Weaver was staying at ETSC and was relatively sheltered from the protests. On January 25 and 27 she was out in the city during the day but only saw one small demonstration. However, on the 27^th she was traveling by taxi when the taxi driver told her “Don’t go out tomorrow,” meaning Friday, January 28^th. From living and traveling in other Middle Eastern contexts she knew that Friday was the day that Muslims gathered at the mosques and was generally when unrest happened.

She took the taxi driver seriously and returned to the school on Thursday evening and did not leave again until Tuesday, when she made her way to the airport for a flight out of Egypt.

Finding a way out of Cairo quickly became her chief concern. Since she was alone in Egypt, without a group of mission workers or traveling companions it became more difficult to exit the country.

A friend suggested that a flight out by the US State Department might cost $6000 and that she should not travel to the airport without a ticket. Finally, she was able to get her name on the list of people that US State Department flew out on February 1. The $6000 price tag did not turn out to be true.

She was flown to Istanbul, Turkey where she then went through the difficult and expensive prospect of finding a flight home.

“In truly ironic fashion, the first three flights listed on the internet had layovers in Cairo. I obviously ignored those,” Weaver said.

After a long journey home Weaver is still thinking about her students at ETSC. The school has been closed since January 25 and will reopen next Monday, February 21. The school has an undergraduate 聽and graduate level program in pastoral studies. Currently 240 students are enrolled at ETSC. In 2002, Weaver taught a course at the undergraduate level. This year she was to teach a graduate level course. ETSC trains pastors for churches all around Egypt.

Weaver received an email from Atef Gendy, the president of ETSC on February 3 that read, “On New Year’s eve, Egypt was blustered by the bombing and killing of 23 Christians as they were leaving mass at one of the large Orthodox Christian Church in Alexandria. For the first time among similar incidents, the majority of citizens responded in grief and anger… That day I realized that Egypt was not the same any more. People were getting impatient with the lack of transparency and fake handling of serious situations.”

Weaver said, “I have hope that the new government that will be created in Egypt might be fair to minority and Christian groups. The previous government created a lot of challenges for Christian churches in Egypt. However, since the demonstration included both Muslims and Christians I hope good progress could be made on interfaith relationships in that country.”

When thinking about his upcoming sabbatical last year, 91短视频 economics professor Chris Gingrich knew he wanted to do something that wasn’t in his own backyard.

“I contacted a few different international organizations,” Gingrich said. “I basically expressed that I had a year to offer and if anyone could use my specific skills for a project, I would be glad to get involved. MEDA ended up being the right fit.”

Specifically, MEDA presented Chris with a project that would take him halfway across the globe. He was placed with a project in Tanzania that worked with the distribution of insecticide treated mosquito nets that were used to prevent malaria. The Tanzanian National Voucher Scheme (TNVS) project of the Tanzanian government promotes the distribution of these nets in the private sector with subsidized vouchers provided for citizens to purchase the nets. The goal of the project is to develop a sustainable supply chain for the nets even after the project ends.

“It’s quite a unique program in Africa, especially considering the large scale,” Gingrich said. “It has already had some positive effects, but the project also has seen its share of criticism.”

Most of this criticism is due to the remaining families who are not receiving nets fast enough, or not receiving them at all. Knowing this, Gingrich looked to research the specifics of why there was still a substantial population without access to mosquito nets. While many of the project’s critics blamed the price of the co-payments that were associated with the net vouchers, Gingrich’s research would lead him to a different conclusion.

“Price ended up being a much smaller cause of the problem than people had suggested,” Gingrich said. “Other variables like lack of education regarding malaria were more likely to contribute to individuals not buying nets.”

Most of his data were collected through the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and were crucial for his research.

“I was lucky to have such good data available to work with,” he said. “There is no way the research could have been completed within the year otherwise.”

In addition to his research, Gingrich spent a good part of September and October last year and May of this year in Tanzania. This time abroad also helped him in developing his conclusions.

“It’s easy to blame something like price when you are critiquing the situation,” Gingrich said. “In actuality, however, a mother’s decision to buy or not buy a mosquito net involves many other variables such as living environment and education. It is very much a case by case situation.”

As the project continues, the hope is that other African nations pick up this project in some form, and the idea of using the private sector to distribute nets is something that becomes favorable to a government and its people.

Now back at 91短视频, Gingrich is happy to have been part of a global project such as the TNVS.

“It was very fulfilling to be part of a cutting-edge project like this and to be able to come up with some very good results through my research,” Gingrich said. “I just hope that the research will have an impact and positive changes can be made through my work. I was fortunate to meet so many of the individuals associated with MEDA in Tanzania and I feel very lucky to have had the experience.”