Swine Break

Egypt's decision to "combat" swine flu failed after slaughtering 300,000 pigs. Now, all the schools have been shut down for two weeks while the government thinks up another idea....

What does this mean for us? Well, we got to go to Alexandria for the day while Ben took a break from the 500 pages of reading a week he has. And it means that we got to engage in new relationships with new friends. We were able to play broomball with the youth at the only ice skating rink here. I was able to go with Amy to a village in Sakara where we enjoyed wonderful food and laughter with a Egyptian family she has known for about 18 years. We barely spoke Arabic, and they barely spoke English. It was awesome.

Last year over 7,000 people died in traffic accidents in Egypt. So pretty much we are about 10 times more likely to get hit by a car than die from swine flu. See below....

*Cindy and Dale, don't watch. :)

Alex trip:

Train station in Alex. Melissa and Justin, show Jackson!!!!

This is one of the biggest libraries in the world, and one of the main sites people see in Alex.

I thought the "end poverty" sign was interesting in the million dollar library, that also charges you a fee to enter.

Tara, me and Brenna. My new friends I mentioned above.

Enjoying God's beautiful creation.

These girls giggled at us for a few minutes because they had never seen Americans before. Then they wanted a picture, with my camera. :)

Great story: This picture was taken in front of the castle we couldn't get in to. Well we could, for 25 L.E. while Egyptians only pay 2. We asked Egyptians to buy us tickets and they did. But the guards would not let us in. Then the argument began, and lets just say they got an ear full about discrimination, not being an international team player, and that they are just trying to pocket our money because we are foreigners, after they changed the price 3 times. We got them to admit how wrong it was, and then we left when we saw their AK47s.

Beautiful Coptic Church

Our train was full trying to get back to Cairo, so we had an hour to kill. We stumbled into this Coptic Church, and everyone was laughing at us. We thought it was because we were westerners. Then we realized Ben was sitting on the women's side with us.

In that same hour, we also saw a wedding.

Outside the train station in Alex.

Sakara trip with Amy:

Sunset in the desert. One of the most humbling experiences.

My horse, Imira. I later found out this was the same horse that Amy fell off, broke a bunch of ribs and had to be hospitalized. Thank you God for keeping me safe.

Best meal i've had in Egypt.

Even better, we got to eat on the floor.

This is Ramadans youngest daughter, Sara and Caleb

Amy is the Youth and Children's pastor at MCC. It is hard for me to describe to you through a blog how much we love Amy. But our lives are filled with twice as much joy now. And that is Caleb with her.

Broomball with the Youth:

A great excuse to wear our Cowboys jerseys. I am a little ashamed of my "Romo" jersey, but it is all I brought here.

Broomball champions.

Broomball is similar to hockey with no puck, no skates and no stick. Just a broom, a ball and your shoes on ice.

Was I a little competitive, yes. But my team won :)

Grace,

SL