January 29

Well it was raining again today, when it stopped raining it was quite windy. I thought I was going somewhere dry and warm... well it is wet and cold. Today I saw one of my boys all budled up, I counted his layers. he had nine layers. 9!! Warm coat and 8 sweaters. Kids are great. I'm settled now and it is much easier. I know most of the names on sight and can pronounce most of them. The popular boy names here are , Omar, Ahmed, Mohamed, Mustafa, Yasseen, Husseen, Girls don't duplicate names as much .Some names are Malak, Dala, Jamila, Nour, Aisha,Norhad, Rokaya, Ruanne. With 13 as my largest class size it is pretty cushy. 3 days with 1 hr 15 min free and 2 days with 2 hrs free, 20 min cafeteria duty each day. Good meals at cafeteria cost about a dollar or 1.50. Today I went up the road to a 'fast food' place (it looks clean) and had falafel and another bean filled pita bread, $2.00. About a liter of orange juice he squeezed right on the spot, 2.10. Now I think I have the dwelling construction figured out. They pour the frame of the building from cement. this includes the stairways all floors and pillars which hold up the building. Then they brick up all the walls and leave openings for windows and doors. Then they plaster over the bricks with some sort of cement mortar and color the final coat. Often they leave the top floor unfinished for they pay lower taxes for unfinished buildings. So you see pillars with rebar sticking out of the roof. Oh no not finished ,we’re adding another floor soon. Watched the train go by yesterday, the signals are there just like in Canada but…they don’t light up or even flash. The soldiers come over and stop traffic when the train goes by. Busses are so loaded down people are hanging out the doors. I watched one yesterday and if the driver took the corner too close, the hanger on was going to get wiped off. Good thing I had my locks changed. I guess the landlord didn't tell my other bowab I was moved in, so I heard someone trying to put a key in my lock. He was going to show my apartment, Thought I hadn't moved in. Always change the locks! there is often an extra key they don't give you.

Kitchen

 

Master Bedroom, width of apartment

 

Bedroom #2 2 single beds

 

Bedroon # 1

 

January 28, 2008

My wonderful apartment does have a few flaws. Mainly plumbing! Tried a wash in my new washer, well……..it won’t spin. Clothes come out saturated with water. While setting up my washer they cut off the cold water to one of my showers. My other shower is bad news too. The handle came off the cold water (mid shower) so the tap was running continuously and could not be shut off. Thought I’d have water running all day but I found another shut off. Went out and bought a tool kit. A wrench took care of the continuous running tap. Then another pipe sprung a leak, sprayed water all over the bathroom. Think I need duct tape! Took a walk down Road 9, a lot of shops. Lots of jewelry and hand made articles. I bought a camel hair rug for $40. It is quite large (see the shoe for perspective).

January 26, 2008

Jan 26_08 Fully moved it today. Spent all morning washing and cleaning all the dishes. Went to the market to get more food. Bought locally grown orange type fruit with loose skins. The bananas they grow here are tiny but good. Also bought strawberries, about a basket and a half for 8 pounds that is about 1.50. Lots of interesting food in the store. It poured rain and thundered today, there are huge puddles everywhere. Very unusual. My landlord is excellent. He had a washer delivered today. There were two men to carry it up to my place and install it, one more to boss, 2 others to offer moral support plus a gofer. All my floors are tile so in the process the floor got quite dirty so as soon as they left I mopped the whole apartment. Just as I finished, my apartment caretaker (Bowap) came in and proceeded to clean the whole thing all over again although I tried to tell him I had just finished. He only understands Arabic. Every apartment has a caretaker. They do any odd jobs you want (expecting tips) and are upset if you do them yourself. You can see them out washing and polishing the cars of people in their apartment complex. They are often very poor and live on the unfinished basement of the building. They are considered lucky to have such a good place . In fact when construction of a building begins a family will often set up residency in the building basement in hopes they can get the Bowap job. Went in my bedroom and something scurried away, a bit bigger that a cellar bug and longer legs. Hope it doesn’t like beds. If you go to Google earth and put in Maadi “Grand Mall, Egypt” I live in that general vicinity but down to the right. Note all the traffic circles. There are stop signs but no one stops, the lights flash orange because no one obeys the traffic lights. Driving is a free for all. Many of the cars are very old and many of the vehicles are spewing out black smoke. But……….the people are very, very kind and agreeable.

January 26, 2008

Moved into my new apartment it is awesome, huge but awesome. It is fully furnished, furniture, pots and pans, dishes, garlic press, corkscrew, bedding and a washer is ordered .. you name it. All I had to buy was a coffee maker, towels, mop and broom. And…….I have an excellent internet connection, much better than at home. Someone else nearby has unsecured wireless and I’m on it. In fact I was able to hook into another secure one by guessing a password. Took a shower this morning, there is hot water and cold water but they come out of the shower head in three temps, scalding hot, freezing cold and just right. I have to learn when to step in and out of the shower spray. I finally have a phone, it is a tri band which can work in any country. .80 cents a minute to Canada. I bought minutes no plan just pay as I go. The market is around the corner and I will have to pick up more groceries and bug tight containers. I guess the cockroaches are almost human here. Got to keep everything sealed tight. I’m using the microwave for a bread box, don’t think the critters can live in there.

Note scratch/dent on bus above gas cap.

 

Interested on lookers and advisors

 

Note the zero clearance between bus and truck.

 

Looking down from bus window., about i inch between car and bus.

 

Can't find the driver so we will try push it.

 

'Please move your nice truck, it is blocking the road" !!

 

'STUCK' in Traffic. Egyptian style!!

It is Thursday, which is the last day of the school week and pay day. They pay us twice a month. I wasn’t able to go to the finance office so I will get my cash Sunday. They deal only in cash. To pay me they take out a big stack of bills and count it out. 80% US and 20% Egyptian. To pay tuition parents come in with bricks of bills, don’t know where they store it but they have suitcases of cash for pay day. Got stuck in traffic on the way home on the bus and I really mean stuck. Just as we were approaching our stop we came to a spot where a truck was double parked. The bus driver got out and said a few choice words in Egyptian with a lot of gestures and then decided to follow the advice of the people gathering to add their opinion. So he gets back in the bus and decides to try squeeze through. Well he overestimated the opening for we were wedged between a truck and a car. I’d say 2 cm to spare on the side of the car. The truck was scraping the bus . So we back up and the truck driver materializes and moves the truck to one side. Now our bus has a scrape down the side but no one even looks at it and we drive off.

Restaurant Cat

 

This cat was sitting in the window at the restaurant

We had to shut the window so she wouldn't jump in. This is quite a nice restaurant.

Jan 23, 2008

Today the weather warmed up at last and dried up the water and puddles in the school. Tonight about 17 of us took taxis to another part of Cairo and went to the Swiss Club restaurant. The restaurant had a resident cat and it was trying to get in the room with us. See picture. The ride there was a circus. The taxi driver is lost so as we drive down the street he is talking to other cabbies to see where the restaurant is. The traffic was so packed. Once I looked over and saw a motor bike with the dad driving, the child about 2-3 three seated in front and the mom totally veiled sitting side saddle in the back and this is on a very busy street. I counted 4 lanes with 7 lanes of traffic! The fumes and exhaust was wicked!

January 22, 2008

It rained last night and almost all day. It was very foggy/smoggy this morning. The school inside was also foggy. The hall ways are open to the elements and the wind blows through. The offices and classrooms are enclosed but the hallways all open to the weather. It is odd to have so much rain here, the roads are have lots of large puddles and driving is hazardous because all the mud and oil which have accumulated on the road make it slippery and there are not any storm drains so the water accumulates on the road. Most cars don’t have windshield wipers that work. Signed the lease for my apartment. I’ll move in, in a few days after I clean up a bit and wash the bed clothes and buy some essentials. Went down to the wedding late. The place was transformed into quite a fancy place. Satin decorations, the chairs covered in white satin. We were late because of getting my apartment and the ladies had all moved to rooms upstairs and only the men were left. The food was all set out and looked very fancy….but I saw it being prepared!! What a day for a wedding, talk about bad luck, it only rains a few days during the whole year and it rained all through their wedding and made the road very muddy.

This family lives under our building

Thorny tree

January 21, 2008

Went on a field trip to the Wadi Environmental Centre today, a very interesting place. There is a huge olive grove with olives still on the trees. They have date palms, Poinsettia plants, aloe Vera, beautiful flowering plants and trees with thorns as large or bigger than Hershey’s chocolate candy kisses all over the trunk The rocks/gravel there were mostly made of chert. It is a rock the natives in Canada made arrow heads out of. Today had higher than usual humidity and thick fog/smog. In the afternoon it started to rain, an unusual occurrence. It makes the roads slippery and there are more than usual accidents. This afternoon from the balcony I watched a car get out of an unusually tight parking space. He backed up till he was able to push the car behind him back then drove ahead and back again into the car behind and then got out. Every day on their way home we see little trucks transporting workers. They are little trucks, Mitsubishi, ( or some other small type) and the back is packed with fellows, some even hanging over the side. I am sure there were 15 -20 in the truck I saw today. Went downstairs to the basement of our apartment tonight. There will be a wedding there tomorrow and they are preparing for the feast. The have the walls covered with large wall hangings made of satin and velvet. They are preparing the feast. The site certainly wouldn’t pass a Health Canada food prep inspection. There are huge pots of meat, some of it is either sheep or goat for they had the head of a sheep or goat in a pot showing us. The people who live there are very , very poor. They wanted family pictures takes so we took a lot and will bring them to them after we develop them. The area where they live is unheated and they have a home which is one room, with most of their possessions in it. Looks to be the sleeping area and living area. We are invited to the wedding. We will go but won’t eat.

Cemetry, people live here (Live people)

 

Supper

 

camel rear view

 

Gas Delivery

 

Police Camel Cruiser

 

Camel talk

 

In front of the Great Pyramid with Linda and a camel

 

Pyramids Jan 19, 2008

Today we went to see the Great pyramids in Giza, the Sphinx as well. Walking around the base of the Pyramids was quite an experience. The place is overrun with camels and their drivers as well as horses and their keepers. They are very poor people who want to give you rides on the horses and camels. The Pyramids are just across the Nile from Cairo. On the other side of the river is a big golf course. The whole area is not restricted and we were allowed to walk anywhere except climb the pyramids, but were allowed that in specific areas. There are doorways where visitors allowed inside they structures. I’m quite claustrophobic so I stayed outside. The entrance ways are quite low and narrow. Maybe another time I will be braver. The whole area around the Pyramids has many camels and their drivers, the police even have camel cruisers! There are also many men with Arabian horses offering rides. The ride out to the P was also very interesting, so many vendors and donkey carts driven by child workers, some very young. Next door was a cemetery, not sure it was one where many people live, but most likely so. There are about 1 ½ million people who live in the cemetery/crypts. The P are in dry dessert, no plants just fine dust and sand. I was looking at the ‘gravel’ in the sand and there a pieces which look a lot like amber, the kids at school say it is amber. Went to ‘my’ apartment for another look, and it just may be the one if we can get some items fixed. It has 2 large bedrooms, one huge master bedroom and 2 two bathrooms, The dining and living room area is large. It is on the second floor of a quiet street close to the market, the other teachers and many stores.

Donkey cart onour street

 

One of the many cabs in Cairo

 

Might take this apartment

 

Apartment broker and 2 friends