keeping busy (relaxing in desert oases)

There is probably a very, very empirical study waiting to be conducted with this blog in which one takes the relative amount of posts made during a time period and compares it to how busy I actually was. Basically, I write when nothing's going on in my life. Sorry all.

As for what has been happening, well, lots. For those of you who haven't seen, I've been doing interviews for the month of July with bishops, newspaper editors-in-chief, monks, priests, and church reformists alike. I've also been writing up a storm on this pilgrimage issue (made depressing to a certain degree by the knowledge that I will be staring at very, very similar Word documents for the next year as thesis-season rolls in), and getting ready to take the GREs/apply to grad school. Oh, and in two days I'm taking quasi-monastic vows for the weekend. Whew.

In the midst of all this though, I did get one vacation. Last weekend's long weekend in Siwa, a desert oasis (literally) located next to the Libyan border, about 12 hours from Cairo by a very lonely road. The actual oasis stretches far beyond the two trees and small pond in a desert that make up my mind's eye oasis, really more of a forest. The old town of Shali (now in the modern town of Siwa) is similar to a Taos-pueblo structure, albeit one dissolving. Traditional Siwi (best adjective ever?) homes are constructed out of very durable salt-and-mud adobe. It's only flaw is that it dissolves when it rains every century or so. Shali's become a bit of a fixer-upper, but a pretty one. The oasis is also incredibly wet. As it hot/cold springs, everywhere. For swimming, as well as growing dates, olives, and pomegranates. Did I mention I love Siwa?

However, by far the best part of this weekend was that Angelica and I went in the super off-season, the sole occupants of our beautiful hotel at the edge of town (completely without electricity, so wandering into the blue and white adobe octagonal courtyard at night lit completely by candles and lamps was as fantastic as it sounds). As a result, Siwis (seriously, bets adjective ever) were exceptionally bored by in large, including Idris (store owner) and Ibrahim (camp operator), who both took a shining to us after we met them ten minutes after our first meal. For the rest of the weekend, the two were our volunteer guides and friends, coordinating donkey rides to mesa sunsets, camp outs in the desert under the stars in a hot spring, and even letting us take a nap in the back of Idris' store on a sleepy Saturday afternoon. I doubt I've ever met any other two people for three days who I can legitimately say I will miss. I will certainly miss Ibrahim and Idris, and can only thank them for their incredible hospitality and friendliness. I hope to see them again one day.

PS – Facebook is being stubborn. Photos are slowly being added.

other updates

For those curious about that work thingy that I do sometimes, I have updated the other blog. It gives you an idea about what I do, about what my thesis will be on, and an explanation of that mysterious photo of me holding Saint Antony.

rural egypt

Yesterday instead of researching Pope Shenouda III again, we had a day of office fieldwork.  By that, I mean we headed down the Eastern Nile Road through the fluvial plain south of Cairo to get to the village of Deir al-Maymun.  

along the eastern nile road

along the eastern nile road

a method of irrigation rarely still seen, along the eastern nile road

On the way to Deir al-Maymun, we were distracted and went to Atfih, which, the last time the Report visited, had a mounting tension in the local Christian population.  

deir al-rasul, atfih, egypt

After the 1992 earthquake, the village church (by scholars dated around 800 CE, by locals dated around 200 CE) was rendered structurally unstable, but funds were not presented for the restoration (for a rural Egyptian village, conducting structural work on a building over a thousand years old is financially unfeasible).  As a result, the Christian population had built a new church without permit next door in two days to ensure that it could be put up before the authorities stopped the construction.  Since then, the government has stepped up and is renovating Deir al-Rasul (literally, the Monastery of the Messenger, but it is a church).  

deir al-rasul, under construction

Deir al-Rasul also claims its sacred history through the presence of a cave-like structure that is accessed from a small room to the left of the altar in the haikal (Coptic churches are structurally similar to those of Greek/Russian Orthodoxy, where an iconostasis separates the main body of the church from the altar, which is called a haikal in Coptic churches).  Through this room, a small vertical shaft in one wall reveals a space about eight feet long, four feet wide and high that is eight feet above this side room.  Here, Saint Paul (not the Apostle, but the 3rd Century Saint Paul) is said to have lived.

the passage to where st. paul lived

where st. paul lived

The village of Deir al-Maymun is further south, at a point where the fluvial plain narrows.  Because Egypt rarely sees rain, the Nile flood provides the sole source of water for much of its ecosystems.  As a result, the green fluvial plain along the Nile breaks away at the exact point where the rich silt and water from the floods stop, opening to the Eastern and Western Deserts on each side of the river.  Deir al-Maymun is at a particularly narrow point.  

where the fluvial plain breaks into the eastern desert

deir al-maymun, notice how brief the fluvial plain is between the nile at right and the eastern desert at left?

The village itself is also an anomaly, with around 150 families, only 4 are Muslim.  This concentration of Christians is rare in Egypt.  Despite its remoteness, the village also hosts two important Christian sites: the Church of St. Antony and the Church of St. Stifin.  

door on left: church of st. antony, door on right: church of saint stifin

church of st. antony, church of st. stifin from above

The Church of St. Antony holds the cage where St. Antony was alleged to have started his asceticism, living in a narrow cleft in the solid rock upon which the church is now built.  Next door is the Church of St. Stifin, which locals call the oldest church in the world.  This title is hotly disputed.  

inside st. stifin

The village priest has been attempting to expand these sites (along with the place where St. Antony is alleged to have woven the baskets from whose profits he survived) into a pilgrimage center, and has purchased the neighboring homes toward the Nile where he hopes to build a small retreat center and café for the anticipated visitors.  The majority of villagers work in agriculture or a nearby quarry, but both enterprises are unsurprisingly not very lucrative.

planned site of future center

site of st. antony's basket weaving

inside a village home

The Eastern Desert Road is a recent addition to Egyptian transit, less than 5 years old.  While certainly the faster travel method, it also overheated our thirty year old car in the 110 degree heat, leaving us in the desert for much longer than anticipated waiting for it to cool.  So it goes.

the eastern desert road

the eastern desert road

complete coverage

things that amuse me at work, a mcsweeney's list

I compiled a top 5 list of article headlines I have come across while reading a million entries on the Arab West Report (one day one of you will accidently click on it).  It can be found here.

buchi's camera's photos

Buchi from work has a really nice camera.  

buchi

We were playing with it at the work party.  It is incredibly fun to play with nice cameras.  Then he came to the Pyramids with me yesterday along with said camera.  Here are the resulting images.  If anyone was wondering, yes, yes I would love a really, really nice camera for a birthday/Christmas/graduation present.  Or an iPhone (I still do want it for my birthday Dad!).  The camera though, maybe graduation...  Anyhow, here are photos.

fancy camera + triangle = awesome

this is pretty much the same shot, just zoomed in.  but oh, how it zooms.

this might be my favorite picture of myself ever taken

new professional post

That's right, I updated the other blog and now I'm referring all of you to that!  Go multitasking!

Because it is the work-blog, it is kind of similar to what I posted yesterday here though, except more technical and professional.  I do not really expect you to want to read it, but if the Spirit moves someone, go for it.

10 sheikhs psychoanalyze the pope...

Tell me if you've heard this one before?

(Un-)fortunately, it's not actually a joke, but rather something crazy good that I will be looking at all summer long (i.e. my job).  No, really.

So yesterday was my first day at the Arab West Report (check it out!), and despite being rather difficult to find (i.e. although it is ten minutes from where I live, I ended up needing to take a taxi ride as Google Maps failed to deliver on the place name that my office indicated it was kind of near.  Once I made it there, I had to wander around for a while looking for something called "Kinderwonder," which took a while, then from there was supposed to go find the office.  As it turns out, it was on the second floor of an apartment building.  It would have taken a while longer but I ran into a coworker.), I love it.  Basically, my job for the summer can all be explained with something I inherited.  I inherited an almost complete data set of newspaper articles that mention Pope Shenouda III from the late 1990s through the present.  I am systematically reading these, then looking at the media portrayal therein.  What Pope Shenouda III emerges?  Well, I can't tell you that yet as it is literally my job, but one day.  One day.

The other part of my job was the part that meant I was there for 10 hours.  Yes, 10.  Why?  Because after my time technically ended, we went to a lecture sponsored by my boss by two Nobel Peace Prize nominees (Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye) at Cairo University where Obama will be speaking.  These two rather spectacular clergymen from Nigeria reconnected to their spirituality to point towards an end to the religious sectarian violence of their country and reconnecting their respective fellow believers to do the same.  Spectacular opportunity to meet them.  There is even a movie about them, which is part of what we watched.  Before they spoke that is, which was way, way more incredible.

I like my job.