Well, where do I begin? It's been 3 weeks since I left Iowa, and in some ways it feels like it's been 3 months. The amount of things that I have seen have made me tired, angry, frustrated, joyful, confused, grateful, and at peace. I guess I'll just start at the beginning.
Our first day in Cairo was interesting, to say the least. Not knowing any words in Arabic, we attempted to wander around and find different destinations (a place to eat, museum, etc). However, instead of being an amazing first day, it turned out to be a stressful experience due to being in a new land, with different culture, different languages, and uncertainties abounding. By the end of the day, many of us just wanted to go back to Mokattam, which felt more like a community than downtown Cairo, which instead felt like a tourist center.
The monastery in which we stay in Mokattam is gorgeous (St Simon)...It has about 7 cave churches, the 2 largest of which are awe-inspiring...I can't get over how massive they are. The main church holds about 20,000 people and looks like the stands in a football stadium, but with the face of a rock in front, above, and behind you. So I guess it beats going to an Iowa game! There are church services every Thursday, and handicapped services on Friday that we help with (going to the homes of people with trucks to pick them up, and also bringing them back).
The internships that I'm doing are the hospital and a school in which my group teaches moral issues or hygiene things. So far we've done cleaning/hygiene and respect, and it seems to be going...okay. I will tell many more stories when I get back, but for right now I will tell about Theresa, a patient at the hospital. On most days, we cut bandages for the stock room, but on Thursdays, we can watch surgeries, which is pretty cool, especially because it's completely different from anything I've done before. The first Thursday, we watched 5 tonsillectomies. The first 4 were okay, but the last one went wrong. Very wrong. During the surgery, the vitals machine didn't read at all, which was a little troubling, but nothing to worry too much about. However, after the surgery, Theresa struggled to breath and wake up. After 20 minutes of watching, we were told to leave and go to the monastery. I assumed she would be fine.
She didn't make it.
I'll explain the whole story later, but it's been a struggle to understand how it happened, especially for a tonsillectomy. They aren't deadly right? What made it worse was that it was the sister of an Egyptian that we knew fairly well. I'm still working through the frustration of the whole thing, but like I said, I will explain more when I get to the States.
Pray for me that I will stay present in the moment here, instead of thinking of home. Pray for me so that I will find that uncomfortableness is not altogether a bad thing. I think that is the biggest lesson that I'm learning so far: comfort is okay, but being comfortable also makes it more difficult to seek God. Having all my normal food, home, language, etc. really strips away my crutches and allows me to be free to seek the God that is currently working here in Cairo.
I'm sorry for the here-there-and-everywhere post, but I promise that God is doing things here, and I will write a whole summary when I get back in 2 weeks or so!
God bless,
Brendan
