Walstons in Egypt 2024-2026

  We had two friends from our branch feed us this week. The first, Wael Nasr, cooked Syrian food for us at our home. He is the person we have mentioned before that fled from Syria with his family. He was a wealthy business person and the war there has destroyed everything he built. He and his 16 year old daughter became members of the church earlier this year. His daughter, wife and other 2 children returned to Syria this year, as they had few opportunities here. They are living in As Suwayda, which is in the southern part of the country and protected by Druse militiamen. However, his smallest daughter begged her daddy to return, as she was frightened hearing the bombs go off in the city. Wael makes little money here, even though he is a trained sculptor and very smart. He gets very emotional when he talks about how he misses his family. He started our meal about 6:30 and we finally ate at 9:15. Long- but it was very good.  The meal was cooked in components and then added toge...

  We visited an NGO, Resala, today that was very interesting in the scope of what they do. They started in 2000 with the concept of helping people develop humanitarian services that they were interested in. From one small site, they now have 9 and 30-40 different ventures to help the poor. They do not charge anything and most of the people here are volunteers. One project they do is take used clothes, resort them, and give them to the poor neighborhoods.  They also take medications that are not expired and sort them to redistribute to the poor. We were told that there is a doctor that supervises and trains the volunteers. They teach and tutor the blind. They work with and train the disabled. This is their library to help students learn. This is their deaf class. They also train women to create crafts to sell. They tried to insist that we take one of the crafts home to remember them, but we negotiated to take this picture instead. They are teaching youths computer skills. This ...

  We had the opportunity to travel with Bishop Waddel of the Presiding Bishopric and Elder Parella, thee First Counselor in our Area Presidency, this week. It might seem that we are vacationing, and we did see some impressive sights, but there was a lot of discussion regarding the work here and we learned a lot from both. We went to the new national museum with them. The official opening will be next November. We took the group to the Giza Pyramids. The group includes (left to right) Beca Chatterly, a friend of the Livingstones, Boyce Fitzgerald and his wife, he is the Area DA, Bishop Waddel and his wife, Elder Parrella and his wife, and us. Elder Parrella and his wife climbed up part of the pyramid. Bishop Waddel and his wife took a short camel ride. All of us gathered again after eating lunch in a nice area near the pyramids. We also visited with the top people of Magdi Yacoub hospital. They are completing a 300 bed cardiac hospital and our church is seriously considering to help...

  We had a wonderful trip to Aswan and Luxor this week. The Church has been assisting purchasing equipment for the Magdi Jacub Heart Hospital in Aswan and we had the opportunity to visit the hospital and speak with the leadership. I was very favorably impressed with the hospital director's philosophies and what they have done. We will be visiting their new Cairo hospital this week with Bishop Waddel and a member of our Area Presidency when they visit. The hospital does not charge for their services and performs cardiac care and has one of the largest pediatric cardiac service in Egypt. The new hospital in Cairo will be much bigger. We will probably continue to fund their efforts. We also then had the opportunity to see many ancient sites in Southern Egypt, up the Nile. We started in Aswan and went to the night show at the Abu Simbel Temples. Then the next day on our drive from Aswan to Luxor we saw Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple.  We traveled for the first day with Amy Livingstone a...

  We visited the Dokki Clinic run by Egypt Without Disease. They are a NGO that is made up of primarily Coptic Christians and have clinics and provide services across the country. Latter-day Saint Charities has contributed to 3 different projects for them. In this clinic we purchased various equipment. They are very nice people.  The clinic is in a rather poor area near the center of Cairo and provides a sliding scale for how much people pay. The charges are quite low, especially for us, as a dental check-up would be about $15. This is the entrance to the clinic. Here is a dental chair that we purchased. Note the LDS Charities sticker on the machine.  This is what the clinic looked prior to the renovation. This is the upper floor that they would like to remodel.

  We took our first Metro ride to the center of Cairo to visit the office of Hospice Egypt. They are the only functioning hospice in all of Egypt. Like many not-for-profit hospices in the US, they struggle in meeting the very high demands for their services. They also do not charge for any of their services. Over 70 percent of the people they treat are from the very, very poor. I believe she indicated that these people make less than $100 per month.  The Church has provided them with supplies in the past and have a grant to purchase a generator and additional supplies. The inpatient facility they have does not have an adequate electrical service. In fact, she indicated that they do not have enough power there to run a fan. The Ministry of Social Services (MOSS) must approve all international transfers and this takes 3-6 months. We did stop and eat at a restaurant in downtown Cairo.  Today, Friday, after church services we had an Arabic lesson with our dear friend, Wael. W...

  We had the opportunity to visit an orphanage that is not too far from our apartment. They have about 350 children from babies to adults for whom they care. We may develop a humanitarian project with them.  The children were very cute and sang to us one of the surat they are learning. Each also told us "My name is ...." Here is one of the board members with displays of students who excelled and received awards from the President of Egypt. They teach a lot of crafts, including weaving, sewing, and pottery.  On the way back to our apartment we walked behind this older lady with the carpet on her head.

  We have been asked by the District President to mentor a member in his business. He is a very good man, who originally fled from South Sudan. He was a member there and his wife investigated the church here and was baptized last year. He started a repair and refrigeration small business with some assistance from the church, but yet lacks some small business skills. The other person in the picture is Kevin Livingstone, the other service volunteer here. He has been Brother Daud's mentor, but will be going home in a couple of months, so we are in the process of transitioning. The next picture is the streets we walked to get to his business with Kathleen and Sister Livingstone in the picture. Again, the Livingstones have been wonderful to us since we have been here and will miss them when they leave. Their replacement couple should be here in January. The walk to Brother Daud's office and home was like going through a maze. I certainly could not find it again by myself. School was...