Day Six

January 27th

Today was a pretty uneventful day. We woke up kind of late because we wanted to sleep in. After working out, we wondered around looking for food. Wandering around really means wandering around in Egypt. It's pretty easy to get lost in Zamalek. They don't believe in the good-old American grid pattern for city planning. Next we went to find the store, and this took about an hour in travel time. When asking for directions in Egypt, everybody will help you and give you directions. However, not everyone will give you right directions. Sometimes two people will give you completely opposite directions.
Then I got home and tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My roommate really has his life together, or as much as I can tell, and its a change of pace to be around someone who really seems to have a good grasp of reality and what matters. I on the other hand don't really have a life plan and it's kind of starting to get to me.
On the other hand, I kept thinking about this incident I had with a begger child in Maadi. This adorable little girl came up to me and tried to sell me these Napkins. I saw her mom over in the corner just sittting on the sidewalk and I knew that the Mother was using her children to sell the napkins because the kids could sell better to foreigners. I also wonder if she makes more money using the kids to sell to foreigners rather then getting a job. But you never know if your dollar might mean the difference between whether or not this daughter eats tonight. But whenever I encounter poor children, I always wonder where they are going to be in 10 or 15 years. What does the future hold for these kids who are born into a world that gives them so little. Is this girl going to live a life of suffering or she be able to break out of the cycle of poverty.
But how am I supposed to help these kids who society has left behind. We still haven't seen outside the ritzy Cairo. I heard Giza, which is the west side of the Nile is more representative of how the majority of Egyptians live. Maybe I'll check that out tomorrow.