1/12/11

When we went to Arabic class this morning our teacher Hasnaa had a little surprise for us. She and another teacher showed us how to cut up small pieces of bamboo to create a paint brush-like utensil to use for calligraphy!! After we cut up the bamboos, we dipped them in ink and attempted to write words in Arabic, most of us just wrote our names. When Hasnaa and the other teacher showed us how to do the calligraphy, it looked so easy, but when I tried to do it, I realized that it wasn’t as easy as it looked because we were basically doing calligraphy with a piece of wood. It took patience, style, and a very specific curving of the hand to do calligraphy. In addition it made a really unpleasant sound when the bamboo scraped against the paper. No matter how many times I wrote my name, it didn’t look remotely as nice as when the other teacher did it. In the end, I just asked her to do the calligraphy for me for my name and she did it beautifully. I guess if I practice and just spend a bit more time on it, I’ll be able to write beautiful, intricate calligraphy as well.
   
After Arabic Dr. Denis treated us to sandwiches at a local restaurant called El Shabrawy close to the Arabic Institution. I got a large chicken pane sandwich and it was delicious. After lunch, we visited St. Andrews, which is an organization that works with refugees who are mostly from Sudan. They help the refugees find safety. From Stephanie, I learned that the refugee services have been around for 30 years. The organization started when there was a famine in Ethiopia, as the famine created an impetus for this type of organization. So a grant was written to fund adult education programs for these Ethiopian adult refugees. Then, the organization started children’s schools to teach them Arabic so that they can fit in socially and find educational opportunities. One and a half year ago, they adopted a Sudanese curriculum for children’s programs, which allows them to move on to higher educational levels.
   
Stephanie also mentioned that if everything goes well with the Sudanese referendum in March, the Sudanese students might be able to take exams and advance. She also stated that refugees leave their countries either temporarily until conflict ends or sometimes indefinitely. Unfortunately, in Egypt refugees are not allowed to work so its very hard for them to live in Egypt. Another difficulty is that access to school is limited—Iraqi refugees aren’t allowed to attend public schools, but Sudanese refugees are. This is because Iraqis are Shitte Muslims and most Egyptians are Sunni Muslims.
   
I really liked Stephanie’s presentation and her manner of presentation. I was very glad to learn that there were some students in the class who want to work with the organization for a few months. I really hope that they can help provide refugees with extended opportunities.
   
For dinner, I went to Pizza Hut (again!) and this time, I just got the fire wings. They were sooo spicy and sooo good, as always.

Doing calligraphy during Arabic class