"New" dining room chairs

The attempts to make my apartment feel more like "me" are continuing, slowly but surely. My most recent project was to recover the dining room chairs. I'm afraid I don't have any good pictures of what they looked like "before", but the fabric was dark with a not-so-nice pattern on it. Even though it's simple, I like this new color much better!

More visitors

Even though I just returned from the U.S., I already have two friends in town to visit! That is one thing that I really love about Cairo, that it seems to be a place, unlike Rwanda or Zambia or Bangladesh, that people actually want to visit! As I've said before, the door's always open...

Egyptian family

Last night I dropped by my landlady's house about 8:00 p.m. to drop of my rent money. I knew she and her daughters had plans to go out shopping, so I thought I would just stop in quickly and leave. I had no idea what the night really had in store!

My landlady and her husband welcomed me into their home and insisted I sit down in the living room. They sat with me and we began to chat. Before long, I was introduced to the rest of what I soon discovered was "my Egyptian family," as we were joined by their two daughters (age 24 and 22), their son (age 17) and my landlady's mother. As I got to know everyone, I was served Sprite and an assortment of Egyptian sweets. I always feel a little awkward, holding a plate full of food in a room full of people where no one else has been served, but knowing that it would be rude not to eat everything in front of me, I gorged myself on the desserts. Although most Egyptian sweets are pretty good (and a couple of these were great!) they're so sweet that it's hard to eat an entire plate full of them. Afterward, I figured it was getting close to the time that my landlady and her daughters were planning to go shopping, so I tried to excuse myself, but at some point since my arrival, I learned, they had changed their plans and instead would shop tomorrow.

Coffee was served next, and as we all continued talking, I learned that both daughters had become engaged within the past couple months. (The most recent one's engagement party had been just a few weeks before, while I was in the U.S., which my landlady mentioned with regret, saying that she had hoped to invite me.) They brought me the photo albums from each daughter's engagement party and then we watched clips of the videos made from each party. I quickly realized that these engagement parties were as elaborate as many American weddings. They involved traditional musicians, a ring ceremony, a cake-cutting, dinner and dancing into the wee hours of the morning. As we watched the videos of the dancing at the parties, my adopted mother and sisters stood up in the living room and began to dance and then insisted that I join them. Even though my Arabic dancing skills (think of belly-dancing) aren't exactly up to par, everyone got a huge kick out of my efforts and we were all just about rolling on the floor laughing at ourselves.

As the videos began drawing to a close, I thought it might be time for me to make my exit, but then the doorbell rang, and dinner arrived; they had ordered fuul (bean) and tameya (falafel) sandwiches for all of us! We continued sitting together, chatting and laughing while we ate, until my adopted brother reminded everyone that Star Academy, the middle eastern version of American Idol, was on television. So we sat together and watched the reality television show and then drinking tea.

Finally I looked at my watch and realized that it was 1:30 a.m.!! I decided it was time to insist that I leave. It had been a wonderful night, but it was way past my bedtime! It was so fun to spend time with an entire family and to really feel as though I were really a part of it. So much a part, even, that my adopted little brother was forced by his parents to drive me home at the end of the night.

I can't wait for the next time I hang out with all of them again!

Thanks for a great trip!

Many thanks to everyone who made this trip back to the States so great! Thanks for the great food, good times, laughs and encouragement (and for updating me on the latest technological developments and celebrity gossip!). It was really wonderful to see so many friends and family and I can't wait to see all of you again! Maybe next time it will be in Cairo; you're all welcome any time!

Outbreak response center

After leaving Greenville, I headed down to Atlanta, where I've been working at the CDC and catching up with old friends for a couple days.

Today I was at the CDC working and one of the girls I was meeting with offered to take me down to the outbreak response center, where the response to the H1N1 influenza outbreak is being managed. I have to say, it was kind of awesome. It looked like a scene out of a movie.

Imagine a big room with semi-circular rows of desks dotted with computers and packed with people, all facing a wall divided into eight giant screens, each one filled with a map or table or diagram or bullet points. Then add, behind the big room, several smaller rooms, each filled with computers, people and television screens. Add a constant buzz of sound with keywords like "influenza", "H1N1", "another case" and "investigation" and you'll have a pretty good sense of the scene.

It was certainly impressive. CDC has pulled a huge portion of its regular employees from their offices around the CDC campus in Atlanta and has brought in a number of employees from around the world and placed them in the emergency response facility. Even from the little bit of time I spent there, I knew this was an incredible meeting of minds. Very impressive.