Saturday, October 25, 2008

A Fox on Campus

We had a fox on campus (1). A real, live, red fox visited us. A beautiful creature many of us think, how exciting, and what a privilege to be this close! Somehow a lot of people seem to believe that foxes are dangerous. Hey Bio-Club, Environmental Club! City people happen to often be fearful of "wild creatures", too many fairy tales and monster stories surround them You should start an awareness campaign!

Friday, October 10, 2008

AUC New Cairo Campus

We received an amazing, incredible, beautiful present. A brand-new campus. We, that is all of us at AUC - The American University in Cairo, Egypt.

But... do we even know what we have on campus?? I am not talking about "facilities" or "programs" or "resources", not about people or things. Do we know what is alive on campus?

The Desert Development Center of AUC (DDC) made a tremendous effort to create gardens and orchards throughout the campus. How many of us stop to notice and appreciate what there is? How many of us know what these plants are? In between the planted ones we find naturally growing plants, whose seeds blew in by the wind or were carried in by animals.
What do we know about those animals? Insects that will pollinate our plants, little desert mice, soaring kestrels and even a fox (the Caravan reported) live with and around us. What a difference to downtown Cairo!
We would like to share with you what we see, and what we learn about the life around us. I don't know yet in which order or priority. Wild animals, plants in bloom and in fruit, cultivated and wild, in the air or on the ground ... ... life is everywhere.