A hermit sat thinking about big and small...

My family and I were trying to decide where to take my mother-in-law during her last 3 days here in Egypt. We had started with a pretty ambitious list of site-seeing when she had first arrived. As the days marched on, we found that we needed to prioritize in order to create a more realistic list. Our time was (let me dramatize) slipping through our fingers like the sands around the majestic and wondrous pyramids (which they saw yesterday so check that off the list).

Our choices for that day were Garbage City or City Stars. Now, what's comical about the two choices is that we couldn't have chosen more opposite attractions to see in Cairo. Garbage city is, as its name implies, the dump of Cairo. This is were all the trash collectors bring the thousands of tons of collected waste that the city produces everyday. Everything is sorted and separated. The people living there pull out anything that can be recycled or, as the new catch phrase says, "re-purposed". The people that do the sorting are not the poorest of the poor, but they do live on and in the trash. "What's to see in Garbage City?" you may ask. If you are able to make it through the piles of garbage and the smell, up in the cliffs just outside of Garbage City are beautiful churches lovingly carved out of natural caves. It isn't hard to get there by taxi, but good luck finding a taxi to take you out.

City Stars on the other hand is the posh mall of Cairo. It is here where the royalty shop when in town. It is the most spectacular mall I have seen in my whole life. It offers anything you would like to buy for 3 times the price you would pay in America. And the western restaurant food choices, I'm not just talking about McDonald's, I am talking about the Macaroni Grill and the Rain Forest Cafe.

Well, sad to say, City Stars won out over Garbage City (Actually, I wasn't too sad, because it had been my vote all along). We packed a lunch to help save a buck (or pound) and decided that we would splurge on dessert at the Rain Forest Cafe. To get there from our place you must drive through the city. Part of this drive is past the City of the Dead (tombs were people actually live among) as well as the outer edge of Garbage City. People were everywhere buying vegetables and fruit among trash piles. The open air markets, made out of cardboard and plywood, seemed as old as the Citadel that was built sometime between 1176 and 1183 AD. As we sped by it all, life thrived among the trash and the dead.

Arriving at our destination, and after a bit of haggling with our taxi driver, we were very happy to go through the metal detector and x-ray machine to enter City Stars. The contrast was amazing. Brand-spankin' new stores from Europe and America had mannequins in the window dressed in the finest fabrics I had seen in 6 months . There was not a piece of trash in site and everything sparkled. The one thing I found missing were the people. It was a beautiful empty shell. In fact, I was told that the Rain Forest Cafe, that we were actually looking forward to visiting, had shut it's doors forever due to the lack of customers.

As we drove home, with the sun setting to our right, I couldn't help but ponder the contrast of these two places. I did have fun window shopping and we saw a "discount" showing of a movie, but to be honest, the whole experience left me with a bit of culture shock.

Date Night

Last night, my husband and I were very happy when Grandma sent us on a date night. Grandmas are the best and I am going to be very sad when she returns to California on Tuesday night. We had be wanting to see a movie for some time now and Avatar won out over Valentine's Day. The closest place it was playing was on Manual Island, which is an island in the Middle of the Nile River. This just so happens to be the Island that our son was born on 4 years ago this week. Our taxi ride was very interesting because most of the streets were flooded from the storm we had a few days ago. Movie experiences are very different here then in America. Here are some of the ways they differ: you have assigned seating, popcorn is only 50 cents, they don't run the credits, cell phones go off all through the movie, and at the climax of the movie they turn off the projector for a smoking break. On the taxi ride back we got into a fender bender and talked the taxi driver into not chasing down the other car. Yes, all in all, a typical, yet wonderful, date night in Egypt. Here is a baby picture of our little 4 year old.

The Birthday Parade

This week is the week of Birthdays in our house. My daughter and son were born 2 days apart so every time this year the celebrations begin. It also happens to be the prophet Mohammad's Birthday tomorrow. When we planned the kids party this week (a knight/ballerina party) we never expected that it would rain. I mean, we are in Egypt, right? We got to our party site today and everything was covered with water and mud. Fortunately, the rain stopped right before the party began and it was a beautiful day. After the party we actually had a huge hail storm with lots of lightning. It was a very exciting day. Here are some pictures of the Birthday party.

a day at the zoo...

I have to say, there are no words that can truly describe the Giza Zoo here in Cairo. It is a primal raw experience. Here are some pictures. BTW-we really were that close to the lions. Yikes!

Work out here and you can look like this...

He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother...

I have been getting really homesick during holidays. It's hard being so far away. This week,Valentines day wasn't any different. For about three days everything about my surroundings bothered me.

Yesterday, the kid's Grandma came to visit and I needed to do some running around town to prep for her arrival. I had the my purse, the stroller, both boys, a gift from a friend that I ran into, and the kid's birthday invitations to pass out at school. I thought I was doing a pretty good job running my errands especially with out having a car. After a while, however, my load seemed very heavy and my attitude became less then loving. I had even won a 10LE (about $2) gift card from the grocery store and instead of being grateful I was annoyed at the woman because she didn't have a pen for me to sign my credit card slip with.

I breathed out a sign of relief when I arrived home. It was rough out there. I put the food away and baby down for a nap. As I picked up my purse off the floor I was surprised by how heavy it felt. Looking inside, I realized why. All morning long Luke had be on a grand adventure. He had been "treasure hunting" as most little pirates do. He had found about 20 beautiful Egyptian stones scattered around the streets and had been slipping them, tenderly, into my purse. I could not believe that I had been carrying rocks around all morning! And then it hit me...my view on the culture had nothing to do with my surroundings but had everything to do with the nice little stones that I had collected throughout the week and placed in my heart. This next week, I am going to try not to carry rocks around. If I find an interesting one, I am going to pick it up, look at it, think about it and then leave it where I found it. Hopefully my load will a lot lighter and Grandma can carry Luke's rocks.

Two days ago, I had a young lady clean my house. She has been coming to clean about once a week and my house is so dirty every time she comes. It's not that I don't clean here. It's just that everyday at least a pound or two of dirt blows through my window or is tracked in by my two sandbox loving children. I am amazed that there is any sand left at their school.

One time I was waiting to pick them up and I saw a cat use the play ground as a litter box. I wondered if I should have mentioned it to anyone, but I didn't. BTW, cats are everywhere here but that's another story! I stopped letting Theo explore the wonders of sand after this.

It takes this lady about 3 hours to clean our flat and I pay her about $10. I feel so strange having someone clean for me, but living in Egypt with three small kids, language, and the lack of modern conveniences, it has become a need. Once she finishes, I finally feel like the flat is finally manageable then for me to clean it according to my American standards.

Today after she did the floor, I did the floor. As I was mopping I was thinking that it was really too hot to clean. I peeled off my "going out" layers until I was in a tank top and a skirt. As I cleaned, I looked over and there was the electrician, who was supposed to be wiring the building next door, staring into my window. I felt so frustrated and exposed. I closed the curtains, finished mopping, poured myself a glass of water and sat down on the couch only to have Luke come in and announced that he and his sister just dropped sesame bread sticks all over the place in the kitchen.

Our room with a view...

To whom it may concern...

Dear Lady at that "Happy" fast food place,

Don't you know that the way you do your eye make-up is strange to me? It looks like you put pink lip stick on half of your eye lid and white out on the other half. By the way, you have no eye-lashes...or so it looks like. Why do you do that? I don't want to stare but I can't look away. Is that really how you and your friends are doing your make-up here? I'm confused.

Your "Happy" customer.

Will "Cat-Hog" see her shadow?

I am unsure if little ground hog Phil saw his shadow or not but I am quite certain that winter is over. Today is supposed to be 91 degrees. Time to break out the shorts (for the kids that is...it would be very strange for me to wear short sleeves, yet alone shorts outside). Yesterday I won the "Worst Mother of The Year" award from George. George has long white hair and a gold tooth. He is the man who painted our flat when we first arrived. The thing that I find most interesting about George is that he paints in his underwear. I guess this keeps his clothes from getting paint on them. His two sons, who work with him, paint in their clothes so I know that it isn't an Egyptian thing...I think it's just a George thing. This was a bit of a shock for me when I came to check on the progress of his work a few months ago. Anyway, I think George is my husbands favorite Egyptian. He loves George! He ran into him walking home yesterday from dropping the kids off at school and minuets later there was George in my house fixing anything my husband could think of that might be broken. If I was to liken his and George's relationship to anything I would say it reminds me of Murphy Brown and her painter friend. Anyway, George came over and saw that Theo had short sleeves on and that his shirt was a bit damp from drinking water and...yes, the trophy went to me. Next time George comes over I should have all my kids running around in their underwear just like he does.

Happy Valentines Day

You have no idea that I am taking your picture

An Issue with Tissue

I am have always been nonplussed by how much Egyptians love tissues. You can find it most everywhere. It is used in place of napkins at the table. Everyone carries it around as if it is their security blankets. In the winter it is used for colds and in the summer it is used to dab beads from sweaty palms or foreheads. On several occasions, after sneezing in a taxi, I have been offered a small, cherished, personal package of tissues and told, out of generosity, that I must keep it. Two of these times I didn't even needed to blow my nose but pretended to because I felt so obligated. The reason I said "most times" is because 9 out of 10 times there will be no paper of any kind in the WC (ladies room). Everyday, I am offered tissues to buy from the very lowest class of society here. They purchase their supply at about 9 cents a packet and then sell it to people, like myself, for about 18 cents a packet(Not to bad on the return in my opinion).

This leads me to my story about Sara. I first met this charming little 5 year old girl when looking for a flat to rent about 5 months ago. She had no tissues at the time to offer me but kindly extended a hand and a smile. Unfortunately, I didn't have a penny, yet alone a pound, to offer her. She didn't seem to mind and we started a conversation about my family and her family, school, babies, any subject I had the Arabic words for. I forgot about her until about a week ago. Joe kindly relieved me from a well needed rest from Mommyland to run some errands around town. On stepping out of the taxi at my first stop, I turned around and there was Sara and a packet of tissue. We both smiled at each other in recognition and started chit-chatting. I asked her were her mother was and she told me she was about a mile away on another street and asked if I would buy her tissue. I told her not today, but next time I would and that it was good to see her and went on my way.

About 3 hours and 4 errands later, in a different location entirely, there was Sara again with another little girl about 3 years old. Her smile was the biggest I had seen so far because she remembered that I had said that the "next time" I would buy her tissue and she only had one left. Knowing she had a good point, I bought her last packet of tissue and finished the last of my shopping.

Walking home that evening I was lost in thought about Sara and what her life must be like. I wondered why I hadn't bought her tissue the first time I saw her. I looked down at the ground only to see a brand new little scarf on the dirt road beside my feet. No one was around to claim it so I kept walking. Then half a block down I saw Sara, for the third time that day, with her little friend who was in tears. I knew at once that the little scarf was hers. I told her not to cry and pointed to the scarf. She dried her eyes, smiled and ran to it. I continued walking in the other direction towards home. I couldn't help but feel that I had been some sort of character in one of God's docudramas. On the surface, it wasn't anything life changing. It was just a packet of tissue, a scarf, and 19 cents but in reality, it was much more. It was at this moment that began to understand why Egyptians love tissue.

I snapped this picture of the boy feeding a duck on the way to the Step Pyramid. We got lost and went down the village road instead of the main highway. It was a wonderful drive.

A note about socks...

Just a word to the wise. Even if it is 85 (that's 29.44444444 for anyone from Europe) degrees outside, never let your baby out of the house without socks on in the Winter. This is, without a doubt, a cultural wrong. Egyptians like their babies bundled. I'm talking snowsuits! I took Theo out one time to the mall and a nice sales lady actually gave me a pair of socks as a gift because he wasn't wearing any. This proves to be a huge problem when your baby learns to remove his socks on his own. I thought I solved this problem when I started putting shoes on his feet as well, but alas, he has learned to remove his shoes too. I always know when he has removed them while riding in the stroller, even if I can't see him because the sun roof is up. I start getting these strange looks from the locals passing by. I think to myself "he's done it again" and sure enough, there are his little piggies wiggling in the Cairo air. I sure can't wait to see the looks when he learns to take off his pants.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

We have been having problems with our internet, as most people do in this country. Joe called the repair man and they said the problem should be solved within 24 hours. Two hours later there was a knock on my door and the Boab (the door man of our building) announced that the service man for the internet was here. Joe being out, the Boab came in and made sure the service man (who was about 19 years old) was busy doing his work. I myself went back to work on a vinyl photo wall that I created today above my buffet. About 10 mins later I looked up and both the Boab and the Service man were sitting on my sofa watching Clifford the Big Red Dog with my my 4 year old son Luke. I asked them if the problem was solved now and they sheepishly replied that they were waiting for a call and then went back to watching Clifford. I wanted to asked them if they would like some chocolate milk and pop-corn with their movie, but held my tongue.