Wednesday, 23 May 2012

May 23 (Leah's)

 
Today was a lazy day. I didn’t really want to do anything for the first part of the day. We had breakfast, drank tea, wrote, and then I did some major hand-washing. Who knew you could sweat so much just washing clothes- must be good for me!
            We went out to go to the supermarket and fruit market. We also stopped at a bookstore and finally found an English section that had more than just textbooks. We bought a book each since we are quite low on reading material. We ended up eating lunch quite late. I had raisin bran with fruit and Spencer got an Egyptian pancake to go from GAD. We ate our lunch at the hotel and then we skyped with mom and dad Gray.
            We spent some more time hanging out at the hotel. I did a bit more hand-washing. I will have to finish the rest tomorrow. We chatted with a man from the States but who is Palestinian by ethnicity. We talked of the Egyptian election that was happening today and tomorrow, about the Israel and Palestine dispute, and about being a tourist in Egypt and how hard it is.
            We are going to go and see Garbage City tomorrow with a British guy we met at our hotel. He has lived in Cairo for 9 months working with a NGO doing refugee work. He is now on “holiday”. He speaks Arabic and he knows the city, so it will be good to go with him.
We are going to try another place for dinner. Another food-chain restaurant that smelt good when we walked past it this afternoon. Hopefully GAD doesn’t miss us too much!
            It is weird to think that in three days we will be Tanzania! I am getting really excited, but I also hope that I am not idealizing it because Egypt has been hard….I hope we don’t get let down…but that would be our own selfishness that would let us down….I hope I am not expecting things to be “great” and then find out that things are hard…But I guess that is all part of life’s lessons and journey….I am sure we will have a great experience in Tanzania. I know God will continue to lead and guide us, and that He will also teach us, stretch us, and purify us!
            After dinner we went to buy some sweets- even though we didn’t “need” them. It ended up being more expensive than what we expected…we passed a lady (in a burka) with three children sitting on the sidewalk selling small Kleenex packages- we gave her some small money. As we kept walking back to the hotel Spencer felt like he should give her our sweets, so we walked back, and he gave them to her, and she accepted with a big smile on her face. It is so hard to really help people sometimes. You feel like your small deeds don’t mean much, but I hope and pray that every time we reach out to someone in a big or small way, that they get a glimpse of the love and compassion of our heavenly father.
            I sometimes feel horrible walking by these men, women, and children that are on the streets, begging for anything they can get. Sometimes we have money to give, some times we don’t. I admit, that some times I walk by and try to pretend that I don’t see them- because I feel so bad and guilty and I don’t know how to Really help them. I wish we could do something more…..I guess that is why I am really looking forward to going to Tanzania- to be in a place where we can hopefully do something to better the good of the people there…..And God willing, hopefully see some people’s lives changes through faith in Jesus Christ!

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