Zewak

I have just returned from our short 5 day home leave. I decided to spend this vacation in the village of Zewak with some of my students. I will say it is not a place that I would ever desire to reside in or even visit for an extended period of time but I do not regret going. It was culture shock #2 for me here in Egypt. I had become tired of the sights and sounds of the city and was very much in the mood for some peace and quiet. I was told by my students that it was a small village with houses, not apartments, and wasn't as crowded as Cairo. They were not lying. After an 8 hour train ride and a 20 min bus ride we were in Zewak. We arrived at about 5:30 a.m. and I was immediately introduced to a traditional Zewak meal. Here are a couple things to know about the food. At every meal you will have a medium sized loaf of bread that probably weighs about 2 pounds, they'll serve some sort of meat, the portions are massive, and most people will make you feel like you killed one of their children if you don't eat it ALL! Lucky for me the student that I stayed with made sure that I wasn't forced to eat at least in his house.

To say that life in Zewak is relaxed would be the understatement of the year. I have found few places in Egypt where I was truly bored until this place. Of course I enjoyed not having to teach classes or supervise workers but I'm just not the type of person that likes to do absolutely nothing. For the majority of the 4 days we were there we would wake up, eat, sit around, eat, sit around, eat, watch a movie, eat, eat, eat, you get the picture. I was tempted to become bulimic for the weekend. I will say that I am very grateful for the tremendous hospitality that was bestowed upon me while I was there and I have met few nicer people. The people I met were very kind and meant only the best by offering me as much food as they did. (I just didn't want it) The kids treated me like a rock star and never hesitated to say hello. (It's the only word they know)

In all honesty I was able to do a couple of fun activities while I was there. The first being soccer. The students took us to, basically a rec center, except just for soccer. It's like paying to use the basketball court for a couple hours except it's an outdoor, tile floor, soccer field. They had three fields all right next to each other and man could those guys play. It was amazing to see how well they could handle the ball especially when the ball rolls twice as fast on tile. We played from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. and the students still wanted to play more. Needless to say I was exhausted.

The next activity may surprise you a bit but we were actually able to go hiking. Apparently there are some pretty good size foothills in upper Egypt and we decided to check them out. The students actually took us to an old monastery that is built at the base of the rocks. The monks actually used live in small cut outs in the rock itself but have moved to a formal building. The cut outs are still in the rock though and so we began to hike straight up towards them. It didn't seem like a long way at first but I found that hiking in sand is definitely not the easiest thing I've ever done. It was hard and I loved every minute of it because it was the first time on the whole trip that I felt I might want to eat something when we got back. That climb was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. Anything I can do that is remotely close to something I would do at home just makes me happy.

All-in-all I'm glad that I went to Zewak and got to experience a way of life that I would not even have known existed. When you're in America you don't think about what people are doing 5000 miles away from you. It was a great opportunity to understand this culture and see why these people are the way they are. God created us all differently and each of us has a different purpose in life. While the people in Zewak think about whose house they are going to visit that day or what they're going to eat, I sit and think about what career I'm going to pursue when I return next fall, how I'm going to balance my work schedule for next summer, and why on earth am I wasting an entire year of my life in a different country? (I've only felt like that a couple times) In my heart I know it's not a waste. It's only during the times when I'm by myself and thinking only about myself that I feel that way. Obviously. I'm just interested to see who is going to be looking back at me from my bathroom mirror when I return home.