Day 3 – the jesuit father’s school

We were taken to the Jesuit father’s school for a visit this morning. The school was founded by scouts and is now a progressive private school in minya. We were very privileged to be shown round the school, observe some lessons and talk to the children. It felt a bit like being famous when they all crowded round us and used the chance to practice their English by asking our names. We were also photographed constantly by the people from the school. I expect we’ll turn up in a copy of the school magazine next year. The school is particularly advanced in it’s provision for disabled children. The staff go out in to rural communities and find disabled children so they can be introduced to the school. They can go there for 2 years and are taught in Arabic and English, the aim being that they have better employment opportunities on leaving.
3 things to remember in Egypt: IBM= Inshallah (god willing), Bokram (tomorrow), Malesh (there’s a problem but it’s ok, no doubt the Achilles heel of the country!)
KFC for lunch, a more appropriate portion size than any other meal we’ve eaten. Egyptians love to provide and give.
Sarah, Gemma, Kate and I got locked in our room with the key just spinning in the lock. Luckily we can shout to the girls next door from the balcony so we weren’t stuck for long but the process did involved explaining the problem in sparabic and a full on lock change!
Today’s training was the self esteem session. The girls engaged really well and particularly enjoyed making up their cheers to advocate for their chosen causes. Trying to explain the concept of advocacy was harder and when we asked the girls for their own examples of situations where they have made a difference we had one story from a girl who took a chicken in to school and got told to keep it quiet, which she did by holding it’s mouth! The concept of advocacy was lost in translation by some of them; maybe something to adapt for next week.
After training we were taken to the supermarket, accompanied by some of the girls and the obligatory police escort. The boys in blue (or khaki) came in to their own when they carried our 12 bottles of water and our shopping in the police car while we were accompanied for a wander along the corniche beside the Nile.
The walk was something of an adventure in itself. There were the 6 of us in our centenary pink tshirts, Heba, mrs Wadet and Habal, Habal’s son, 2 of the girls from training and our policeman. We were also stopped by some local men who wanted to practice their English, which caused a stir with the policeman! Between us we must have been quite a sight for the locals!