ahumbledream.com

So I haven’t wrote in a while, and I’m not making any promises about future updates, but I really want anyone who reads this to know that I have the best Mom a guy could ask for. From the day I was born to the days when I’ve become somewhat stubborn, from the days when everything I did was sweet and kind to the days where I’ve been downright mean, my mother has stuck by me and loved me and fought for me, she has been on my side and I can’t even begin to thank her enough!

I love you Mom!

you feel like writing and sometimes you don’t.  I guess I’ve been in the latter category lately.

I’m not sure when the next update will be.  We shall see =)  But if you want to hear about anything in particular, give me a call!

01-708-572-0205   (leave me a voicemail if Im not around =)

a wonderful time talking with my Mom tonight and recounting some of my spring break stories and hearing about her and my sister’s trip to San Diego to visit my aunt.  Also, I slept a lot.  And I saw the president’s palace (kind of) and had a great time talking with Bradford and sharing a meal, well 2 actually if you count the half of chicken we ate beforehand.  Haha, this post has to be the most rambling one yet.  Peace and stay tuned for more stories about the Middle East and oh so many pictures!

I just bought the new Derek Webb cd online: “The Ringing Bell”.  It is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.   I cannot think of a better songwriter than Derek Webb, his lyrics are truly inspired.  I’m still working on pictures.  Currently, I’m trying to salvage the 30 or so that got corrupted when I burned them to a cd during my trip…  There were a couple that I really wanted =(

Ugh this week has seemingly lasted forever and yet it was only a 3day week of classes!  I don’t seem to be getting all that much better with my new medication, although it is making me very tired, groggy, and in general I feel like I can’t concentrate on anything.  I will be going to the local hospital this weekend to get checked out by one of their doctors (per recommendation of my Arabic teacher) as she said the quality there is much better and since I get treatment for free there, I might as well get a second opinion.

Dawn, you asked if I met any Haddads?  Only this one, but thankfully it was a brief acquaintance that lasted all of the time it took me to take this picture =)

809 more pictures coming soon…. my entire plan for this weekend: sleep and write and homework.  oh yeah and sleep =)

miss you all!

• Updated: sometimes I forget to mention one of the most obvious things: my family.  I think about them so much some times that it doesn’t strike me that I am thinking about them.  But by far they are the most important people to me, I wouldn’t be who am I today without my mom and sister, I owe them more than words (literally! =)  But seriously, I cannot wait to be home with them.  Besides the rest of my family (like my awesome sister Dawn and neice and newphew) my mom and sister probably read this more than anyone.  I love you guys!
• Arabic… and lots of it. We started Al-Kitaab 2 today, I have my mid-term tommorrow, and tons of hw
• Babyback ribs from the Patio..mmmmm
• My amazing girlfriend (no, this is not in order of importance… believe me, Samantha is much more important than those tangy, tender, succulent ribs… )
• The decidely amatuer performance of the doctors at the AUC Clinic: I’ve seem to come down with bronchitis =(
• How many hundreds of pictures I have to edit from my spring break in the middle east…
• How lazy I’ve become (in a fun silly way, but also in a serious I-need-to-step-it-up-way, as well.)
• Lyrics by Derek Webb:
  • there are days i don’t believe the words i say
    like a life that i’m not living
    a song that i’m not singing but to youthere are times that i believe i’m satisfied
    like an intimate connection
    despite this bad reception with youbecause i can’t afford to pay
    for most of what i say
    so it’s a lucky thing
    that the truth’s public domain

and i am like a mockingbird
i’ve got no new song to sing
and i am like an amplifier
i just tell you what i’ve heard
oh, i’m like a mockingbird

• How easy it is to slip into vulgarity and unwholesome speech… The Lord says “3But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. Eph 5:3-5 NASB” Please pray for me about this. I have no doubt that now that I’ve acknowledged it I will be better about it, but that only fixes a symptom of me, and doesn’t really reach the true condition of my heart which allows me to exhibit such behavior in the first place. Praise be to our God that He can so totally heal and sanctify!
• My new friends!
• The hurt and hardship that so many people throughout the Middle East are undergoing.
• My seeming lack of ability to do anything about it (these are words I normally despise people saying)
• Updating my blog (and finally catching up on the stories I promised to tell!) I think I will work on getting my lastest travels through Jordan, Lebanon and Israel into words first though. If you are reading this, keep on me to write… please =)
• My best friend Byron and how much I miss him.
• how despite having a church here which supports me and kind people who are faithful which I can talk with, there is nothing like my home church, my pastor, my guys, and all the people there… however broken and struggling but faithful in Christ we all are together…
• how I want to love Christ with everything I have again…
• cameras and how/if they will play a part in my life
• the decidedly unknown future to all but God
• joy, joy, joy. and how despite how pressed on every side I can feel sometimes, that somehow joy remains and while of course He remains absolute I somehow still almost always get to remember that and witness it and be warmed in His radiant glory. thats what I’m thinking now and I hope always!

So for the first 5 weekends I was here, I traveled someplace new. The past 2 weekends I have more or less stayed in Cairo. To the left is a map of the places I’ve been. First, was Alexandria, then Dahab, then Hurgada, Bahariyya, and finally Siwa. Click on the map to see it sketched out:

Alexandria was the school sponsored orientation trip. Thus, all 200 of us new students (for this semester) hopped on 5 busses and drove the 3 hours up to “Alex”. Everything was super fancy and it is clear where at least a portion of my tuition is go towards:

We saw the major tourist sites in Alex: the rebuilt Library of Alexandria, the spot where the Lighthouse of Alexandria would have been standing (it’s underwater now), an ancient Roman amphitheatre, some Roman catacombs, and the old king’s Palace (which was the building adjacent to the 5 star hotel we stayed in.)

This is a picture of the fort that was built in place of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. You see, the lighthouse was built around the 3rd century B.C. and was at the time (and for many centuries) the tallest man-made building at about 400ft! It stood at the mouth of the habor of Alexandria and wasn’t used as a lighthouse until about the 1st century A.D (it was called the Pharos [after the name of the island it was built on] and served as a navigational landmark prior). It was said that the mirrors on the top of the lighthouse were so strong that they could reflect enough light to burn holes in the sails of incoming ships if so desired. While this was probably a little bit of an exaggeration, it was able to see ships “2 days out”; that is, from the top of the lighthouse they could spot an enemy ship 2 days before it would get to Alexandria if it traveled at maximum speed, and was a clear advantage in the many skirmishes fought in the area. It was built in the perfect place for a lighthouse due to the many visible approaches it covered. When it eventually fell down because of an earthquake sometime in the 1100s the fort was built and it was deemed a highly idiotic choice to build a fortress instead of another lighthouse.  None the less the fort is still there and it was fun to climb.  The view from the walls looking out to the sea was so peaceful…

…to try and recap everything all in one post.  So I am going to put down in words specific memories in seperate posts and if you can put them together in a cohert timeline (then bravo!) otherwise feel free to ask questions or leave comments and what not.  Also, you may always call me! (I totally forgot to mention this to a lot of people);  I have a local USA phone number that can reach me anywhere in the world on my computer, and if I’m not around leave me a voicemail:

• 1-708-572-0502

My time feels like it is slipping by here.  I am living up so many different things.  I need to apologize to everyone for not staying in touch as often as I’d like.  Hopefully that will get better, but my time is running out here in Egypt!

an update!  I promise =)

Haha, I know that’s the question that a lot of you might be asking latley. Yes, I’ve been busy and to be honest I haven’t really felt like writing much. But I’m through with that little part of my stay here in Egypt and I’m back to being opinionated and ready to tell everyone everything I think…

So in preparation to traveling to Egypt a lot of information was thrown at me. How to live, how to speak the language, what the currency is, stuff like that. Also shown to me at least a few times was the “normal” stages of cultural immersion one goes through. It goes something like this: The Honeymoon Stage, the Hostility Stage, the Humor Stage, and the Home Stage. Briefly, they sound much like they are: in the “Honeymoon Stage” everything is wonderful and nothing seems to be upsetting; the “Hostility Stage” where everything is not so wonderful and everything seems to be upsetting; the “Humor Stage” where the minor things that were upsetting in the previous “Hostility Stage” are now easily laughed off and the larger issues managable; and finally the “Home Stage” where one succesfully feels at home in their current culture as well as their native culture. Well leave it to me to break the mold because I definitley did not follow this little pattern (thus far.)

Most likley I went through the “Honeymoon Stage” pretty quickily, I’m an idealist but not so much that the realities of the world don’t seem that far removed from everyday living. I’ll call my first few days here a “Realistic Honeymoon” =) And yeah, it was only a few days that this stage lasted in my opinion. Because in many ways this led if not straight, than almost straight to the “Home Stage”. For a good portion of the last month and a half I have felt relativley at home, having difficulties communicating sometimes but in my opinion handling them as any well-adjusted foriegner might. And then last week came. This is the part that some of you might understand and some may not; it doesn’t make you a better or worse person if you can or cannot relate, I’m just noting that this is probably going to seem different to some of you. On Monday I pretty much entered into the: “so-confused-that-it-doesn’t-really-matter-where-I-live -I’ll-be-frustrated-anyway-stage-but-living-in-Egypt-makes-it-worse” stage. And for me that really only means a couple of things could have happened. This time it was a question of faith. My attitudes and beliefs were challenged to the core and it was painful. At one of the churches I’ve been attending I had some serious questions raised in my walk of faith. Thankfully, its all stuff that at the end of the day I can fall asleep knowing where I stand with my Lord, but still the question of how I live my life daily became a crucial one: was I living with the Holy Spirit baptized into me? The pastor here, as well as most of the congregation, (there’s only about 12 of us =) seemingly believe that while I am saved and know our Lord personally, that does not mean I have been “baptized in the Holy Spirit” as evidenced by my lacking in the ability to speak in tongues. This was something that when I was first approached with upon attending one of the church’s bible studies didn’t shock me all that much to hear. You see, I had heard about this belief through my best friend Brian (although it wasn’t exactly the same). He had been having a similiar disscussion with one of his friends and we had studied and talked about it, although looking back, I definatley had only made a cursory exploration of matter. I need to apologize to Brian about that, although I didn’t even realize it at the time. And here’s why: I think I have allowed myself to become comfortable in my faith. You may read that and say, what’s wrong with that? Isn’t comfort good? Sure, to an extent, but what I mean when I say I’ve become comfortable is that I’ve become complacent. I’ve said, “Okay God, I know I am yours, I know why I am living, I know what you want me to do”. But I made a big jump in that last part, that “I know what He wants me to do” is only a half-truth. I know God wants me to serve Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbors as myself, but does He also want other specific things of me? This was the part I had chopped off in my thinking, that the greatest commandment and its compliment were enough, period. And here’s why I think I thought this way: it is “enough”. But our gracious God wants more for us, Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10b)”

So what else is there? There is the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now I don’t claim to have any sort of grasp on just how much or to who or what God wants to give the gifts of the Holy Spirit to other than whatever He gives is out of grace and is more than we deserve. My brothers and sisters at the church I’m going to, believe that God wants everyone to have the gift of tongues (which is difficult to pin down just exactly what the means). I am not certain to how far of an extent this is true. However I am now certain (and wish I would have always been) that God wants us to partake in the gifts of the Spirit more than I had given Him credit for. And that I need to re-evaluate how I am looking at the good things God can give. I’ve definitley been living in a “post-modern Christianity”: that the Spirit is more or less dead in phyiscal manifestation. Certainly I gave God the credit that the Holy Spirit has reign over my mind and can intercede in the words that come of out my mouth and the actions I perform, but not much more. Scripture like “the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10)” I somehow managed to make not apply to me, rather only to “other people “, the people of “Biblical Times” or people that I would never meet but maybe they exist somewhere out there in the world. But how narrow of a viewpoint is that! I think its for this very reason that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. (1 Cor 12:1)”!

So what does this all mean? I’m not entirely sure. But I do know this. It’s time I stop being ashamed of the Word of God. I quote Paul enough to know that what was written through him needs to be measured and analyzed and not taken at first glance without any inspection, prayer, or checking of alignment against what the rest of the Bible says, but why shouldn’t I ask God for more? I’m pretty sure I haven’t taken all He has to offer, so it only naturally makes sense that I start asking for the things I know He can give me for “the common good (1 Cor 12:7)”. The caveat here is this: it cannot seem crazy or impossible that God could give me one or more of these gifts to various degrees. As soon as I shut the door and say that only the “wierd” Christians speak in tongues or only the “gifted” Christians can lay hands and heal or speak with the “word of wisdom through the Spirit” I have put God in a box, saying “Not me Lord, nuh uh.” Today I am writing because I know God has already worked many “miracles” in my life, miracles of the “spritiual kind” (redemption, freedom from sin, salvation, etc.) Today I am writing because I know God can work miracles of the “miraculous kind” in me and in you.

———

Another thought that is related but not completley: has it ever occurred to anyone else reading this that the Holy Spirit does not come upon those in the Bible the moment they repent and turn towards Christ, nor when they are baptized in water? Check in the Bible, according to Drawing Near by John Bevere (which the Pastor here gave me a copy of the 11th chapter, I want to read the whole thing now to get a bigger picture) anyway, according to this: There are 5 accounts of people recieving the Holy Spirit in the NT and in all except one it was seperate from recieving Jesus Christ as Lord; as well in each of those cases bystanders could “see and hear” some phyiscal or outward manifestation of the people recieving the infiling of the Holy Spirit. While this is probably not as conclusive as Bevere seems to make it out to be, it sure does bring me pause on the matter! I believe the Holy Spirit lives within me, but when did He enter? Did anyone else notice it? I’m not sure there is a definite answer of when or a definite yes or no, but there is in the Bible (at least 80% of the time). Is this problematic? How does one reconcile this in one’s life?

Please respond! =)

So, I realize that as I am writing this, most of you will already know firsthand what I am talking about. But for me, the pictures I recieved in an email from my sister really seem like a foriegn world to me.

Her name is Snow and she is an Alaskan Eskimo that I bought for my sis as a Masters Degree graduation present. This is her first winter with us and she is just under 2 years old. I cannot wait to be home and play with Snow in the snow…It will be nice to hang out with my sis and mom too =)

ps: didn’t my mom take some awesome pictures?!

It’s difficult to watch a movie so powerful, full of critically important themes, and well-produced and not be able to recommend it. Right away, listen to me when I am advising you not to see this movie.

So I watched Blood Diamond with a couple of my friends at the Ramses Hilton Shopping Mall here in Cairo. The mall is 8 or 9 floors high and the top floor consists of a billard hall, a McDonalds, and the theater with maybe 5 or 6 screens. Besides Blood Diamond, there was one other “western” film playing and a couple ones I didn’t recognize. Anyways, the movie played in English with Arabic subtitles and the theater experiance itself was quite nice with comfortable chairs and a medicore-sized screen that produced a surprisingly clear and bright image. The sound was also top-notch, and its clear that the theater tunes its sound to the individual preference of high dynamics more than the “average” preference that seems to be the case in the US. In other words, there were times when it got really loud and moments when the sounds of people screaming amidst gunfire were hauntingly realistic.

The movie features Leonardo DiCapprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou. For the negative reviews DiCapprio got about his performance (specifically his accent in the film) I found him to be mostly convincing and his accent certainly didn’t detract from the film as a whole. I appreciated the directors ability to make me dislike the protagonist while wanting him to overcome the odds and survive; normally I don’t like this. But in this movie, it worked well for one reason and it’s summed up in one of the movies motif phrases: TIA, This Is Africa. That is to say, the movie plays DiCapprio’s character not as someone out to help the world (that’s Connelly’s role) but as someone out to get what they want…and ultimately deserve. Something that I assume the movie was trying to say about Africa and the people who live there, not necessarily the people who are African.

Anyways, that’s all just filler. Because the important part in my mind is the representation of the evil of the world and the igornance of the masses. The story hinges upon the diamond industry and the methods of exploitation and abuse used to support it. The plot, I believe, accuratley connects much of Africa’s child-army with the diamond industry. If you had to re-read that last sentence then you may be like me. Somewhere in the back of my mind of I knew of people who stole children literally from their mothers arms, enslaved them, brainwashed them, and turned them against their own people in order to perpetuate the motives of the few warlords in attempt for control and ultimatley money. But watching it happen on screen was something I wasn’t necessarily prepared for…I’m not sure who would be. There is one particularly moving scene where a father travels hundreds of miles to rescue his son who was kidnapped, and what he finds is his 10year old-or-so son ready to kill him. While the situation was decidedly Hollywood-ized (this happens right after DiCapprio’s character calls in a helicopter air strike….which does actually happen in Africa, where there are some in control of vast military resources) the point was clear and vivid: wanting to kill your father shows there is a big problem there.

There are so many aspects and important messages in this movie, I won’t try to explain them. But what I will say is this: while I was deeply affected (both good and bad) by the movies at first almost careless images of mutilation and war, but clearly realisitic depictions, and as it continued I began to realize that this was the reality thousands of people faced daily, even today, it is my belief that I don’t, nor you, need to be exposed to sensationalization in order to be roused to a cause.

So I applaud the makers of Blood Diamond for making the movie they did. I am sure many people will benefit from the glimpse into a world they never had a clue about. But it’s unfortunate that it takes a movie to do this, and I want to challenge you, my friends, family, and collegues to find alternative means to approaching these issues and situations, without having to expose yourself to excessive amounts of violence. To those that might argue that we need to see the violence in order to understand, I pose the question (which I would love to discuss, so email me!) of this: Do you need to watch someone being raped in order to understand? someone being decapitated in order for you to grimace? someone taking their life in order to be confused? Can our hearts not break just knowing that this is occuring without having to physically observe it?

To give you a head start, here’s some things which I found in some internet searching. I cannot vouch for their content but am offering them as starting points to explore some of the suffering and injustice occuring in this world of ours… Please send me links or reviews of other resources about this issue.  I will post reviews as I watch/read them and update this list as seems fitting:

• Conflict Diamonds: Amnesty International
• Blood Diamond Curriculum Guide (designed to be used in conjuction with the movie, but I think it is useful without the movie as well, especially the case studies near the bottom)
• StopBloodDiamonds.org
• Interesting article, I don’t necessarily agree with all the arguements presented, but worth reading.
• And finally, a good explanation of the movie, although it does contain a few extra commentaries

Wishing you joy in your pursuit of truth and peace for the world,

john

So last Monday (Feb 5th) was my 22nd birthday. Sorry Ms. J for not getting back to you sooner on that =)

It was also my first day of class, the day the Bears lost the Superbowl (at least in my time zone it was) and the day that my life got infinitley more busy…

Monday and Wednesday I have Arabic class for 3 hours straight; Tuesday and Thursday I have it for 2 hours straight. Multiply that by 2 hours of hw for every hour in class (yeah right) and you will see that this one class alone takes up the majority of my waking hours. (In all actuality, I’ve honestly been spending between 2.5-4 hours a day on Arabic homework).

So here is my new schedule:

• Monday: Arabic 3pm-6pm
• Tuesday:Theatre 9:30am-11am; Foundations of Color and Design 12pm-3pm; Arabic 3pm-5pm
• Wednesday: Arabic 3pm-6pm
• Thursday: Theatre 9:30am-11am; Arabic 3pm-5pm

Which, yes, means I that have a 3 day weekend, every weekend. (Most other students have class on Sundays). Another note: my schedule was originally more demanding, but I dropped my Political Science class because the professor was ridicously dry.

But I’m managing, in part because my other classes are so laid back, in part because I’ve been pretty good about managing my time, in part because I have grace and thus no reason to worry. Oh, and in part because I have such an awesome family, and such good friends. Check out the messages my friends left me on facebook for my birthday by clicking the image to the right.

For my 22nd birthday my friends and I splurged (!) and went out to eat at this Korean Barbque restaurant.  Each of our bills were about $10USD (!).  The food was really good even though the service was only so-so.  We had a fun time and I ordered the “Korean Barbque” item, which included me getting to cook my own meat on a grill inside our table.  It was an interesting experiance, but I can tell you that the food was wonderful.

I miss you Samantha. Here’s to 1 year and 7.5 days =) Until I see your soft eyes and hear your comforting voice and hold you in my arms and know there is no place I’d rather be…

So I’ve been busy.   The next series of posts will be catching up the past 8 days or so.  Sorry for the lack of updates =)   Miss you all back at home!

John

Today’s my first day of classes!  Its 8:41am right now, and I have class at 9:30am.  So I will catch the 9am bus into downtown.   I start off today with THTR 203 - The Art of the Theatre.  Sounds exciting!

I know I have so many comments to respond to, but I don’t have the time at the moment, so let me just say I’m reading them all and loving them!  You guys (my family, my friends) are awesome, thanks so much, the comments make me feel so loved and special.

I will post more soon.  You will get my critique of the movie I saw yesterday night, later.  (Aha, now you will certain visit the site again soon!)  Just kidding.

Much love,

pray for me!

John

So much time =)   I am thankful because today can be somewhat laid back.  I have a lot of chores and errands to run, but I have all of today and tommorrow to do them.  So that should be good.   Some of the things I need to get done:

• Get laundry detergent
• Do laundry
• Get gym id card
• Use gym

I’m sure there are many more things as well, but that’s what I remember right now.

Here’s a picture from the hotel in Alexandria (oh there’s another bullet point, finish creating my photo website!):

Back from Alexandria. Pictures and stories to follow soon. =)

The Group Picture taken at the Roman Amphitheatre is here:

http://www.ahumbledream.com/grouppicture/ 

I had to be up today early. Egypt is a night country. As in like dinner at 10pm. Not as in waking up at 7am to go to orientation. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that bad, and there were at least 4 really good presenations. (When I come home, ask me sometime why we use inches and feet instead of the metric system! =)

I came back from the orientations today around 4pm and took my first nap while in Egypt. It was sorely needed. After I woke up, I spoke with my charming girlfriend and headed out to find somewhere to cash a travelers cheque. It turns out the Marriot Hotel will cash it, but I need my passport and the reciept of purchase. So we will see if I can find that. Otherwise, I will have to find somewhere else.

I ate at probably the most-expensive-non-fancy-restaurant place in town tonight on the walk home. It is called Thomas and I guess it’s been around in Egypt since 1922. Anyways, the service was wonderful and the food even better. I got a pizza with double mozzarella, pork (!), onions, and oreganno. Wow, it was huge, and it was amazing. But it cost 32LE! That’s like $5.60USD, outrageously expensive. Oh well, I will only eat there as a treat.

Alright, tommorrow we leave for Alexandria for 3 days. It should be a wonderful trip. I leave you with this picture from the first day I was here. I’m smoking “shisha”. It is a tobacco-like water pipe. The claim is that it is not nearly as harmful as cigarettes and contains very little nicotine. Who knows? Anyways, it was a great way to meet new people and practice my Arabic. (It’s practically a national pasttime here =) I doubt I’ll be doing it again any time soon though, my throat hurt afterwards =) (It only cost like $0.50USD though!)

I made a “virtual tour” of a day in Cairo (sort of, since really, no two days are ever the same). It was hurridly (and candidly! ) shot today.

Click on the button on the top called “A Day In The Life”

peace and Love

john

ps: here’s my new mailing address. Egypt is lonely (ha, there’s like 15 million people in Cairo) so please send me mail =)

John Ciciora, Jr
The American University in Cairo
Zamalek Residence
16 Mohamed Thakeb Street Zamalek
By Mara’shly Church
Cairo
Egypt