Closing Ceremony and Staff Appreciation

Phew... that was a long day! The last day of school, my longest day at work yet. I arrived at school around 7:45AM, because I told my teachers to be there at 8:00AM to set up for the closing ceremony, sort of like the closing assembaly at the end of the term. we were schedualed to start at 10AM, at 10:25 most of the teen class had yet to grace us with their presence, but I figured, hey they are at the end of the program, that gives them a couple more hours, we'll go ahead and start... and everything ran surprisingly smooth. Life has been bisy the past couple of weeks, I feel like everyday I come home and say something life, man I was so busy at work today. The end of the term, teachers meetings, projects, discipline problems and general everyday mayhem makes for an interesting work day.
Thursday was the most crazy, however, because we had not only the closing ceremony for the children's program, but also the staff appreciation that night which Annie and I have been planning for the past coupel weeks, trying to figure out gifts, decorations, how much food entertainment, how to fit everyone into the small guild hall, how to move all the chairs out of classes into teh guild hall for the CEP closing ceremony, and then back again for the adult classes in the afternoon, and then back to the guild hall for our 30 minute set-up time until peopel started arriving...man, it was a busy day. But all went well! shockingly well, it all came together in teh end, everyone loved the entertainment, we had a drama performed and written by a drama group form the refugee community, then dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and PIzza Hut (which they loved, and always love because it is a big expensive treat in Egypt, I could never afford to eat there everyday even if I wanted to). After dinner we awarded all the certificates with flare and gave out gifts (the gifts we really struggled with finding something that woudl be useful yet a special treat, finally Dan, one of the teachers, suggested.. socks, brilliant! so it was fantastic, and everyone needs three or four new nice pairs of dress socks!) One of the best highlights of teh night was the dancing, we hired a dance group that was just amazing, they do dances of all the different sudanese tribes, so it is very inclusive and everyone enjoys it.
After all was said and done, I was dead tired, so I went out of St. Andrews finally at about 10:30pm and joined my friends to celebrate my friend Robin's birthday until 2AM! phew, but now we are ready to go on our break and off to Israel Tuesday night, should be amazing, pray for safety. we are going to be in Bethlehem for Christmas Eve, already have our tickets reserved for the service and everything.... hooray! Merry Christmas everybody!

Everyone was excited at the end of the closing ceremony, especially the teachers! from left to right: Domenic, Mohamed, Yohannes Bisrat and Awad....happy teachers mean a happy director... it was a great day! 

Two gals from the teen class, Asar and Winta after the closing ceremony, I don't know what I'm going to do for three weeks without these kids.  

Hey look mom! Home made in Egypt, everyone is asking for your secret recipe! I was shocked that I could make cinnamon rolls with the scarce ingredients in this county, but, dare to dream..... 

you may not be able to tell it from here, but yes yes, that nativity set does light up! 

Happy December!

Well we are finally getting in the spirit around here, around Dawson Hall anyway. We made a discovery of a chest FULL of Christmas decorations, so on Saturday afternoon Lisa, Kim and I decorated the hall with tinsel and light up mangers, and a whole mess of stockings... really it is something beautiful. It is so different here, it would be entirely possible for Christmas to pass by and I would have no way of knowing, if I had no calendar, there are no excessive holiday decorations in the streets, no Christmas lights or shopping that we all have come to associate with the holiday season, instead, this year we're putting the "Christ" back into Christmas. It will be my first Christmas away from home, so I know I will miss my family, but we all make do, and in fact I make cinnamon rolls, or I did today. Baked goods always remind me of home, because my mom is the most wicked good cook ever, so lately I've been on a rampage making all kinds of kitchen adventures without measuring tools and with Egyptian ingredients (they never are quite up to par) and with a stove that only has one temperature, hot... well I lie, two temperatures, because the one baking sheet we have is too big for the oven so it is kind of ajar when in there, so then the oven cools down, but when I close it again to reload up the cookie sheet it heats right back up like a charm! oh Egypt. How I do love thee.

Taxi Driver Blues....

SO for the most part, most taxi drivers are relatively pleasant, don't harrass you and for the most part are pretty patient with my broken arabic and getting me from point A to point B. But there are always exceptions, and I met one of these exceptions on Saturday evening. So after a relatively pleasant day of shopping at the Khan el Khalili and drinking tea at Fishawi's with a few friends of mine, it was time to take a taxi home. NO easy task from the Khan because it is a huge tourist trap so drivers want to overcharge you all the time, REALLY overcharge. so Kim and I stopped a few cabs and they said 25 LE for the 5 minute ride home... we said no thank you. Then one taxi driver stopped and we said ten pounds, and he said okay, but then proceeded to pick up two other fairs along the way, taking the long way home, first two girls then after he dropped them off, another man with huge packages, and then he dropped them off and THEN started to take us home. How, Kim and I live on a one way street on which the taxi driver would ended up if he had taken the most direct route to our house. So because we just wanted to get out and not have to worry about it we just had him pull over. So we gave him 6 LE (four pounds is fair fare price) because he had picked up other fares and thus it added up to 15 LE he had made on our trip. The taxi driver pulls over and starts yelling at me that I cheated him and I told him that he picked up other fares and for the two of us it should have been 10 LE, and he had not even gone all the way to where we had told him and took a long time getting there so he did not deserve 10LEs, well of course a crowd gathers around and there is an old man standing next to teh taxi driver trying to calm him down and diffuse the situation, normally I would have just said, screw it and gave him teh extra 4 LEs its not worth it, but the man was saying that we had paid a fair price and that 10LEs was too expensive and we shouldn't have to pay that much. But when the cab driver started foaming at the mouth I took a couple minutes to even regain his attention away from the man sticking up for us, even though I was speaking arabic, it's not like he didn't understand me, and just gave him teh 10LEs so he would quite bitching. I was a little shakin up afterward, but not too bad, it was very tense.

It really is too bad that I can interact, and do with hundreds of egyptians everyday on my way to and from work, or out and about with friends, and for the most part, no one bothers me, some are even pleasant, but one bad interaction, one guy grabbing at me, one group of girls stopping to gawk and hassle me, colors my attitude toward all teh people with which I interact. That might be one of the msot difficult things for me here in Egypt, assuming the worst out of the people I meet on the street. Most guys aren't going to grab me, in fact it happens rarely, but it still happens... and there is no way to know about anyone for certain.

Goodnews, I am noticing that everyone in my neighborhood knows me in around about way. Now, unless there are a ton of school girl monsters on the street, on my immediate street, people don't shout "WELCOME! WELCOME!!" congrats egypt, it only took you three months to figure out that I wasn't a visitor. Geez. It also I think helps a bit now that I wear a solid silver band on my ring finger, so people assume that I'm either married or engaged, now total strangers can stop bloody asking. One of my students told me that I shouldnt' wear that ring because what if there is someone interested in me, and they think I am married, and won't approach me... haha, I said... "bezapt!" (exactly)

here is another tricky thing about where I live, it's a place that is called Ghramra. but if you pronounce incorrectly, it means "whisky" or "alcohol" in arabic. Also, Rah-heel with certain emphasis means "rachel" in arabic, with other emphasis means "salty fish" So I discovered why people were giving me such strange looks on the metro as I introduced myself as Salty fish who lives in Whisky. I would laugh too.

Belly Dancing?

Well my latest cultural adventure involves shaking my hips and wobbling my knees, that's right my friends, belly dancing. now we aren't' talking this sort of body roll like a snake in sparkly Madonna inspired tops (that's the singer not THE Madonna gracing walls of Cathedrals) Belly Dancing here is apparently something that every Egyptian woman knows how to do, and actually most middle eastern and African women as well. When I first heard this, I thought, well naturally, all these fully veiled women with their hair and faces covered with downcast eyes would be absolute dancing maniacs, disco queens that love to boogy down. But I tell you no lies! I had my first experience with this phenomenon last Saturday night at my friend Mirvette's flat. (Who by the way lives out in Giza, you may know them as the place where the pyramids are located, but she lives in the REAL Giza, and it was great to see that side of the city) Myself and 12 of her Egyptian friends were sitting around eating Kosheri (a bunch of different pasta noodles, lentils and chick peas with a red sauce) and then all of a sudden they turn on the music from the tape deck and two or three of them start to dance at a time while everyone else happily sits around and enjoys the entertainment and then takes their turn in the center of the floor dancing away. It was Fantastic! Granted, they wanted me to dance too, which was quite a site, because while these women have been "belly" dancing (I put belly in quotes because really I think it is an inaccurate name, I think they should call it slouch dancing, or put your hips forward dancing, or stick out your belly dancing, because the belly itself does very little "dancing" on its own) anyway like I was saying, I had only completed one, one hour class up to this point, so my skills are a little green, but practice makes perfect, and it was WICKED fun!

Another Adventure from that night was that I rode the minibus for the first time, now the bus system in this country is kind of interesting, I'm sure we are all use to big clear numbers on the buses which we are meant to take, well not here my friend, sometimes, on the big buses, they don't' even stop, and during rush hour, you see people hanging out the door of these buses cruising at 45MPH. we took the minibus with one of Mirvette's sisters. So basically, so take a bus anywhere, you have to know the number bus you want, how to figure out the number of the bus, how much to pay and to whom, where to get off and enough Arabic to signal to the driver when he needs to stop, because sometimes, most of the time, people just jump off while the bust keeps on rolling. Needless to say, my preferred form of transportation is Metro and Taxi.

Happy Eid el-Fitr!

Ill humdallah, Ramadan is coming to a close. During the last few days of Ramadan, they have a feast, called Eid el-Fitr, which is basically a bog party for three days where everyone gorges themselves on food and all the stores are closed. Kind of like Thanksgiving for three days. Pretty sweet deal if your Muslim or Egyptian. As you might have guessed, I am neither, so what it is for me is a big pain in the ass. Yesterday I went to meet my friends downtown to go site seeing at some really cool mosques, and on my way I was followed by a string of little boys. I don't really know where these 8-12 year-old boys kept themselves for the last month, but the past couple of days they have been out in droves, and to drive me crazy. Although it was nice, I assume because it was a holiday, people where telling the boys to leave me alone and wonder of wonders apologizing to me about these hellians at my heels who I was constantly yelling at in Arabic to leave me a lone. I find that you get a lot more back when you verbally express your displeasure and annoyance in Arabic. Oh and did I mention the gift of choice for these little hellians during these festive days? Guess, you'll never guess. Fake guns. That's right my friends. American, blonde haired blue eyed female is walking down the street while little Egyptian boys point guns at me and set off firecrackers, a little unsettling? Glad you asked! The answer is, yes. But it turned out to be a lovely lovely day with some of my ultimate Frisbee team, we went and saw two breathtaking mosques and went out to dinner at this incredible Egyptian restaurant in the Khan, so all in all it was a fantastic day... Oh and everyone came back to my place afterward for a movie, we watched Legally Blonde, classic flick. Although a funny aside, I offered beverages to everyone and I happen to have cocoa, a rare delicacy to people with a western palate, so I offered that up, and HAshim said yes, but he thought that I had said Coke, but was so polite he drank half of it before his wife, and my friend Annie, told me that he thought I had said coke. A little embarrassing to me, but what can you do? IT was nice to have everyone over to my place for once, and quite an international bunch we were, Mackmood from Pakistan, Medo from Egypt, Hashim from Sudan and Annie from California, and of course myself, all brought together through our Ultimate Frisbee games friday afternoon. :o)

Here's another cultural observation I've made about the end of Ramadan. It appears to me that regardless of the temperature, after Ramadan is over is when you start dressing to pretend that it is cold outside. While on my way to downtown yesterday I saw everyone dressed in their long jackets and sweaters with fur lining on the collar and cuffs, and I'm thinking to myself... PS.. It's 85 degrees outside. They don't seem to be fazed a bit. Now I had the insight to try to fit into this dillusional and irrational way of dressing in the morning and way wearing a scarf and cardigan yesterday, so I was kind of offended when some random man told me I looked like a tourist. I just wanted to turn to him and be like, "yes yes yes, I know, I have blonde hair, I will always have blonde hair, and will always look like a tourist" in . That'd be sweet. But I try not to let my frustrations get the best of me, mostly because once you show any sign of acknowledgment people follow you forever. Not my favorite game in the world. So happy Eid everybody! Hope your Ramadan was as eventful as mine, full of fasting people cramming on the metro, massive feasts with friends and partying in the streets! I still think if I can just get these Egyptian women to move fast enough they would make a clear and unobstructed path for me all the way to the metro. brickhouses my friends.

Weddings around the world!

Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to be invited to a Sudanese wedding with my friends Annie and Hashim, it was different than I expected, though I didn't know what to expect out of a Catholic Sudanese wedding, I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be in English, but so it was! and pleasantly so, I was able to understand most of the really really really really long service. Weddings here are hilarious I think because everything is so over the top, brides really do look beautiful, but for Egyptians and Sudanese, it is in that sort of "I"m covered with yards of tool and sparkles!" which, hey if that's your thing, go for it. They are also very preoccupied with the video of the wedding, so there is this obnoxious camera man filming everything, the audience, huge lights. I think that's kind of hilarious. So the wedding started at about 7pm, and it was great because the groom was really good friends with not only Annie and Hashim, but a couple friends of mine from work, Sam and John Rabanah, and one of my teachers for the teen program, Hadaf, his daughter was in the wedding, so amidst about 200 Sudanese people I felt rather comfortable and familiar with everyone.

After the wedding ceremony, was the cake ceremony, which was crazy, their cake had 5 tiers and almost tipped over when they were cutting into it, after everyone was stuffed with cake and candy and pop, we headed out to the song beat from, either the bride or groom's tribe, that the women were singing. So there I was dancing with a brightly dressed large Sudanese woman to some of the most gorgeous voices that keep the beat in their word, they are amazing... all the way out of the building. I blended right in. Annie, who is also from the states and married to Hashim, who is Sudanese, was telling me what a big deal it is to have westerners at your weddings, that it is kind of social kudos to the bride and groom, so even though I didn't know them very well, we were kind of the guests of honor.

I was lucky again to be invited to a smaller reception to be held at the groom's flat, Annie and Hashim said I could spend the night at their place afterward because the metro would be closed by the time the party was done. so I was thinking that it would end at like 2 or something....... sooooo after picking up a few things from my flat and traveling with the gang out to Maadi, we hung around Annie and Hashim's flat until midnight or so, and then got a cab to go to the party. We all sat around the edge of the room and they served huge plates of food to the 50 or so people there at about 1am, and then there was dancing!! now, I like a good dance party as much, if not more, than the next girl, but I was not prepared for African slow dancing. I have to admit, it was a little difficult for me, I think partly because I've never danced to African music before (and their slow dancing is REALLY SLOW, but to a faster beat, and you move your hips not your feet really I need to practice,) I didn't know a lot of the people there, or most of the people with whom I danced, and no matter how fast the music is everyone wanted to "couple dance" I think it is because in their culture, weddings are really the only place that men and women get to mingle, which brings me to my last awkward factor... all of a sudden, after two months of avoiding contact with males as the cultural norm and expectation, here I was dancing with one large Sudanese man after another, Some about 6', most closer to 7' tall. It was hilarious, because I would ask them where they were from, and I think they must not have known that I work with Sudanese everyday, and have learned quite a bit about Sudan, because they would always say, "Sudan" and keep in mind, that my friend Annie and I, were the only two people there NOT from Sudan, so I just wanted to be like, "noooooo really??" but sarcasm doesn't translate well across language barriers. So I just danced away. Sam told me today that the party ended at sunrise, but we left about 430am to go to bed. Let me tell you, if someone ever casually invites you to go to a Sudanese wedding... go my friends, it's a rockin good time.

the commute

So everyday I walk to work about 15 or 20 minutes through the gauntlet of morning and afternoon traffic and a sea of veiled school girls asking me what time it is and if I am married, which is always a treat.... Then I arrive at the metro and walk all the way to the front of the platform so I can ride in the women's cars, the first one or two cars of each train. I try to think positive thoughts while riding in the metro crammed so that my feet almost don't touch the ground, riding amidst the massive bodies covered in hot pink and electric blue polyester. A game I like to play with myself is called: "it could be worse" Today I thought to myself, "it could be worse, I could be on the men's car and have them feeling me up" or "It could be worse, instead of hot polyester pressed up against me these brick house women could be wearing bikinis, and their sweaty skin dripping everywhere. That would be not as fun. Or the lights could go off while we are stuck in a tunnel, also not as fun" And because these things don't happen, I am happy. :o)

Mostly I enjoy my commute, something new happens everyday, yesterday I saw my first "bitch fight" between two Egyptian middle-aged women. I heard lot of screaming and turned around just in time to see a white leather purse strap being flung angrily onto the tram tracks. What a sweet lady. It's funny because usually when Egyptians fight it is a lot of yelling and not really any physical contact, a big show essentially, so these women must really have been upset, at what I will never know, happy Ramadan. Although I have to say, people in Egypt, as anywhere are both good and bad. Sometimes I on the metro a nice gal will help me stumble through a conversation in Arabic, sometimes groups of teenage girls sit and talk about me in the Arabic they don't know I understand until I tell them as I step off the train. That always gets a good laugh.

The metro will always have a warm place in my heart is because the other day when I was going to church, as I was sitting on the cement benches waiting for the train and ignoring the cat calls (psss psss psss HELLO HELLO) of the boys across the tracks, I thought to myself for the first time: I live here, this is normal and comfortable. So I am adjusting well.

Welcome in Egypt!

So after living in Egypt, for almost 2 month, writing emails and trying to update everyone on my daily going ons so that my friends and family have a more holistic visual of what life is like for me here in Cairo, I decided that at midnight tonight that I would create my own "blogger." I thought to myself, what better location to dispense cultural trivia and observations of cultural nuances than on the superhighway with some entity called "blogger" and no better time of night than right when your about to fall asleep at the keyboard, oh the wisdom abounds, why not, right? so here it goes. I'm setting it up, to be edited soon, improved and for your reading enjoyment. Welcome in Egypt.