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!