Adventures ahead!

No more teachers, no more books.  I am out of school for the week.
So now what?
I really can't decide.
I've come up with two options really.  I either take  a bus to one or two of the oasis towns out in the Sahara, or I take a bus over toward the Sinai peninsula and relax on a beach.
I'm thinking the strategy is to go to the bus station and simply purchase a ticket for whichever trip will leave the soonest.
At the same time, some friends of mine found their own plans to have fallen apart, so might have company whichever place I choose to visit.

In other news, I just became friends with a Taxi driver.  He's my age, and speaks English well, so I thought I might as well make plans to hang with him later.  It is really difficult to get to know Egyptians here, as there is very intense sort of discrimination among the upper class, and being a foriegner, I automatically have higher social standing.  Yet I'm not here to spend all my time with Americans or Europeans, I'm here to experience Egypt!  For this reason, I still haven't visited any Pyramids or tourist traps, as I'm constantly seeking to interact with this country in the same manner that 97% of the population experiences it.   For this same reason, I'm seriously contemplating on moving away from Zamalek - my little island in the Nile - sometime in December.  After all, the greatest joy I derive from traveling is the lessons I learn by spending time with the people who live there.

I've also started a really exciting project with a local NGO.  Within the diverse refugee population of Cairo, there is a large - and growing - hip hop culture with limited channels to exercise its diverse influences and lively audience.  In short, I'm producing an album with the various refugee rappers in Cairo.  I met with some of them already and will pursue this with much greater intensity after this holiday break, I will be spending about 20 hours a week to maximize the overall quality of their work.  I had already brought an array of studio quality recording equipment with me, so right now I'm simply working on writing a few compositions and programming some beats for these guys to work with.  One of the groups already has the capability to write their own music, and in that case, it is simply my task to refine their material.  This is all part of a greater project regarding the reduction of violence among refugee gangs but I'll explain more on all of that at a later time.

I will make sure to post on here where I'm going before I actually leave, and I'll make an effort to write another blog posting shortly after arrival.  Of course, if I don't write anything until next Sunday, there is no need to worry - it would be only a consequence of no internet access.  Of course you can always call my cell phone at 002 016 844  9768.