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How to Grow in the Grief of Childhood Transition
There is loss in leaving, and adults come to know it quickly. Experienced overseas workers learn how to make immediate friendships, grieve good-byes, and move on to the next wave of arrivals. There is...
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Abortion and its Complications, in Egypt
via Mada Masr Ireland is in fierce debate over its future with abortion. Such high-stakes battles are often called a culture war. Abortion, like war, is a terrible thing. Even if one believes it is...
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What’s in Your Lunchbox?
One morning before school, Alexander, our newest kindergartener, was fiddling with Egyptian coins and thinking through options at the school canteen. His eyes lit up when he realized he could buy a...
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Dealing with Death at a Distance – 5 Tips for Saying Goodbye
The expat life has many benefits, but one of the hardest challenges is being far from family. This can be felt the most when you hear of someone who is sick, receives a bad medical prognosis, or is...
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Why Egyptians Get Confused by Our American Children’s Names
Names don’t work the same in every culture. We realized this six years ago, when our oldest daughter came home from her first days of school with “Emma Jaison” printed on her books. Her name is Emma...
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The Uneasy Life of a Middle East Skeleton
Meet Max. In skeleton-years he is at least 55. Max came to our home about three years ago, and I must confess we have not treated him very well. At the time of his arrival our young children had...
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Hijabs, Burkinis, and Assumptions
A woman wears a Burkini in the south of France Credit: PA (via ITV) A quick word to not judge by appearances, or to make assumptions about religious values. Our family took a vacation to the Red Sea...
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The Importance of ‘Nizam’
This quote is taken from an Iranian, but I think the sentiment — and language — would be the same for many Arabs: On July 4, Mahmoud Esmaeili, a 33-year-old software engineer, became an American...
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Ramadan Diversity
(via http://blogs.viu.edu/2015/08/viu-launches-new-diversity-luncheon-series-with-ramadan-festival/) Today is the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. In order to help our Western friends understand...
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Should Christians Join Muslims in Breaking Ramadan’s Daily Fast?
This article was first published at Christianity Today, on June 22, 2017. For most American Christians, Ramadan is a novelty; something heard of, but rarely seen. For Middle Eastern Christians, it is...
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Will the Ambush of a Church Retreat Ambush Also Coptic Faith?
This article was first published at Providence Magazine. (Photo Credit: Screenshot of Associated Press raw footage of bus that was carrying Coptic Christians going to church retreat when they were...
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Art after Terror: Meet the Egyptian Church that Welcomes Muslims
This article was first published at The Media Project. Two weeks after the Palm Sunday suicide bombing in Alexandria, security at the St. Mark’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral was tight. Police cordon, metal...
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Ballerinas of Cairo
One of the ballerinas participating in the Ballerinas of Cairo project poses, Cairo, Nov. 11, 2016. (photo by Facebook/ballerinaofcairo) Al-Monitor highlights a new effort to get art to the street....
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Creative Solutions to Sexual Crime
Arabic: There is no need for men only. (Photograph: Virginie Nguyen, via Mada Masr.) Official Egyptian statistics departments have recently published sobering numbers concerning domestic violence: At...
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Ramadan Balderdash
In Egypt, Ramadan is not only highly anticipated as month of spiritual fasting, but also as a month of television entertainment. It is estimated that 80% of original content is released during the...
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The Mural in the Garbage: An Artist’s ‘Perception’ of Cairo’s Coptic Slum
eL Seed’s ‘Perception’ as seen from the St. Simon Monastery in Cairo’s Muqattam Mountains This article was first published at The Media Project: In 2013 the French-Tunisian eL Seed became the first...
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Muslims are not Islam is not Muslims
(from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II42IpzskRI) From an article at the Zwemer Center, written by a philosopher fed up with popular coverage of Muslim issues: One philosophical distinction that may...
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Inshallah for the Foreigner
The Arabic literally translates as ‘if God wills’, but it conveys a whole lot more – usually to the foreigner’s frustration. In this article for the New York Times, Wajahat Ali explains: It’s similar...
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From Garbage to Glory
From my new article for Christianity Today’s Behemoth publication: The Pyramids of Giza used to be in the middle of the desert. Eventually Cairo’s urban sprawl pushed right up to the Sphinx. The...
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Q+A with an Oscar Nominee: What’s So Funny about the West Bank?
This article was first published at Christianity Today, on Feb. 26. The plot to Ave Maria is as improbable as it is provocative. A Jewish settler family crashes their car into a statue of the Virgin...
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