Nilea and I rendezvoused in Frankfurt on July 2 and flew to Cairo together.  It was a long day of travel, but all went well.

The first week here, we met with the Townhouse Gallery staff, holding planning sessions and meeting all the venue staff.  Many issues required in-depth discussion, including sign language interpretation for the students with hearing impairments and the English-Arabic language translation.  VSA arts of Egypt is providing sign language interpreters and Townhouse Gallery staff members are serving as English language translators for me and Nilea.

The teaching staff at Townhouse are a model staff in that they are open to receiving training, and are willing to put that training immediately into practice.  The staff and administration took on a notable challenge by combining two very diverse populations of children - children from low income families and children with disabilities from entirely different neighborhoods and economic contexts.  To my knowledge, the Townhouse staff have little or no prior experience with children with disabilities, yet their dedication to arts education is clearly evident in their willingness to welcome them into their neighborhood and to the Townhouse.

And the children are so eager to receive what we want to share.  They crowd around, asking questions in rapid fire Arabic, trying to be patient with the translation process.  I have learned a few Arabic words, and they seem to delight in hearing me try to apply the correct inflection as i ask, in Arabic, "Ready?"  I yearn to learn even a few words more, in the hope of communicating more directly with them.

There are many challenges still to be addressed, but this initiative clearly shows a great deal of promise.  Nilea and I are both highly impressed by the the staff's commitment to serving the needs of the chldren.  They are working with limited financial and material resources, but there are two things in great abundance - humour and compassion.

William Wells, Director of the Townhouse, told us a bit of the history of the development of the venue, which I found very moving.  He describes the neighborhood around the venue (an intricate maze of narrow lanes) as transformed from an area riddled with drug dealers and street crime into a hub a creativity and safety - a place where women can and do comfortably travel in the evenings.