Having just returned from a four day Eid al-Adha vacation in Dahab, a small diving-central town on the Red Sea, the noise and business of Cairo has hit like a ton of bricks. There was a serious part of me that did not want to go to work today, especially after the 8.5 hour bus ride back and the pollution-induced headache that I currently have.

But I find myself sitting at work prepared to be useful, get things done and be productive with absolutely nothing to do. I find that this is something to learn from. Many businesses in other countries do not function the way they do in Western cultures. Some places take tea and coffee breaks (more oft, Nescafe) four or five times a day. Others hold only six or seven hour work days. There are time when the internet goes out, so everyone goes home since nothing can be done from the office. Sometimes, all of these things can apply. I am learning, though, that this is not always a bad thing. Taking six tea breaks in a day means that you are spending more time with the people around you, getting to know the people and the organization fully and deeply. People are not just there to work, they are there to invest their time and be committed to the organization. There are definitely things that come from a society focused on relationships that societies who prize individuality over all else could learn from. We need to take that prized idea of 'community' from college and apply it to our lives and relationships outside of that one setting. 

So I sit here, waiting for my boss to come back from a training he is leading. It can be frustrating, or I can find things to do. So I find myself praying more, writing to friends and my fellow SALTers more, and taking time to not be busy. Time to sit and listen. To reflect on the things I have seen. A week ago I was in Alexandria at a community center based in Ras el Soda, a slum. I saw children who had unexplicable joy in lives that were led sorting through trash, living on less than $2 a day and in two room cinder block houses. Then I spent the last week in a small slice of paradise, though not quite Puerto Viejo. How can you reconcile injustice and privilege? How do you take that privilege and use it to create positive change and not casually exploit it? And how to do I return to the States and find a job? Do I choose the job that will be focused on helping others and may be far out of my comfort zone, or do I set up camp somewhere more comfortable with a job that helps me get out of debt? 

These are all the SALTers, IVEPers, and YAMENers out in the world this year. Prayers for them would be great. Also, if you're interested in the positions open for 2013-2014, check this link out and ask me questions. 

on friendship

"Friendship is acting out of God's love for people in tangible ways. We were made to represent the love of God in each other's lives, so that each person we walk through life with has a more profound sense of God's love for them. Friendship is an opportunity to act on god's behalf in the lives of the people that we're close to, reminding each other who God is. When we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life. We get to remind one another about the bigger, more beautiful pictures that we can't always see from where we are."

 - cold tangerines by Shauna Niequist (pg. 49)

I have lately been reading this book, cold tangerines, where Shauna Niequist tells stories of faith and life from a perspective that is so incredibly relatable. I think it's exactly what I have been needing to hear lately. Being so far away from my closest friends has made me so thankful and regretful at the same time. I feel like I spent so much time getting to know a large number of people that I sometimes failed to be a good friend. Niequist is reminding me that it is okay to be an imperfect person. Instead, true friendship involves risks, fears and doubts. I have always wondered, if I really open up with someone, will they still love me and want to be my friend? This is a fear that so many people have and so many people share. Why not take a few minutes and think about those friends you want to know better and maybe challenge yourself to be more intentionally open and honest with them? Even if it's scary.

"True friendship is a sacred, important thing, and it happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broken, fragile parts of ourselves. We have to give something up in order to get friendship like that. We have to give up our need to be perceived as perfect. We have to give up our ability to control what people think of us. We have to overcome the fear that when they see the depths of who we are, they'll leave. But what we give up is nothing in comparison to what this kind of friendship gives to us. Friendship is about risk. Love is about risk. If we can control and manage it and manufacture it, then its something else, but if it's really love, really friendship, it's a little scary around the edges." 

- cold tangerines by Shauna Niequist (pg. 50)

"Why does humanity feel an innate need to pay a debt?"

This is a question that a friend of mine, who is in Bolivia for the year, asked in a blog post that I just read. He asked this question after walking through a Cochabamba market where people were buying and giving sacrifices to Pachamama (mother earth). Thinking about it, at home, people have a tendency to try and never be in debt to one another, because they don't want to owe people anything. Perhaps this comes with the independence so valued in Western culture, but at the same time, is it something that could be applied to all cultures?

How do you reconcile a feeling of indebtedness to God since we will never not be indebted to Him? Should you even want to?