Expect the Unexpected...

So sometimes things take you by suprise and really make you think... I'm not talking about the big things, but those small ones that come out of no where. You learn to appreciate them for what it's worth. Here are two things (one good/ one bad) that were said to me this week:

- I received a phone call the other day from one of my students. He had to leave the class because he works at a resort in Sinai during the summer. He called me because he wanted to talk about the book I gave them in class to read. It's called "The Cage" and it's about a teenage girl named Riva who is sent to a concentration camp. When he called me, he had so much emotion regarding the events in the book. He wanted to know why Hitler would do such a thing to innocent people. He wanted to know why people do such things in the world. I wish I had an answer to those questions. He asked me why I chose such a sad book. My only response- "So people would begin asking what you are asking." I want my students to see that genocide is not just something new and it's not just something "African." Also, I want to be able to make comparisons to Darfur and the Holocaust as we read documents from the United Nations about human rights. In a country where the Holocaust is not allowed to be taught, it's important to reach out and share the truth. Injustice happens all around the world and it shouldn't be ignored because it happened to a group that you hate. There is a legitimate belief here that the Holocaust never happened or that it is Jewish propoganda. It's an uphill battle, but this phone call showed me that we are making progress.

- The other conversation that I had this week didn't give me the same hope. When you get into a taxi in Cairo, you have to expect the unexpected. You never know if the driver speaks English, and if he does, what kind of conversation he is going to try to start. When I told the driver where to go, he commented that I live in Hadayek and asked me if I like it there.

My response: "I do most of the time. Do you like it?"
Taxi driver: "No. There's too many black men on the street."

This hit me hard. Those "black men" are my friends, my students, my kids' parents. They are the reason I came to Cairo. I could have responded to the comment angrily, but I let it go. If only he knew what I did everyday. I wasn't as shocked by the racism in the comment because I have witnessed that on so many occassions here, but I realized how you really have to be careful about what you say to who you say- you never know who they are, what they do, or where they come from. As small as this moment was, it was a life lesson.

As I finish up my stay here in Cairo, I want to be able to remember moments like this. I want to remember those times where I became a better person. This post is more of a personal reflection for me and I don't think I could express how they made me feel here. I hope you take something away from them as well.