Finally here...

Oh boy...after 17 hours of flying, attempting to sleep in a cramped seat, practically skipping a Tuesday due to time zones, and smelling like I've worn the same clothes for too long...I finally made it. We got into Cairo around 11 PM local time Tuesday night, and careened our way via bus through the lane-marked-but-lanes-are-irrelevant streets of Cairo. The bus navigated up to the monastery where we will be staying, which really does seem like it's against the mountains--it also overlooks the village of Mokattam.

Despite the very, very hot rooms (which were actually hotter than outside), lovely cockroaches, and the shower over the toilet, which has no toilet paper (I'll explain when I have more time--too complicated :) , we're all thankful for a safe area to sleep. It's about a 5 minute walk to the heart of Mokattam, which matches up to the pictures I've seen and shown others. It's somewhat surreal because I feel like I don't feel like I should be here yet. But ready or not, it begins.

First impressions: there's a strong sense of community already as we walked through the village. The people were very friendly, but it will be difficult during the next month due to the lack of language knowledge. While it would be amazing and much appreciated if God allowed me to be blessed with the knowledge of speaking Arabic...I'll be okay for now with the simpler phrases :)

The team is great, and I feel a close bond with many of the members. I know there will be struggles and frustrations, but I look forward to wading through that with them, and hopefully come out the other side with a better understanding of the local people and the culture.

I will email again in a couple weeks, but until then, you can check the team blog, which I posted a couple blogs ago...

Thank you all for the support, and I look forward to posting more after I get inundated with new experiences!

Love from Cairo,

Brendan