Madison County family talks about life in Egypt
BY MARGIE RICHARDS
In her book, A Thousand and One Egyptian Nights, Jennifer Drago said she and her family felt a “radical call” that uprooted them from their lives and their work with refugees at Jubilee Partners in Comer, and took them halfway around the world to work and live among Muslims in Egypt.
It was early 2003, nearly two years after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks, when Drago and her husband Brad Smith felt this call. Many people wondered why they would want to do such a thing, and at such a time, particularly since they were taking their three children along as well.
But Drago said she always desired to live abroad with her family, not only to expose, but also to immerse them in another life.
“I wanted them to know that they belong to a whole world of people, with needs and wants just a valid as their own,” said Drago in her book.
And now a little over a year back home from their adventure, the entire family stood before those attending the Friends of the Madison County Library meeting last Sunday afternoon to talk about some of the things they learned.
Drago told of how they signed on with the Mennonite Central Committee, which has volunteers in numerous countries. Though not Mennonites themselves, they were offered a three-year position in Egypt. Drago was assigned to teach English in a “mixed” (Muslim and Christian) school, while Smith would teach English to adults in the evenings.
The family lived in Beni Seuf, a town of about 250,000 people. Before their departure and while there, they all took lessons in reading and writing the Arabic language. Drago brought along some children’s story books to illustrate how Egyptians write and read from right to left, instead of from left to write – just one of many differences in culture. The population of Egypt is made up of roughly 90 percent Muslims and 10 percent “Coptic”(Orthodox) Christians.
Drago and her family performed simple skits to illustrate how the Egyptian people interact with each other.
The family found their Egyptian acquaintances and friends to be very welcoming and very friendly to them.
Drago said intermarriage between the two religions is frowned on, as are conversions, though those of both faiths do a lot of things together – like work, go to school and shop.
“People there don’t discuss their religion, it’s considered taboo,” Drago said.
The country is 97 percent desert, so most of the population lives in dense, tightly packed cities. For example, despite the large population of Beni Seuf, they could walk the perimeter of the city in just over an hour.
Drago said she wrote A Thousand and One Egyptian Nights as a story of her family’s experiences in Egypt and the lives of those they came in contact with during their stay there.
