Arrived.

NOTE: this email was written a few days ago but is just being posted now due to the time it took me to figure out how to switch my computer from Arabic to English. I am now good to "blog" away...

Cairo, Egypt… After a mere 48+ hours in Egypt I have already experienced so much; attending Friday Noon Mosque, eating baba, tahini, and shawarma, riding a gondola-type boat down the Nile, experiencing the famed Khan al Khalili market and smoking the “sheesha” (hookah) which appears to be a favorite pass time around here, seeing the Pyramids and the Citadel (which was built by Muhammad Ali), discovering a coffee shop with lattes and free wireless, buying a ‘he gab’ (veil) in the Giza Market, learning well over 25 words/phrases in Arabic…which I have been using regularly, and doing all these activities while getting to know my 29 other classmates whom I will be sharing this great adventure with. Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind introduction to Cairo and the Middle East. I have been thrust full throttle into a Muslim country where the customs and the culture are something one can simply not prepare for….it must lived first hand.

To be quite honest, I do not know where to begin…my head is spinning. The best I can offer is insight on the most thought provoking experience thus far; an outing to the mosque…

One of the most profound and culturally challenging experiences so far has been attending mosque. I am no where near finished processing the spiritual side of this practice as the social circumstances were certainly enough to think about for one day. Let me explain… I, as a female, had to be fully covered (only my hands and face were permitted to show), was required to sit in a small, very cramped room with over 200 other Muslim women, and had to watch the speaker (who was speaking live to a group of men) on a television screen. To be blunt, I have never in my life felt as “second class”. Granted, I was participating in these Muslim women's religion and I was not there to make a judgment but am rather a mere outsider looking in trying desperately to understand. Needless to say, try as I might, I could not help but raise an eyebrow, or two. When I had an oppertunity to befriend them, they offered rationales for their rituals. (Don’t we all offer apologies for things in our culture that just don’t seem right?) “Of course we cover our entire bodies, we do not want men to suffer from lust” or “Of course we do not attend Mosque when we are menstruating, we are too dirty and sinful”… How I bit my tongue.

But today was not a day to flesh out what Muslims consider holy and sacred, but rather a day to be fully immersed, literally head to toe, in their spiritual discipline. This mindset allowed me to participate fully, and gain immensely from their practices.

Another fascinating aspect of Islam, that I previously suspected but today confirmed to be true, was the role of submission within the context of this religion. Of course there is the aspect I previously touched upon with regards to the role of women in the religion, but it was something else, that when experienced for the first time, sent an unexpected wave of spiritual emotion through me...the physical motion accompanying prayers that set Islam apart from so many other religions. When you place your forehead on the ground in front of you, and hundreds of others around you are doing the same, the intense sensation of complete submission before God is overwhelming. I have never prayed in this position before alone let alone with hundreds of others around me. You are literally bowing before God, over and over and over. For me, the physical movement added a new, extremely powerful and submissive element to praying. Being the good sociology student I try to be, this religious “experience” did not last long and I could not help but begin to piece together everything happening around me, from the gender division to the physical acts of prayer, to the role of woman in society along with the theories and the studies suggesting why Islam is the fastest growing religion today… My goodness the revelations I began to have! I could go on but I am sure you see where I am going with this… Clearly, I still have so much more to process and I am certain it will take many conversations and first hand experiences to dig ever deeper into this extremely complex discussion I have begun. These are just some “preliminary” thoughts on my own, individual experience today. (My Islam class will be taught by a Muslim woman who is also a professor at the American University of Cairo. Her insight will be invaluable to me.)

I could go on and on about how you will never experience hummus or tahini unless you have tried it here, or I could tell you about how purely intriguing and fascinating Arabic is to study, or even about the fresh fruit markets and DELICIOUS juices I have tried…I would never want to bore you with the silly details of my days though!… For now, know that I am learning more than I imagined possible, I am stretching myself beyond what is comfortable, and thinking further outside the box than some would dare to venture. And for today, that is enough…


“Some of life’s greatest lessons cannot be pried from books- they must be experienced in your bones.” ~Kobi Yamada