Jayanthi and I just made a really bad soup. Soups are soooo hard.

I think it's about time I posted something good or at least marginally uplifting, don't you think? After all, it might appear that I don't believe in democracy or in good in general, although don't think that for one second. As many problems as democracy has, I want everyone to have those problems, instead of the ones that come from authoritarian/totalitarian/misc. regimes!

Yesterday, after my sobering day before, I decided that of all Fridays this was a Friday to definately get myself to church. I had been to Maadi Community Church three weekends before, but had been unable to return because of sickness or being out of town. I had been a little bit apprehensive because my friend had described it as "exactly like an American church," implying the contemporary/praise/evangelical type church, which has never been my preferred way to worship, but I immediately knew this was the wrong way to go in thinking, after all, when you're in a predominately Muslim country, and there is a church, any church, that speaks English, well, no complaints!

Upon arrival my first impression was of the amazing diversity. I can't think of more than a handful of Sundays in which my church crowd hasn't been as white as white can get, so a crowd that was overwhelmingly half African and had many Asians and others was really exciting. The pastor had those who were new stand up and introduce themselves and their country; the answers given were Germany, Brazil, Rwanda, Liberia, South Korea, and America. How exciting! As a former member of MPPC's Visitors and New Members Committee, I was dorkily aware of how they welcomed new people. As people stood up, members were assigned to zip down the aisle and pass over a new member booklet that had information about the church, and I found myself well-received by everyone around me. One of my favorite aspects of that morning was seeing several of the study abroad students that I didn't know went to church and getting to excitedly greet them.

Yesterday I decided to go to their month-old "Africa Live" service. The title makes it sound silly, but it was really great. I arrived half an hour late because my first trip alone meant that I kept walking the wrong way, and I was given the wrong directions in English no less, before given the advice to "just take a taxi, you are very far now." I was one of a handful of non-Africans, and I didn't know any of the tunes to the songs, but there was so much energy and beauty. The prayer was fantastic and very emotional, and though I sometimes felt that awkward feeling that surely most of us have felt in a African-American church- namely, why can't I move the same way? I really liked being a part of it. It was particularly emotional thinking about how many of these Africans were refugees or migrants who had left a place that they could no longer live, and how much they could identify with the sermon about God's faithfulness to Moses and his people who had left Egypt. As I left I asked some people at the entrance how I could get back to the metro, and they told me to just hop in their cab and they would drop me off. The man told me they were from Liberia, and thinking that I hadn't understood him or didn't know where Liberia was he said it again and then made a joke about how small it was. I suddenly felt very quiet inside, only knowing Liberia from their horrible former President Charles Taylor who is awaiting trial, and stories of terrible poverty and persecution. It was like being introduced at the sit-in to a woman from Darfur and thinking, wow, I now have a face to put with all of these things I've heard.

Speaking of the sit-in, yesterday my group worked for 6 hours on the article and we will return to my Professor's apartment on Monday to finish it up. Dinner was really nice; we sat around sharing stories and hearing from a visiting Ugandan lawyer about some of his cases and listening to anecdotes about crazy Ugandan leaders as told by him and my professor.

Alright, time to return to reading Human Cargo by Caroline Moorehead, an excellent book full of stories that combined give a good picture of the world's refugees. I would definately recommend it.