Thanksgiving Near Turkey

Tis the season to begin with white lies...like "Santa is watching" and "I can afford it!"...so it begins with "Thanksgiving near Turkey". In truth, despite both cities being "over there", Istanbul is almost 800 miles from Cairo. Still, it is nearer to me than many of you and it provides a catchy title for a blog :)

Many of you have emailed asking what Thanksgiving is like in Cairo. Like many specific "American" holidays (4th of July, Memorial Day, etc), hardly anyone celebrates. Especially the Brits...I mean, it has been more than 225 years...get over it already! We've managed to grin and bear Gordon Brown so the least they can do is keep their "bah humbug" to themselves.

That said, those of us (americans) who do celebrate Thanksgiving do so with gusto. The Simons-Rudolph family hosted 3 american exchange students. Whole experience=huge ego boost for Ashley. Now, I am not known for my cooking but to be fair, I am halfway decent these days and those college kids were ravenous! We put away a fairly traditional meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato pie, etc etc.

Another favorite e-question is whether they have turkeys in Egypt. I don't actually know the answer to that but my guess from the exorbitant price....no. So we ordered rotisserie chicken delivered to our door for $1 USD. Cheating you say? Why yes...just as I would have done in the US...only no delivery and certainly more than $1. :)

Now, like many of you, we are preparing our hearts and home for Christmas. Almost everyone we know is traveling so there is an air of anticipation. Some of us are lucky enough to be heading home but the rest are traveling within the middle east and north africa. Now Christmas is pretty weird here...a few stores have hopped on the US expat train and put out (awful...think Wal-mart post Christmas leftovers that don't even go in the 75% off sale!) santas and Christmas trees. There is almost no Christian religious imagery up (not too unlike the US, unfortunately). No Christmas music... I didn't miss it in August (when I am told it began in Raleigh's Walmart) but I do miss it a bit now. To get us more in the spirit, I went out and bought a (potted) tree and a few strings of lights. Virginia contributed with some fancy tinsel boa thing. The kids decorated the tree and we hung stockings over our (non-working) fireplace. In some ways, the low-key christmas here (coupled with a definite high-energy christmas supplied by my parents when we arrive in raleigh) is a relief. In some ways, it makes me even more homesick. I mean, I totally missed the blow-by-blow post Thanksgiving shopping stories from my friend Kari who lives for the deals and for the war-stories! Oh well, on balance, this is all is an unforgettable experience....even if my kids can't quite remember the words to "deck the halls".

-Ashley

Whirling Dervish

My brief but spectacular career as a Whirling Dervish in Cairo....

Aedan's Mummy Jokes!

Here are some of the best from Egyptian Culture week at his school.....

Q: What do you call a mummy that sleeps all day?

A: Lazybones

Q: What’s the speed limit in Egypt?

A: 55 Niles an hour

Q: What game do mummies like to play?

A: Casketball

Q: What do you say when you’ve seen a terrible mummy movie?

A: It really sphinx

Q: What did the mummy say when he got angry with the skeleton?

A: I have a bone to pick with you

Q: Where do mummies swim?

A: In the dead sea

Q: What did the boy mummy say to the girl mummy when he took her out of her tomb?

A: I really dig you!

From: Mummy Riddles by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg

The breathtaking Citadel in Cairo....

Virginia and Ashley travel to Fagnoon

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Virginia and Ashley took a "girls day" to the Art Colony at Fagnoon, right outside of Cairo. Take a look! Shown:

-Just before our trip....Virginia in pigtails in front of office door showing off a recent masterpiece
-Virginia on homemade rope swing at entrance to Fagnoon
-Virginia and friend enjoy bouncing on homemade trampoline of bedsprings and handwoven mats!
-Virginia and best friend from preschool enjoy painting...look mom, they let me paint the table here!
-Virginia does her first pottery
-Virginia and Mom show off dirty hands--mud compliments of the Nile River!
-"Big kids" enjoy a game of mud soccer. You haven't seen the "real" Egypt until you see fully veiled young women mud wrestle!...look closely...everyone mud wrestles in Egypt!
-time for lunch! V and A stop for some homemade "baladi bread" (whole wheat pita) straight out of a the mud brick oven!

Bent Pyramid!

Near the Red Pyramid lies the Bent Pyramid....
named for its change in angles. The Bent Pyramid was originally built wide and then narrowed to a 54.3 degree angle at the top giving it a "bent" look. Some of the original limestone casing remains giving you a glimpse of what pyramids looked like in their heydey (smooth and white).

Interestingly, the Old Kingdom pharaoh, Snofru (2613-2588 BC) had4 pyramids built for himself... He had two failed attempts (which are now, still visible, lumps of sand and rock), then the Red Pyramid, then was finally laid to rest in the Bent Pyramid. No know quite knows how he got away with this infraction of the "one ka (life energy), one pyramid" rule.

The S-Rs visit Dahshur (Red and Bent Pyramids)!

Yesterday, we traveled 45 minutes outside of the neighborhood to visit a carpet school (where they make those lovely "oriental" things we walk on) and the Pyramids at South Saqqarra.

They were amazing!



Here are pictures from the Red Pyramid:

Shown:
-Steps going up to entrance (you gotta go up before you can go down)
-Inside looking up (quite a small and narrow space)
-Ashley and Gin climb scaffolding stairs inside to funerary room
-entering the pyramid (once inside...you crawl down a really long set of stairs in a space 3 ft by 3 ft...not for the claustrophobic!)
-3 different views of outside the Red Pyramid
(named for the color of limestone that used to on its casing)

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While in Dahab, we took a day-trip to St. Katherine's Monastery. St. Katherine's was built at the base of Mt. Sinai (where Moses ascended to recieve 10 Commandments) and around the original site of the burning bush (from the Bible). St. Katherine's is still a working monestary with both Christians and Muslims working there side by side. It is really unique in that way. In the museum, there are is a scroll from the Prophet Mohammed himself asking that St. Katherine's not be destroyed because of its historical significance. Honestly, I think it has survived the test of time because it is so darn far from ANYTHING. We drove 2 hrs in the dessert to see this! Also, there is the creepy factor. Supposedly, one of St. Katherine's monks had a vision that the body of the real St. Katherine could be found perfectly preserved in the mountain. He went to get her and prayed for 7 years at her side that she would give him her hand (weird souvenir?). The hand bones are on display inside the holy sanctuary and the body is in the crypt near the burning bush. We saw lots of people (Muslims and Christians) on pilgrimage there. That was really cool. Many of these people fell down to their knees in prayer. It was an incredibly neat thing to experience.

Sights (from left to right, top to bottom)

-Virginia on the pilgrimage trek to St. Katherine's (and we only had to walk from the van!)
-the calf in the mountain. One of the idols that angered God
-View of St. Katherine's from Mt. Sinai
-Aedan and Virginia on Mt. Sinai
-A healthy looking burning bush (supposedly it was moved 100 ft so the monks could place an altar over the exact growth spot)
-Joe and Ashley cheese it up in front of the burning bush

Dahab

Our El-Aid pictures are posted in 2 segments; Dahab and St. Catherine's. We stayed in Dahab which is a 7 hour drive from Cairo under the Suez Canal (much shallower than you would think) onto the southeast corner of the Sinai Peninsula. It is a little beach town with a "corniche" (pedestrian walkway) along the Red Sea. Most hotels are along the beach/corniche. Each hotel had an associated restaurant and all seating was "bedouin style" (driftwood covered with pillows and blankets with a short coffee table to eat on). The kids totally loved rolling around while they ate! Many people in the Middle East do still eat lying down (as they did in the time of Jesus, etc) so it was kinda authentic. Most people dive and snorkel from shore which makes this a relatively unique spot in the world. The coral reefs were only about 25 ft offshore! Awesome sights!

Above pictures show (left to right, top to bottom):
-Dahab at dusk. See people dining and snorkeling
-close up of the Red Sea and "Sabri Arabia" (as Virginia calls it). Other people call it "Saudi Arabia"
-Ashley pointing to yet another "only in Egypt" sign
-access point for scuba and snorkeling. No sandy beach here on the coral reef
-Dahab coastline. Saudi Arabia mts in the background
-Aedan zonked....vacation is for sleeping!
-Bedouin Style seating and friends of ours enjoying a lie down
-close up of mountains. Note lack of plant life/water
-closeup of Bedouin Style seating

Person of my Week!

This is Deena....Aedan's Egyptian Culture Teacher.

While she may or may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, I think she has a far greater power...She can keep 18 kindergartners interested in something as boring as dates and figs for 2 months AND she can create kindergarten songs (complete with hand motions) about dates:
Have you ever been in Egypt...
Picking dates from the tree...
See the pharaohs dancing (yep, you know the moves for this one!)
Riding on a donkey...
Hi Ho and Away we Go!
A donkey ride, a donkey ride!
Hi Ho and Away we Go!
Riding on a donkey!

Deena, you are my hero and thus my Person of the Week!

Date Farm!

Aedan's Kindergarten class visited a date farm. Aedan (who is taking "Egyptian Culture" this semester), served as my tour guide. Below: aged corn stalks mark farm boundaries, top branches from tall date

























































trees such as this make furniture (interior of branch) and rope (exterior of branch). Above: dates drying in the sun on blankets and baskets made of date palms. Mud brick house constructed by local farmer. A donkey takes a break from hard day's work to give Aedan and friend a ride! Red dates ready to be picked. Egyptian Culture teacher explains dates to class. Finally, a final view of the date tree.

I myself am not much of a date fan but there is nothing better than a fresh picked date washed in the Nile! Well, it was great until the next morning when "mummy tummy" returned (Traveller's hint, if you see a dead donkey float by, don't wash your food in the water! Reality: the Nile is the water!)

Nonetheless, having lots of fun here....
-Ashley