Never Ending Sunny Days...until 7 PM

The sun rises early here in Cairo.  The sun pops up just after 5:30 and Dimples often wakes up with the rising of the sun.  As I mentioned earlier we are in the midst of a 5 day weekend celebrating the end of Ramadan and it is generally quiet around our apartment.  A thought that has crossed my mind once or twice is that for a city of 16 million people, it is very, very quiet.  In the middle of the day it is so hot that people do not really walk around, so when the Bishop’s load up the stroller and head out for a walk they tend to think that we are nuts.  We walk to school in the morning and walk home in the afternoon and the local people often comment that we should take the bus now and wait until October to walk when it is cooler out.  But, we enjoy our 10-15 minute walk at the end of the school day and will continue to enjoy it for at least a little longer.  

Today we did not have to walk to the school, instead we walked to the swimming pool.  There are many gated communities in the area where we live and although we do not live in one of them, our landlady has property in one of them.  This property has an amazing pool and playground that the kids enjoy.  Our landlady has been a wonderful blessing as I have mentioned, and she has been wonderful to us again by allowing us access to the pool whenever we want to.  The security guards greet us when we arrive without questioning our reasons for being there.  It is nice to have a pool so close by.  In a climate like we enjoy here in Cairo occasionally it is nice to jump into an cold pool.  The pool is 5 minutes further than the school.  We hope to make frequent use of the pool.  Every time that we have gone to the pool there have been very few people there so it is a good opportunity for the kids to burn some steam.  Although we did not stay long today, the kids were clearly drained because they both had excellent naps.

Dimples just likes to run around the pool.

Taking a break from the pool.

Princess is gaining more independence in the pool every time we go swimming.

Another thing that we experienced today is that there is a website that arranges delivery from some of the restaurants in the area.  Just jump online, pick a restaurant, order and it shows up.  So today we ordered pizza for the kids and although the time quoted was 30 minutes but took an hour it was interesting to experience something here that we can easily do at home.  This is one of the major differences from our time in Tanzania to our time here.  Cairo is very modern and very urban.  Things can take awhile to happen, but there are a lot more western conveniences here than at home.  I mean really, McDonalds delivers here.  How strange is that?

Timing is something that is taking some getting used to.  Yesterday we were waiting for an electrician to come to our house to fix the water heater.  He was supposed to be here at 3:30 and by 5:30 had not arrived so we headed out for the evening.  While we were out we received a call saying that the electrician had arrived.  It was almost 8 PM.  Some things just take time and since it was Ramadan, he was simply enjoying his dinner.  By 8 PM it was “business time” as he said.  Thankfully our bowab (doorman) let him into our place and supervised the work of the electrician.  They were both still here and we had a good time joking around with them.  We have really appreciated our bowab.  He does a lot to make our lives here much easier and the work he does is often thankless.  Bowabs typically do all the building maintenance as well as taking care of the tenants.  If we needed milk he would go to the store for us.  On another note, our bowab`s wife is expecting a baby in the coming year and they really do not have a lot of extra money.  If anyone has some old baby clothes or small toys, feel free to contact me and we can make an arrangement to bless this small family.  

The nightlife in Cairo is very busy.  It is cooler and it is dark, so people are out and about.  We opted to enjoy dinner out before our shopping adventure.  So, in essence we enjoyed the evening with all kinds of people.  There was a play park for the kids and Dimples learned how to climb a ladder.  I can see why singles and young people really enjoy the nightlife in Cairo. There is a lot happening everywhere.  Perhaps that is largely because of Ramadan, perhaps not.  Only time will tell. As a young couple with two kids we do not spend much time outside after dark because the kids head off to sleep and hubby and I are quickly putting together our lessons for these new courses we are teaching.  

So, we seem to be learning something every day here in Egypt.  We are growing more and more comfortable here and it certainly is starting to feel like we are at home.  We do miss Winnipeg and our family and friends, but as we become more involved in life here the more comfortable we become.  It does not come without its frustrations and challenges but it is all a part of being away from home and living in a different culture.

Off for Eid El Fitr

It is only the 2nd work day of the week and it is already the weekend.  The end of Ramadan brings a feast and many days off.  So, the school shuts down and the teachers get a break to refuel prior to school beginning.  The last week has been jam packed with meetings and preparations, making bulletin boards, developing lesson plans...and oh yeah, switching courses makes things more complicated. 

My courses were coming along great, my room was awesome and I was feeling great about the new year.  BUT, for those of you in the teaching field, things can change in an instant and all the sudden I am teaching math for grade 7, 8 and 9.  Math and I are becoming reacquainted again, but it is has been a long time since I have even looked at math.  So, needless to say my preparation plan has changed drastically.  Hopefully this is just a temporary change.  There is no one to teach these subjects so they shifted staff.  It happens everywhere, but I am just glad that the person taking over my original load is Hubby because then he can just take my outlines and plans.

The first room I created will become Hubby's for the first couple weeks, and possibly months.  It is so bright and colorful!  The one that I will be teaching in is very different.  I only had one afternoon to put it together and I could not stay late, so hopefully the room will look better in a couple weeks as I spend more time there.  My hope is that I can keep up with the re-teaching myself the math.  The funniest part is that my co-teacher for one of the grade 8 math classes is the Principal, so I should get some good experience out of that!  He is being super supportive in this switch and being very reaffirming that this is a temporary change.

I cannot help but think that this is good experience for me.  Teaching math will be challenging but my hope is that I will find some success in it and that I could possibly find other work in the future because I have taught math.  The ironic thing is that I avoided math at all costs in University so that I would never have to teach it and here I am in my first teaching assignment with 3 grades of math.  I cannot help but laugh at that irony. 

Many people head to the Red Sea or the North Shore for the 5 day weekend.  The Bishop's however will stay very close to home because of all the upheaval in our school schedules.  We have so much more to plan and cannot afford to head out for a vacation right now.  We will see how the week goes!

Currently we are supposed to be waiting for an electrician to come and fix the water tank.  We have to turn the water tank on to get hot water, but when the tank is turned on, I get electric shocks shooting through the water and hitting my hands.  These are just small jolts, but enough to be slightly painful after a couple shocks.  The electrician was supposed to be here at 3:30.  It is now 5:00 so we are heading out to load up on groceries because with Eid happening over the next 5 days finding taxis that will drive us and stores that will be open may prove to be a challenge. 

I know that I have mentioned the crazy driving conditions here once or twice, but I have to say that the cab that drove us the other day I am thrilled to announce that we got out alive.  Once or twice I thought for sure we would jump a curb and when we were speeding down the one way playing chicken with another car I felt like I was in a game of Grand Theft Auto.  Although we arrived in record time to the store, I would opt for a less adventurous journey, especially since the kids are not in car seats in the backseat. 

So, here is to the 5 day weekend.  Although we do plan to get some work done, we also plan to hang out by the pool on occasion.  The kids need a break from all the work at school and have been doing so well there that they deserve to have fun at the pool.  I know that they are looking forward to it.  Plus, when we head to the pool it is like we are at a resort in Mexico and for a moment it seems like we have no worries at all.

After the weekend comes to a close, Princess will start nursery school.  It is hard to believe that our little girl is heading off to school already.  The schooling is far more stringent here and although it is just nursery school, they have full day schedules with teachers...and for us it is free because we are on staff which is glorious.  I will be sure to post a picture or two of her with her back pack.

Sunsets are beautiful

Sometimes you just need to sit back and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.  We get beautiful sunsets everyday here and we can watch them from our window as the desert sun goes from bright to fiery red and then to darkness.  I have never seen such a red sun in my life.  I am including a picture of the sunset from our living room window but even the picture cannot do the sunset justice.

 There is so much beauty all around us.  A smiling child.  A helpful sister.  Buildings, desert, palm trees, fresh fruit, culture, learning.  Sometimes we miss it because we just aren't paying attention.  Search for the beauty around you!  It is everywhere you look.  Enjoy the pictures...there should be more soon, we have not really taken many yet.

The sunset from our living room.

The panoramic view from our living room with the sunset in the center.

The view of the school from my classroom.

Ready to be a teacher already.

Teaching Dimples how to play the iPad.

Princess helping Dimples brush his teeth.  She has a thing about hygiene.

They love each other and are growing up so quickly.

Our First Real Adventure

Today was a day full of adventure. We have been in Cairo for nearly 2 weeks and have been busy getting settled and establishing a routine here for both us and our kids.  Our school days have been shorter than usual but they have been very busy with the process of getting set and ready for the first day of class.  Setting up for class here is different than some places because the week before school starts is the end of Ramadan and it is a holiday called Eid El Fitr.  So, we get a 5 day weekend which is great, but, it gives us less days to set up.  Immediately after the Eid weekend parent meetings begin and school starts on the 6^th.  So, needless to say, we are busy with the school side of things.  With all that in consideration, my course load may change as well as Hubby’s.  So, it makes it especially difficult to prepare for classes that you are not sure you are teaching yet.  We should receive confirmation on Sunday (which is like a Monday here).

On another note...today we ventured from 6^th of October and headed out to Maadi.  Maadi is a very lively subsection of Cairo where all the majority of the teachers live.   Maadi is a bustling area with people of all kinds.  The adventure began by loading into a cab.  Our regular driver was unavailable.  We got to Maadi alright, but once there the driver had no idea where he was going.  There are no street signs and every street is named after a number...258, 135, Road 9.  So, our driver asked for directions about 20 times until we got where we needed to be.  Immediately upon stopping the vehicle young girls were trying to sell us Kleenex and others were asking for money.  We were whisked away by some friends that met us at our location and showed us around.  We experienced the normalcy of calling and ordering groceries for delivery and waiting way longer for them then quoted.  We saw tiny little huts of produce shops and people selling goods on a cart pulled by donkeys.  We ate at a restaurant (also a first for us here).  But, the main reason we ventured out to Maadi was because that is where the church we are planning to attend is.  

We have been blessed that there is another couple here that are also church going folk so we went with them.  The service was outside, we were immediately greeted by people, the senior pastor and other kids.  Princess immediately connected with another little African girl and it was incredibly cute to see them running around together.  Princess can be aggressive with other kids and this little girl was not shy to push back.  The kids both enjoyed the Sunday School program and the service was good.  It will take some getting used to because it is different from home, but it was a little glimpse of heaven to be at church with people from so many different nations.  It was like the song He Reigns come to life!  It will be challenging to attend there regularly because Maadi is 45 minutes away from 6^th of October.  Living in Egypt it is impossible not to think about and recall the numerous parts of the Bible that occur in the Old Testament.  Today we drove over the Nile and immediately thought of baby Moses being place in a basket amongst the reeds.  Now, I may be naive, but as a child and even as an adult at times I think of that story and imagine a narrow little creek that Moses drifted along before he was eventually was found.  I have seen the Nile before and for some reason I still imagined this little narrow creek.  The Nile is not narrow, it is actually quite wide, and the reeds on the side are actually quite huge, so it is quite a miracle that little Moses was found in one piece in his little woven basket.  This was just one of the many thoughts that ran through my head yesterday, it shows that what we are taught as children can stick!

We also experienced a touch of the nightlife in Maadi.  It gets dark pretty early here so we were exploring in the dark.  The meal was lovely, the kids devoured their meal and the juice.  On a side note...if you are ever in Cairo you need to order the following three juices somewhere...strawberry, mango and orange.  It is like they put a full pieces of fruit in the blender and served it as juice.  So delicious.  It was a challenging meal however because they were exhausted after all the change of scenery.  It was then time to go home and attempt to find a cabbie that would take us that far and not rip us off.  We found someone who got us home in one piece despite the crazy driving conditions.  We passed one 5 passenger car that had 10 people in it and trucks with cargo in them and people sitting on top of the cargo.  Sometimes things here remind me of Tanzania and the packed full cars is one of them.  

So, we are home now and happy to be here.  It has been an busy day and it was nice to walk back into our house.  The kids woke up briefly when we walked upstairs but fell back asleep quickly.  There has been so much change and transition in their little lives lately I cannot imagine what they are thinking.  Dimples seems well adjusted, but he is younger and cannot tell us what he is thinking.  Princess struggles with some aspects of the culture because she knows that it is different, although she has grasped on to components of modesty which will be valuable to her in the future.  She was wearing a sundress around the house today and upon hearing that we were going to be leaving ran to get her leggings to `cover her legs`.  I am glad that is not much of a fight and that she loves her tights.  Princess is having difficulty adjusting to the women wearing hijabs and veils.  I do not think that it is because of the hijabs themselves but some of the first ladies wearing them that she met wanted to touch her and hold her and they were kind of grabby which made her uncomfortable and so she affiliates all people wearing a head covering to be those ladies.  Hopefully that is something that will pass because so far she wants nothing to do with them on a one on one basis.  

So, tomorrow will bring a day of relaxation, laundry and some preparation.  Then Sunday it is back to work and we will have 2 days to prep before our 5 day weekend.  Not sure what we are going to do on the 5 day weekend yet...perhaps we will do some more exploring!

The First Few Days at the School

We have been in Cairo for almost a week now and it is hard to believe that we are already getting set up for school.  The new teachers arrived a week before the other teachers to get settled and established in the school before general meetings and school set up begins.  Yesterday we had all kinds of meetings about the school policies and got a tour of the school.  The school is beautiful.  It is only 5 years old and although there are construction projects happening on the school grounds the area is very functional.  The school is in the shape of a pyramid with three major hallways and an inner courtyard.  There are four floors...of course my class is on the top floor.  I think that I will be in very good shape by the end of the school year because other than my classroom, everything I need is on other floors.  The good thing is that my classroom is near the bathrooms so if a student is "in the bathroom" for more than a couple minutes I will know something is up.  Students are the same everywhere...especially in classes they like to try and get out of...like math. (Which is one of the classes I am blessed to teach here to my grade 7 students!)

The school is great, the staff is great and everyone seems to be very helpful.  It has been a wonderful transition to the world of teaching here and I cannot wait to get started!  I would love to see my schedule and class lists, but there is a glitch in the scheduling, so hopefully I will get to see that by the end of the week...I want to know what all teachers want to know.  When is my prep...and mostly I want to know how long classes are and if there a splits and doubles so that I can better prepare for my days in the coming weeks.  My brain is an abundance of ideas that have no outlet at the moment...although I did start a bulletin board today.  The "store" was open today and I got to go "shopping" for the supplies that I needed.  We have to sign out every supply that we want to use and the clerk keeps very close track of everything that we take and we cannot take more than one box of staples otherwise he will get after us.  It is an interesting process.

Tomorrow we meet with all the returning teachers.  There will be more review of policies and procedures and everything else that goes with opening year staff meetings.  At some point tomorrow there is going to be a resource feeding frenzy apparently.  Being an overseas school there are limited resources in terms of Atlases and math manipulatives and since items are organized by subject and not by grade people grab what they can get.  So, that should be an interesting adventure tomorrow.  I know what I need and I do not intend to grab more than I need.  That just seems irresponsible.

This is the entrance to the school...with security guards and all!

The school courtyard

One of the major developments for us in the past 24 hours is that we found out the best way to get internet into our apartment and have successfully set it up.  It is amazing how quickly you can feel connected to the world again with the power of one little internet stick.  I am very thankful for this little internet stick, it truly is a wonderful blessing.  Now to figure out how to get Wireless and we will be set!  Today we are hoping to get our cell phones.  That has also been a challenging process.  

Since it is Ramadan at the moment, most stores and shops close from approximately 3 PM until 9 PM.  The owners and employees head home to wait for the bell to ring so that they can eat and once the feast is over they head back to work from 9 PM until 12 AM.  We work at the school until 2 PM and then by the time we can arrange a driver and get to the stores, the owners are usually gone.  So, today Hubby is off on his own to try and find some phones for us to use.  We will see if he comes back triumphant.  It would be nice to have instant communication to our friends here instead of waiting until the next day. 

So, as we are settling in here in 6th of October we are finding it to be more like home. One thing that we have found is that if there is even a single morsel of food on the floor, in the sink or on the counter it is inevitable that we will find ants; and not just a couple...it is a swarm of ants.  It does not take long to get rid of them, but it is a nuisance nonetheless.  One of the more difficult adjustments is not having the convenience of the dishwasher and the dryer.  Loads of laundry are done everyday because our washer is small and we have to air dry everything.  The dishes have to be done immediately otherwise
the ants will come...and if possibly cockroaches.  Cooking takes longer on average because we are cooking over a gas stove with really thick pots.  I think it took 20 minutes to get the water to a boil yesterday.  I do miss the dishwasher though. I am however experimenting a little more in the kitchen and I made samosas the other day...my very picky little boy loved them and all 30 were gone that day.  Princess and I also made donuts...and all that without my KitchenAid stand mixer.  I really can live without that appliance.

 On another note...some cereal has hit the floor and it is time to get the vacuum out AGAIN!  The joy of having children in a country with lots of ants!   I am attaching some pictures of the school for you to all see and enjoy.  I hope to add some more in the coming posts and I hope to update the blog every other day if time permits so follow us and get updates on our adjustment to life here in Cairo!

Grocery Shopping and More

With all the traveling Hubby and I have done in the past, I have seen every type of grocery store and market around.  I have seen little huts on the side of the road and I have seen typical western style grocery stores and everything else in between.  For those that know me really well you know how much I struggle to grocery shop for more than a couple days at a time.  This largely has to do with the fact that when I lived in the Czech Republic you could not shop for more than a couple days at a time because the food spoiled quickly.  I was hoping that grocery shopping here would be similar to the Czech Republic.  I loved going from one place to another to get my fruit, then to get my bread and meat.  Of course in the Czech Republic I could always go to a western style supermarket if I wanted, but I always enjoyed stopping at the specific shops on my way home.

I had no idea what to expect when I went grocery shopping today.  Since we are in Africa I was leaning more towards specific shops or an outdoor bazaar...but I was completely shocked when our driver pulled up to a store called Spinney’s that was inside of a giant mall.  We grabbed a cart (also a surprise for me) and walked inside.  The store was huge.  I could not believe it.  It was like Superstore to the extreme.  The store is only a couple months old and is top of the line.  The floors were marble and the aisles were immaculate.  There was triple the staff available and working in the store then at home.  Although I had originally hoped for the individual shops, I was glad that we were at that store.  Even though it was completely overwhelming it was nice to be in one spot because I could compare and contrast a little better.  The store actually reminded me a lot of a store I shopped at in the Czech Republic – Interspar and Globus were both huge supercenters that had everything from groceries to books, cell phones and clothes. 

We forgot what the exchange rate between CDN dollars and Egytian LE was so we went with our gut and got what we wanted.  The selection was incredible.  The store had more options than any grocery store at home.  There was local Egyptian product, European product and Western product.  I was thrilled when I encountered various items that I had all the time in the Czech and could not get in Canada.  You can be sure that those items ended up in our cart.  As much as possible we tried to purchase things that were locally made because it was way cheaper.  However, in some instances we bought brands that were familiar to us, at least to start off with.  The thing I was most thankful for was that pricing labels were all in English and Arabic and the numbers were all English numbers.  If the numbers had been in Arabic we would have had no idea what we were paying for anything.  It was a great experience and I am sure that is where we will be going for the first little while that we are here because it is familiar to us and the prices are reasonable. 

Produce will prove to be the problem for us because it seems to spoil quickly and needs to be washed and cleaned thoroughly.  Also, it needs to be inspected for dead bugs because it is very common.  But, the produce has more flavour than we are used to and the cantaloupe is green inside...not orange.  That was a surprise and I had to twist Princess’ arm that it was actually cantaloupe.  It did taste slightly different, but it was still juicy and sweet and she at almost the whole thing. 

Cooking here also takes much longer than at home.  Although the rice cooked more quickly, the meat took longer.  Our stove is fuelled with butane and needs to be lit with matches.  But, my first meal turned out well and although I did not have any seasonings to make it taste really good, most of it was eaten.  I wish that I could have spent more time to actually look around at the store, but with Princess and Dimples with me it was not really an option. 

The transition for the kids has been interesting.  There have been moments where they have meltdowns for no apparent reason, but we know it is because they are tired and everything is different.  Princess says she likes her new home and her room.  She slept past 9 AM and has not taken a nap today, so she seems to be adjusting really well to the new time zone.  Hubby and I are also doing pretty well with the jetlag as we slept all night without getting up to eat.  Dimples has kept to his normal schedule with his two naps and sleeping through the night.  That is a blessing.

Dropped in the Middle of Nowhere

When we first arrived in Cairo, we were taken directly to our apartment.  We met our landlady and her nanny who are completely awesome.  We are one of the only new teachers to have an apartment already and for that we are completely grateful.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to go apartment hunting with our two kids in a different environment.  We are living in a different part of the city than all the other teachers too.  There are many good things about living close to the school.  One thing that we have noticed however is that since we were dropped off we have had no contact with anyone from the school.   We do not know how to get to the school from our apartment and we are feeling completely isolated in our apartment by ourselves.  We knew there was supposed to be a meeting at the school today.  We did not know what time it was at, where the school was and if the meeting was still happening.  This is the disadvantage to being far away from the other new teachers and all the other teachers that currently reside in the same area as the new teachers.  Another downside is that we have not been to a bank yet because we do not know where they are and we have  no cell phones or internet access.  If we had access to the internet we may be able to find out some more information but since that is not an option we resorted to something more traditional. 

We packed up the kids and went for a walk.  The school was supposed to be a 10-15 minute walk.  We had to guess which direction to go.  All the buildings here start looking the same despite the architectural differences because they are all pretty well some sort of beige.  There are no real sidewalks so we walked on the street.  There were very few people out and the people that were out were sitting in the shade because it was hot out.  After about 20 minutes of guessing where to go we stopped and asked people where the school was and they gave us directions.  They were being polite though because the directions they gave us were not accurate.  After about 40 minutes of walking aimlessly we turned around and went back home.  Thankfully we kept track of where we had made our turns by certain landmarks like the water tower and the dumpster because we may not have found our way home!  The walk back took about 20 minutes because we knew where we were going.

We did gather some information on our walk that will be useful.  We found a pharmacy, a bank, and a cafe.  We located the local mosque which was really close by.  Most importantly however, we realized that no matter how short our walk is going to be, we need to bring water.  We did not do that today and we should have.  After about 15 minutes of walking I was drenched in sweat, but I did not feel hot or tired until we walked up three flights of stairs back to our apartment.  I have never seen our kids drink water so quickly!  The second thing I realized was that we should have brought the address of the school with us.  That may have helped the people that we were asking directions from...and at the very least we could have asked the dozens of cabs that drove past us where it was. 

When we arrived back at our apartment we ran into a couple of drivers and our doorman as well as our landlady’s nanny.  The nanny speaks very good English and gave us directions to the school.  Turns out that once we made our first turn we were going completely the wrong way to get to the school.  If only we had turned LEFT!  We would have found it if we had turned left.  She was on her way out with one of the drivers and Hubby went along and they were going to drive him to the school.  So, the good news is that we will now know how to get there and hopefully he will gain some access to the internet.  We feel very disconnected from home right now and hope that our families are not too worried because they have not heard from us yet. 

I am thankful for our experiences overseas at this point because I do not feel uncomfortable with the unknown and the component of not knowing what is happening.  Although our walk did not accomplish what we set out for, we did learn something.  The people here are very helpful and we are thankful for that.  I just wish we had contact with the school!  We really need to get some phones so we can contact whoever we want, when we need to.  But until that happens I will be content in my home with my kids.  I am sure that things will get very busy in the coming days. 

The weekend here is on Friday and Saturday, so tomorrow is a “day off” for us.  I am not sure what is in store, but our landlady wants to take us to her other home to take the kids swimming which will be excellent for them.  The climate is certainly conducive to that type of activity and I know that the kids will love it.  So, have an excellent weekend everyone!