2010 in Review

 January:  We have fun ringing in the new year with Aunt Tamara and the man in this window got mad at me for taking his picture.  Theo also turns one year old.

February:  All about birthday's and Grandma visits.  We also experience very strange weather, even hail.

 March: our bathtub was stolen and we got a much needed vacation at the Red Sea but the dust storms start and cleaning seems to be in vain.

 April:  Still no bathtub, and to make matters worse our washer stopped working because our pipes were clogged.  Dust storms continue on and off.  Joe's grandmother passed away and I skipped town for 3 days and attend a woman's retreat.

 May:  The weather gets really, really hot and glue my eyelashes close

 June:  Jubilee finishes the 1st grade and we start thinking about how to keep our 3 children and ourselves from going crazy during the long summer before us.  Also, Grandpa and Trina come to visit.  Yeah!

July:  We visit the Wild Animal Park and try to figure out how to take this little guy home with us.  We take a trip to Hurghada and found out that all 3 kids get car sick.  We also make a bunch of new friends from Hong Kong and develop a love for black sesame paste soup.

 August:  Ramadan starts and those who didn't skip town change their rhythm and start sleeping during the day and eating at night.  We have a wonderful dinner at our landlord's house and forgot our keys in our flat.  Joe kicks the door in.  It gets even hotter and we all eat orange lolly pops.

 September:  THE ANTS CARRY OFF ANY SANITY I HAVE LEFT along with anything else that is left around the house.

 October:  We start suspecting wheat as the cause of Theo's health issues and restrict his diet.

 November:  It is still hot, hot, hot and Eid Il Adha starts (I will spare you the pictures again).  We also host an American Thanksgiving and start saying goodbye to friends who will be leaving Egypt and returning to other parts of the world:(.

December:  My husband plays the Swiss Santa Claus at Papa Johns and we pack up and say our goodbye to dear, dear friends.  An airplane brings us all the way across the world to our little temporary home to spend Christmas with family and to ring in the new 2011.  We feel and taste rain and actually feel cold for the first time in 2010.

Our year wasn't perfect, there were many ups and down, but I feel grateful for the new friends we met and for the stories that I will hold in my heart.  I have no idea what the next year holds, but I can't help but think it will somehow be just as adventure packed as 2010.  That's life when you try to follow God's leading.

from a child's point of view

I told the kids that they could take pictures while the movers packed our boxes.  This is what I found when I uploaded them tonight.  I love my silly children!

Faluka

Khan El Khalili...oh what a delightful tourist trap!

life is a process with a definite end

Sometimes I have a hard time finishing things.  It's a personality trait that I look at as neither positive nor negative.  I am a process person and that is just who I am.  My husband is a finishing person.  We are a perfect match for accomplishing things.  Right now, however, I am working on finishing.   

I am working on finishing Christmas shopping* because my December will be filled with packing and airplanes and wonderful family. I have finished my book this week that I bought the day we left America.  I have also taken a realistic look at the crafts I have started and have resolved to either finish them, throw them away or pass them along.  We are also saying goodbye to friends that we may never see again and our cat**.

  

I have to say that there is sadness in finishing for a process person.  That is why, as soon as I finished my book this week, I picked up another and read 50 pages***.  This means that now I am in a reading process again, :).
I must admit that there are somethings that I will not be sad to finish.****


As I "process" (and finish) this post, this thought remains...


We have 14 days left in Cairo and it is a very strange feeling indeed.  

*I have discovered the joys of ebay and Christmas should be very interesting this year:). 
**yeah...not that sad about the cat.
*** unfortunately, it is a book about a plane crash and I wonder if it is the wisest choice of novels to read during the next couple of weeks.
****hand washing dishes, sweeping up buckets of dirt off my floor, and getting electrocuted every time I put the wet clothes in the dryer.

Baharyya Bazaars

One of the things we have had the pleasure to help out with a bit, and watch grow, is a small project for a group of women in the Baharyya Oasis.   In Baharyya, there are a group of women that have been given the opportunity, and sewing machines, to provide for their families by sewing and hand embroidering lovely tunics, dresses, hats, bags and whatever their imaginations can think up.  All the stitches that adorn these items are traditional to the Baharyya Oasis.  With the help of a group of women here in Cairo, these lovely ladies have created a beautiful small business for themselves.  

Egyptian cotton fabric and thread are bought from the fabric market in Cairo and transported to Baharyya and is then transformed into one of a kind pieces of pure delightfulness. The bundles of finished clothes are wrapped individually with the name of it's creator written in Arabic on a slip of paper.  It is then placed on a mini bus for an 8 hour drive back to the city of Cairo.  Many times the bundles include thoughtful gifts of dates or other tokens of thanks.  A packaged arrived on thanksgiving day which included a small turkey that was slaughtered and packed with salt that morning (if only it came early it could have solved our turkey dilemma...of course it was a very tiny turkey:)).  After sorting, cataloging, and pricing the product it is then sold at numerous shops and bazaars around the city.  It is truly a labor of love for both the people from the Oasis and the people here in Cairo.  A love for needle-pointing, relationships, support, and shared stories has provided, for two very different groups of women, far more than just a livelihood.  

Throwing Stones

Photo: Security forces throw rocks at demonstrators from the top of a bridge. Credit: Agence France-Presse

Yesterday my husband and a friend drove right through this protest on the way to the pyramids and saw this first hand.  They witnessed police and local people throwing rocks at each other and rioting over the building of a church.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/11/egypt-one-protester-killed-dozens-injured-and-arrested-in-coptic-clashes-with-police.html

Also, this weekend, Egypt will also be hosting elections for political office.  If you could, please keep Egypt in your prayers over the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving (and a Birthday)

Whose Great Idea Was Turkey Anyway? Bah Humbug!

I have exactly 24 hours until Thanksgiving dinner and I am thinking of going vegetarian this year.  No, it's not because of the cows I saw slaughterer last week, it's because I haven't bought a turkey yet.  As the only Americans coming to Thanksgiving, it's my job to do the turkey.  Fact: Turkey is actually referred to in Arabic as "Greek Bird".

Of course, Thanksgiving is not about the Greek bird and this for sure won't be our first Thanksgiving without a turkey.  One year, while living in the Boston area, we had lobster.  Poor, poor, little creatures boiling in a pot of hot water!  Still, there is an internal struggle between longing for tradition and thoughts of breaking free from it.  There is also an internal struggle between going totally pre-made, pre-boxed, processed with ease vs totally from scratch.

Luckily, I am not on my own for making the entire meal.  I have a handful of wonderful people bringing their wonderful international take on American Thanksgiving side dishes.  Hopefully everyone will remember to bring their thankful hearts with them...including my children.  What more could you ask for.  Well, maybe just for our families to be there too.  That will be the only thing missing, regardless of whether or not a turkey nests on our table this time tomorrow.  Enjoy making memories tomorrow, I know I will.

My thankful thoughts

Today I am thankful for:

Street cats that clean up after the Eid

Ant spray

Handmade palm baskets that my boys are playing with this morning

An imported can of refried beans and the last of my taco bell mild sauce

Water that was on when I went to take a shower

Hearing birds sing this morning (since people still have work off and therefore only mild honking is heard.)

My daughter's school

My husband who will be picking my daughter up from her school

Electricity that surprises my boys when they flip the lights on and off again like they are doing right now...oh, never mind I think they just blew the fuse.

Happy Eid *please be aware that these photos are very bloody, so don't look at them if they offend*

Last night we took a little trip around town, not to look at the Christmas lights, but to look for cows.  We had a great family time spotting all of them.  We woke up early this morning to singing over the loud speakers followed by chopping and hacking sounds.

This is what our morning looked like.  I will spare you the rest of the description of sounds and smells.  Although, the rest of the day should smell like a yummy BBQ.  I will also spare you the video this year:).

I stayed downstairs and watched only until I realized I was sitting in the splash zone.  After that, it was back up stairs for my window view.

Even though this holiday isn't Thanksgiving, I can't help but dwell on things that I am thankful for, maybe it's just that time of year.