Tuesday, August 29

Today was the first day of school – We will write more about school shortly. The campus looks beautiful. When we arrived things were really in disarray. Everything was in need of an overhaul. It looked like a very monumental task. In 2 weeks, the campus had been reborn. Virtually anything that needed painting (interior and exterior) has been done – walkways were replace, bricks and decorative blocks were updated, bathrooms renovated, bushes and trees were trimmed – all in all a remarkable job. We will include pictures of the campus later on. Virtually all the work was done by hand – the workers here put in very long hours getting things ready – often 15 to 18 hour workdays and it is very hard physical work. Every chance we get we tell them how wonderful everything looks – they will smile and pat their heart in reply. I hope they know how much we appreciate what they do. Yesterday we had all the workers in at 2:00 and served them a large lunch – it was the staff’s way of expressing our thanks. I guess it is the first time this has been done (at least in several years) and you could sense the feeling of pride that the workers felt.

On Monday, Pat, Dennis and I ventured off campus and walked to the Cornish (the very busy 8 lane street along the Mediterranean. What a neat walk – it is fun to go out and see all the people with their activities. Right near our campus the streets are very narrow with little shops and stands. It is a very bustling area. As you continue down towards the sea, the streets widen a little and shops become stores as the economic level rises. But no matter where you are—walking is an adventure. We think back to our walks in our quiet neighborhood with the wide walking areas and compare it to here where you can not afford to take your eyes off what is in front and around you as streets are uneven, sidewalks too narrow to walk-on, people everywhere and of course all the cars trying to get somewhere where it seems everyone else wants to go. Once in a while we will see a fender bender and usually one driver gets out and yells at the other for a little while then they go back to their cars and take off. We did flirt with danger though when we decided to cross the Cornish in all that traffic. They do have a few underground tunnels to cross at but they are few and far between. We drew quite a crowd of young men watching us scurry across the street with cars speeding towards us and honking. We decided after that we would go underground next time!!



Enclosed are a couple of pictures Pat took from our apartment balcony so you could get a glimpse of what we see as we look out over the wall of the campus into Alex. Notice the satellite dishes on the rooftops and the laundry on the balonies.