Conference...relationships continue, and now add girls!

Okay, now girls. Here, at the retreat, it was more like at home (i.e. Canada), but you could tell it is more conservative. This might be a bit more useful if I had in the past described the conservatism of Egypt in the first place, but I haven’t so bear with me. In general, guys hang out with guys, girls with girls, if there is no specific activity. Similarly, during the service, for the most part, guys sit with guys and so on. Meals were a little more integrated. During activities sports, the whole conference was divided into six units who you stayed with, and accumulated points (my unit won!!), and here there was a little more interaction still. The most interaction came during less sporty-type games, the sports tended to be male-dominant, especially soccer (which of course is the biggest sport, just like the rest of the world). Still, by Egyptian standards, actually, the interaction between the genders is very open. It is socially acceptable for me to go up to a girl, introduce myself and strike up a conversation with her. This is not at all appropriate just in the street or at work or anything like that.

(It should be noted that I didn’t go strike up a bunch of conversations with girls before I knew them, for a number of reasons: I was still learning what was and was not appropriate, and, just because it’s okay, doesn’t mean it’s really the norm [i.e. it still felt like it would have been a bit weird, given the feeling of some segregation] plus it’s not like my conversation skills are great, and I still had lots of opportunities by being introduced when people were in a group and in meeting my sports unit).

To continue, actually it was really nice to meet and visit with girls. We all know that there is a time when people of the opposite gender are icky, but once that has passed (and I think it’s more or less passed in me), I don’t think guys do well without knowing girls and interacting with them socially. So I think this culture would be difficult for single guys, given its cultural restrictions on the interactions. That statement most heavily applies to people outside the evangelical church.
[Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to accurately portray the picture here, but bear with me. By the end of my months of rambling, you’ll probably eventually get it, as the sum of my interactions].