3 Questions with Zach & Audrey

This is long overdue--between the travel, the jet-lag, the catching up here in Cairo, I've not been able to take the time to add the header and footer to this short, cheesy video.

Zach and Audrey Langford are wonderful friends, and soon to be teammates for Three-Worlds in the Liverpool, England area.  This past February, during my trip to the States, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of days together in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  During all that fun, we stopped for ice cream and filmed this:

A mentioned in the information on the youtube posting of this video, "special thanks to the Alexander family who filmed this and were great company during an awesome day."

We look forward to filming more "3W 3-Questions" segments in the future with other guests.  Of course, if you have a question for us, you know how to get in touch and you can ask anytime.

Pray for Egypt...

Week Without Walls 2013

As we highlighted in our previous quarterly report to donors, there are a lot of challenges to being a "Third-Culture Kid" (watch this short, excellent video by Adrian Bautista about TCK's for understanding this designation--previously posted on Three-Worlds)...



Our kids are new to these challenges, and they're adjusting marvelously.  Changing schools (twice in the past year for Grace and Titus); making not only new friends, but new friends from a variety of cultures; being exposed to new languages within this new culture and from these new friends; trying to learn and navigate the new cultural norms that can be quite different from those they grew up with in the States; and so many more.

Despite these unique challenges, there are also several distinct opportunities that they also can now access.  In fact, several of those challenges above can also be an opportunity.

Among these opportunities are travel and seeing/experiencing the world.  Grace and Titus have already been traveling to places that we have not yet seen ourselves.  Shortly after our arrival in 2012, Grace went on a class retreat into the Sinai peninsula; last fall, Titus went to Luxor on a class trip for a few days to learn that history among the antiquities there.

Tonight, Grace leaves on such an opportunity.  Each year, her school (Cairo American College) offers a Week Without Walls to give their students the opportunity to learn and experience the world through cultural, service, and/or adventure trips.

There is quite an elaborate process that allows students to rank their top 12 choices, which are submitted into a lottery process that gives everyone equal chance of attaining one of their top picks as there are only 20 available spots per trip.  Keli participated in the selection process this year and was impressed by their efficiency and fairness in the placement of all these students.

The trips themselves are simply amazing opportunities.  One of the new families we hosted this past summer in a welcome to Cairo mixer had both of their sons get their top choice--to be assigned into a team of ten students who will spend a week on racing sailboats to learn how to work as a team and compete off the coast of the United Kingdom!  I spoke with the father and one of the sons today about just how unique and exciting such a rare opportunity is in life.

Some students will travel to Vietnam and built stilt houses in the jungles there for families in need of this peculiar shelter.  Some will travel to study the art and art history in Vienna, Austria; others will travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg to discover some of the architectural and historical elements of those cities.  Another group will even travel to work on a Panda conservatory in China--we're told they will hold and feed baby pandas while learning about the challenges to their habitat and species.

What's Grace going to be doing?  Well, she actually "won" her first choice and will be the first among our family to head south of the Equator, but not too far south...

Grace will be going to Tanzania.  Here's the description of the trip for which she signed up:

This is a service learning course that aims to provide students with the opportunity to work with Tanzanian students at a local organization called Second Chance Education Centre. Set up by Lucy Renju and her husband, it gives a second chance at education to students who were unable to finish school due to difficult family situations or extreme poverty. Students will stay at Honey Badger Lodge which is adjacent to the Second Chance school. The accommodation will be basic but there will be hot water, clean shared rooms and plentiful local food. Students will do a variety of different work, that could include physical labour, developing and running language games, teaching computer skills. Students will also have the opportunity to interact socially with the students at Second Chance, playing football, talking together etc. CAC and Second Chance students will spend one day on safari together at a local game park. We encourage students who are willing to make a commitment to service learning, who wish to have an interesting cultural experience and who are willing to take initiative and reach out to others.

Grace will have a similar view of Mt. Kilimanjaro daily

 OBJECTIVES:

To strengthen the educational programme of Second Chance by helping with physical work on the school grounds and developing English language proficiency. To develop relationships with local students by learning some Swahili and sharing knowledge of English. To gain an understanding and appreciation of the local culture. To appreciate the natural environment of Tanzania.

We're proud of Grace's choice, happy for her that she got her first choice as a freshman, and we pray that this trip will be a special blessing in her life as she also is offered an opportunity to be a blessing to students in Tanzania.

As I mentioned in our previous post, it just so happens that two of the other families who attended our new to Cairo mixer, and the wives/mother with whom Keli has been meeting regularly, have daughters who are also on this trip.  It's another unique connection among our families.

Traveling into Tanzania brings its own share of health warnings and even more vaccines that she had to receive.  Pray that she stays healthy, free from injury (as well as her whole group), makes some stronger friendships & wonderful memories, and is able to hear the still, small voice of God and know His presence.

Can You Be Busy in Bureaucracy?

From Meriam Webster online...

bu·reau·cra·cy
3: a system of administration marked by officialism*, red tape**, and proliferation***

*of·fi·cial·ism: lack of flexibility and initiative combined with excessive adherence to regulations in the behavior of usually government officials

**red tape: official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction

***pro·lif·er·at·ing: to grow by rapid production of new parts, cells, buds, or offspring

Moving nowhere fast,
paddling furiously under water--
is this the international symbol of
bureaucracy???

With such definition, as well as our experiences in bureaucracies, you can see why it's hard to get anywhere sometimes, even with the most routine of tasks--but though you may not be moving very quickly to a destination, you can be furiously banging your head against walls of red tape.

We've been quiet as of late, but we have been busy!  Not that we needed bureaucracy to make us busy; between the schedule of the kids and the new weekly CCF Kids ministry that has really taken off, we would have our hands full.

But it seems we also have had our tied by bureaucracy.

As we've been Egypt for more than a year, it has been time for us to renew our annual visa that allows us as expatriates, to live and work within this country. This is a "typical process" for those serving internationally; for us, it will be an annual renewal until we reach 5 years, at which time we can apply for a 5 year visa.  (At least, that is the current rules, and no one these days cares to venture a guess on whether or not the current rules will be in place next year, next month, or next week!)

Of course, the phrase "typical process" may mean different things in different places, and this is Egypt, so it's hard for me to imagine it being like anywhere else on the planet!

Titus took this picture last year
as we drove around the roundabout at
Tahrir Square--the Mugamma is
the building in the background.

Last year, I chronicled my first experiences in what I affectionately called the "DMV Nightmare", a.k.a, the Mugamma. The Mugamma is the large/main government building at Tahrir Square, so you've likely seen it on some news video in the background of any number of protests in the past few years. The Mugamma was actually closed down and barricaded by protestors before I left on my USA trip, which prevented us from attempting this annual renewal before I left.

After last years endless denials and requests for one more copy, one more stamp, one more seal, one more picture, I came prepared with multiple copies and examples of any and everything I might possibly need. This is not a process I can do by myself, and so Dr. Latif has to travel from Alexandria to help me; Dr. Latif is the Secretary of the Executive Council of the Church of God, our sponsoring organization here, a pastor of one of the churches, and our best English speaker among the national ChoG--so we make this trip together.

Dr. Latif and the national ChoG also face their own red tape leading up the process before we ever get to the Mugamma: they have to write a letter, signed by their Chairperson, sealed by their Executive Council, approved by the national Evangelical Council of Churches, which is recognized by the Egyptian government to keep a record of all officially licensed churches and pastors. This letter includes information about who each of us are, where we live, what we will do, etc.

That letter with the two sets of signatures and seals is taken to a separate government office that validates that the signatures and seals are official and acceptable.  If so, it is approved with it's own signature and seal at the top of the letter.  If this is approved, then the letter along and its three sets of stamps and signatures, is taken by Dr. Latif and I to the Mugamma.

Once inside, you may have to fight your way past all the other people desperate for renewal who are mobbed at specific windows depending on your nationality, the type of work you are doing, and the type of visa you are requesting--this was quite the trial and error process as we pushed our way through the various possibilities of 60+ windows and their respective mobs.  One side note--lanes, lines, and order are not high social norms here in the Middle East--if there's the slightest opening, you push your way through it and join the mob attempting to get the attention and favor of the clerk on the other side.

If the clerk feels you have what you need, you will be sent to another window to purchase various government stamps that represent the various taxes and other duties that are required to file and process the paperwork--then you come back and fight through the same group again to show the stamps to be affixed to your paperwork--if it's all there, and you are not sent away for another copy, letter picture, seal, or whatever, the clerk will document your information in a ledger, and chronicle the documentation in your passport on the page that your visa will one day be applied.  Your completed applications will be sent off for processing, and you will be sent away.

You will come back with your passports after 1 week to a different window and a different clerk (and likely, a different mob).  You will provide your passports and she will review your application to be sure nothing else was required.  If not, then your passports and the previously approved documentation that required your blood, sweat and tears to obtain during your previous trip(s) will be placed in a pile of similar passports and documents.  I watched this pile fall to the floor after ours were added last year--it's quite unnerving to watch all of that scattered, scooped up, and precariously rebalanced on the desk!

You are told at that point to come back in a couple hours and it will be done--various other clerks will review informations, record into handwritten ledgers all pertinent informant, and file all the paperwork while visas are printed and eventually affixed to new pages in our passports. Last year, i walked around Tahrir Square, and took some video and pictures while I waited. Due to the current unrest in the city that has already led to days of the Mugamma's closure, I will not let those passports out of my sight until they are back in my hands.

So, that's the process in a gargantuan, scary "nutshell".

Our hero, Dr. Latif, with Grace last year.

We, Dr. Latif and I, went to the Mugamma yesterday--I thought we were ready, only to find out that the clerk wanted one more stamp that we did not have with us. The process was stalled before it had even begun; Dr. Latif returned to Alexandria yesterday to get the stamp, and I went home empty-handed.  Dr. Latif cleared his schedule so he could make a return trip today, so we could try again.

We went inside with everything we needed.  This time, the clerk refused the letter because the President of the Executive Council's signature wasn't at the bottom of the letter--instead, because he has been out of the country, the second in charge signed.  This was unacceptable to the clerk, and to her immediate supervisor, despite the government approval stamp at the top of the letter validating the other signatures and seals.  Dr. Latif vehemently argued until he got approval to appeal to the head honcho--a guy who was busy hearing appeals from everyone who could not find satisfaction throughout the immigration floor--a guy whose job I don't think anyone would envy.  Somehow, Dr. Latif managed to get our request to the top of the stack, and the head honcho agreed with Dr. Latif and was quite preturbed at his subordinates bothering him with such a nonsensical appeal.

The other clerks became helpful again, and we are now successfully "in process" and I can return again next week (after Grace is back from Tanzania) to collect our new visas.

Once this is done, we will not be done with Egypt bureaucracy. We will then start the very different, and even more messy process of selling the jeep - transferring title, etc, and then--glutton for punishment--we will restart the process as a buyer (hopefully).

I see a sad future of waiting in government offices and lines :(



Meanwhile, as previously stated Grace prepares to leave for Tanzania this weekend for her school's Week Without Walls component. Grace and 20 peers will be taking an amazing service learning experience in the midst of Tanzania's rainy season at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Her High School peers will all be in groups of 20, traveling on one of a variety of international trips from England, South Africa, Morocco, Jordan, Philippines, Vietnam, China, and more. Amazing!

Don't let the good form fool you--
the only thing nice out there is the view!

Despite all the work, I am getting a chance to play this weekend, too.  Several of the international wives with whom Keli has been regularly meeting has led to friendship among the men, too--and, we all agreed to play in the school's booster club's annual golf charity scramble.  So Saturday, I will be teeing it up with a few dads, and making fools of ourselves in the process as we're all a bunch of hacks! Actually, three of us will have daughters on the Tanzania trip!  These are all families that we met during last summer when we hosted a "new to Cairo" mixer.

Then, it will be back to work as we prepare for the long Easter season here in Egypt this year. We will have some activities for Western Easter at the end of this month, but then the activities will stretch out until the beginning of May for Eastern Easter. Lt year, the two were only separated by a week, the shortest possible separation--this year is the longest possible separation. More on Easter plans in the coming weeks...

So, hopefully that helps catch you up on several of our coming and goings around here. Thank you for your continued interest, thoughts, encouragement, and prayers for our family and for Egypt.

I will likely be writing again soon with various news updates from an increasingly troubled region.

Pray for Egypt...