Hi all,
Everything has been going great here. We've been working on a lot of Sunday School lessons and traveling to different villages and speaking to all the kids. It's a lot of fun...i love going into the different areas where people live. although in our eyes its so "ghetto" and remote and dirty...there is a beauty that underlies it all. There is an element to it that just makes you realize that life isn't about what you have or how things appear, it is about the people you are around and the contentment that comes from having love and joy in all circumstances. It makes me feel terrible about the things I complain about in my heart.

It was a good week at the clinic. On Monday, I shadowed someone and tried to learn the basics and how the system runs and all that. It's actually pretty fun! On Thursday, I started seeing some patients by myself (with a translator). Well..talk about the biggest "wow i know absolutely nothing" eye-opener ever! Between seeing families w/3-4 kids a piece at one time, not speaking the language, having to diagnose based on what the mother tells me in a language i don't understand with a translator that doesn't know much medical terminology...it was rough. Everyone has things i've never really seen a lot of in the states...worms, lice, ear infections that haven't been treated for months, etc.. Trying to prescribe medications was hard enough, but they are all medications from here so i'm trying to learn them all and make out the doses....all in arabic and in the stupid metric system. So needless to say it was pretty challenging and i had to ask a zillion questions but it has been a wonderful learning experience. I took home like a zillion inserts from the medications i am trying to learn to get the hang of all the new names, dosings, etc... It's also challenging to get used to the culture of the women here. It is hard to not get angry at them. One woman brought her baby (her 4th baby!) in at like a few weeks old...and she wasn't feeding her much except some beans and rice every once and a while. And like...had no clue it was not a good thing. Another brought her baby that was so protien malnourished that she had the craziest edema i had ever seen. Her little hands and feet were swollen like 6 times their original size. So sad. It's the worst when a mother comes in with a bunch of kids with all sorts of things wrong. They need all sorts of medications with all sorts of dosing and instructions. You are trying to tell them so many things...and it's hard with the translation barrier, and the fact that they cannot read. So even if you write out instructions, it means nothing to them. It's hard to give them times to give doses (like 8am, 1pm, etc..) b/c there is no real concept of time. There is no hygiene (hense everyone and their uncle has worms and lice), which doesn't help health prevention much. It is such a challenge, and it has inspired me even more to work in the arena of public health. So much to learn and adjust to, but I can't wait to continue :)

Arabic lessons have also been going well. 2 hours a day every day with a private tutor will get you pretty far pretty fast. I have homework and studying though, so it adds to the great list of things to be doing here. It's such a pretty language though!

Tonight after sunday school we all took a ride in a river boat down the Nile at sunset. It was really beautiful (despite the great views that are messed up by all the smog here!!). At one point i was looking out and just trying to grasp the reality that so many historical and biblical things happened here so long ago. That there was so much history there. I wondered who walked the shoreline that i walked on. Who traveled this same way thousands of years ago?

Tomorrow we head over to Garbage City....the dump of Cairo that has become home to thousands of street kids. The more i see areas like this, the more humbled i am to be here. I feel priviledged to be among the "least", and i almost pity the lives we live back home. I'm embarassed about all that I "require" to live my life. I'm ashamed that so much is never good enough. I am humbled to see the joy and strength of these people to live and persevere despite the odds that they will never rise out of the poverty they are in. They look to us as the ones that have the wealth, but sometimes i think they are the ones that have found true wealth and contentment and we are the ones that have such unsettled hearts and empty spirits. I don't know if that makes sense when i try to explain it in words...it makes sense in my heart, though.

okay, time for bed. I have a cell phone now!! sooo, if anyone wants to give me a call (::wink wink nudge nudge::) i'll send you the number. incoming calls are free for me so as long as you are willing to get a phone card.... ;)

xoxo,
Nicole

Well! I have finally discovered the wonders of wireless internet at local coffee shops. So here i am ready to update and present you all with lots of pictures (i hope!). Let me just say right now i am laughing at myself because i am so short and the tables here are so high...i really have to strain to type. I also just met two American-born (egyptian decent) guys here that are in medical school. We talked for a long time and they were telling me about the education system here and their experience as dual-citizens between the two countries. Really interesting stuff. It is very different here - people come up to you and talk all the time, it's the norm. It makes you realize how cold and self-absorbed Americans are. There are always friends to be made here in egypt :)

This week I spent my time doing medical screenings for Sudanese refugee children. At present, Americans (and probably all other foreigners) can not get visas granted to them to enter Sudan. However, there greatest amount of refugees are here in Egypt. It is really a heartbreaking situation. Due to pressures from the USA and the UN, the Egyptian government has to allow them to enter the country. But really, the buck stops there. Egyptians don't recognize the Sudanese at all. It is illegal for them to work, for their children to go to public schools, etc... So what ends up happening is that they live in extreme utter poverty. The money is made by begging, which is difficult b/c Egyptians wont look at them, let alone give them money. The children go to school b/c of NGO's, non-profits and religious organizations that fund the building and maintaining of refugee schools. These schools are where we held the screenings. Each kid get a uniform provided, or in some cases they have to save up for one. Since they arent members of society here, they are not seen by doctors, nor do they recieve any other health services. So the care we provided was the first some of these children have ever recieved in their lives. Some of the very small ones were born here in Egypt as refugees, but most of them fled here - carrying the very sharp and fresh memory of the awful killings in their country.

My job was basically to do a full screening...blood pressures, eyes, ears, nose, throat, heart/lungs, neurologic checks, scoliosis screenings, extremeties, skin, etc... Some problems were the average pediatric illnesses (asthma, heart murmurs, etc...) but so many were crippled, cross-eyed, and bore scars on their bodies from machetes, bullets, knives, etc.. And they have no place to go. It is the most heartbreaking thing. After the few hours they are in school they go "home" to a room where there is no running water or electricity, and there are sometimes 10 to a room. Some of them are here as children, without their families. Some don't know where their families are. There was fear in their eyes. Some screamed and ran for their lives at the first sign of touch, probably crippled from memories of attacks and violence that our minds and eyes will be fortunate enough to probably never witness. It also makes you feel so convicted for the things we complain about.

Probably the thing that my heart hurt for the most was the realization that these children did nothing to deserve this. It's not their fault that they were caught in the middle of a war. It's not their parents fault that they have nothing left. They left one nightmare to be launched directly into another. All they know is the feeling of being hated, worthless and disposable. And it seemed like such an honor to be able to introduce them to Love. Some of the ones i just sat and held and hugged and paid attention to. I want to keep returning to the school and working with the kids. The few classrooms they had were smaller than my bedroom, and held about 30 kids each. I kept thinking about all my selfish dreams...about what an honor it would be and how distinguished i would feel holding my fancy position with UNICEF or being some world-renown physician. After this week i realized i've had it all wrong all along. And that in my heart I know I will never feel more honored than what i've felt being able to be with these children. Between being here, and spending the time at the orphanage in Assuit - i feel like i am coming to understand why the heart of God beats so strongly for the widows and the orphans. For the destitute and the helpless. For the suffering and the poor. These are the beautiful people...these are the simple that will someday confound the wise. These are the people described in the beatitudes...the pure in heart, the poor in spirit, etc.. This week as i saw these kids i kept hearing God speak the beatitudes to me as i asked to see these kids through His eyes. I do not want to leave here yet. I am not ready, and there is more work to be done.

In other news...I started learning Arabic here with a tutor. The sessions are 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. So it's pretty intense i hope to make fast strides. Being here really helps, and having all of our wonderful egyptian friends also helps!! This week it is back to the normal schedule of clinic, office work, book club, etc... It never gets boring here. Today we visited the famous citadel and had a blast! I am beginning to feel more and more at home. Keep me in your prayers as i am trying to order my next steps properly (for life in general). Many are my plans, but i want to hear what it is God would have me do.

Okay, time to cross my fingers and hope that pictures upload quickly!! I've heard people say that they can't comment or that the page doesn't load? I have no real skill with this whole blogging thing, so i'll just have to send my appologies and hope you still find a way to read and correspond with me anyway.

Love,
Nicole

Hi!
It seems like forever since i've written - i'm sorry! I just want to say that i am having such a phenomenal time here...i am starting to get sad that i have to leave in 8 weeks!! The 5 of us girls travelled down to upper egypt (yes, the southern part of egypt is called 'upper'....something to do with the way the Nile flows) to spend Christmas weekend at an orphanage. They celebrate Christmas here (the few christians there are) on Jan 7th. It was *such* a wonderful 3 days. We spent time with all the kids/widows and gave out gifts to each one. There were over 500 presents that went out, each individualized! We visited each age group and did a whole "program" for them - we told the christmas story, played games, sang songs, gave them snacks, and prayed with them. It was so wonderful, they were all so special. We even got to spend time with the widows and elderly women which was a new type of experience for me. Leslie dressed up as santa! We got to watch their Christmas eve play, and attended church with them on Christmas morning. Sleeping at the orphanage was also a fun experience (it was a little 'Nacho Libre'..!). Moody and David's parents live on site (they run the primary boys program) and so on Saturday night they had a hugeeee dinner for the 5 of us, duane and shirley, and 2 other girls who used to work here that were visiting from the states. It was really fun and yummy! The drive was also pretty incredible...5 hours of just desert. It was actually pretty beautiful. The police here are really funny. Upper Egypt has more fundamentalists and is a little more unstable, so after a certain point we needed police escorts in order to be on the road (so we're driving with police cars in front, behind, and on the side of us). It's just funny because i wouldn't trust egyptian police with a bebe gun, but they are soooo serious about what they do. It's just all very entertaining. They have police checks on the road every so often as well. When they see the car with 5 american women, it's a huge ordeal. They all flag us down like the earth is about to end, then they alllll come flooding out to see. At one stop they even brought out chairs! Then one by one, they stick their head in the car and go "Amrika???" in a very serious tone. we say yes. that one turns to others and says "Amrika!" and they all seriously nod their heads. then someone else sticks their head in and looks for a while and goes "fiiiivee???" and it's like "yes, there are five of us." then they all stick their heads in and debate and have a big fancy pow-wow to definately decide there are five of us, then they come back in and say a very serious "five!" (incase we were unsure, i suppose). And then they made sure you know to go "this way" as the all point straight ahead. Mind you, there's one road that goes through the desert. there was no other option but up (and we weren't planning on launching into space) but they made it seem like they had just given us the golden nugget of wisdom. Really funny...and to make it worse this happens about ever half hour :-) Just part of the excitement here in egypt! This week we are working at a medical clinic for Sudanese refugee children - it is awesome and i love it! And we've started our arabic tutoring 2 hours each day 5 days a week. Me and my roomate Jenny joined Leslie and Kayla's gym...so hopefully between all our walking and the gym ("gym") i wont gain any weight from all the yummy egyptian food (eh, who i am kidding...all the peanut butter and jelly). I have an album from the orphanage posted - please check it out! I will write more after the medical screenings are all over. the days here are exhausting but they are spent with the most amazing people in this most special place. Due to the sensitive nature of the country, i can't really talk much publically about the details of some things, but if you would like to hear some more "meaningful" stories, please email me @ LdyNicole9@yahoo.com and i'd love to talk with you!
Till next time,
Nicole <3 href="(http://community.webshots/ldynicole9">http://community.webshots/ldynicole9 )

ps- Right now three of us are watching the season finale of 24 (season one). Why hadn't i seen this show sooner!??! i am so hooked.
pps- i found an old copy of Food & Wine Magazine at the gym and decided that some day I want to attend the Food & Wine Festival in Aspen, CO. Any takers? And i also met a girl who backpacked through Europe last summer and after hearing her stories I am determind to do the same, somehow.
ppps- I think it would be fun to be an ambassador...or atleast the wife of one. they have it good here :)

Happy New Year!!!!
I hope all of you back home had a wonderful time celebrating the start of 2007. It's been a great few days here. Since it is the holiday (the Eid) these last few days, things have been slow and we've had some downtime to spend exploring all sort of places here in Egypt. David took us into Giza one night and we visited his friends (their baby is that cute little guy in the picture below), and we picked up Moody and had Thai food for dinner (which made me think of you, Lauren!). For New Years Eve, Jen, Kayla, Leslie and I went downtown and had dinner on the Nile River. It's soooooo awesome there at night. It's pretty much the "it" place to be. At times it is so surreal just driving along the Nile or seeing the pyramids as you drive down the road. Too cool. Especially when you stop and think of all the history that these landmarks have. It is amazing. Funny thing...as the 4 of us were watching a movie on new years eve, we realized this was the second new years we'd spent together! We were all in Kentucky last year at the world missions summit, ringing in the new year together with thousands of other young people. Who would have known we'd be here a year later?? Pretty cool! Then on new years day we drove about an hour and a half to Miriam's house and her mother made us the most incredibly HUGE meal. Including....pigeons! Boiled pigeons with the heads still attached. Ha! Well, you know me..i'm always up for an adventure so i ate it with much excitement. It was no thanksgiving turkey, but it wasn't all that bad! So as you are all walking the streets of Manhattan, think of me when you see a pigeon ;) Tonight Miriam took the 3 of us girls to get our hair cut. So i now have shorter hair and threaded eyebrows...complements of egypt! It is really exciting to experience acclamating to a new culture.

We've also been doing some work at the clinic while it is closed to for the holidays. We cleaned out the big closet and organized all of the supplies. There were some unexpected surprises (rats) but big brave nicole chiseled the dead one out of the wood shelf that it had stuck itself too. Not a pleasant smell...but hey, anyone remember the poop flood on the Olean missions trip? :) Today we were in the office doing some paperwork and sending out newsletters, getting things ready for sunday school, etc... On Friday we are driving about 5 hours south to spend 3 days at the orphanage...egyptian Christmas is on Jan 7th so we will be there to give all the kids presents in the morning. Then we'll be back late on the 7th, and the 8th-11th is the Sudanese clinic. So busy times ahead!!

I am having trouble uploading pictures right now. Hopefully when the internet man comes (this week we are hoping!) and speeds up the connection i can get more. I only got the first set to load...the rest are on my website (link on the right).

Happy new year, everyone! I miss you and i pray abundant blessings on each of you and your families in 2007.

Love,
Nicole



driving across the Nile on the way to Giza

me w/baby Andrea

me, leslie, and our new boyfriend ;)

more dead animals for the Eid

Moody and his chocolate bagel...on the way to eat more food!