Cairo: What about Maraina

Dr. Vivian Nix-Early, Egypt Team Leader and Co-Founder of BuildaBridge

Thursday November 19
 

Melanie and I were the last of the team to arrive in Cairo today.  We were anxious and excited to join the others waiting at the hotel.  We landed right on time at  the airport and soon began to get a taste of the politics and culture of the Middle-East.  I would like to think it not typical, and it is dangerous to generalize, but our experience in the customs line seems in retrospect to present a possible glimpse into the personality of this part of the world.  The Egyptian in front of waved to his friend to come into the line with him.  At first it seemed that they were traveling together and just got separated; and so of course he should join him in line.  Then another acquaintance walked up to greet him, as if discovering him by chance in the airport.  They chatted briefly and then he too came under the rail and joined him in line.  Then a third and a fourth friend.  By this time we discerned that these were no coincidental meetings.  We and the Japanese gentleman behind us began to protest, to say “no more people” and to let them know that this was not right.  They acknowledged this with placating smiles and turned away a fifth.  However the six and seventh came, smiled and laughed through our protests and simply stayed in line in front of us.  For a city dependent upon tourism, this was not helpful.  Ironically, as soon as we cleared the passport clerk, we were greeting by a member of the tourism bureau wanting to make our stay a “pleasant one”. 


Upon emerging from the baggage claim, we quickly spotted our driver and guide who held out our names on a placard.  Loaded into the van, we made our way out into a chaotic sea of cars, trucks and vans on roads with no lights, stop signs or anything that would give order to mass of vehicles fighting to get to their destinations.  But there were lane lines – only no one paid any attention to them.  Their were four lanes of cards driving in a two lane highway!  We’d never seen anything like this – vehicles turning right from the far left, swerving around within an inch of each other like bumping cars.  Our driver simply informed us that the lines are there but nobody pays any attention to them.  They just go where they want.  This sounded all to much like the customs line in the airport. 

It doesn’t help that violence and death have erupted over the recent soccer matches between the Egyptians and the Algerians.  A game of futbol is now causing diplomatic and political stand off and showdown.  Or, as some are now saying, is it that the game of futbol gave rise to an opportunity to effect the ousting of Egyptian business investors from Algeria that was being coveted for some time for economic power plays?  

What ever the case, tensions are high, and by the time we reached our hotel, extra security had to be called for – 5 Americans (the BuildaBridge Team) and two Algerians were staying at the hotel, and they wanted to make sure nothing happened to us.  A security guard accompanies us on our van the
next day as we travel to our first public destination (to join with the many NGO’s at the UNICEF 20^th Anniversary Celebration.)


Saturday November 21, 2009

We met Maraina (not her right name) our second day here in Cairo (first day of “camp”), working with the children served by Children of Hope and Arts for Community, our host agency.  She eagerly participated in the Collaborative Still Life visual art experience presented by the BuildaBridge team that was designed to serve as a metaphor for how important it is to share as well as ask for and receive help from others.  She is 15 years old; a bright, well-mannered, lady-like young girl who extends warmth as well as receives it through the hug and cheek kiss she silently asks for with a gently smile.
She is one of two girls in the class of boys.  She has thoroughly enjoyed herself today.  She tells us she has no friends, and that what was significant about being in the camp today was that she made new friends and felt cared for.  But she will not be back for the rest of the days of the camp.  You see, while she is just 15 years old, she works in a factory.  If she wants the holiday off (next weekend), she must not miss anymore worktime.    

Maraina is one of the 40 million (out of the population of 80,000) youth living in Egypt and one of the 30% of the population living in poverty.  Many children like her and even younger are sent to the city by their families to work to bring money back to the family.  They work in deplorable conditions, carrying bundles heavier than they, breathing in vapors that are harmful to their health and that damage them for life.  They sleep on floors where mice bite their fingers at night. But they still search for love, friends, belonging and time to play, laugh and be a child.  

The camp will continue tomorrow and will work, through drama and dance this time, with 12-15 of the students who live at Caritas.  They will write and act out their own fairy tale, reflecting both their imagination and their real lives.


Saturday November 21, 2009
Ten Caritas teachers and staff stayed for two hours beyond their usual work day to become immersed in the method and format of the BuildaBridge Classroom. Some of them came to the training tired from assisting in the BaB team’s arts-integrated classes earlier that day.  They alternated between being teacher and student, experiencing and then understanding the reasons for special greetings at the door, the ritual of the opening welcome song, pledge and rules; and they really came alive as they began the same collaborative still life art experience that the children had completed earlier that day.  But unlike the children, their answers to the inquiry questions that followed, were tough – taken straight from their experiences with the children they worked with.  This lead to a series of questions about how to handle the kinds of problems they are faced with when working with their children.  Not surprisingly they are similar to the tough issues that come up with traumatized, abused and neglected kids all over the world:  how to move youth from resorting to violence as a solution to everything; how to move them from anger and refusal to participate in efforts that will help them, etc.  We closed with the reminder that we cannot save kids.  We can only do our best to facilitate their efforts to save themselves.    

Our team is eager to see again the students we met today.  We are heartened to know of the commitment of the Caritas staff.  But our hearts are saddened and hurting to know the conditions in which they live and to know that we might see one of these young people from our class selling flowers at the Pyramids on Thursday in order to make a money quota for a “boss”.