Thanksgiving

I’m sitting here in the dark. It’s 10 PM and the electricity has just gone out. I probably have about 10 minutes of battery power on my computer, since the battery is shot. Since I’ve lost my internet connection I figured I’d blog a bit.

We spent this Thanksgiving with Noel and Rachella. We had the day off from school, since it is an American school. We divided up the cooking tasks between the two families and made a feast. Jason, who loves Thanksgiving because it begins his favorite time of year, decided we’d begin our celebration early in the morning with breakfast at the Simons’ house. He went over there with the first load of stuff at 8:30 or so. They don’t have kids, so I was just hoping they were awake! I would’ve been really annoyed if someone as cheerful as Jason is in the morning showed up at my door at 8:30 on our day off of school! While Jason was gone, Luke and I started making my Great-grandmother Riley’s homemade rolls. Luke loves to help in the kitchen! He also loves to taste whatever we’re cooking!

Anyway, Jason made breakfast for us—eggs and biscuits (no bacon—it costs $8 a pound here) with fruit and juice. It was delicious. Then he began cooking the turkey and Noel started on the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole. Luke stayed at the Simons’ house to help.

Rachella and I came back to our house to finish making the sweet potatoes and homemade rolls. I’d made a peach cobbler for dessert (pecans for pecan pie were $10 a bag!) and Rachella ordered a pumpkin pie from a local bakery. We went back to the Simons’ house around 2:30 and started setting the food out. We sat down to our feast at 3:00. (You may notice we have tons of food, all served in whatever dishes we could find. I find it very dissatisfying that I have lovely serving dishes in storage at home. I never use them at home because I never cook large meals for many people at home. Now that we’re here and have to cater our own holiday meals I am thousands of miles away from those dishes!) Here are the boys all ready to eat.

We ate and then watched Elf to kick off the Christmas season. Rachella fell asleep about ten minutes into the movie. I lasted thirty. Finally I’ve met someone (other than Daddy) with my talent for falling asleep during movies.

We had a great day from start to finish with a few exceptions. Luke passed his tummy bug on to Jason and me. Also, Noel and Rachella have a dog, Dobby, who is absolutely the most terrifying creature you’ve ever seen. See?

Well, Luke thinks so anyway. Dobby let out one loud bark and Luke screamed bloody murder. Poor Dobby got put away in the bedroom for the rest of the day. Luke was also a little bored, even though I brought toys for him. He repeated “I don’t wanna be here!” about 20 times while we were watching Elf. I tried to tell him not to say that because it was rude, but I couldn’t help sympathizing with him. There was also some drama over finding canned onion rings… But all in all, it was a wonderful day.

Luxor

I’m way overdue in writing about our trip to Luxor back in the middle of October. We had a long weekend because of the feast at the end of Ramadan, Eid el-Fitr. We flew from Cairo to Luxor at 5:15 in the morning, which meant we had to leave our house at 2:30. That was fun! We arrived in Luxor at about 6:15, got our bags, and got a taxi to our hotel. We stayed in the Pavillion wing (yes, that’s the way they spell “Pavillion” in Egypt) of the Old Winter Palace. (The hotel is mentioned as one of the places in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.) The hotel had a gorgeous pool and beautiful gardens. When we checked into our room, I stood on the balcony, looked out over the gardens, and thought about how I’ve taken the color green for granted all my life! It was gorgeous, and a nice change from brown sand and dirt. We headed out to find lunch and figure out what to do with our time in Luxor.

Our hotel was right near the Nile, so we crossed the street and headed down by the river. Crossing the street, we were accosted by no fewer than 10 men wanting to offer us rides in their horse carriages, others offering taxi rides, and others offering tours of all the sites. Ignoring them, we forged ahead and ate lunch near the felucca docks. Just up the river we could see the Nile cruise boats docked, puffing black diesel fumes. Tourist shops lined the walkway next to the river. As we walked, proprietors stood outside their shops and said things like, “Hey, American, I have what you need.” And “Take a look inside, lady. Fixed price.” We ignored them too, and returned to the hotel after lunch. We took a BIG nap that afternoon before getting ready to head out to the Temple of Luxor.

The Luxor Temple was literally next to our hotel. We probably had to walk 200 yards to get to the entrance. Once we’d bought our tickets we were free to explore the temple at our own pace. Very little of the site was roped off, and we were free to touch the statues and hieroglyphics as we walked through. We arrived about an hour before sundown, so the weather was cooler (Luxor was much hotter than Cairo). We were able to get the stroller through most of the temple without much problem, and we were lucky to have it since Luke fell asleep halfway through. We finished our stop at the temple just as the sun set, marking the end of Ramadan.

After that, we got adventurous and found a place to eat. Jason ordered Egyptian food, and I ordered a hamburger. This is what I got!

After dinner we explored a nearby bazaar, where I bought a beautiful peacock colored scarf and another scarf to use as a valance in our bedroom here. Luke ended up with a little wooden snake toy because Jason caved in to his “I want that snake!” cries. ;)

The next day we didn’t leave the hotel except to find meals. We spent the entire day by the pool, napping in the room, and by the pool some more. It was great. Luke got over his fear of the swimming pool (he’s been terrified of the jets all summer) and had a great time. Every other kid in the pool came to play with Luke. To our delight, he was very friendly and outgoing around them. School has done wonders for his social skills among his peers!

(Actually I did leave the hotel to go find a drugstore. I walked down by the water by myself. I had had just about enough of the hasslers asking if I wanted a taxi or a carriage, and the men who make comments or hiss at me really annoy me. Hardly ever happens in Cairo, but in Luxor it was a different story. One shop worker said to me, "Hey American lady...woo hoo...you are so sexy!" I rounded on him, stuck my finger in his face and said to him, "You show me some respect. You would NEVER speak that way to an Egyptian woman. You will NOT speak to me that way." He cowered, saying, "Sorry, madam, no...you're right...I would not...sorry...so sorry." I don't think he expected to get chewed out.

The following morning we went to the Temple of Karnak, which is enormous. It covers several football fields (in my scientific estimation) and was added onto over several centuries by various rulers. It was really hot that day, and exhausting to try to see the whole temple and appreciate it. I think we all got pretty tired of looking at hieroglyphics. Ironic, seeing as how I was so disappointed in the bare walls of the pyramids.

I was thrilled, however, to see some beautiful brightly colored pictures atop the columns of the hypostyle hall, and then crestfallen to see that some tourists, who fancied themselves modern-day scribes, had carved their names in one of the columns just below some of the hieroglyphs. As Daddy used to quote, “Fools’ names and fools’ faces often appear in public places.”

We had dinner one night at a neat little restaurant owned by an American. It was set up like a little house, with rooms off to the side of the foyer. We ate in a room with another American couple who was on a round-the-world trip. It was nice to chat with them and hear about their adventures. The owner of the restaurant also stopped by our table to talk, and he sent us on our way with some free chocolate chip cookies! Yum!

We decided to forgo the west bank of Luxor, where the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens are located. Getting Luke around on those long sightseeing trips is complicated at this stage, and we figure we’ll be back. We decided to spend our last morning in Luxor by the pool before heading back to Cairo.

We had to check out of the hotel by noon, and our flight wasn’t until 10 PM or so. We spent the whole day at the pool, and thankfully, the hotel gave us a room to shower in before we headed to the airport. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend.

Silly Stories

Those of you who know Luke well know that he is very much a creature of habit. He likes to know what to expect. He eats oatmeal every morning for breakfast and peanut butter every day for lunch. He anticipates questions that he knows you’re going to ask, and says them aloud before you can do it. He loves routine. As I mentioned, oatmeal is part of the daily routine. He has watched me make oatmeal since he was tiny, but I don’t think he’s ever paid attention to the raw oats themselves. The other day he climbed up on the step stool in the kitchen and saw the bowl of oats on the counter. He put his fingers in them and said, “Mommy, this oatmeal is WEIRD.”

Even though I know what he’s going to say, I ask Luke what he wants for breakfast every morning. When he says “oatmeal,” I tell him we have to go make it. He helps me measure it out sometimes, and then we put it in the microwave. He also has helped me make cookies. (That’s background info for this next anecdote.)

We’ve been talking a lot about Christmas and going home to Texas and Santa. He is very excited about Santa, except he is still learning little bits here and there about him. The other day he was pretty sure Santa lives in heaven with Jesus… Anyway, we were talking about the things Luke wants for Christmas. He’s actually asked for toys lately, like a basketball and a set of his own keys. I’ve said, “Well, maybe you can ask Santa to bring it to you for Christmas.” (Gosh, I hear echoes of my mother in my voice.) The other day he asked me how Santa gets the toys. I told him he has to make them at the North Pole. Luke said, “In the microwave?” “In the microwave?” I replied. Seeing the connection he made in his mind, I laughed and said, “No, silly, not in the microwave.” “In the oven?” he asked next. Of course, I explained that toys were not like oatmeal—they’re made in a workshop by elves, not in the microwave by Mommy!

We’ve also been talking a lot about Jesus and the things He would want us to do. (Funny story about that later…) We talk about how Jesus wants us to obey our parents quite often, actually! He asked me the other day where Jesus is. I told Luke Jesus lives in our hearts, and that he also is in heaven. His answer was, “So Jesus is with Mimi’s kitty?” (Mom’s cat died this year at 18 or 19 years old. Mom and Luke have had some discussions about where Kitty is now and why she isn’t around anymore.) I was pretty impressed that Luke remembered those discussions and that he put together the ideas that both Jesus and Kitty are in heaven together. She’s probably sitting on His lap right now meowing incessantly to be petted and asking to go out!

So on the note of what Jesus would have us to do…I was convicted this week about my own selfish behavior while trying to teach my son to share. We have an Egyptian acquaintance, Youssef, who works as a driver for a doctor in our neighborhood. Youssef has young children, and he and his wife invited our family over one evening for a visit about a month ago. Luke and I run into Youssef frequently as we walk to and from Luke’s school. Youssef likes to joke with Luke. He points to Luke’s shoes and says, “These are my shoes.” Or to Sweet Puppy and says, “This my dog.” This disturbs Luke quite a bit. He gets very worried and sternly says, “NO! These are MY Elmo Blinky Shoes!” Or, “NO! This is MY PUPPY!” Despite Luke’s frequent protests, Youssef insists on joking with Luke in exactly the same way each time. Now Luke heads him off. As soon as he sees Youssef, he says, “These are MY shoes. This is MY puppy.” Unfortunately, he now thinks that all Egyptian men want his shoes and his puppy, and so he greets total strangers with a scowl and tells them the same thing. We’re working on that.

Last week we were walking home from school. Luke and I had just stopped at the market to get a package of cookies, and we were eating them on the way home. I saw Youssef down the street and tried to get Luke to offer Youssef a cookie. Luke did NOT want to share. I walked him through the dialogue of offering a cookie to his friend. After sharing a cookie and saying goodbye, I told Luke that Jesus would like us to share our cookies with others. And then I remembered a scene from the night before. We were at McDonald’s ordering ice cream. I asked Jason if he’d like me to order one for him and one for Luke in addition to the one I was getting, or if he would like to share his ice cream with Luke. (Notice I said if JASON would like to share. I do not share dessert.) After ordering only 2 ice creams, Jason got really disgusted with me when I wouldn’t share with Luke. Of course, I was disgusted with him because I thought I’d made it clear that I didn’t want to share. Anyway, as I was trying to impart spiritual wisdom to my son, the Holy Spirit convicted me that just as Luke shared his cookies, Jesus would also have wanted me to share my McFlurry!

Mom bought Luke a few pairs of shoes before we moved. One is a pair of Elmo blinky shoes. Luke love, love, loves them. When I put them on him for the first time I was afraid they were too big. I asked several times, “Are they too big, or do they fit your feet?” He insisted they fit fine (and indeed, he gets around in them without falling down all the time!). I think he still worries that I’ll decide they’re too big for him, because he periodically tells me, “Mama, these shoes fit for my feet.”

Madam Librarian...

Time for an update—I’ve been subtly hassled by several friends, and I realize I’ve been slack in keeping you all posted on our little lives here in Cairo. So…here I am!

I am now working 2 days a week at Cairo English School as a library assistant. I wasn’t looking for a job; the librarian approached me and asked me if I was still looking for work. When I told her I was very purposefully not looking for work, she said that was too bad because she needed an assistant. After two months of thinking and waiting, I have the job. The library does not have its collection in the software database yet, so I will be helping to enter books into the system. I also get to help organize books, help put together a big order of books for the library, and update the recommended reading list for middle and high school students. It’s perfect for me! I get to take Luke with me. We bring toys for him and he plays in the library. He enjoys seeing the big kids and hearing the stories I read to them. He even helps me choose books to share with the kids. Some days this arrangement works better than others. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be back in a school again, without all the stuff I don’t like about being at school attached to it! I have always thought I might like to be a librarian someday. I hope this will help me figure out whether that’s a path I’d like to take.

By the way, for those of you musical theater lovers--the librarian's name is Marion!