.

NO. I don't want a new pizza, thanks, I just want the other pizza.

What you want on new pizza?

Nothing. I want the old pizza. We are really hungry, and we don't have time for a new pizza.

Ok, I make you new pizza. Old one is cold.

No problem, we like cold pizza. Just send the cold one.

Ok, what you like on new pizza?

I DON'T WANT A NEW PIZZA.

Ok, will be in ten minute.

Hi, this is Bethany, it's been ten minutes, our pizza still isn't here.

Ok, will be ten minute.

Ok, I will call you in ten minutes to let you know that the pizza still isn't here, ok? Thanks

Hi, this is Bethany, just calling to let you know that the pizza isn't here. I'll call back in ten. In fact, I'll call every ten minutes all night until it gets here, ok? Great. Thanks.

Repeat same scenario for the next hour and a half, and you get the picture. We ordered pizza at 8:45, and ate it at 11:15. Positives? Another crazy Cairo story, hot pizza that didn't cost us a dime, and great memories. No more Papa John's for me, though.