.Sarajevo.

Bosnia is such a beautiful country. It was wonderful experiancing the season of fall and watching yellow, red, and brown leaves raining down on quiet lanes full of bikers, joggers, people walking their pets, couples kissing (eh da?!haram!), and elderly folks out for a stroll. I ate some of the best food and got to see the religon of islam from a totally different perspective. It was great being in Europe and blending in with people around me.


It would have been perfect if there wasn't this constant reminder of the war. There were buildings full of bullet holes and ruins of apartment buildings, and economy is relatively poor compared to the rest of Europe. It's amazing to see how people have recovered from the war especially with the help of MCC and it's partners there : )


There are lights that tell people when to cross the street?! what?! there are laws that people obey when driving? no way! that's insane.


It was also great to see all the MCC CRs again! We played dutch blitz and spent many hours around dinner tables chatting. It was great to reconnect with the group and i can't wait to see them in the spring! It was sad to see that Eldon and Jane's family and Alain and Sonya and family weren't there either...it was a different group this year.


Over all i had a great time in Sarajevo!

MCC Egypt retreat

- *sigh* a much needed escape from the big city.










- flying about Meidoooom Pyramid






- one of the most entertaining talent shows thanks to our very talented group!




-- much more to say and not enough time to write it all down. I'll just sum it all up by saying that this year's retreat was great although very boring at times without the Smith family around. --

School Kit Distribution!

Well my 16th birthday has come and gone as well as the first day of my junior year. Life is setting in to a pretty regular routine again. Sometimes i break the monotony of going to school then coming home to face an endless pile of homework by going out to Maadi, eating sushi at City Stars with friends, organizing plays at church (due to the memorable skit Kaily and I put on at the end-of-year youth party last June), or missing my first two classes to hand out the school kits we put together in August.



On Monday my parents and I went to participate in the student's first day of school back at St. Andrews, by handing out school kits. It was wonderful seeing all my old students again and reconnecting with that community and making sure that the ones i havn't seen since July know that i'm still alive and in Cairo! It was great handing out the school supplies to the children. They were so happy to pull out all the goodies from the bag and it meant so much more since we all knew each other.

crayola bombs

"Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air, explode softly, and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth, boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap either. No little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get that little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination."

school kits

"In ev'ry job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and *snap!* the job's a game! And ev'ry task you undertake becomes a piece of cake!"

We made 1500 school kits. Some of which were also school/hygiene kits. They will be distributed to a girls orphanage downtown, sudenese refugee kids, and to whoever else needs them here in Egypt! We got them done in two nights thanks to the people who showed up and helped put them together! We all had fun and hope that the kids appreciate their bag filled with new school supplies and maybe even a towel wrapped around a new toothbrush and soap...things that they can't really afford to buy regularly.



picture: Heidi, our nigerian friend Debu, and I looking like we're hard at work!