St. Simon the Tanner, Garbage City - 10/9/2017

Hello! Brodie here. Today, we spent our morning touring St. Simon the Tanner Monastery which is located in an area called “Garbage City.” The informal city there is home to about 90,000 people and of those, 90% are Christians. The area gets its name from the mounds of trash around the area and from the livelihoods of the people–– they are the trash collectors of Cairo and have been for many, many years. There are no government contracts with the people of the city, and their living is made purely from collecting, sorting, and selling useable items as well as raising animals (ex. Pigs, goats). To make it through the small, rough streets of the city on our way to visit the monastery, we had to trade out our big bus and opt for two smaller buses (which may have still been a little big..). St. Simon the Tanner Monastery is home to the largest church in the Middle East (it seats 20,000 people!) and when we arrived at our destination, many of us were quite confused–– there was no church to be seen. I think that most of us expected some grand church like those of Europe, but that was not the case as we soon found out that the church was built down into the side of the sheer rock cliffs. Ultimately, the shape of the church was not surprise as the resourcefulness of the monks reflects that of the community down below that makes a living using the very same spirit. Later in the afternoon, we had a few more research presentations from our peers which delved into similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity and how that can play into interfaith dialogue.