2009-2010 Presidential Interns Traveled the Watching BBC Arabia
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INTERNAL AFFAIRS Volume IX: Spring 2010 The Unofficial Newsletter of the Presidential Interns WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE INSIDE THIS ISSUE: PRESIDENTIAL INTERNS ? The K‘anna Society 2 Coming Home 2 AUC Recycles Cairo 2 A Tale of Two Egypts 3 Lessons with Arwa 4 LA to Cairo 5 The Big 3-0 6 Interns, 1981-2009 7-8 The 2009-10 Interns 9 The 2009-2010 Presidential Interns traveled the watching BBC Arabia. Middle East and Europe, while still finding time This year‘s interns elected to hold special seminars with AUC experts, to work hard and enjoy their lives in Egypt. including Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Where in the world are the 2009- Skype to the usual Arabic Dr. Jerry Leach, Director of the 2010 Presidential Interns? homework, naps, and music made AUC‘s Center for American the commute bearable. On the New studies, and Dr. Lisa Anderson, At any given moment during the Campus, the interns took advantage AUC Provost. All interns agreed year of their internship, it was of the many spectacular resources that they benefitted enormously difficult to pin down the many available to them. From sports and from the scholarly discussions, activities each intern was juggling. choirs, to plays and films, the New career advice, and esteemed Whether it was quenching the never Campus offers many activities to company. ending travel bug in the region and unwind with after a long work day. beyond, or checking out baladi Together, the interns traveled to bread factories and the camel Sam and Ellen were the star Alexandria and Ain El Sokhna, but market within Cairo, the interns athletes, joining the basketball team once the initial weeks turned into were always moving. and swim team respectively, but months, travel plans became Laura could often be found on the tailored to each intern‘s individual In the second full year on the New tennis courts if she wasn‘t on the interests. Often Saturday and Campus, we rode the bus from AUC farm or campaigning for Sunday nights were spent recapping Zamalek, our commute taking about campus-wide recycling. Kavita activities, as the interns returned two hours out of our days. But joined the choir, and was asked to home to the hostel upon the luckily for all commuters, wifi was sign the AUC school song at completion of journeys. And on the installed on the buses this year, so Commencement, while Steve and rare weekends when all interns the introduction of the New York Henry could often be spotted in the Times, Gmail, Facebook, and Faculty Lounge, gossiping and (See Interns, page 3) 2 AUC R ECYCLES C AIRO LAURA HANNA They transport it home, sort it, and are able DESERT DEVELOPMENT to recycle up to 80% of what is collected. CENTER It has been daunting to realize that in Cairo – The organic waste, which makes up to 50% a city of an ever-growing population of 22 of Cairo‘s total waste, was used to feed the million that produces 14,000 tons of trash pigs. When the pigs were slaughtered, the per day – there is little emphasis on waste Zabaleen who had already been management. Egypt‘s preemptive solution experiencing pressure from the government back when the H1N1 virus hit over a year to move further outside of town, were at a ago was to kill all the pigs in Cairo. This loss. The government had already tried to may seem of little significance, but when ‗formalize‘ the sector of waste management you actually look at the broader system, you by bring in international companies to realize the consequences which Cairo is only implement new systems, there was of course now really beginning to face. The pigs were no proper economic assessment and so the part of the largest informal trash collection system fell to the wayside. So for the noticeable trash build in certain places that system in the world based in a community Zabaleen, the political pressure, geographic we frequent. Downtown, Coptic Cairo, even called the ‗Zabaleen,‘ or trash people who constraints and physical limitations they had on the drive to New Campus; it is live in the Manshiyet Nasr district of Cairo. been placed under uprooted their disheartening to experience the waste of a The Zabaleen are an informal group who productivity and the rest of Cairo is still city piling up in real time and to realize that collect trash for profit throughout Cairo. feeling it. From when the interns first arrived in Cairo this past August, there has been a (See Recycle, page 6) W ELCOME H OME …TO E GYPT ? HENRY AGBO is a simple equation that equals from?‖ would come, I often paused for OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS distinctiveness. After all, I was born and moments, racked with indecision. ―I‘m AND MARKETING raised in St. Louis, Missouri, but it just so American.‖ It would spill out of me. The A chorus rang out. ―Welcome home, happens that both of my parents came from regret would rain down. Being American brother,‖ the men all shouted in quick Nigeria. One element that was always means being different, oppositional, or a succession. Those proclamations of greeting missing from this conception of the self, ―them‖ in the ―us versus them‖ dichotomy. were eventually replaced by the more though, is that I had never been to Nigeria or Of course, it is not without its rewards. An expected entreaties and questions as one even Africa before. American passport has cachet. It means meanders through a marketplace, such as access, privilege, connections and power in a ―Come shop in my store!‖ or ―How can I Thus, when I came to Egypt for the first country where these things are hard to gain. take your money?‖ or even ―Mister Obama, time, it was sort of a homecoming. While I It sparks curiosity and a barrage of questions do you want a t-shirt?‖ My initial feelings of had yet to venture into sub-Saharan Africa about music, movies, and New York City elation at instant belonging were quickly which is my true ancestral home, this was a (even if you‘re not from there). Separation replaced with the unease of being just start for me, the beginning of a journey that and distinction, however, persist. another foreigner seemingly with an undoubtedly meant shedding light for myself inordinate amount of money to waste in an on the place that European scholars used to On the contrary, being Nigerian does not overwhelming and incomprehensible new disparagingly refer to as the ―Dark bear a wide range of benefits. The status place. Welcome to Egypt. I wondered what Continent‖. I thought that Egyptians could does not exist. In those choice moments in that really meant. see my desperation to belong, to be in which I have decided to answer the question communion with my African brothers and of ―Where are you from?‖ with one simple I am Nigerian-American, and in adopting a sisters. It was as if I had a sign taped to my word, ―Nigeria‖, the outcome has been hyphenated identity I am careful to never forehead. noticeably different though. A smile has place a stronger emphasis on either of the often sprouted across the face of my current requisite parts of my cultural composition. I I soon saw those expectations dashed – at interrogator. ―Foooooootball,‖ he would am Nigerian wholly. I am American fully. It least insofar as I am a Westerner. When the inevitable question of ―Where are you (See Home? page 6) T HE K’A NNA S OCIETY STEPHEN KALIN friend, guide, interpreter, teacher, traffic cop. skills despite being a product of the OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT (When crossing the street, he urges me not to inhibiting Egyptian public school and I met Ahmed Shawket during my second fear oncoming traffic. ―They‘re university system. He taught himself English month in Egypt. Initially connected through professionals!‖ he says about the drivers who from reading books, watching TV, listening the famous Cairo Scholars listserv, we began speed up when they see us crossing.) to American music, and meeting foreigners. as language exchange partners and became His speech is flawless and his cultural quick friends. For a few months, we sat in a Ahmed is 26 and a master‘s student at Cairo fluency is excellent, though he has never baladi café once a week where he would University. He studies anthropology, but he been outside of Egypt. read aloud in English and I in Arabic to hates it and actually reads more philosophy practice pronunciation and comprehension. than anything else. In one of our first Through Ahmed‘s eyes, I‘ve learned more Since then, we have met more regularly and meetings, he read from a book of about Egypt than I ever could have by for no particular reason other than to spend contemporary philosophical theories; I made reading books. He rarely goes to class, time together. Ahmed has been one of the him switch to a novel. He‘s a really bright guy–somehow he developed critical thinking best parts of my life in Cairo, acting as (See K’Anna, page 4) 3 W HERE IN THE W ORLD ARE THE P RESIDENTIAL I NTERNS ? Interns (Continued from page 1) Horreya Coffee Shop, L‘Aubergine, We will cherish our memories and Pub 28, or Odeon. friendships from this year, and they were in town, the terrace became a will stay with us, no matter where dance floor, and interns could be The interns will always remember life takes us.