The Department of State: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is sending teachers of Arabic to Alexandria, Egypt to strengthen what is considered a critical need language in schools across the country. The program's official name is the Intensive Summer Language Institute for Arabic. I am going this year with the program. We leave next week.
This is one of the exchanges Obama spoke about in his speech in Cairo recently.
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Obama's Speech in Cairo
(Image from CNN International)
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/04/egypt.obama.speech/index.html
I got a phone call this morning around 9:30am from Washington D.C. My contacts at Relief International: Schools Online and the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs wanted me to get on Skype to speak to youth from across Palestine to talk about Obama’s Speech in Cairo. We spoke to these Palestinian youth for about an hour live fielding comments and questions.
They were generally positive. Some of the old frustrations are still there of course but the dialogue is changing. When Obama says he will open up opportunities for exchanges, I know that this is true because we are recipients of these exchanges. When Obama talks about a student in Kansas talking online in real time to students in Cairo, it was happening between me in Utah and Palestinians in Ramallah almost as he spoke those words.
I believe things are changing.
Watch the speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BlqLwCKkeY&feature=player_embedded
Cairo: Modernity
I once stayed at a sprawling four star hotel with a large group of Brigham Young University students outside Cairo. We were often possessive of the air conditioning in the hotel lobby and restaurants after hot days. I remember a song playing outside drawing me out of the lobby into the evening air to gaze at the Egyptian stars.
“Don’t Cry for me Argentina.”
Didn't expect to hear it. The song is from an American made movie about Argentina which I first saw in Israel with Hebrew subtitles; reminding me that Cairo isn’t only about pyramids.
“Don’t Cry for me Argentina.”
Didn't expect to hear it. The song is from an American made movie about Argentina which I first saw in Israel with Hebrew subtitles; reminding me that Cairo isn’t only about pyramids.
