Mr. Hamdi Had a Farm

Okay, so anyone who reads this blog or has spoken to me in the last 2 years knows that Egypt has not been my favorite place to live. Some people really take to life in Egypt and some can't stand it. I have found myself somewhere in between. I've definitely had days I can't stand it here and many - most - days when I just tolerate it pretty well. Not only have I missed my family, but I haven't enjoyed Egypt itself. When we lived in Hong Kong, I enjoyed Hong Kong - not just our friends and our church, but the city. There's not a whole lot I will miss about Cairo itself. I will miss our friends at school, in our church, in our Bible studies, and most of all the Simons - but as for me, I will be happy to see Cairo out the plane window on June 18 or so. I've discussed Cairo's not so glamorous side before, so I won't go into a rant now. We'll just leave it at this: the city, the dirt, and the culture do not suit me.

HOWEVER ~ as I have ALSO said before, many, many times ~ Jason and I felt called to Egypt. We knew God had a purpose in bringing us here, though neither of us knew what it was. Over the last two years I've wondered exactly what it was, and I may never know. No, we are not missionaries. Even if we wanted to be missionaries here, we couldn't officially be - Egypt is a "closed" country - but we both believe that God calls us to live a life that glorifies Him and draws others to Him. I don't know that I do a very good job at that a lot of the time. I say and do things a lot that I think do a better job of pushing people away from God than drawing them near. Thankfully, God can work in people's lives in spite of me.

One thing has been made clear to me lately--that we are here because of relationships we develop with people. Whether it is friendships with other teachers, people we interact with on a regular basis, or people we meet once. We are here to love people and be a light in this world. (Again, I fail at this constantly. I am always apologizing or starting over... )

All that prefacing to say that 2 weekends ago, we had a really neat opportunity. We went to an Egyptian farm on the outskirts of Cairo with two Arabic teachers from AIS. I REALLY didn't want to go - dreaded it, in fact. But the experience turned out to be one of my favorite Cairo experiences - definitely my favorite authentic Egyptian experience - and we had the chance to meet some people and develop existing relationships.

Our family, along with two other AIS couples, met Mr. Khaled and Mr. Yasser outside one of the metro stations, and then rode in their cars out to their friend's farm. It was out near the step pyramid, which we could see in the distance. To get to the farm we had to drive through a little village. Very rural. It had an unpaved main street, shops the whole way down, and people walking up and down the street. As we drove through the town, we passed a wedding procession. We didn't see the bride and groom, but we passed truck after truck filled with their wedding gifts -- new furniture, new kitchen appliances, pots and pans, everything to fill a new home -- and even more trucks filled with people shouting and clapping along to music. It was a very happy thing to see. We stopped a few times in town. First, we met Mr. Hamdi, whose farm we were visiting. He climbed in the front seat of our car with Mr. Khaled and his son Mazen. Then we stopped and picked up another man and his little son, Youssef. They climbed into the back of the car with Jason, Luke, and me. Mr. Hamdi took us first to see the house he is building for his family. We met some of his children, Mohamed and Mostafa, and he told us we would meet his wife and other children later out in the fields.

Mr. Hamdi's friend Ahmed hitched up a donkey to a cart and loaded up the family to drive out to the fields. They brought food, tea, and firewood. Before they loaded up, we all got a picture on the donkey cart.
Then we drove in the cars out to the fields. We parked and unloaded our stuff from the cars, and then we walked around in the fields. Most of the fields around us were growing wheat and beans side by side. Luke loved running through the rows of plants.

Here he is with Youssef, who is about a year younger than Luke, I think. (A.dor.a.ble! I wanted to steal him!)


Here are Mr. Khaled and Mr. Yassar (with Youssef's hat) with Luke and Youssef. The big boy in the picture is Mr. Khaled's son Mazen.


Our "home base" while we were out there was this little shelter made out of a few trees and some mats. It was really pleasant. They brought a rug for all of us to sit on and prepared food for us. Here are Jason and Mr. Yassar in the shelter:

They prepared Egyptian bread, fatir, for us. It is greasy and not very flavorful, but good when dipped in honey. There was also some really crunchy cracker bread, which was good with the cheese they served. The cheese was pretty fresh, and non-pasteurized, I believe. They also picked some Romaine lettuce, washed it, and set it out for us to eat too. (Others who tasted it said it was really good. Since I was out in the middle of nowhere without my tummy medicine, I passed on the lettuce!)

That is Luke and me with Norris and Angela Ham. Yes, that's Norris's real hair. The big half-moon shaped food is the fatir. We tore it with our hands and dipped it in the honey.

The man in the gray galabeya is Mr. Hamdi. It's his farm.
After we ate, we talked. Conversation was good and easy, because we spoke just enough Arabic, and our Egyptian friends spoke very good English (especially when compared with our Arabic!). Luke wrestled with Mr. Yassar, and then we had "tea on fire."


"Tea on fire" did not mean flaming tea. It meant tea cooked on the fire.
Luke played swords with Mostafa (in yellow) and Mohamed (not in this picture). The kids were great with Luke. He had so much fun playing with them.


Here's Mr. Hamdi's little girl Miriam, who is a little older than Luke.
All the kids together:
Then, after food and swordfighting, we had the highlight of the afternoon: donkey rides! Mr. Khaled went first:
Then Luke rode with Mazen. Luke was not at all scared, which shocked me.
Norris was another story. Look at his eyes! This picture cracks me up.
Then Darren grudgingly took a turn. He was a good sport, but he wanted to ride a donkey about as much as I did. Luckily, he had to, and I didn't!
It was starting to get dark after the donkey rides. We went on one last walk through the fields and made a stop by the water buffalo barn. There was a beautiful young lady tending the buffalos and cows, and she offered to let Luke sit on the buffalo, which he did. She did not want her picture taken, though, so she pulled her scarf up over her face.


There's a man under all that greenery! He's carrying a huge load of some herb or something across the field.


When it was time to leave, we thanked Mr. Hamdi and his wife, his friend Ahmed and his wife (who prepared the food), and said goodbye to all the children. Mr. Hamdi's wife said something to us in Arabic which roughly equates to, "You brought light to us today."