The 6th of October

You may have noticed that this past Saturday was the 6th of October. I had a very meta* day during which I went to the 6th district of 6th of October City. And there were six of us on the excursion. Had we spent six hours instead of five, I think our heads might have imploded because of the symmetry of it all.

6th of October City is a municipality about an hour's drive from downtown Cairo. The Sudanese Cultural Center is there, and so it was to there that I went with the program STAR. STAR organizes English classes for refugees. Some students are forced to make their ways to the university, but others get to stay near their homes and have the teachers (like Roommate 3 and I) come to them.

So come we did. We came in a van provided by STAR to administer the placement exam (actual teaching won't begin until after Eid break - the end of Ramadan). The girl in charge said that there were to be 25 Sudanese refugees and 25 Iraqi, but only 3 Iraqi got the memo and so were vastly outnumbered by about 50 Sudanese (only about 15 women, however). In my group were several kids of about 13 (some born in 1993, and they're already functioning human beings - it's terrifying!) but others in their thirties. Some knew a lot of English, it seemed to me, and others barely any. But they were all very serious about the test.

The test is hard. It might even be hard for native English speakers - the final section was all grammar. Other than that, there was a section in which they had to write the English alphabet, another for which I said two sentences and they were to write them down ("He drinks tea every morning" and "I am wearing a nice blue shirt today"). Then they had to identify pictures in multiple choice (Is this a girl, boy, man or dog?) and label other pictures.

The test takers didn't seem to understand, unfortunately, that you can't fail a placement exam. One boy pouted and refused to leave even when it was obvious that he couldn't answer any questions, another blatantly cheated. When he was caught cheating, however, he gave me the sweetest angel face grin and I immediately forgave him.

I can't wait to start teaching. The trek out there is exhausting, but being there has already felt rewarding because the people were so passionate about learning and so hospitable. They were fasting for Ramadam (I assume) but showered us with cold water bottles and sodas. They thanked us profusely for coming. And, since I'm at risk of dissolving into complete schmaltz right now, I'll also say that some of the refugees were about a foot taller than I am and this made me quite pleased.

In other news, Roommate 6 just ordered Chinese delivery and the meal come with these adorable little sauce towers:

I wish I could figure out a way to reuse this packaging. Paper clip holder?

* Am I using this word right?