I love you Mom!

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 =)

Our bus from Cairo to Nuweiba took about, well I don’t remember how long it took, but we left sometime Wednesday night and got to the beach in Nuweiba just before sunrise Thursday morning, just in time to watch the sunrise over the Saudi Arabian mountains. I read and spent some much needed time centering myself with God while laying back on a hammock.

We ate an amazing breakfast (I ate two =) and then a nap was enjoyed by all… except me, I couldn’t sleep so I read part of “Life from the Battlefield: the autobiogrpahy of Peter Arnett”, which I’ve been working my way through most of this semester. Reading about his travels and reporting (and photographing) of places like Vietnam has all but completley entranced me (which is probably why I haven’t given up reading this massive book). I imagine only a reporter could so accuratley account so many details of his life, it makes for interesting and informative reading.

Eventually I fell asleep in the sun, by mid-afternoon (which felt like an entirely new day than the one we started) I was a nice shade of red, just before burnt, but balmily tan (I know that isn’t a real word but thinking back on the feeling it’s how I want to describe it =). We took off in the back of a pickup truck to Nuwieba port authority docks for our ferry ride to Aqaba. I took a picture on the boat of myself: tired and burnt…

Over the course of the trip I would learn that very few things could be expected in the Middle East. My first such experiance was aboard the “fast boat” to Aqaba. Seated in a plush seat, being waited on, served a cheeseburger, and enjoying a comfortable atmosphere, the ferry was pleasant and surreal, watching the other occupants dressed in middle-eastern clothing enjoying the pleasantries of the boat starkly contrasted the normally dirty, dusty, “unrefined” scenery of Egypt I had been used to. I knew it was a stereotype and so it was a gentle reminder to me that things were definitley not always how I percieve them. Jordan would confirm this and man if I had a “jay-dee” for every time someone in our group said “Jordan is soooo much nicer than Egypt” I would be very rich (1.4 USD = 1 JD Jordian Dinar).

We arrived in Aqaba and found that 1) things were much more expensive (as we expected) 2) there were no rooms at the 3 hostels we had pre-planned to stay at. So we slept on the roof of one of them for 2 jd a person. It was gorgeous! The cool breeze from the Aqaba Channel made the night so relaxing.

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!

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!

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…

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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!