fishy hands

2 Scissors, 2 sticks of glue, lots of paper, and even more smiles. A typical morning in the "Green Room" at the 57 3 57 Children's Hospital where I started volunteering this past Monday. Arriving around 10am, I spend the morning cutting, folding, drawing, and today, I got to be Aya's left hand (here left hand was too brusied from needles).

I work with the in-patients who have cancer. I hang out until 1:30ish teaching the children and their Mom's different crafts. These aren't complicated, technical crafts, just simple, easy, fold here, cut there, glue this types of crafts I learned growing up.

Every two weeks, the hospital has a party for the children, so this week, I made crowns for the boys and girls on the 6th floor where I've been working. The excitement of the Mom's seeing their children receive this is reward enough! The Mom's are the nurses. They are at the hospital, dressed in grubs, rolling the IV machines around, pushing buttons, and doing whatever else they can to keep their children comfortable and happy (which isn't always easy).

To get to the hospital, I catch a taxi to the Metro Station, take a 30min metro ride, and walk about 15 minutes through a part of Old Cairo. Old buildings lining streets full of goats, sheep, and blood from the local butcher shop; the clanging of ironsmiths, tin buckets full of coal, and old wooden stands full of delicious looking fruit whose vibrancy contrasts the dark hues of the old buildings.

Walking through these steets brings a smile to my face. And yesterday, brought me fishy hands. As I began my little hike up the stairs to the metro, a few older ladies grasped to the railing with grocery bags full of fish. Relieving them of their load, I waited at the top, returned their fish, and went on my way.......with fishy hands.

While being squished by smelly men in the metro (I couldn't find the women's car again), the fishy hands served as a good reminder of why I'm here -- standing far too close to a pit full of un-deodarized arm..........