My Experience - Amy Snook

Coming to Cairo, I had no idea what to expect. Generally when I'm anticipating something, I envision it in my mind until the moment comes when I get to experience it. I could not do this for my trip to Cairo- I didn't know what to even begin to envision. The only real image of Cairo that I had was one of deserts and pyramids, which is a large contrast to the reality of Cairo. Upon arriving here, I immediately noticed the air quality (poor) and the traffic (insane). I thought to myself, 'this is like L.A., only worse!' Tons of people, bad traffic, and smog is a definition that could fit either Cairo or Los Angeles, but after being here for a while longer, I have realized that there is just no comparison. Admittedly, the food took some getting used to, and I'm still extremely cautious about eating fruit or vegetables or anything that could have been touched by the tap water. I ventured out and tried Koshiri, a traditional Egyptian dish, and suprisingly really enjoyed it. I've also tried fatir and Egyptian pizza- the kind where they put eggs on it- and have developed a liking for both. The first few days here were overwhelming because they were packed with so many things to do, and so many orientations, but once we started to settle into a routine, I started enjoying it. On my first day at St. Andrews, I spent my lunch break observing the kids that were playing on the playground. I watched these refugees, mainly from Sudan, playing in their Catholic school uniforms and started to feel inspired. It looked like a normal playground in any normal school- lots of kids bounding around and screaming and playing games with each other. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, maybe I figured that refugees would be more depressed or subdued than your average child, but if anything it's the opposite. The kids at St. Andrews seem to have endless energy, and they always appear to be so happy. It's inspiring to watch the children who I assume have relatively little compared to us at Duke, and to see how enthusiastic they are. On the second or third day at St. Andrews, one of the little girls befriended me. Her name is Omnaya (I'm not exactly sure how to spell it) and she is one of the cutest, sweetest girls that I've met there. She comes to find me everyday and gives me a big hug and walks around with me, holding my hand. I've become really fond of her, and I really look forward to seeing her at work everyday. Another thing that I've noticed is that the kids at St. Andrews are extremely photogenic. I love taking photos of them because they have this richness that appears in photographs, and their eyes have such expression in them. I hope to take a lot more pictures while I'm here, and hopefully capture some really good moments. I really enjoy working at St. Andrews thus far, and I enjoy working with refugees so much that I'm volunteering at the adult after school tutoring program, and also to teach dance to some of the kids at the school. I have not started working at Awtad yet, but when I get there I hope to research various ways to empower women refugees. Well, that's it for now- it's time for class.