Fruit

I have a new ticket possibility and may be home late evening the 25 of June. It means I will leave a day early. Just have to get it paid for by the school. I am very excited but have a lot to get done before I leave. Today was high 35C but I know it is hotter than that on the bus on the way home. We have AC in all classrooms but it is a melt-freeze situation. I guess we will have to rearrange furniture to get everyone, including me out of the icy blast. There are always new trees bursting into bloom. The red ones are still prominent but now there are beautiful pink ones as well. The holly hocks are at the end of their stalks. The fruit at the market is so good. The little (6 inch) Egyptian bananas are tasty, the deep purple all the way through Egyptian plums are so sweet, apricots so tart and tasty, black berries, blue berries, many kinds of melons, guavas, sweet tiny tomatoes, and many more and vegetables as well. I always buy fresh squeezed juice by the liter, it is so very good, orange, grapefruit, lemon, strawberry, sugarcane, coconut, guava, mango and more. I have noticed two large trees on either side of my flat have a lot of green fruit, I know one is mango and the other I will have to ask about. A bus load (coach type) of us are going to Sinai, I will be with the divers and go to Dahab to snorkel, swim and relax on the beach. We are going after school Thursday and will get there late. We will return Saturday evening. Dahab is nice, not as high pressure as Luxor. The coral reefs there are close to shore.

Spring Fling

Today was our big “Spring Fling” celebration/recruiting event. Teachers were picked up by bus at 9:00. We were running games and activities for the kids, face painting, fish pond, painting, lawn bowling, toss to the target games and a lot more. It was a big splash with tents, fancy tables and chairs with large real flower center pieces. There was a variety concert, scuba intro lessons, pony rides, dunk tank and big inflatable games. The last event was a tug of war between, elementary and secondary teachers...won by elementary and a students vs. teachers match…won by teachers. The last event was a concert by a fairly popular Cairo singer and his large band. Raffle tickets had been sold and there were a lot of prizes given out. I won a beach themed large basket of beach toys and other interesting things. I kept two towels and a bottle of sunscreen and gave the rest to my classroom cleaner. She was very happy as she is quite poor. It was a bit like a summer festival at home, (a bit fancier) even had a fight out in the parking lot! We didn’t get to leave school till 6:30 and we were all very, very tired, out in the sun all day. When we got to an overpass bridge on the way into Maadi, where we live, the traffic was diverted. A double load flat bed truck loader with cement bags had failed to make the curve on the overpass and the cab and first flat bed section were dangling from the overpass just about touching the ground with gas pouring out of the gas tank. I hope no one was riding on the back of the load, often this kind of truck had 'unloaders' snoozing or sitting on top of the load. Police were directing traffic around it and people were watching and of course smoking. No evacuation! I also noted cracks in the section of the overpass where it was hanging. We had to take an alternate route and didn’t get home till 8:00. It was so, so hot on the bus. School tomorrow! See pictures on Web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/colmac27

Walking Downtown

This little old fellow was begging on the street. I gave him 10LE and he was happy and posed for a picture. This afternoon I planned an excursion to Mohamed Ali Street. The pictures I saw of it showed a nice spacious street with a non threatening atmosphere. It is the street where they sell musical instruments and music. I wanted to buy some CDs of traditional Egyptian music. Took the Metro Train to the downtown stop and walked the route that would take me to Mohamed Ali street. I passed a large Palace Museum and was able to locate the route to the street I was looking for. Up till now my route was Western with many western people. When I start getting near “Egyptian” areas I switch to a cab. The cab took me to Mohamed Ali street but it was not a place I felt comfortable. The street was very narrow and very crowded with Arabic people, so I had him drive down it, but take me back to where I felt comfortable on Talat Harb Street. So much for the music, I’ll have to get an escort or look elsewhere. Very hot again today, 35C. I wanted to wear pants with lots of pockets but they were just out of the washer. I grabbed them and put them on anyway, In about 10 min or less they were dry. Hot dry, weather! And yes Peggy and Alice I did see the same scammers trying to persuade a couple to visit their shops. I was standing behind the scammer as he spoke to them, and I was shaking my head and pointing to him. They said they had been enticed into the Essence shop but didn’t buy. FYI: There are always scammers lurking near the Egyptian Museum, who make a living luring unsuspecting tourists to shops where the scammers get a commission of the sales on shoddy merchandise passed off as genuine, (gold, perfume, papyrus etc). They all pose as helpful friendly Egyptians who pose as teachers or other (supposedly) trustworthy people, perhaps on the way to pray. They intercept tourists, ask where they are going and say oh that place is temporarily closed but…you can go to this government shop while you wait…

Felucca Ride

Just came back from another felucca ride on the Nile. Sometimes I feel this can’t be real, here I am on the Nile. It was a lovely 38C and hotter day. About 20 of us went to the Corniche where the feluccas are tied up. Feluccas are Egyptian sailboats which can be hired for 50 LE an hour. We always take a picnic with us and set it out on the table in the middle of the boat with bench seats arranged around the sides and back of the boat. The boat captain sits in the back and guides the boat through the traffic of other feluccas, ferries and other pleasure boats carrying tourists and Egyptians out for an evening sail. While waiting to board we saw something you don’t see to often, some brave soul water skiing on the Nile. Waterskiing isn’t a dangerous sport, the danger is falling in and swallowing the water from the Nile!

CBU

On the way to school there is a billboard advertising a partnership with one of the Egyptian universities and CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY. So....I can't be the only Cape Bretoner in Cairo.

Birthday Party

I just arrived back from my first Egyptian child’s birthday party which was more like a wedding at home. The invitation said 1:00 so I arrived at 1: 10 because my taxi had trouble finding the house. I was the first person there, she said, oh that is Egyptian time which means no one comes till at least 1 ½ or two hours later than the time on the invitation. The house was beautiful. The living room, full of paintings, was about the size of the whole downstairs in my house at home. The house borders on the high class golf course, I would think they get a few golf balls in their yard. It was a party for parents as well and I met a lot of nice ladies who all speak English quite well. Several of them I had met already as they were parents of my students. It was a comfortable party and I was glad I went. There must have been a staff of about 30 workers including waiters, cooks, life guard, DJ, games organizers and videographer. That was not counting all the nannies who arrived with the children and their mothers. They had a restaurant cater to the kids menu with a large outdoor barbeque and 2 chocolate fountains as well as ice cream and the birthday cake. There was another catered buffet inside for the accompanying adults and there were no plastic or paper dishes in or outside. Waiters circulated offering non alcoholic refreshments. It was a pool party so the children had fun with the games provided by the team of people hired to run the games in and out of the pool. There were games for the children which changed every so often to keep them from getting bored. When I left they were finger painting traced pictures of their bodies on large sheets of paper and spray painting a white sheet with spray bottles of food colouring.

Cairo

Nora left Cairo at 8:35 the 12 and is safe home with all her baggage. She was loaded down and despite being over weight by a lot she didn’t have to toss out any of the rocks I sent home with her. My clothing choices are pretty limited for I sent home as much as possible (and more) with Nora, Linda, Alice and Peggy. The trees here are beautiful and covered with flowers of all colours. The hollyhocks are almost at the end of their blossoms. I’m in negotiations with the travel agency to get a good ticket home. The school booked me for the 20 of June and didn’t change it, despite my repeated reminders, now the only way out for me on the 26 is with a 15…..yes……. 15 hour layover in Frankfurt. It wouldn’t be so bad if it were Paris or London or some other city where I haven’t been before. The other choice he is trying to book for me is 4 hours in Frankfurt and I’m 13 on the list for that option. Tomorrow I’m going to a student’s birthday party at a villa. This is my chance to see what a villa is like on the inside. I may be just an English bump on an Arabic log there but I think it will be interesting. The children are getting so restless, during the hot months people stay up late and sleep in. Well my students are staying up late and having to still get up early, so they are not very focused on school work. Can’t imagine what it will be like in June. Even after being here since January I am still amazed by the lack of safety issues. A manhole cover missing on a busy street is marked by a rock, 3-4 foot deep holes are in unlit side walks, police barricades appear randomly, without warning and squeeze 3 lanes of traffic into 1, donkey carts drive in traffic with the crazy Cairo drivers, vehicles stop anywhere on a busy highway to pick up or discharge passengers, no such a thing as wet paint signs, transport truck loaded with cargo carry their unloaders, sleeping on bags of cargo on the back of the open truck. This morning I saw a load of bricks covered by a tarp, but the tarp was held in place with bricks on top of the flapping tarp, with the good chance of bricks flying off into traffic! There was also a very small truck, carrying 3 wheelbarrows, other tools and four men balanced on the wheelbarrows. But that is Egypt!

Guests Gone Home

Heard from Linda and she arrived home on Saturday afternoon. A very long journey, two days long with long layovers in airports. Friday night Nora and I went to a friend’s party on her balcony. A lovely evening and in Egypt you never have to worry about your event being interrupted by rain. Nora and I went to Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea Saturday morning, about 2 hours south of Cairo. Going to the beach here isn’t like Judique where you just go to the beach. We had to book a spot at the Palmaria Hotel Beach and pay to go the beach. The beach was very nice, very warm and the water is turquoise. We took a short trip out in a boat to snorkel and saw some neat fish, no sharks Linda! Sunday was Nora’s last day here and she surprised me with a large bouquet of flowers for mother’s day. I forgot all about it since the Egyptian Mother’s day was last month. We took a quick Metro ride Downtown (the area is called ‘Downtown’) and bought a carry-on for Nora and one for me. Nora left this morning at 5:00 for her 8:35 flight out of Cairo. Sorry to see her go but I will be home before very long. The school is booking flights home but of course there is a mix up with mine. I am scheduled to return the 20 of June and the last day of school is the 25… so they need to change it, but that’s not so easy here, wouldn’t mind leaving the 20 after all. Today was a scorcher, felt like sandstorm weather, with a hot wind blowing but nothing came of it. The high was 38 C. Thursday is forecast to be another very hot day. Finally I am in a place where I’m not cold all the time and I actually don’t mind the heat very much. My bedroom AC works fine and keeps me cool but the kitchen one is a nursery for a second catch of baby birds. Got to catch the nest when there are no babies and get Mohamed the electrician over. I think every 10th male here is called Mohamed.

Visitors From Home Part 3

Back to reality and school on Sunday May 4. Linda and Nora were able to start catching up on their sleep after finishing school and exams. Nora has now officially graduated from NSCAD, although she choose being in Egypt with me instead of graduation ceremonies. She has now a degree in Graphic and Product Design. Oh I forgot to mention our visit to the carpet factory/school on the way between pyramids. We suspect the guides get a cut on articles we purchase at places they take customers so they schedule side trips to ‘museums’, ‘schools’ and ‘factories’ where tourists often buy articles. The carpet ‘school’ was well worth the visit in terms of viewing beautiful work, learning the culture of Egypt and especially for Peggy to see weavers at work, since she herself is a weaver. The looms which are manned by children, who go to carpet school and learn to make carpets, but not to read or write, brought tears to her eyes. The families there are large and children have to help support the family. The children sit on a bench in a spacious well lit area and their fingers are blurred as they fly tying knots in silk or wool. The owner told us they make about 500 LE a month on a carpet they would sell for about 3000. I suspect the figures may be doctored to sound good to our conscience. I also suspect he took us to one of the better school (they are many clustered in that area), and in reality many would be what we consider ‘sweat shops’ but when it is a way to live they are happy to be working. I will post pictures on the web album when I get a chance. Every evening after school the girls and I went exploring in the little crowded shops near where I live. There are so many restaurants and tiny places just filled to overflowing with Egyptian crafts. The Bedouin women from Siwa are skilled at embroidery/cross-stitch and spend months on cushion cover sized squares of stitched patterns they create for next to nothing, (about 150 LE which is about $25 retail.) they are beautiful pieces of work). The little shops have Pashminas for next to nothing, Bedouin embroidered article of many types, brass, leather clothing and crafts, Egyptian cotton clothing, sheets and bedding, pottery, soap, carvings, jewelry, silver and the list goes on. Every day we find new places. Going out to eat cost about 1/5 of what it does at home so I have taken the girls out every night, to experience the restaurants of Egypt. The food is very good, but often the servings are too big, it is best to order appetizers and than you get a reasonable sized meal. This s true, especially when you don’t have a son or husband to finish off the leftovers. Wednesday after school we rushed off to the Cairo Egyptian Museum to show Linda the mummies. We took a cab to the Metro and took the Metro down town. Linda got a whirlwind tour of the Museum and in 1 ½ hours she had enough. You can only take all the amazing antiquities in small doses before you get overloaded. I have been there three times and like to go for short periods of time. Note to Peggy and Alice: After exiting the Museum we decided to take a walk down Talat-Harb Street. Who should we meet but the same hustler, we encountered last trip. He was still was pretending he was a teacher and wanted to show us a good ‘Government store where we could get good ‘Essence’. These fellows patrol the downtown area, watching for unsuspecting tourists, are very friendly and offer to give directions to your destination but their destination differs in that they lead you to a shop where they get a cut of what is sold and the articles are shoddy. We walked the crowded street close to the Metro stops and it didn’t take the girls long to decide they had had enough, for we were hassled by too many overly attentive Egyptian men. It is a very difficult place for young Western girls, I understand why our young teachers are so cynical about the men here. Linda left for the airport with our driver, at 2:15 AM on Friday morning. We all stayed up till she left and I went to the airport with her. I did get to see her off but couldn’t keep my eyes open either on the way to the airport or on the way back. She packed all she could take for me and my closets are pretty bare, for Alice and Peggy took a lot as well. I was going to run into the terminal with her, but the police were next to our van with a wheel lock ready to put on if we stayed any longer (It costs a lot to get then off). Time to go!

Visitors From Home Part 2

May 1, Thursday Our last day on the boat. We had breakfast at the usual buffet meal served on the ship, and we left to see the Luxor and Karnack temples. They are a huge complex with an avenue of Sphinx which used to line an avenue between both temples. The columns are awesome, so huge, so many, so old. We had a guide who was very well versed in Egyptian history, he even was able to read and write hieroglyphics. He could tell us a great deal about each site. Our flight didn’t leave till 1:00 AM so we had the afternoon free to wait, so we went about in Luxor for a while, avoiding the market and spent time relaxing on the boat. The boat had three decks plus an upper open air pool lounge area. Bottom deck was the dining room, second and third was guest rooms, lounge/bar and the top area was open air with lounge chairs and sitting areas so we could sit out and watch the Nile scenery pass by. We visited just a small fraction of the sites available, and we saw many cut into the banks of the Nile as we floated down river. Our driver was at the airport to meet us and we arrived here at my apartment about 3:00 AM quite tired. Ten o’clock next morning, Friday our driver was at the door to take us to Sakkara, Memphis and the Pyramids of Giza. (I’ll explain driver: when you want to go on an excursion whether it is to the airport, a tour of the city or out of the city, you can hire a cab for a day which is cheaper but sketchy and usually ready to fall apart. An other choice is to hire a new van, with a familiar driver, from a travel agent for about 14 dollars a day and that is all day going to a destination about 1 ½ hours away. Also with a familiar driver you can get in and say ‘swiya, swiya’ (my spelling of ‘slowly’ in Arabic) and he will go at a reasonable speed.) Sakkara is on the site of one of the earliest pyramids, we saw the step pyramid and the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu, who later built the Red Pyramid. The Pyramids are so massive you can’t imagine their size till you actually are beside them. I’ll post pictures on my web album, the only way to give an idea of what they really are like. Up till now I had barely time to sleep…..but enjoyed every bit of time with friends and family. Sleep I can get later! Peggy and Alice had an early flight Saturday and we were sorry to see them go. It was so nice to have familiar faces around for a few weeks.

Visitors from home

Friday April 26 The past few weeks have been a blur. No time to even post here. Linda is leaving the 9th, that is tonight, we are leaving for the airport at 2:30. Nora leaves on the 12th. Alice and Peggy left left last Saturday the 3rd. Friday the 25th was the day to visit the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Had a guided tour of the building for about 1 ½ hours. That is about the right amount of time to spend there before you get overwhelmed by all the amazing antiquities. The treasures of King Tut’s tomb and the huge sarcophagus are incredible as well as all the other treasure on display there. We took a walk down Talat-Harb street and got a taste of the big city with all its sights, sounds and hustlers. Learning from others where the best quality can be found we took in the leather coat shops and the silver smith’s shop which are very close to where I live. Sunday Linda arrived and I hired a van to pick her up. A van from the travel agency is more reliable and safe to travel long distances. We picked her up in the afternoon we just had time to return home go to bed ,catch a few winks then we were up again to catch the van to the airport at 3:00 AM. We caught the 5:30 flight to Aswan and met up with our cruise ship in the morning, the MS Isadora. Turned out to be a nice vessel with good food, comfortable rooms and an upper deck where we could relax by the pool and watch the sights as we motored up the Nile. We were assigned a guide who was with us throughout the tour. He took us to see the High Dam in Aswan which supplies all of Egypt with electricity. The construction of the dam stopped the annual flooding of the Nile and created Lake Nasser. The rising water submerged some temples and ruins but many were moved piece by piece to higher ground such as the Philae. We took a felucca ride around the islands and then took a motor launch to the Philae temple. That night our boat sailed up the river and we arrived at Kom Ombo the next morning. The temple of Kom Ombo is dedicated to the Crocodile God. There are crocodile mummies in this temple. The temple of Horus at Edfu is dedicated to the God Horus the falcon god. Both temples have so many beautiful columns and are massive structures. We returned to the boat and sailed through the locks on to Esna. The locks are to ease the ships through the different levels of water on the Nile just like the St Lawrence Seaway. Every day we had meals in the dining room and when were sailing we could relax/snooze on the upper deck by the pool. We all got enough sun to give us varying degrees of tans. The markets in Aswan and Luxor were a test of stamina. The vendors are super aggressive, and stand in the street calling tourists into their shops. Best strategy is to walk by and ignore any invitations to look at merchandise. Eye contact with a vendor means you are blitzed and have scarves draped over your shoulders, purses put on your arms and table cloths almost stuffed in your bags. Having two young ladies didn’t help either. Egyptian men are very bold and fall in love at first glance especially if the girls are young and have the potential of a good salary and a ticket to Canada. They are bold and make comments and instead if disguising their interest, they exaggerate it. This can get quite obnoxious day after day. Our boat docked in Luxor and we spent the night. Morning we visited the Valley of the Kings. This is a large valley on the upper bank of the Nile. There are many tombs of Kings cut deep into the cliffs of the valley. Nora, Peggy and Linda went into the deep tombs and Alice and I joined them in the tombs that weren’t low and too deep into the cliff. The can get very hot and make it hard to breathe. Those emerging came out sweating and red faced. The temple of Queen Hatshepsut, (a woman pharaoh) was beautiful but by then we were getting “templed out”. We saw the Colossi of Memnon, (huge statues) and went to an alabaster factory/museum. It was quite interesting. It is a house constructed over an ancient tomb, where they make and sell alabaster articles. We went in the tomb which they used as a storage room. The family lives there along with roosters, hens and an indoor pigeon roost. After lunch we took a motor launch to a beach a few kms up the Nile and docked to find our camels awaiting us. We all choose a camel and Nora was first to mount her camel. Turned out she had the most vocal and most spitting beast. Linda got on her camel which was sitting, the camels get up rear end first which pitches the rider forward on a steep angle so you have to hang on tight. Got some good pictures of Linda in “OMG” mode as her camel rocked to a standing position. We were led through a rural area by 6-9 year olds children who kept giving the camels whacks on the behind when they stopped to eat THORN bushes. The boys also kept up a steady stream of comments about ‘bakshesh’ which means tip money. We were very glad to have our guide Ahmed with us for when you are on a camel you are at the mercy of the drivers. We continued on in the boat to a banana plantation where we saw, mangos, guavas, grapefruit, mandarin oranges, avocado, and banana.

Safe and Sound

Just checking in to let everyone know all is well. We are back here in Cairo. We were in Luxor which isn't near where the bus crash occured.