Newsletter #13 - 23 May, 2004
Hi there,
First impressions (second time around)
Jo and I arrived safely back in Cairo early yesterday morning, with
all ear drums intact. Thank you to all who wrote and prayed for Jo's
health. After a forty minute wait in immigration, where we were told
our passports were being double checked for authenticity, we were the
last two passengers from our flight to leave the airport.
We managed to get a clean taxi, with a very pleasant driver and raced
home due to the lack of traffic early on Friday mornings. Walking
into our flat, opening the doors and windows for fresh air and the
cool breeze definitely felt like coming back home. Standing in the
doorway between our bedroom and balcony, looking out on the Nile and
hearing only the sounds of birds, I thought, 'It's great to be back.'
The cool 19 degrees at 7.30am in Cairo was much better than 27
degrees in Dubai at 3.30am!
So, what's it like after two days?
We're still a bit jet lagged and it is noticably harder to get a lung
full of fresh air. However, it was great to go back to church and
catch up with friends from there. Though, as summer is coming,
looking around the congregation it is a little disheartening to think
about how many people will not be there after summer, ourselves
included.
We seem to remember enough Arabic to catch cabs and greet colleagues
from work, though it seemed odd/opposite to greet the women with the
required handshake and the men with a hug. I've been told I speak
English differently and certainly noticed that we both speak a lot
faster. We need to be mindful also of pronouncing the ends of our
words. It may be a translation thing, but when asked, 'How was the
journey?', I think only of the flights, rather than the whole trip.
Saturday morning and Joanna went back to registering patients at the
tuberculosis clinic as she did before. There is still a shortage of
the treatment drugs. After going with Joanna to greet the staff in
the clinic, I caught up with Aban, the Sudanese manager of Tukul
Crafts. While he had emailed me the good news during my absence,
including the movement to the new workshop, the timely completion of
the largest order of the year and increased sales in shops and
bazaars, it seems I missed some of the hardest weeks of the year also.
There were plenty of complications in the completion of the new
workshop and to date, the exhaust fan to remove the hot air is still
not properly installed. It seems the builders of the German church,
from where we were evicted, stole one large and two smaller sewing
machines before we moved and getting large trucks into Zamalek proved
quite tricky.
Through all this, the resourcefulness and creativity of Aban and
Idris, the workshop manager, have contributed to the contentment in a
new workshop that is larger, better lit, close to other Refuge Egypt
staff and from all accounts had a great opening celebration.
So, it's good to be back, but what was it like being back in Sydney?
From first appearances, not much has changed in Sydney in the past
ten months. Travelling to the North Shore from the airport, the
One.tel logo is still adorning one of the larger buildings in North
Sydney. However, while outward appearances may be similar, it was
important for us to remember that everyone we met had also lived
another ten months of their lives. (Except the ten hour old baby we
saw, daughter of a resettled refugee from Cairo who we previously
worked with.) Hopefully during our conversations with family,
friends, old collleagues and even some new people, we didn't sound
self absorbed or one tracked about Egypt.
One small but interesting societal mind shift we noticed was the
increased disdain for plastic shopping bags. Plenty of people walk
around shopping centres with green Coles bags and one weekend edition
of the Sydney Morning Herald came with a complementary cloth bag too!
When we left, the only indication that plastic bags were bad was that
you had to pay for them at Aldi supermarkets.
As I wrote earlier, the wedding was a great day and certainly one
that we wouldn't have missed for the world. Check out the photos
(http://www.kuswadi.com/tk/wedding/index.html) Though it was hectic
to catch up with many friends during our short time, it helped us
readjust to Sydney life quite quickly.
Now we're back, please continue to pray for God's continued blessing
on Tukul Crafts, his provision for more TB drugs and that we can do
all the things we plan in the remainder of our time here.
Thanks,
Josh'n'Jo
Email me - joshua at kuswadi dot com
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