We are back from a wonderful retreat in Egypt. We spent the first few days at a professional development seminar, learning about how to evaluate local capacities for peace. We enjoyed the many discussions as we talked about how our local contexts include “connectors” and “dividers” – two ways of looking at what brings the community together and what breaks it apart. The final words were spoken by a local bishop who talked about the “craziness of peace.” He started by explaining about how peace really comes from our relationship with God, which cannot be expressed. He then proceeded to give us some examples of the craziness of peace in his meetings with American politicians. The bishop was very animated and, for lack of a less sappy word, inspirational.
After the seminar we met up with the rest of the Europe and Middle East MCC folks at the retreat centre, just outside of Cairo. It was a great facility owned by a church conference and partner of MCC.
The guest speaker was Ron Mathies whose topics were Lament and Loss, Grace and Generosity, and the last session was entitled Do Something Surprising. Here are some points that he said and we appreciated:
- Don’t gloss over lament to get to the good (Psalm 107:1-9); listen, learn and lament; carry lament for a time
- The cross shows God’s solidarity with people who are suffering; the cross shows us a suffering and transforming God; we also can show solidarity with people who are suffering by offering assistance and maybe they will see that God has not abandoned them
- Hope doesn’t take things as they stand
- “Excavate hope from ruin” (Sandra Birdsell)
- “Hearing music as the future, faith is dancing to the music” (can’t remember source)
- Act like Jesus, do something surprising (John 4:1-30); Jesus asked for help, risked crossing barriers, asked questions and engaged the Samaritan woman at the deepest level.
- Hope that isn’t rooted in specific actions will wither and die; Hope is linked to patience, rooted in faith; To be carriers of hope, our sense of urgency and compassion must be matched by a sense of humour (Jack Helson-Pallmeyer, The Politics of Compassion)
- “It is possible to have a marriage of politics and ideology with theology, but the the children are always blind” (can’t remember source)
Also during the sessions we had people talking about what resources each person had to get through the trials of the their assignment. The honesty that each of them offered to us was a significant indicator of how important these retreats are to share our pain as a community and also what a strong bond we have because of our shared faith and common beliefs. It was comforting to hear from other people who also thought that they just weren’t doing well enough at learning the local language and what a struggle it has been for them.
We made many new friends and look forward to seeing some of them at next year’s retreat and regret that some of our new friends are finishing their assignments and we may not see again.
After the retreat we spent the next 5 days in Cairo. The first few days we spent with Barrette and Sandy, whom we know from our orientation. Sandy’s parents had just arrived, so we spent the time with all them exploring the touristy and not-so-touristy areas of Cairo. The pyramids were amazing but kind of underwhelming. We had seen them in movies, tv and in books, so we had a general idea of what they were. Basically the mammoth size of the blocks and the height of the pyramids made them awe-inspiring. The sphinx was smaller than we expected, but conveniently close to the Pizza Hut bathrooms. Next we went to the Citadel, a historical military and religious complex on the top of a hill overlooking Cairo. The mosques were very amazing and we were fortunate to get a good guide who, in 30 minutes, told us all we could hope to know about Mohammed Ali mosque and how Al Saladin built the Citadel.
Nearby the Citadel was an area which could be called the “garbage pickers” area. There are at least 2 other areas like this in Cairo. People make their living by gathering garbage from downtown, sorting through it and then selling the valuable items to other people. In the midst of this is St. Simeon church, nestled under a cliff, which has many beautifully carved depictions of scenes from the Bible. We heard about the many miracles that had happened there and the difficulties that the church had because of the Muslim majority.
The rest of our time in Cairo we spent wandering around the Khan market, taking a feluca ride on the Nile and watching the Sufi dancing with Jack and Elaine, and enjoying the Egyptian food.
While wandering around the Khan you can hear many of the people trying to get you to buy something in the store: “I have what you are looking for,” “How can I take your money?” “Oh, sir, you are very lucky to have such a beautiful wife!” “Where are you from?” One strange expression Verena got was: “You walk like an Egyptian!” The guy said it very matter-of-fact and Brian was thinking this a strange thing to say. Maybe it was a compliment because Verena fit well into the local manner? How does Verena walk and how do Egyptian women walk? Verena, a little quicker on the take than Brian, thought maybe it was an allusion to the song “Walk like an Egyptian.” But even then, it still isn’t something that one could take as a compliment or a good enticement to buy something.
Our last evening in Cairo was a little rushed because we mistakenly thought we had an extra day. Oops. So we took a cab ride at 1:30 am to the airport and spent almost two hours in the very nice food court which had a Starbucks and Cinnabon. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted in Egypt (swim in the Mediterranean, see the Coptic section of Cairo, …) but hopefully we can do some of that at next year’s retreat, which will probably also be in Egypt.
