All the King's Horses and All the King's Men

Well, I've been looking for an excuse to make a Humpty Dumpty page in the scrapbook. Now I have one. Last weekend we went walking down Road 9. Jason and Luke like to balance on curbs and jump off little steps. Jason likes to let Luke jump by himself a lot--gotta encourage the athleticism, right? So they were showing me how Luke can jump by himself off this little wall. He did it all by himself one time and landed superbly on his feet. Then he did it again. He was all set to jump and I could tell he wasn't really paying attention. I saw him--slow motion--lift into the air, hang his feet on the edge of the wall, and land, forehead first, then nose, then chin on the sidewalk. He screamed. I screamed. His forehead was instantly bruised and scraped, his nose was scraped, and his teeth had cut the inside of his bottom lip. I was so scared (concussion! teeth knocked out! We're in Cairo!). I sent Jason to get something cold to put on his head while I rocked and held Luke. Some guys who worked in a shop down the street brought ice. We comforted Luke, who was fine after a few minutes, and still insisted that we go to his self-proclaimed favorite restaurant, Jared's Bagels.
We went back the next day for the pictures (aforementioned Humpty Dumpty page in mind). His face had already started to heal, but you can see the knot on the left side of his head in the picture, and his little nose looked like he'd left half of it on the pavement. I guess some of these incidents are to be expected when you've got a two-year-old son, but it doesn't make it any easier on the mother!

We went to Coptic Cairo a few weekends ago. It's one of the best-kept secrets in Cairo, I think. It's just four short metro stops from our house. We got off the train and stepped into a different city, it seemed. It was so clean and fresh looking.

About 6-10% of Egypt's population is Christian, and about 95% of those are Coptic Christians. The Coptic church was supposedly started by St. Mark, and the Copts are supposed to be the direct descendents of the "real" Egyptians. Coptic, the language spoken in their church is supposed to be very close to what was spoken in Egypt long ago. Click here for more info about Copts.



There were even green areas where people were sitting, reading books or having a snack.

This is the Coptic Pope, Shenouda III. Betcha didn't know about him, did you? He actually was in Euless, Texas just a few weeks ago to bless a new Coptic Church there.

We hoped to visit several churches, including The Church of St. Surgius, where the Holy Family reputedly stayed in a cavern. We visited a few churches (but not St. Surgius) and a cemetery before Luke started acting all TWO on us and we went home. ;)

Sufi Dancers

This is by far my favorite thing we've done in Cairo. We went to see the Sufi dancers in downtown Cairo two weeks ago. We took the metro there, had some Egyptian food, and then found our way to the really amazing building where they put on their performances. It's outdoors, but there's a really high canvas sort of ceiling. It felt like a church--it would be a really neat place to get married.

Anyway, the performance is rare for Egypt because it starts at a set time, ends at a set time, and is free. We got there an hour early, but the place was more than half full already, so we chose to sit at the back so we could stand or sit on our feet if needed. It was odd, because people kept coming in to join the audience (which was standing room only) throughout the whole performance, and about halfway through about a third of the audience got up and left. Very strange to me. The Egyptian ushers kept trying to make us give up Luke's seat, but it was a 2 hour performance that didn't begin till 7:30, so there was no way I was holding him on my lap the whole time. The kid has to have his own seat on a plane, so I figured we were entitled to the seat.


The band came out as the warm-up act. It was made of mostly drums. There were 3 stringed instruments which were not miked but were piercingly loud, and a really comical guy who played finger cymbals. He really hammed it up and totally made the musical part of the show for me.As soon as the music started, Luke got excited and clapped along to the beat. Except for about 10 minutes when he was lying in our laps, he watched the whole performance.

After they played a while, this Sufi dancer came out. It took him a while to get going, but he then spun in circles for 45 minutes. Without stopping. Sometimes he went fast, at others slow, but he never stopped. He had a really enraptured look on his face the whole time.
When this guy finally stopped spinning, we all applauded like crazy, and I thought, "He can't see us applauding. For him, the whole room is still spinning around." He walked off the stage totally unsupported and did not falter one step. I wondered if he went backstage and threw up.

Then three more guys came onstage in even more colorful costumes. I was excited, because I'd seen pictures of the really bright skirts (?) they wore and wasn't impressed with the first guy's get-up!

One of the neatest things about the show is that the dancers have on a long galabeya with a full skirt in a solid color, and then on top of that they wear 2-3 more skirts. During the performance, they untie the top layers and work them up over their heads and spin them around. They do this all while they themselves are spinning. Now, I am an unusually talented hula hooper (one of my hidden abilities). I can still move the hula hoop from my feet, up to my waist, to my neck, and up over my head to my arms (and yes, I'm totally proud of this feat), but I've got NOTHING on these guys. They take those skirts up over their heads and toss them like pizza dough. It's amazing. (Have I used up my quota of "amazing"s yet?)

Toward the very end of the show, they pulled up the last layer of their skirts and made this neat little shape:
Still spinning....

I would've gladly paid as much as we paid to go to the pyramids for this experience. There was not even a donation box.

This is the first thing we've done that made me say, "I wish someone would come visit us in Cairo. That was so cool!" So--come visit!

New Home

Our new home is finally feeling like a home. Granted, the tile is hideous, the furniture's not ours, and some of (well, most of) the decor is pretty outlandish (I'll post pictures here later of our bedroom furniture, which is straight out of the 80's, I think), but slowly we're making it ours.

Here's Luke's bedroom. It has a pretty good-sized closet, which more like a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe with sliding doors, and on the wall opposite his bed I've strung clothesline and hung his art projects from school. (His school is amazing--each day he comes home with a new, good-quality art project. Makes for good room decor!)

This is my "studio" where I work on my scrapbooks and other art projects. I bought a bulletin board and turned it into a sort of French memo board by sewing ribbons to construction paper and then stapling the whole thing to the bulletin board. Too much time on my hands.

This is the front of the house. Noel and Rachella have the bottom floor and we're on the floor right above, with the yellow shutters. Our landlord lives above us, and another teacher from AIS has the top floor.

This is the garden area which is very well kept - a yard guy rakes the dirt every day and sweeps up all the leaves. Luke is probably getting a tricycle for his birthday so he can ride it around the house.

More pictures will follow as I get time to upload and post them.

Al-Azhar Park

Turns out there is a park in Cairo. A great one--only a 20 minute cab ride away. So, it's not really accessible, and there's still no playground available to us (they've locked the one we used to play on)--but we did have a great family day at Al Azhar Park in the middle of Cairo a few weeks ago.

We happened to go to the park on the last day of a 2-week holiday for the Egyptian public schools, so the park was really crowded. You do have to pay admission, and while Jason was buying our tickets there were two things I wish I'd taken a picture of. One is that the ticket lines are segregated into a men's line and a women's line. The other was all the beautifully colored headscarves the women were wearing. I was surrounded by so many women and their headscarves reflected each color imaginable, and they were decorated with beads, sequins, and all kinds of patterns. The women here may be more limited in what they can wear (as in they must be so covered up) but they definitely use those headscarves to accessorize. (The headscarves are technically called higab, while the ones that fully cover their faces are niqqab.)

Anyway, we took a blanket and pillow to the park, as well as Luke's new basketball. When we got there, park officials took the basketball away for safekeeping, because apparently balls are not allowed in the park. Who knew? We walked around and explored, enjoying green grass, pretty water features, flowers, and the beautiful weather.

It was a pretty day, and we enjoyed the great views of Cairo. You can see lots of the mosques in the picture. You can also see a castle-like building up on the hill in the background. That's the Citadel. We haven't been there yet.

The Egyptian girls love Luke and often ask to kiss him or have their picture made with him. He tolerates the paparazzi pretty well.

Luke rolled down his first hill with Jason. He had tons of fun just running up and down, back and forth on this hill. He and Jason started a trend, and by the time we left lots of kids were rolling down the hill.

Luke had a great time just running and being a kid. All in all, it was a pretty cheap, good way to spend the afternoon. Hopefully next time we'll have more of the park to ourselves instead of feeling like all of Cairo is there!

Up and Running

All excuses are gone! Our internet is truly fixed now! Thanks to a wonderful guy named Mohamed Ibrahim, we have our dsl fixed, our phone lines fixed, and if we have any problems we can call him rather than go through the pain, hassle, and emotional stress of calling the internet provider we used before. I am not exaggerating when I call it emotionally stressful! When your link with the outside world (which has been paid for in advance!) doesn't work for 2 months, it's quite taxing.

El Hamdulillah - thanks be to God - We're online again!

All the things I'd blog if I could

Hi there! We are still experiencing internet difficulties--I won't go into it, but let's just say there have been tears, a visit to the internet company that involved me annoying them for two hours, and the decision to change internet providers, which will take up to THREE weeks. Some things in Egypt still shock me. Anyway. I'm on dialup, which is terribly slow, so I won't be posting pictures of anything for a while, though I have some great ones to post.

SO if you want a look at where we're living now, click on the link to Noel & Rachella's page at the left. They moved with us to the same building, and they've posted a lot of great pictures of our building, neighborhood, and favorite places to visit. There are way more pictures than I'll have the patience to upload, so don't miss it! I will put pictures of the inside of our apt up as soon as I'm connected again.

Tonight we're going to see the Sufi dancers--the whirling dervishes--I'm so excited. It's supposed to be really neat to see. Hopefully there will be pictures of that on here soon, too! (In the meantime, I'm sure Noel will take some great ones and add them to his page...just check it in a few days.)

Love to all--thanks for reading, keeping in touch, and posting comments! I do read them, though I can't reply directly to you--it means a lot!

A little bit L-A-Z-Y

So...it's Feburary...and I haven't written since before Christmas. Well, as Sharon Flood, one of my favorite people, used to say, I have been just a little bit L-A-Z-Y. So I am going to do my best to write a Cliffs Notes version of the last month and a half. It's going to be a bit random. Get ready!

We went to our church's Christmas program. It was wonderful--real live animals, a real baby, and a Joseph from Texas. There were also FOUR wise men, instead of three, Balthazar, Caspar, Melchior, and Ramses.

Before coming home we packed to move to our new apartment at the same time we packed to come home. Mustafa came and helped us move all our stuff in his taxi. We pretty much chucked it in one bedroom, locked the door, and hopped on the plane to Texas.

We had a wonderful, wonderful time at home. It began sort of badly, though, as Luke got really sick just as we boarded the plane from Cairo and then proceeded to cough his germs all over Jason and me. All three of us were sick the whole first week we were home! We made a big family joke out if it, though, and in our family Christmas picture we are all holding our various cough and cold remedies:

The week before Christmas was crammed with lots of "going around and doing stuff," from Cousins' Christmas to Chili Dog Night (which I unfortunately had to leave after only 30 minutes or so to take Luke back home) to the usual preparations for Christmas. I had come to Texas with an idea for a present for Luke, and I needed a lot of help from Santa and his woodworking workshop to accomplish the present. Luke had asked Santa for real keys. My little boy LOVES cars and anything that spins--always has--and he will literally stand and spin the steering wheel on the playground for thirty minutes without stopping. So my idea was to build him an easel-like dashboard with a steering wheel and ignition switch with real keys to put in it. I took my plans to Santa, and he made my idea even better. Santa built Luke a red Mustang car--just like his Granddad's--with a steering wheel, headlights and taillights, a license plate, gauges, etc. Santa worked and worked and worked on that Mustang, all the way up until bedtime on Christmas Eve. Luke must have been a really good boy!

Christmas morning was our usual joy-filled wrapping paper fest, made better than ever by the addition of Jenny to our Christmas morning festivities, and by Luke's thorough understanding of Santa and what happens after he goes to sleep on Christmas Eve. (He did seem a little afraid, however, that Santa was going to a) take the Christmas tree and b) scare him. Now that he's realized Santa brings him good stuff while he's ASLEEP, I think we will be okay from here on out.) This is Luke still sick on Christmas morning. I literally photoshopped the snot out of this picture so as not to gross you out.

The rest of our trip was filled with too-short visits with friends and other family members and lots and lots of good time with Mom, Daddy, Kari, Scott, and Jenny. The night before we left we all went bowling and had a great time--Kari even got a turkey! (3 strikes in a row--and I will spare Kari and not post the picture I took of her impersonating a turkey! :) Love you, Karo!)

Coming back to Cairo was so hard. My gosh, I have an amazing family, and it is physically painful to leave them. There is just a hole in my heart when I am not near them. Mom and Dad took us to the airport, we got inside with all our luggage, and I bawled unashamedly for the next 15-20 minutes. I had to pull it together because Luke was really worried--sometimes it is hard being a Mom and a daughter at the same time.

When we arrived in Cairo, our favorite cab driver Mustafa was waiting for us, but 2/3 of our luggage was not. We brought back 4 suitcases and 2 tubs this time, in addition to the carry ons. Two suitcases made it. I was so upset. The missing luggage had Luke's Mustang in it, and all of his other Christmas presents and new clothes, too. Fortunately, our luggage all arrived intact two days later.

We arrived around midnight, and Noel & Rachella had dinner all ready for us when we got in as well as breakfast the next morning. Can I just say we have the BEST friends?

We came home to our new apartment, which was still all packed up from the move. So I had two days to unpack everything before our luggage arrived and I had to unpack all of that. That actually was probably a good thing.

The new apartment is so wonderful. It is still an Egyptian apartment, which means nothing matches, the tile is god-awful, and there's some really...interesting...furniture in here. We are making the best we can of our furniture, rugs, and tile, and REALLY loving all the extra space. I have a whole room for my scrapbook/art stuff, which I snootily call "the studio". (If I were a real artist, it wouldn't be snooty, but since I mostly just pretend to be one, it's snooty.) I get to leave my scrapbook stuff set up all the time. The same room has a nice long coffee table in it that's perfect for Luke's trains. We keep a lot of his toys in that room so that he can play while I work on my scrapbooks or mess around on the computer.

It's been SUPER cold since we've been back, which means that it's been as low as the 30's-40's at night, with highs in the 50's-60's. I know that doesn't sound really cold, but please consider there's no central heat or air, and the buildings are made of concrete with no insulation. The cold just stays in the buildings even when it warms up outside, and there have literally been days that I've opened the windows to let the cold OUT! The last two days, however, have been SO beautiful. Yesterday I sat outside at CSA after my Arabic lessons and finished my book in the sunshine. It was really nice, and I felt like a lady of leisure! :)

I'm still working at the library two days a week, and really enjoying the work now that the software we've been waiting for is installed and I get to enter books into the system. It's very repetitive, detail-oriented work, but it's very satisfying to finish a section of books and know that we're making progress. Next year's librarian will have it easy! As for me, next year I will be teaching art to 3rd-5th grades. I am really looking forward to it. I think it will be a great spot for me, especially just getting back into teaching. I'll enjoy the art projects, and hopefully will not have the stress and paperwork that goes with being a regular classroom teacher. I am going to have to do some work over the summer to get my act together, though, because I will be starting from square one again!

Let's see...what else...we are going to spend spring break in Crete. We'll spend 2 days or so in Athens and then either fly or take a boat to Crete and spend a week in a timeshare place that is supposed to be good. I'm really looking forward to that.

And...
Our telephone is not working, so we are mooching internet off the Simons. We have nagged our landlord (who is really a good guy) to get this fixed, and he's been to the phone company four times now. Apparently all the rain in Cairo in the last several weeks has made many of the phone lines go out, so repairs are slow. Insha'allah, it will be fixed tomorrow.

Let me tell you about "Insha'allah." It means, "God willing." It is used in Egypt A LOT. "I'll see you tomorrow, Insha'allah." "I'll call the man, and he will fix it, Insha'allah." It is very frustrating for me to hear this phrase sometimes, because I sometimes think it's used in vain--to mean, "If I feel like it." I am trying to be more positive and look at it as a substitute for "hopefully" and not get so frustrated when people say it to me.

Well. Eric Cates, I hope this post satisfies you! ;) Thanks for the nudge. I will write more soon.

(Insha'allah.)