This is Kate Calle and I am a first year Sociology graduate student at Texas A&M University. For three months this summer, I will be volunteering for Project Hope in Nablus, Palestine. The majority of my time will be spent teaching children refugees English but I will also be teaching students computer skills through Project [...]
From the category archives:
Travels
Since 1922, Egypt has been struggling with freedom. Hamed Oweis’ painting, Fellah, represents the constant feeling of being contained within certain parameters in Egypt ranging from pre-revolutionary Egypt, Nasser’s socialism, and Qutb’s Islamism. Although each stage tried to free the individual, each failed in a different way. Pre-revolutionary Egypt tried to liberate Egyptians by finding [...]
Cairo is a city filled with versatility. The architecture and city planning varies from one part to the next. This change goes hand and hand with the change of politics and culture within the city. Cairo is so old that you can literally see its transformation by walking its streets. The various streets of Old [...]
There has been a lot of attention on Sharm al-Sheikh recently due to the meeting of the African Union speaking about Zimbabwe. I just came back from there and it is a unique city to have the African Union. It is not a real city at all so I guess that would make it a [...]
A show next to Al-Azhar University where performers spin and sing in order to induce a trance.
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The sunrise on the top of Mt. Sinai
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Me riding a camel, who oddly enough is also named Moses, down Mt. Sinai. They are really bumpy because it is easy to slip. Bedouins constantly try to get you to ride the camel down because that is how they get their money to survive. I negotiated the price down to 5 [...]
I’ve almost died so many times either riding in a taxi or walking across the street. There are no crossovers or walkways across the road in Egypt. You try to get across like you are playing Fogger. Two steps forward, watch out for that car, two steps back but quick, here comes [...]
Sexuality is puzzling in the Middle East. There is an extreme dichotomy. Women are covered but there are lingerie shops everywhere that put the lacy bras with no nipple coverings up at the front in the window. Then you see the women shopping there. There is an extreme dichotomy between public [...]
I’m riding in a bus to Mt. Sinai. I realize that since I’ve been to Egypt I haven’t once seen a sixteen wheeler. Nothing is shipped. Everything is made and sold locally. The Bedouins wives bead and sow, the Bedouins sell what their wives make. Then they both get to eat for the day. I [...]
