The big news the past few days has been the world wide news coverage of the swine flu. It has become the talk of the country. Everyone asks us if we are worried about it and what we think about it. If you have been following the world news you may have heard that the Egypt has killed all of the pigs in the country. We are not sure if that has actually happened but that is what the news media is reporting. Our students seem quite concerned as many do travel abroad and are worried if they will be able to fly. In reality, there is probably much more of a threat of avian (bird) flu in Egypt than swine flu. Our senior class is scheduled to leave on their Senior trip to Hungary in about 10 days and they wonder if their flights will be cancelled.
Friday evening we went to the movies, viewing Harrison Ford in “Crossing Over”, a film dealing with illegal immigration in the United States. It was an interesting film with many different sub-plots. We were discussing the film afterwards and one of our Egyptian friends, Mahmoud, told us that there are issues here with illegal immigrants in Egypt and that is has become very difficult for many Egyptians to travel abroad. Some that we have spoken with have said that it would be very unlikely that they would ever travel outside the country because it is difficult to get all of the paperwork completed in order to leave.
We are just beginning the final quarter in the school year. The days continue to fly by. We have about six more weeks remaining in our Egyptian adventure. If we think about leaving we become emotional as we have become fond of the people and this warm, wonderful country. In the past few years, we have seen some staff that were anxious to move on and couldn’t wait to leave while there have been others like us who have found it very emotional as the clock ticks down. We are just trying to stay as busy as possible (which is easy here) and focus on what needs to be done each day and try not to think too far ahead. We will carry many fond memories with us when we ride down Schutz Street that final time.
