One of the sections of the Adham Center course I’m teaching in documentary filmmaking has decided to do a film about a nature protectorate just outside the Cairo suburbs. The Wadi Degla (Wadi is Arabic for valley) is a 30km-long canyon that became a national park in 1999. It’s a haven for wildlife — there […]

I can finally report that I’ve begun the task that brought me here to Egypt. Two and a half weeks ago, I started teaching a five-week course in documentary filmmaking as part of the professional development program at the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism here at the American University. My students have a wide range

The American University here organizes excursions for newer faculty, so they can get out a bit and see the city and country. Over Thanksgiving weekend, instead of a turkey dinner — which I had on Wednesday with some other new faculty friends — they put together a trip to the town of Rosetta (Rashid in

Here are some photos from my recent trip to the Sinai peninsula. They feature images of the Ras Mohamed National Marine Park; the seaside sidewalk of Dahab and the aptly named Colored Canyon.    

Sometimes I talk too fast. And just as often I use idioms or phrases that are lost on a non-native speaker. Add to that my bad habit of going for the worst of puns, and you can see how I’ve baffled more than a few people in my world-traveling life. It’s something I have to

Here are some photos from a tour of Cairo’s oldest Coptic churches and the art (and beautiful ceiling woodwork and stained glass) from the Coptic Museum.    

Maybe it was because I grew up with a playground of 20 odd acres of woods behind my house, that I feel most at home in nature. Having lived in big cities, and now in choking, chaotic Cairo, I know more than ever that nature, to me, is a necessity, if only for a day

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt.   With the Eid el-Fitr holiday this week, the university is closed and many who can afford to, leave Cairo for their holiday homes.  So I got outta town and came to the Sinai peninsula, where today I took my first dive in the Red Sea. Two amazing dives, with great visibility, along

Here are a few photos from my trip to the White Desert and the Baharia Oasis. Stories to come.

I’m going on a trip to the Baharia oasis and the white desert. I hear it’s an amazing place. I’m taking the frisbee. And the camera. Will show you pics and tell you stories when I get back.