Hi this is Jesse Ayala Jr., writing from Cairo. The past month and a half has been unbelievable, as I have been all over Africa and have met a number of extremely interesting individuals Since being here I have travelled to the Giza Pyramids, The Sphinx, the ancient city of Alexandria, Hurghada on the Red Sea, and finally at trip to Kenya and Tanzania which included Nairobi, Masai Mara Game Reserve & Serengeti National Reserve and Lake Nakuru. Before I get into the details of my travels, I would like to tell you what I am doing in Cairo.
Zamalek
In Cairo, I live on the island of Zamalek, which is on the Nile River and considered the "Manhattan of Cairo." Each morning I wake up to the sounds of the city echoing off the buildings and the sunlight reflecting off the Nile River 12 stories below my feet. The flat is truly remarkable for Cairo standards and I love it. I share my apartment with 3 roommates (2 girls and 1 boy) and we live about a block away from the dorms where a lot of the students live.
AUC
While here,I am a student at the American University in Cairo, one of the most premier institutions in the region and the leading English language school in all of Africa and the Middle East. Formerly, the school was centered in downtown Cairo, but this semester marked a new beginning for the University as it moved an hour outside of the city to the developing area of New Cairo. Currently the university is in shambles as construction is way behind schedule, but I love it.
At school, I am taking extremely interesting courses, which are:
Introduction to Development
Third World Literature
Intensive Elementary Modern Standard Arabic
Zionism and Modern Judaism
SInce the classes are full of Arabs and US ex-pats, the class dynamics are very interesting (especially the Zionism course). The courses are set up a little like high school (with attendance taken daily) but I like subjectmatter. One thing that differs greatly from my coursework at the University of Wisconsin is the lack of lecture based classes. In my Zionism and Development courses, it is basically a discussion run by the class which the Professor facilitates. I am adapting to this style, but I don't particularly enjoy find it that affective in conveying ideas, since most of the students speak to get points, not to actually contribute to the discussion.
For the Intro to Development course, the first half is theory and the second half of the course is an internship with an NGO in Cairo. My internship is at what seems to be a consulting NGO called Nahdet el-Mahrousa, which I will start in early-October.
NGO Work
Outside of the confines of the AUC campus, I am volunteering as a English teacher for two programs. The first program is an NGO started at AUC called A Better World, which focuses on providing English language training and professional development for students at the public universities in Cairo. Since public university is free, the institutions are way above capacity which causes the education system to provide sub-par preparation and skill sets to the students. The situation is bleak, and must be addressed in order to reform the current political and social structure in Egypt. For this program I co-teach with a girl from Northwestern to a class of 30 students from all from the major Egyptian Universities.
The other program that I am volunteering at is STAR (Students Taking Action for Refugees). This program is targeted at teaching English refugees from all over the world seeking asylum in Cairo. The program helps mostly Palestinian, Sudanese and Iraqi refugees, although there are people in the program from all over the world. This program begins in late october and meets once a week.
Travels
As I mentioned earlier I have been traveling all over Africa and have loved every minute. The most amazing adventure I have done thus far was my trip to Kenya and Tanzania.
To mark the end of Ramadan, I went to Kenya and Tanzania on a 5 day Safari with 4 friends. We travelled all over the the region hitting up Masai Mara (the northern part of the Serengeti in Western Kenya), illegally passing over the border into Tanzania to the Serengeti and then up north to Lake Nakuru, While in the wildlife preserves, we observed the most amazing animals in their homes. We saw a giraffe fight, a lion chase its dinner, hippos relaxing in the water, zebras playing with one another, rhinos marking their territory, hyenas chasing flamingos, and a stampede of wildebeest crossing a river into the Serengeti. The sights were amazing, and the pictures can only hint at the real beauty.
After our stay in the wild, we also spent an evening with one of my favorite people in the world Alana Keusch in Nairobi. Although our stay was brief, we saw as much of the city as we could and the crazy night life in the city.
How to Contact me
As you can see, I am very busy trying to make the most of my time in Cairo. As such, I apologize if I have yet to respond to personal emails or facebook messages from many of you. (Currently my inbox is at 730 messages!) I will do my best to do that in the coming weeks.
If you are interested in talking or video chatting with me, please do. I am usually on Skype in the evenings after 6pm (meaning around 11am in Madison) My skype name is: Jesse.ayala.jr in the Madison, Wisconsin Network.
I am planning on starting a blog in a few days and uploading my photos to a public site. I will keep you posted on the developments as they rise.
If you are interested in visiting, you are more than welcome to stay at my island paradise anytime you would like. One big perk is that stuff is relatively cheap here (much cheaper than europe) and that includes travel. To get to the Sphinx and pyramids from my flat is a mere 20 minute cab ride (which costs around $5 USD).
I hope that everyone is doing great in the great America or wherever you are stationed! I love you and miss you all greatly- Ma Salaama!
Cheers,
jesse
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Jesse Ayala
Project 40/40: Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative
Alumni Advisory Board Member
2010 University of Wisconsin Chancellor's Scholar
General Member : AIESEC-Madison, Wisconsin, USA
jesse.ayala.jr@gmail.com
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