On the front page

Our group is featured on today's front page of the Herald Journal http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2009/01/05/news/news01-01-05-09.txt

Down 4

We have lost Ben, Bonnie, James, and Rosey. They are headed home and are likely somewhere over the Atlantic as I type. We miss them already and wish them luck!

Currently we are hard at work in the basement of USAID. Sunday is the first day of the work week and we have a deliverable of the final report to finish. We are currently alone in the building with the exception of the guards. Today is a holiday for the Egyptians. It is the day when most of them will sacrifice an animal in deference to Abraham sacrificing a ram after proving he was willing to sacrifice his son. (Or so I'm told.) This explanation came from our tour guide and I know she over generalized a few things.

We are in good spirits and feel we have done a good job. Our lunch was pizza from Pizza Hut. (We were not feeling adventurous.) We hope to hire a sail boat this evening and get out on the Nile for an hour or so. It seems like a great time to take some pictures but the Nile is not the cleanest of rivers. I hope it goes well.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment...

We had the opportunity to see a burning plane right before takeoff. I thought it was a good sign.

This has been our home for the last week and a half.
3 of us in front of the Great Pyramid

Buying tickets to go inside. Sadly there are no cameras allowed inside

Waving to the children. School is compulsory here and most of the children learn a foreign language with English being very popular. Many want to practice it as much as possible. Several approached me and asked me my name and "how many" I was. :)

All the children in this photo are yelling "hello". They were very cute.

The nile at sunset

The team in the mumification chamber

Local camel conference

From a distance

The light show at night.

Cruising speed

Today we have reached cruising speed at USAID. I believe we are making excellent progress toward our goal and have been able to get past all the inevitable communication problems of work in another country. Now we simply need to follow through on our commitments.

Both courses are doing well. Some of the presenters are brand new but they are quickly gaining confidence. I have no doubt these courses will be valuable to USAID and they will use it again in the near future.

What amazes me is that the courses are done in English. We have people here from Hungry, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Guinea, India, El Salvador, and so on. Only the South Africans are learning in their native language and none of the presenters are native English speakers. Yet they are able to come together and learn. It has been interesting to hear their stories and try to understand how daily life is for them.

It has been an excellent and unique experience.

A sense of history

After working hard all week we spent today touring some of Cairo. We went through the Cairo Museum of Egypt, had lunch at an Egyptian fast food restaurant (Falafel sandwich to go), explored the inside of the great Pyramid, rode a camel around the back side of the Pyramid, walked around the Sphinx and shivered through the sound and light show at the Pyramids in Giza—not to mention all the little stops along the way to buy trinkets from the street urchins and to look through interesting shops.

The highlight of the day for me was climbing up inside the great Pyramid to the Kings Tomb. The climb was steep in a small space with air that was close and slightly fetid. Although ventilation was sufficient, the confined space and the physical exertion of climbing made me feel as if all the oxygen around me was quickly becoming depleted. Those who were fit and enthusiastic raced ahead, others in the group (overwhelmed by the experience physically or mentally) turned back at the beginning of the large gallery and the entrance to the passage to the Queens Tomb. After gaining my breath and my bearings I continued on the stairs to the upper chamber.

I was very glad I pressed on. The Kings Tomb was a large, empty room with an open stone sarcophagus at one end--all the treasured having been long taken by grave robbers. The interior rock was dark grey and formed smooth walls and a very high ceiling. As I sat on the floor in the quiet room I was impressed with the sense of history contained in these walls. I found myself unusally thankful for the many contibutions Egyptian culture has made to our modern world. Amid all the trinkets and commericallism of the Pyramids I truely appreciated the awesomeness of their historic accomplishments for the first time.

Real-world project

Nothing like a real-world project to give you a taste of the real world! We have been working every waking minute on this project to meet high expectations for these materials. We have learned a lot about international projects, the team, and ourselves in the process. Egypt is a marvelous place for our students to test their international mettle as instructional designers due to the Egyptians courteous manners and their supportive guidance.

Meeting USAID

We were able to meet with USAID today. They were wonderful. They have a very nice building and everyone we spoke with was so friendly and wanted the project to succeed. We ate in their cafeteria (which was catered by the Marriott hotel) and had a chance to get to know the people who hired us.

We had our first look at the classrooms and equipment we'll be able to use for the instruction. They have any technological need you could ask for and plenty of space. We should have no problems there.

We were driven over by a USAID driver. I'm so glad we didn't try to rent a car as it is pretty crazy on those roads. The painted lines are much more a suggestion than a rule. It made me think of the song "walk like an Egyptian". Just picture someone jumping out of the way of a car and you've seen someone walk like a real Egyptian.

We are still doing quite well and looking forward to the rest of our team coming on Thursday.