Worker Story continued Part 4

So my partner and I are still on the story about worker's living conditions. Yesterday we followed one of the buses to al-Hay al-'Ashir, where the camp is located.

We weren't quite sure what we were going to do with the location information once we got it. We didn't plan on entering the camps (it's too dangerous for a woman, even I'll admit that), and we couldnt send another camera in. So we figured if we know where it at least we'll have a starting point.

The camp is not really a camp. It's more an unfinished building. The workers are let off at the corner of a street, and forced to walk over hills, and jump holes to get home. There are no lights, and no roads. The building is a brick structure without windows and doors. I can't imagine the have plumbing and electricity since we didn't see any wires around. It was pitch black though, so I'm not sure. All in all the walk to the camps seemed bad enough, and is indicative of the standard of living inside the "camp".

My professor told me "the sign of a good editor is one who knows when to hold off on a story." I talked to Reham about that on our way back from the camp. It was dangerous in there. Is it worth getting hurt?

"The thing is Samcrete is going to do this to other people after the AUC project is done," said Reham. "Maybe if we do this story gets published Sami Saad won't be able to do this kind of thing to workers again."

Spoke too soon (Lessons Learned Pt. 3)

As I opened the door to Kodak, I felt my heart skip a beat. This was huge, we had exclusive footage of the workers camp. We were going to write a breaking story, and it might really make a difference in someone's life!

Imagine my shock when the main behind the counter said: "Empty."

"Empty? What's empty?" I said.

"The film, it's empty. It wasn't put in right, or someone opened it. We can't find any pictures on the film."

So it's back to the drawing board. My partner Reham and I are determined, and we are learning a lot in the process.

As my professor would say, we are "eager beavers." I just hope we aren't going on a wild goose chase.

Withdrawing

There is an air of tension at the American University in Cairo right now. Students are busy studying for their finals, preparing their final projects and presentations and scrambling to get research done.

This semester has been hectic, to say the least. Delays in lab openings and unstable internet have made it difficult for the professors. In these last few weeks professors have been attempting to make up for lost time. Everything seems to be coming at once. Many students have just given up.

According to Dr. Nayla Hamdy, more students have submitted requests to withdraw from classes this semester than any other semester. They just can't handle the stress any more and would rather repeat the class. Furthermore, she says even though the withdrawal deadline was the 26th of November, she was still signing forms yesterday (November 30th).

I wonder what President Arnold, and Provost Lisa Anderson's thoughts are on this situation. What does it say about AUC's quality of education if so many students are unable to complete the coursework? I also wonder what reasons students are giving for withdrawing. Are most students just unable to handle the pressures at the end of the semester?

Perhaps this would be a good online story......